Sport, culture, communities and wellbeing

This project has been commissioned to extend the work of the UK's What Works Centre for Wellbeing. It is examining the evidence about how UK Government policy can most effectively alleviate loneliness and enhance wellbeing through cultural and sporting activities across the life course.

The project develops the work of the partnership between Brunel University London, Brighton University, the (Finland) and Anglia Ruskin University. It involves extensive stakeholder engagement with the Department of Digital Culture Media and Sport including Sport England, the Arts Council for England and Historic England.

The work includes translation, dissemination and mobilisation of evidence in partnership with the What Works Centre for Wellbeing. The work is impacting decision and policy making in UK Government and national organisations in culture and sport which support the design and implementation of cultural and sporting activities for diverse communities across the life course.

Read more:

• Testoni, S., Mansfield, L. and Dolan, P., 2018. Defining and measuring subjective well-being for sport policy. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 10(4), pp.815-827.
• Daykin, N., Mansfield, L., Payne, A., Kay, T., Meads, C., D’Innocenzo, G., Burnett, A., Dolan, P., Julier, G., Longworth, L. and Tomlinson, A., 2017. What works for wellbeing in culture and sport? Report of a DELPHI process to support coproduction and establish principles and parameters of an evidence review. Perspectives in public health, 137(5), pp.281-288.
• Daykin, N., Mansfield, L., Meads, C., Julier, G., Tomlinson, A., Payne, A., Grigsby Duffy, L., Lane, J., D’Innocenzo, G., Burnett, A. and Kay, T., 2018. What works for wellbeing? A systematic review of wellbeing outcomes for music and singing in adults. Perspectives in public health, 138(1), pp.39-46.
• Snape, D., Meads, C., Bagnall, A., Tregaskis, O. and Mansfield, L., 2017. What works wellbeing: A guide to our evidence review methods.
• Mansfield, L., Kay, T., Meads, C., Grigsby-Duffy, L., Lane, J., John, A., Daykin, N., Dolan, P., Testoni, S., Julier, G. and Payne, A., 2018. Sport and dance interventions for healthy young people (15–24 years) to promote subjective well-being: a systematic review. BMJ open, 8(7), p.e020959.

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Professor Louise Mansfield - Career History Louise Mansfield is Professor of Sport, Health and Social Sciences and Research Lead for Welfare, Health and Wellbeing in the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies.  Her research focuses on the relationship between sport, physical activity and public health and wellbeing. She is interested in partnership and community approaches in sport and physical activity and issues of health, wellbeing, inequality and diversity. She has led research projects for the Department of Health, Youth Sport Trust, sportscotland, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, Macmillan Cancer Support, Public Health England and Sport England. She sits on the editorial boards for Leisure Studies, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport and is Managing Editor of Annals of Leisure Research. Louise is known for  is known for developing evidence to inform policy and practice.

Related Research Group(s)

Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifecourse - Inequalities in health and wellbeing in the UK and internationally; welfare, health and wellbeing; ageing studies; health economics.

Project last modified 21/11/2023