Social movement approach to physical activity in Southall

A longitudinal case study and collaborative impact evaluation of a social movement approach to physical activity in Southall, UK

There is evidence that community engagement interventions including physical activity and sport projects can have a positive impact on health and wellbeing behaviours. Specifically, health and wellbeing improvement is founded on strengthening communities through volunteering and peer roles, collaborations and partnerships, and access to community / local resources. Successful community-based health and wellbeing interventions are associated with extensive formative research, participatory strategies and a theoretical and practical focus on changing social norms.

A social movement approach to community physical founded on the principles of empowering collective action is one such strategy for maximising the impact of complex multi-stakeholder projects. However, there are few social movement projects in the community sport and physical activity sector.

Additionally, there is little evidence of the impact of social movement projects in sport and physical activity or of the experiences of stakeholders contributing to the community of practice in such approaches. The programme of work includes a longitudinal case study and impact evaluation of a social movement approach to physical activity in Southall, Ealing UK.

Our work provides a unique community perspective, paramount in building the evidence base about the value of a social movement approach to increasing physical activity, improving health and bringing about positive change to the lives of individuals and communities.

The project will focus on understanding what works and what does not work in increasing physical activity, improving health and bringing about positive change to the lives of individuals and communities. 

Images used courtesy of Let's Go Southall.

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