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The potential for art activities to help in alleviating loneliness is explored through a focus on older women's regular attendance at creative social activities. We apply the concept of perceived emotional synchrony to understand how weekly craft group sessions enable feelings of belonging and self-worth to develop in older women. Using a multi-site six-month study of 62 women aged 70+ attending social creative activities, our multi-stage research design captures the experiences of these women through observation and narrative group discussions held weekly. Our findings show that feelings of belonging and self-worth developed over a relatively short time. In particular, social integration and identity fusion were found to occur as a result of the emotional synchrony engendered via a regular shared activity, out of the home, and requiring some challenge and creativity. We propose a virtuous cycle model to explain the value in such activities and discuss the wider implications for wellbeing in older age. Perceived emotional synchrony has not been used before to explore the mechanisms through which social creative activities form lasting benefits for older women. Our research highlights the importance of feeling at one with others in improving feelings of belonging and self-worth and indicates how a variety of social creative experiences could be designed to enable this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Events and festivals are recognised as valuable tools to contribute to social sustainability and community cohesion. However, within this, the experiences of old people are often overlooked, and the important roles events can play in older lives underestimated. Research within both tourism and events has tended to neglect the gendered experiences of ageing, with old women in particular overlooked in terms of their experiences as tourists or event participants. This paper draws on a qualitative study with thirty-three women over the age of 65, participating in regular creative events in rural England. Using a feminist gerontological framework, we explore some of the gendered experiences of ageing for our study participants, and the contribution that participatory creative events play in terms of social sustainability within this group. We find that events provide an escape from routine and a supportive environment in which self-worth is fostered through creating and socialising. The space to make and to reminisce with peers also has a restorative effect which requires regular events if it is to be sustained. Life stories – elicited through narrative inquiry and framed within feminist gerontology – provide a holistic understanding of the role of events in the lives of these women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a strategic-relational approach we critique a range of event tourism funding policies and practices that seek to create regional and/or national event strategies. A multiple case study method combining document analysis and key informant interviews within selected regions provides insights into the political nature of event funding, the equity of its distribution, and the decision processes involved. Programs were found to operate in a sensitive and complex context due to intertwined power relationships between policy and agency embedded within governments. We conclude that to bring about broader benefits and legacies a paradigm shift is needed to rebalance economic and social outcomes within funder objectives and governance structures. This needs to include innovation in evaluation and wider more meaningful stakeholder engagement. The study shows that without fundamental change in policy, national and regional funding programs are likely to continue to operate within their existing narrow remit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Durkheim's theory of collective emotion and the concept of perceived emotional synchrony are used to explore tourism memories and to create a conceptual model explaining how and why we come to agree on how we felt when reliving past tourism experiences. This process is dependent on the malleability of memory, which allows emotional synchrony to happen in retrospect, regardless of actual feelings at the time. I argue that the innate motivations behind this post-consumption merging are a stronger sense of community and of belonging to a social group. For tourism practitioners, this highlights where the true value lies for the consumer, the belief in a shared emotional experience. This value develops through the synchronization of memories creating the basis for a shared memory economy. The implications for tourism marketers are discussed, and suggestions for further research into memory and travel experience are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the extent to which music festival attendance is ‘universally’ motivated or determined by the Chinese cultural and socio-political context. A novel qualitative approach was employed comprising observation of social media conversations and ‘chat room’ interviews with members of a festival online community. Seven motivators were identified, some similar to those in Western studies but others more specific to festival-goers in Mainland China. The culturally specific motivators were identified as ‘spiritual escape’ and ‘spiritual pursuit’ and the universal motivators as ‘togetherness’, ‘love of the music’, ‘novel experience’, ‘music sharing’ and ‘educational enrichment’. This paper focuses on the two culturally embedded motivators only. The implications of the study are that, although, growing, there are still very few music festivals featuring ‘pop’ or ‘western’ style music and these few are relatively new to Chinese people. Their attendance at them is, therefore, motivated differently to attendees at similar festivals in western countries. These motivating factors are mediated by the particular social, political and cultural factors at work in this complex country. The findings indicate that although many of the motivational factors for attending a music festival appear to be universal, there are clearly factors which are culturally bound and therefore unique to the cultural context. These differences appear to be created by the social constraints, rapidly changing economy and the many contradictions inherent in modern Mainland China. These conditions create a greater contrast between everyday life in Mainland China and the liminal hedonistic space provided by the festival. Further research is needed to validate theses initial findings within China and to explore how rock music festival motivations differ in other non-western cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CSR continues to gain high regard by scholars and stakeholders despite the fact it has no fixed definition. Indeed CSR definitions and/or purpose alter daily according to business aims, industry practices and to 'fit' the purpose of academia. The purpose of this research paper, therefore, is to critique the definitions of CSR from the 1950's to the present day, to ascertain the changing dynamics, emphasis and words used to embrace such a powerful notion. Bowen (1950) recognised CSR as lines of philanthropic action, which abide by the values of society. However, Frederick (1960) and Davis (1960) later dismissed this wholly philanthropic approach. Running alongside the 'admirers' of CSR, Friedman (1970) argued that CSR is vague and foolish, as society overestimates the suggested competitive advantage unless responsible business directly relates to profit. As a solution, later authors such as Carroll (1999) see CSR as a competitive tool, which evidences responsible actions, with potential to tackle issues unrelated to their products. The 1980's and 90's saw a plethora of changing definitions as the purpose of CSR continued to ignite interest in governments, NGOs and businesses who began to see a move from responsible actions; towards competitive, individualised responsible actions. It was concluded that the definition of CSR began as a fairly intangible, ambiguous concept. As businesses have increased in size and economic autonomy, attempts to be comprehensive in CSR efforts have increased. This paper concludes that CSR has become a multi-quantifiable tool to represent responsible business activities, with direct links to annual accounting reports and performance indicators. To date, the definition of CSR appears to reflect individual businesses rather than all corporations, and their relationship with stakeholders and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To avoid the top-down, heavy-handed legislative process, many Governments have turned to Social Marketing and Persuasion Theory to encourage the public to take responsibility for their own physical and social well being. Persuasion theory is used in television campaigns to change alcohol related harm behaviour through verbal and symbolic images under the premise of "freechoice". This notion of personal choice is very important; particularly in countries where liberty and free will are key social factors. The social marketing campaigns that will be examined are "anti binge drinking campaigns" and "drink driving campaigns". Persuasion theory, used in these campaigns, was generally based on two main fear appeals. The first appeal is Physical Fear which can be high fear such as death, substantial harm or intense pain or low fear such as "easily avoidable" accidents. The second fear is Social/psychological Harm ranging from feelings of dirtiness, disgust, lack of social skills and rejection. The research concludes that whilst physical and social/psychological fears are used in all campaigns reviewed, recent alcohol related harm campaigns have shifted from depictions of physical harm to those of emotional and mental suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article brings together the author's previous research and consultancy along with a review of literature from several disciplines to develop a framework that summarizes the concepts, methods, and processes required to successfully evaluate the impacts of local government community festivals. Events and festivals are a relatively underresearched area but have experienced a growing amount of public sector expenditure. The framework developed and presented here is in response to the need to encourage greater evaluation of this activity and in doing so recognize the complexity of the process. The impacts of many such festivals are diverse (economic, social, environmental), far reaching (local, national, international), and long term. The evaluation of these impacts, therefore, requires an understanding of the concepts involved and the development of a range of tools and methods. The proposed framework is informed by the empirical research, theory, and practice in the areas of information systems, marketing communications, event studies, and public sector evaluation. Bringing together these distinct but related fields of study has enabled the development of a comprehensive and novel approach to event impact evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]