In partnership with Warwick University, my study will investigate the cause and effect that the UK City of Culture trust’s work may have on the perceived level of civic pride amongst residents of Coventry. 

Evaluation reports and studies into past UK City of Culture programmes have been primarily located in disciplines such as Sociology, Geography, Anthropology and Economics. Of these, the majority have used quantitative methods with a small number of qualitative studies. Further, of these qualitative studies, key stakeholders appear to be the focus of study, when community participants and the lay public are rarely given a voice. To date there is virtually no arts-based practice as research studies that explore the impact of UK City of Culture programme activities on the host cities residents.

This PhD project responds directly to that gap in knowledge by aiming to generate a research design that uses Headphone Verbatim Theatre as a method to generate data for analysis, of which the subject matter is solely on residents of the host city. The predominant aim of this study is to follow the work of the Coventry City of Culture trust and their producing team. Examining by way of case-study, projects that may lead to a shift in the perspectives of Coventry residents' sense of civic pride.