Funded projects
FUTOURWORK
This project tackles labour precarity in Europe’s tourism and hospitality (T+H) sector by promoting inclusive social dialogue and fair digital transformation. Using an interdisciplinary approach FUTOURWORK will empower workers, inform policy, and support EU goals for decent work and social justice.
Tourism and hospitality are vital to the European Union’s (EU)economy and societal wellbeing. Representing over 10% of GDP and employing more than 13 million people—many from marginalised communities including women, migrants, and youth—the sector forms a cornerstone of regional development and cultural exchange. However, it is also facing deep structural challenges: high staff turnover, precarious working conditions, and 1.2 million unfilled vacancies point to a labour market under stress.
The rise of non-standard employment and platform work—often governed by opaque algorithmic systems—has introduced new vulnerabilities. These digital transformations are compounding existing inequalities, limiting access to social protections, and excluding many workers from collective representation and social dialogue. In this context, the EU’s strategic goals around fair work, inclusion, and responsible digital innovation are more urgent than ever.
The FUTOURWORK project addresses these challenges by putting workers’ rights, wellbeing, and inclusion at the heart of tourism’s digital future. Uniquely, the project is grounded in a robust integration of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Drawing on the combined strengths of anthropology, tourism studies, labour law, digital ethics, economics, gender studies, and sociology, FUTOURWORK offers an interdisciplinary, intersectional framework to examine and address the sector’s most pressing issues.
Funding bodies
Horizon Europe
Investigator
Stroma Cole
Festivals and resistance: Large-Scale Music Events in London Parks 1967-2027
Music festivals are often associated with rural locations, but every year millions of people attend versions staged in city parks. These urban festivals have a prestigious history, with examples such as Rock Against Racism (1978) and the Greater London Council Peace Festivals (1983) regarded as politically significant assemblies.
In the 1970s and 1980s, urban music festivals were often free, counter-cultural occasions which challenged governing regimes. But over the past 30 years, these festivals have evolved into expensive, fenced events organised by global entertainment companies. Some contemporary festivals celebrate marginalised and youth cultures, including those that showcase black British music. But whereas park festivals were once forms of resistance, music festivals are now resisted by some park users because of their exclusive occupation of public spaces.
This shift warrants detailed analysis, especially as it not only reflects wider socio-economic changes, but signposts the evolving character, functions and politics of urban public spaces. London provides an ideal focus for the research given the long history and contemporary prevalence of music festivals staged in park settings. By recording the evolution of park-based festivals in London 1967-2027, and by talking to people who attended or organised events in this period, this research analyses the shifting politics of public spaces.
Funder
Leverhulme Trust
Investigator
Andrew Smith
FESTSPACE: Festivals, Events and Inclusive Urban Public Spaces
Parks play a multi-faceted role in contemporary cities. They are environmental assets that help to improve the health and well-being of citizens, but they are also inherently social spaces, places to meet and socialise. It is this potential for ‘inter-subjectivity’, where open space is transformed into public space that was the main focus for exploration in the London based part of the Festivals, Events and Inclusive Urban Public Spaces [FESTSPACE] research.
Many of London’s parks date back to the Victorian era, and there have long been concerns
about how accessible they are to diverse audiences. Festivals and events may help to open these spaces to new users, but the growing number of commercial/ticketed events staged may add to the physical, symbolic and financial barriers that exclude some people from London’s parks. By conducting an in-depth examination of one park over an extended period, this research aimed to assess the ways that events alter the profiles of people who use parks, and how they affect the nature of social interactions in park settings.
The project explored the effects of festivals and events through a dedicated focus on ethnic and socio-economic inclusivity. London was an ideal place to do this research given it is one of the most diverse cities in the world and also has high levels of social inequality. The research involved a detailed observation study of one park (Finsbury Park, Haringey) over an extended period. By immersing themselves in park spaces for an extended period of time, talking to park users and collecting visual data, researchers built up a detailed understanding of how staging events affects park use.
Funder
Humanities in the European Research Area
Investigator
Andrew Smith