Research Proposal

I have finally come up with some solid ideas and even managed to consider my philisophical view point - phenmomenology! Bit of a mouthful but very interesting. I am going to be looking at the Medway Fuse Festival and its cultural strategy, addressing the measurement of social impacts on the surrouding community. I do still feel that, after writing my proposal, I may still seem a little unclear in my direction but submitting this has most definitley helped the process of trying to figure that out.

Now to submit.

Meeting Mr Chowne

Ok so I have met (for the first time) my dissertation supervisor, Peter. And I have to say that he has enabled me to feel as though I have more direction with my topic, athough I have to say that I really dont feel that I have done enough towards it at the moment, and although part of it is time management on my part I also feel that the coursework deadlines have been badly organised. cest la vie. just gotta get on. Anway, back to the big D - Today I discussed with Peter the new direction I had gone in after speaking with James and he has advsied me to familiarise myself with the way in which local government is divided, such as unitary authorities. He has also suggested, as I from the south of the UK I could look at Brighton and Hove and maybe do a comparison with Medway (also in the South) I want to look at the different events they put on yearly and why they chose to do these events. I also will be looking at the different funding bodies such as the lottery and the arts council, maybe looking at teh reasoning for thier funding and vested interests. I cant say that I really looking forward to this and I really hope that I get more into it, I dont like the idea of writing so much about something that i cant get my teeth into, however i think the more reasearch I do the more I may become enthused.

This course will beover in four weeks and I still have so much to do so back to the other many assignments (only 22,000 words to do before end of term...hmmm)

dissertation presentation

Well I have had a chance to talk about my dissertation with Franc, it was less of a presentation more of a discussion which I have to say was pretty helpful although I cant say that I am still 100% but I am definitely more focussed than before. I have been thinking about lots of different aspects that I could explore for a dissertation and Franc basically said that I had too many ideas and that i just had to pick one! so he helped me think about which one I would find most interesting and I am now working on the idea of 'the economic impact of the 2012 Olympic games on small cultural events'. Obviously I will only be able to base this on the lead up to the event. Franc suggested my objectives could be the following; To find out availability of cultural funding, to identify the bodies that fund local cultural events. I am looking at doing some triangulation research by interviewing someone from a local government council (outside of London), someone from the Olypics and someone like an outside, independent cultural event organiser and see how this is effecting them all. I think it would be helpful to talk to Jmes about this as well, hopefully before my initial reasearch proposal is due. I have also been researching Journals that may be if use to me, ones that are about past olympics and the other Mega events' impacts on society. I am unsure as to whether I am kind of trailing off from the whole funding aspect of my idea and think that I am still a little wide with my thoughts!

Presentation

OK so the presentation has been rescehduled and I have to present tomorrow. I have been doing alot of thinking and have changed the direction of my research proposal, although am worried that it will not be enough to write about and I dont know really how to word it. Anyway I have decided to look at the ways in which local community events are funded by the governement and the criteria that they need to hit in order for it to be funded. In the current economic climate it would seem that very little is being done in local communities, which to an extent is understandable but at the same time surely this is when community events would be most useful? to bring people together and to reinforce that community and socail spirit? This is why I have decided to look at these because it would seem that there has been a massive shift in the reasons for puttin on local events and money is just on of them. I am unsure how I am going to be able to find out what the criteris for these events are but I will try!! and also I have decided to look at the effect of the Olympic games is having on outside communities, on the website fo rthe games it says that they are doing things everywhere but when I typed in my local areas as encouraged to I found that there wasnt that much at all. I dont think that I have done enough research to say whether this is true of everywhere but I am thinking of doing some quantitatvie research outside of London to see if people feel that they are benefiting from the games and to see whether local councils feel as though they are mising out as I know they are currently geting no funding for their own individual events for the city.

Now there's something to ponder - let just hope Franc understands me tomorrow.

one week left! Presentation next week!

Okay so we all only have one week left and three things left to do; Finance investment proposal, manageing cultures reflective journal and Dissertation proposal presentation! So I am a littel concerened as I have completed a single one of them yet and my disseration proposal is weighing on my mind as we didnt have resaecrh methods last week and I wanted to discuss some things then with James. I havent really done much research what with everything else that has beein going on so I am a little concerned about that section of the presentation. I have read a journal which (my italics function has stoppped working so apologies for the rest of this blog being slanted!!! argh everyting is going to the crapper!) I used for my journal review at the bginnig of term. I still want to look at cultural events and I have been thinking about comparing the ways which england uses cultural events to celebrate different ethic groups but doesnt seem to really celebrate its won, compared to Wales which seems to have a more obvious culture and has specific events to celebrate this. Also look at the lack of funding for cultural events and the criteria local government have to fulfill when putting on an event. anyway I am now to continue my managing cultures essay! bye for now.

Dissertation thoughts

Well I have been thinking (between panicking about the other assignements sue before xmas) about my dissertation topic and although I dont have anything particularly concrete at the mo I have been thinking about cultural events and their political implications. For the finance assessement we are currently working on I have used the accounts of a charity organisation that bring artists from all over the world together helping to promote diversity in the arts. They are quite an interesting find I think, Ihave spoken to the office manager and he has told me different stories of working abroad and how last year they were all set to do some pieces in Iran. However months before and unrealted incident in the UK that caused some Iranians to have their passports revoked caused the Iranians to revoke the British artists visas and therefore the event could not be put on. I also think that it would be interesting to look at the UK and its 'community' events as they have to work on a very low budget and have to hit certain criteria for ethinc minorities.

In general I would have to say I am not 100% confident at the mo, it all seems a little stressful although I think it will be better when I start to get some assignments back and then i can gauge whether I am working well or not!

Hopefully all will come together in the end and I am pretty sure I am not the only one that is a little worried about everything so hopefully we can help each other out.

Now back to my finance essay - its driving me crazy i dont know if what i am doing is right or not eeek!

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