Date: 29th February Time: 3pm-4pm Location: Bristol Business School
Professor Victoria Wells from the University of York will be Joining SURG on the 29th of February to present her findings on: Transitioning beyond single-use plastic drinks cups: an emergent social marketing case study in Scotland
This will be an in person seminar please complete this registration form if you wish to attend
About Professor Victoria Wells:
Victoria Wells holds the position of Professor of Sustainable Management at the School for Business and Society, University of York. Before joining York, she was on the faculty at Sheffield University Management School, Durham University Business School, and Cardiff University Business School. She obtained her PhD from Keele University. Prior to her academic career, she spent several years working in industry as an advertising account executive.
Professor Wells is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Certified Management & Business Educator, and a Chartered Marketer. At the School for Business and Society, she has previously served as Head of Group (People, Operations and Marketing) and Deputy Dean (Operations).
About the study:
This study aims to investigate whether consumers and small businesses can transition from disposable to reusable coffee cups, using a community social marketing intervention, led by a Social Purpose AQ: An emergent case study approach using multiple sources of data developed an in-depth, multifaceted, real-world context evaluation of the intervention. The methodology draws on citizen science “messy” data collection involving multiple, fragmented sources. Moving from single-use cups to reusables requires collective commitment by retailers, consumers and policymakers, despite the many incentives and penalties applied to incentivise behaviour change.
Difficult post-COVID economics, austerity and infrastructure gaps are undermining both reusable acceptance and interim solutions to our dependence upon disposables. Although the non-traditional methodology rendered gaps and omissions in the data, the citizen science was democratising and inclusive for the community. Our practical contribution evaluates a whole community intervention setting to encourage reusable cups, integrating multiple stakeholders, in a non-controllable, non-experimental environment in contrast to previous research.
This paper demonstrates how small community grants can foster impactful collaborative partnerships between an SPO and researchers, facilitate knowledge-exchange beyond the initial remit and provide a catalyst for possible future impact and outcomes. To assess the impact at both the outcome and the process level of the intervention, we use Pawson and Tilley’s realist evaluation theory – the Context Mechanism Outcome framework. The methodological contribution demonstrates the process of citizen science “messy” data collection, likely to feature more frequently in future social science research addressing climate change and sustainability challenges.
To attend please complete this registration form
