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Festivals: Time for Wellbeing? Prof Chris Cook (Public Lecture, Durham, 21 November 2012)

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Research Summary: Festivals and Wellbeing

Topic: Spirituality, festivals, and health/wellbeing
Research Focus: Explores whether festivals contribute to wellbeing and what forms of wellbeing they foster
Key Questions Addressed: Are festivals good for us? Do they promote wellbeing independent of cultural value?
Evidence Grade: Preliminary — research into festivals and spirituality remains conspicuously absent from existing literature
Context: Public lecture presented by Prof. Chris Cook on 21 November 2012 at Durham University as part of the “Calendar and Festivals: Identity, Culture and Experience” series
Research Gap: Recent spirituality-health research excludes festivals despite their cultural and experiential significance

Festivals: Time for Wellbeing?
Presented by Prof. Chris Cook
21 November 2012 18:15 in Elvet Riverside 140

Recent research has explored various aspects of spirituality in relation to health and wellbeing, but festivals are conspicuously absent from this research. The lecture is a foray into this field. Are festivals good for us? Do they contribute to our wellbeing, and what kind of wellbeing might they foster? And, even if they were not good for us, would we still want to celebrate them anyway?

This is part of the series of public lectures, Calendar and Festivals: Identity, Culture and Experience, organized with the support of the IAS as part of the “Time” theme.

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