Paul Widdop

Leeds Metropolitan University, The Carnegie Faculty, Faculty Member

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I am Senior Research Fellow at Leeds Beckett University, PhD University of Manchester, core member of Edinburgh University Academy of Sport, and co-founder of the Football Collective.

My research focuses on the consumption and production of sport and culture in society. Underlying these academic fields my substantive research area is in the importance of place and networks. For the former I am interested in the contexts and mechanisms that make place a key driver in the formation and maintenance of cultural lifestyles and consumption behaviours. For networks my approach is to understand consumption from a relational sociology position, using predominantly a social network analysis methodology to explore relational and interactional dynamics. Place and networks are fundamental to understanding how consumption and production operates in modern societies.

Furthermore, I have a specific research interest in the production elements of the football industry or football worlds (adapted from Howard Becker Artworlds concept). In particular my research explores the collective activity in this world, focusing on conventions, networks and resources.

I have a strong background in theoretical and applied statistics (MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics from University of Manchester) and I completed my PhD research in the Institute for Social Change/Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (University of Manchester). In addition, I have a extensive knowledge of the theory and methodology of Social Network Analysis.

Currently I am reviews editor for the Journal of Consumer Culture (Impact Factor:2.816 | Ranking:Cultural Studies 1 out of 38 | Sociology 4 out of 142). Active member of the Mitchell Centre of Social Network Analysis (University of Manchester); member of the Canadian Sociological Association - Relational Sociology group; and co-founder of the Football Collective a vibrant academic research community.

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Papers by Paul Widdop

Sport policy and politics in an era of austerity

by Daniel Parnell, Paul Widdop, and Peter Millward

A ‘Different Class’? Homophily and Heterophily in the Social Class Networks of Britpop

by Paul Widdop and Peter Millward

Social network analysis is increasingly recognised as a useful way to explore music scenes. In th... more Social network analysis is increasingly recognised as a useful way to explore music scenes. In this article we examine the individuals who were the cultural workforce that comprised the ‘Britpop’ music scene of the 1990s. The focus of our analysis is homophily and heterophily to determine whether the clusters of friendships and working relationships of those who were ‘best connected’ in the scene were patterned by original social class position. We find that Britpop’s ‘whole network’ is heterophilic but that its ‘sub-networks’ are more likely to be social class homophilic. The sub-networks that remain heterophilic are likely to be united by other common experiences that brought individuals in the network to the same social spaces. We suggest that our findings on Britpop might be generalised to the composition of other music scenes, cultural workforces and aggregations of young people. Our study differs from research on, first, British ‘indie music’ and social class which focuses upon the construction, representation and performance of social location rather than the relationships it might shape and second, the pioneering social network analyses of music scenes which currently lack explicit emphasis on social class.

Social Networks and Music Worlds

"Social networks are critical for the creation and consumption of music. This edited collection, ... more "Social networks are critical for the creation and consumption of music. This edited collection, Social Networks and Music Worlds, introduces students and scholars of music in society to the core concepts and tools of social network analysis. The collection showcases the use of these tools by sociologists, historians and musicologists, examining a variety of distinct 'music worlds', including post-punk, jazz, rap, folk, classical music, Ladyfest and the world of 'open mic' performances, on a number of different scales (local, national and international). In addition to their overarching Introduction, the editors offer a very clear and detailed introduction to the methodology of social network analysis for the uninitiated.

The collection builds upon insights from canonic texts in the sociology of music, with the crucial innovation of examining musical network interaction via formal methods. With network analysis in the arts and humanities at an emergent stage, Social Networks and Music Worlds highlight its possibilities for non-scientists. Contributions hail from leading and emerging scholars who present social network graphs and data to represent different music worlds, locating individuals, resources and styles within them.

The collection sits at the nexus of sociological, musicological and cultural studies traditions. Its range should ensure a large scholarly readership."

Reimagining Omnivorousness in the Context of Place

Place is a key driver in the formation and maintenance of cultural lifestyles. Yet place remains ... more Place is a key driver in the formation and maintenance of cultural lifestyles. Yet place remains largely ignored in scholarly studies of cultural omnivorousness. After establishing whether there are different modes of omnivorousness as well as distinguishing between other cultural lifestyles, this article then takes a first step in readdressing this anomaly by examining whether clustering exists at the regional level in England. Using a methodologically innovative approach to simultaneously capture latent class typologies and between group heterogeneity at the area scale, our findings illustrate how place is vital to consumption habits, particularly to voracious omnivores. We argue that the underlying mechanism behind these cultural patterns at the area level is contextual in nature, and in the case of voracious omnivores, primarily due to the supply of cultural items and the importance of likeminded individuals in active networks.

The Global Omnivore: Identifying Musical Taste Groups in Austria, England, Israel and Serbia

by Adrian Leguina and Paul Widdop

This research offers a unique opportunity to revisit the omnivore hypothesis under a unified meth... more This research offers a unique opportunity to revisit the omnivore hypothesis under a unified method of cross-national analysis. To accomplish this, we interpret omnivourism as a special case of cultural eclecticism (Ollivier, 2008; Ollivier, Gauthier and Truong, 2009). Our methodological approach incorporates the simultaneous analysis of locally produced and globally known musical genres. Its objective is to verify whether cultural omnivourism is a widespread phenomenon, and to determine to what extent any conclusions can be generalised across countries with different social structures and different levels of cultural openness. To truly understand the scope of the omnivourism hypothesis, we argue that it is essential to perform a cross-national comparison to test the hypothesis within a range of social, political and cultural contexts, and a reflection of different historical and cultural repertoires (Lamont, 1992).

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