Sound archives for football memories: exploring innovations in the use of the Scottish Football Museum Archive for older people

Abstract

Football Memories Scotland (FMS) groups provide examples of sports-based reminiscence (SBR) wherein a range of football-related stimuli is used with older people to trigger memories and prompt socialisation. The Scottish Football Museum, who are affiliated with FMS, identified a largely untapped resource: Scottish football-related sound archival materials. This PhD explores the use of these materials with older people in FMS contexts. It develops frameworks for both the selection of FMS themes and the production of FMS tailored audio resources that feature sound archival materials. These approaches are exemplified by the production and use of the ’67 audio – an audio resource themed around the England 2 - 3 Scotland fixture at Wembley in 1967. The ‘67 audio was shared with five community-based FMS groups. I observed FMS participants’ responses to hearing the audio, and conducted follow up interviews with FMS group attendees, carers and facilitators. The findings evidence that the ‘67 audio was well received and, notably, seemed to play a significant role in triggering memories and prompting socialisation. This study therefore presents a novel yet potentially impactful approach for FMS theme selection, and the production and use of sound archival materials in FMS and, perhaps, wider SBR contexts. It also proposes a broad session structure for the use of sound archival materials with multi-sensory stimuli. Still, further research remains necessary to both determine whether the frameworks are applicable beyond this PhD and assess the value of the proposed session structure in FMS and/or wider SBR contexts.