Biography
Josh Bland is a funded ESRC PhD researcher at the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. His research specialisms are football culture, industrial heritage, intangible cultural heritage, living heritage, heritage and home and cultural resilience. His current PhD project explores how involvement in cultures of football support may empower working-class communities to exercise cultural resilience against deindustrialisation in the Northeast of England.
Josh is also currently Director of Research at The Deep Creative. He has previously led a Curating London project on football and home at the Museum of London and worked as Director of Policy for sports policy think tank Fair Game.
Research
My main research focus is examining English football culture(s) through the lens of critical heritage studies. I am particularly interested in developing the field of sports heritage, the relationship between living heritage and cultural resilience and the affect of heritage in contexts of change. As such I am interested in researching intangible heritage(s), heritage and community, heritage and identity, continuity, heritage and emotion, heritage and home, working-class heritage and industrial heritage.
Key Publications
Bland, J. (forthcoming) 'The "Critical" Need for a Critical Heritage Studies of Sport' Journal of Sports History.
Bland, J. (forthcoming) 'The Football Authorised Heritage Discousre (FAHD): Football Fandom, Marginalisation and Resistance in Newcastle' in Capern, A., Haboucha, R. and Pymer, S. (eds.) Inclusive Heritage: Hidden Pasts, Reconciling Presents, Diversifying Futures. Palgrave MacMillan.
Bland, J. (2024) 'The Authenticity Problem: Authenticity as a Methodological Trap in People-Centred Research on Working-Class Football Supporting Communities' Archaeologies. 20 (3), 666-689. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-024-09513-9
Bland, J. (2023) Finding Home in Football. Museum of London. Available at: Bland, 2023 - Finding Home in Football.pdf - Google Drive
Bland, J. (2024) 'Chinlone: Sports and the colonial encounter in Myanmar' Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Digital Lab. Available at: Sport and Colonial Encounter in Myanmar – MAA Digital Lab
Bland, J. (2022) Football in the UK: an introduction to heritage studies. AccessEd Learning Resource. Available at: Football in the UK: an introduction to heritage studies by Josh Bland - Access Ed
Fair Game (2021) 'Putting Pride Back in the Shirt: Fair Game's solutions to the National Game' Available at: Fair+Game+Manifesto+FINAL.pdf
Fair Game (2021) 'Solutions for our National Game: Proposed Solutions for Football' Available at: Fair+Game+-+Solutions+for+our+National+Game+(4).pdf
Other Professional Activities
Director of Research, The Deep Creative
Policy and Media Director, Fair Game UK
Freelance Football Writer
