What can managers do for creativity? : brokering creativity in the creative industries

'Creativity' has become a fashionable term in the contemporary managerial and political lexicon, signalling generalised approval in education, business and the arts. In Britain, 'creative industries' has replaced 'cultural industries' as the umbrella term for artistic and cultural production and distribution, and 'creativity' has been incorporated into the national tourism brand . In business, managers and academics use 'creativity' to indicate an organisation's capacity for innovation, flexibility and autonomy; these 'creative' values are seen to have replaced operational efficiency and strategic planning as the primary source of 'competitive advantage' in business. In education, creativity has spread beyond its original context of arts based subjects and is used to refer to a generalised ability to solve problems and generate new concepts across the entire curriculum. The term creativity has become so all-embracing as to lose any clearly defined meaning and value. Ask any organisation, industry or individual whether they would ever admit to being 'uncreative' and the corruption of meaning is only too apparent. It seems that we are all creative now. Creativity has become both the language and currency of today's knowledge economy

Digital transformation in the arts : a case study

This paper considers the interaction between digital technology and cultural organisations and the challenges and opportunities this presents for practice and for policy. The paper is based on one of eight 'digital R&D' projects supported by NESTA, Arts Council England and the AHRC, designed to analyse the effects of digital innovation in UK arts organisations. The paper focuses on a series of residencies in three UK arts organisations. The research aims to identify the cultural conditions which support or prevent short-term digital innovation becoming 'embedded' in the ongoing practice of a cultural organisation. The paper considers differing practices, attitudes and expectations between creative technologists and arts organisations. These differing 'cultures of innovation' may help us to understand why digital innovations often fail to move beyond temporary and pragmatic problem-solving towards more challenging, transformational effects on organisational strategy and culture

A review of the Canthyporus exilis group, with the description of two new species (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae)

Canthyporus namaqualacrimus sp. nov. and Canthyporus pallidus sp. nov. are described from the Namaqualand region of South Africa, both members of the exilis group. A revised key to species of the group is provided, together with details of the external and spermathecal tract morphology of the female of Canthyporus aenigmaticus Biström & Nilsson, 2006, a species previously known only from the male holotype. The opportunity is also taken to present new ecological and distributional data on members of the exilis group, most of which are primarily associated with springs and seepage habitats

Two new species of madicolous water beetle from South Africa (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae)

Coelometopon glenavoni sp. n. and Oomtelecopon disjunctum sp. n., two madicolous hydraenid beetles are described from the Eastern and Western Cape provinces of South Africa respectively. Diagnostic notes are provided for both species, together with a discussion of the ecology and biogeography of the two genera

The aims of early years outdoor education in England: a conceptual and empirical investigation

This paper explores the place of aims in the early years foundation stage outdoor environment in England. Through examining the writing of academics, various themes are identified, and constructed into possible aims. These themes/aims are compared to an empirical study of early years teachers’ attitudes. Data was collected by questionnaire from schools within the University of Reading partnership. There was general agreement between experts and teachers as to the aims. While some respondents were able to explain what the aims of outdoor activity were, a significant number were unable to identify aims; further, a significant number did not distinguish between approach/practice and aims. A lack of understanding and agreement as to what the aims are may indicate teachers are unsure about the purpose of outdoor education for young children. A result of this study is to agree and make explicit the aims for outdoor education in the early years

Uncreativity : the shadow side of creativity

This paper argues that our fascination with creativity is distracting and potentially destructive, resulting in a tendency to discard projects and people before they achieve their potential. ‘Uncreativity’ is used to recognise the importance of continuity over change, the contribution of intermediaries and administrators to creative processes and the possibility of reconfiguring and refining existing ideas rather than inventing new ones. The paper argues that the ‘discourse’ of creativity prioritises novelty over value. This leads to an unsustainable emphasis on new ideas and initiatives in organisations. For individuals, it encourages an overemphasis on individual talent and relentless self-belief. This partial understanding of creative processes results in unrealistic expectations and self-destructive and self-exploiting behaviours. Uncreativity is proposed as a necessary element in creative processes for both organisations and individuals. Cultural policy and cultural management need to acknowledge the important contribution of these uncreative elements as well as simply endorsing ‘creativity’

Out of the Palaearctic: the Helophorus water beetles of the Afrotropical Region (Coleoptera: Helophoridae)

Helophorus Fabricius, 1775 (Coleoptera: Hydrophiloidea: Helophoridae) is an old and largely Holarctic genus of beetles, with most extant diversity concentrated in the Palae­arctic. As with a number of primarily northern temperate lineages, the genus has colonised the Afrotropical Region, with species described from the Ethiopian Highlands and southern Africa. Here, the Afrotropical Helophorus fauna is revised, based on a study of all primary types and additional material, including extensive recent collections from South Africa. The known Afrotropical fauna is shown to be comprised of six species, only three of which were previously described: H. aethiopicus Régimbart, 1907, from southern highland areas of Ethiopia, H. aethiops J. Balfour-Browne, 1954 known from summer and year-round rainfall areas of South Africa and Namibia and H. cooperi Orchymont, 1948, stat. nov., described as a subspecies of H. aethiopicus and still only known from the type locality in Ethiopia. To these, three new species are added: H. brumopluvialis sp. nov., widespread in winter rainfall areas of the Western and Northern Cape Provinces of South Africa, H. nyandaruaensis sp. nov. from mountains of the East African Rift in Kenya and H. simiensis sp. nov. from the Simien Mountains of northern Ethiopia. All species are (re)described in detail and illustrated with high-resolution photos. Known distributions are mapped and a key to species provided. It is suggested that the two South African species may have speciated allochronically, due to seasonal shifts in life cycle associated with the development of the winter rainfall regime in the Cape during the Plio-Pleistocene. Helophorus are hypothesised to have colonised the Afrotropics on at least two occasions from separate Palaearctic ancestors

Investigating the role Of CBX2 to promote cell growth in triple negative breast cancer

Breast cancer is the uncontrolled proliferation of breast cells and is one of the most common cancers in the UK. It is a complex disease that can be divided into different subtypes based upon the presence or lack of hormone receptors, namely the oestrogen receptor(ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal factor receptor 2 (HER2). Breast cancer without hormone receptor expression is called basal-like or triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). TNBC is more aggressive, and patients tend to have a poor prognosis partly due to a lack of targeted treatment. The identification of new therapeutic options for TNBC is therefore needed. Dysregulated epigenetic control of the chromatin state, and therefore gene expression, via aberrant chemical modification of histone proteins can play an important role in cancer progression. Previous studies have shown that the epigenetic regulatory protein, CBX2, which modulates histone ubiquitination and repression of gene expression, is implicated in breast cancer development. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of CBX2 and its effect on cell growth in TNBC using the TNBC cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468, to help determine whether CBX2 is a viable potential therapeutic target for TNBC. In this study we showed successful knockdown of CBX2 in both TNBC cell lines using small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). We showed that expression of the tumour suppressor proteinRBL2 was upregulated after CBX2 knockdown, suggesting CBX2 represses the expression of RBL2. RBL2 is a member of the DREAM complex which prevents progression through the cell cycle via inhibition of key cell cycle genes. Gene expression profiling showed that CBX2 knockdown increased RBL2expression and reduced the expression ofRBL2target genes(PLK1, AURKA, CCNA2, CDK1). Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) showed thatCBX2 knockdown increased enrichment of RBL2at DREAM complex target sites, therefore demonstrating that CBX2 plays a role in promoting cell growth and proliferation via repression of DREAM complex activity. This study adds insight into the mechanisms by which CBX2 promotes progression of TNBC and shows the potential of CBX2 as a new therapeutic target