Winning and losing in the creative industries: an analysis of creative graduates' career opportunities across creative disciplines

Following earlier work looking at overall career difficulties and low economic rewards faced by graduates in creative disciplines, the paper takes a closer look into the different career patterns and economic performance of “Bohemian” graduates across different creative disciplines. While it is widely acknowledged in the literature that careers in the creative field tend to be unstructured, often relying on part-time work and low wages, our knowledge of how these characteristics differ across the creative industries and occupational sectors is very limited. The paper explores the different trajectory and career patterns experienced by graduates in different creative disciplinary fields and their ability to enter creative occupations. Data from the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) are presented, articulating a complex picture of the reality of finding a creative occupation for creative graduates. While students of some disciplines struggle to find full-time work in the creative economy, for others full-time occupation is the norm. Geography plays a crucial role also in offering graduates opportunities in creative occupations and higher salaries. The findings are contextualised in the New Labour cultural policy framework and conclusions are drawn on whether the creative industries policy construct has hidden a very problematic reality of winners and losers in the creative economy

Bohemian graduates in the UK: disciplines and location determinants for entering creative careers

The human capital and regional economic development literature has become increasingly interested in the role of the ‘Bohemian occupations’ on economic growth. Using UK higher education student micro-data, we investigate the characteristics and location determinants of creative (bohemian) graduates. We examine three specific sub-groups: creative arts & design graduates; creative media graduates; other creative graduates. We find these disciplines influence the ability of graduates to enter creative occupations and be successful in the labour market. We also highlight the role of geography, with London and the South East emerging as hubs for studying and providing Bohemian graduates with more labour market opportunities

Politicising the sustaining of water supply in Ireland - the role of accounting concepts

This article is © Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing LimitedThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Emerald via the DOI in this record.Purpose This paper examines how the Irish government mobilised accounting concepts to assist in implementing domestic water billing. While such is commonplace in other jurisdictions and is generally accepted as necessary to sustain a water supply, previous attempts were unsuccessful and a political hot potato. Design/methodology/approach We use an actor-network theory inspired approach. Specifically, the concepts of calculative spaces and their ‘otherness’ to non-calculative spaces are used to analyse how accounting concepts were mobilised and the effects they had in the introduction of domestic water billing. We utilise publically available documents such as legislation, programmes for government, regulator publications, media reports and parliamentary records in our analysis over the period from 1983 to late 2014. Findings Our analysis highlights how the implementation of domestic water billing involved the assembling of many divergent actors including the mobilisation of accounting concepts. Specifically the concept of ‘cost’ became a contested entity. The government mobilised it in a conventional way to represent the resourcing of the water supply. Countering this, domestic water users associated ‘cost’ with a direct impact on their own resources and lives. Thus, an entity usually associated with the economic realm was embroiled in political processes, with much of what they were supposed to represent becoming invisible. Thus we observed accounting concepts being mobilised to support the gaining of a specific political ends, the implementation of domestic billing, rather than as part of the means to implement a sustainable water supply within Ireland. Research limitations/implications This research has some limitations, one being we draw on secondary data. However, our research does provide a detailed base from which to continue to study a new water utility over time. Originality/value This study demonstrates the complications that can occur when accounting concepts are associated with gaining of a political ends rather than as a means in the process of trying to achieve a sustainable water supply. Further, the process saw the creation of a new utility, which is a rare occurrence in the developed world, and a water utility even more so; this study demonstrates the role accounting concepts can have in this creation.CPA Irelan

A Data Based Perspective on the Environmental Risk Assesssment of Human Pharmaceuticals

The EU Medicinal Products Directive (65/65/EEC) has been amended to require an environmental risk assessment (ERA) for human pharmaceuticals effective January 1995. At present, official ERA guidelines have yet to be finalised. Previous discussions about their nature have taken place in the absence of a systematic analysis of the potential environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals. This study attempts to address this deficiency via a review of existing ecotoxicity data. Acute ecotoxicity data relating to >100 human pharmaceuticals have been collated. They suggest a lack of acute effects at Daphnia > fish. Chronic effects data were limited and this was identified as a shortcoming. This was reinforced by observations of large differences between acute and chronic responses to steroids in fish. The availability of UK usage data permitted risk characterisation i.e., calculation of PEC/PNEC1 ratios for >60 compounds. Under "worst-case" fate assumptions of no human metabolism, passage of all material to drain, no removal during wastewater treatment and no surface water dilution of effluent, the large majority of pharmaceuticals yielded PEC/PNEC ratios worst-case" assumptions (as above and no removal during drinking water treatment) revealed I70 values (based on ingestion of 2 litres/day for 70 years) generally equivalent to worst-case" exposure estimations

Insurgency and peace building in the Indian Northeast State of Manipur

This article looks at the ongoing insurgency in the remote Indian northeast, and has a special focus on the state of Manipur. Manipur is regarded as India’s eastern most state, and is geographically sandwiched in between East Asia proper and South Asia proper. This article tries to analyze the different facets of this very complex situation, and pays special attention to how the conflict has changed its character with the passage of time. For purposes of this article, primary data was collected by interviewing local people of Manipuri descent in eastern India to get first hand information about the conflict. Finally, at the end of the article, methods of peace building have been suggested as the way forward

A literature review on the privatisation of public space

This literature review was undertaken at the request of Grosvenor Estates in order to better understand the academic context and literature around the perceived phenomenon of the privatisation of public space. The review considered a range of print material including peer reviewed academic papers (the focus of the study), newspaper articles, and reports and position papers by public bodies / think tanks. The subject is, in short, a complex and nuanced one. Some writers are very vocal opponents of private-owned public space. Such criticism is arguably a natural and important consequence of the social and economic patterns which are playing out at the interface of public and private domains. Others take a more pragmatic view and see the partnership between public and private interests as addressing the changing governance model of cities, and as a way of providing high quality, desirable 'public' space for the contemporary city. The review explores issues such as: - how is the public defined?- how is public space defined?- is there clarity over the extent to which private operators have assumed ownership of once public space, compared with providing access to space that was formerly inaccessible?- do all public spaces have to serve all publics? Is there a danger that, in seeking to be open to all social groups, public spaces might satisfy nobody?- do the boundary conditions clearly demarcate the public/private interface, or is the threshold zone more fuzzy and indeterminate? How does a user know where they are? Does the user need to know anything of the ownership of the space they are in?- is there a distinction between private and civic space?- how does society guide and moderate behaviours, and how does the control of these behaviours vary (if at all) between the public and private sectors?- how might an urban “right to roam” change the user/owner culture? Might a “law of place” be a useful way forward?As such it serves as solid basis for further exploration of the themes discussed so as to enhance knowledge and to impact upon the future design of urban public space