Cultural engagement and the economic performance of the cultural and creative industries: an occupational critique

This article presents a new critical engagement with the concept of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), focusing on the rationale for grouping occupations and industries under this label. We show how the definition of ‘creativity’ used to demonstrate CCIs’ economic performance remains contested and variable, particularly with regard to the inclusion of specific parts of the IT sector. In demonstrating the importance of IT to the economic narrative regarding CCIs, we then unfold a related critique, exploring patterns in cultural consumption within CCI occupations. We demonstrate how some CCI workers have distinctively high cultural consumption, others reflect their broader social class, and some, including IT workers, show lower than expected consumption. Overall, we question the coherence of the prevailing CCI category, particularly in government policy, and suggest a new mode of ‘cultural’ occupational analysis for the sociology of CCIs

Freelance networks, trade unions and below-the-line solidarity in regional film and television clusters: An interview with the Bristol editors network

This article consists of an introduction and extended interview transcript conducted with several members of the Bristol Editors’ Network (BEN), an organization established in May 2015 to support the large community of editors that work in and around Bristol and the South West of England. The interview transcript is significant for several reasons. First and foremost, it provides a rich account of what it is like to freelance within the third-largest film and television production cluster in the UK, after London and Manchester. In doing so, the transcript also offers an insight into the sometimes-fraught state of contemporary industrial relations between the region’s employers and its largely freelance workforce. Moreover, the transcript provides an account of how, by establishing BEN, Bristol editors are working to defend themselves against exploitative practices in the cluster, fostering a mutually-supportive freelance community and contributing to a more effective, equitable production culture in the city

Sports participation as an investment in (subjective) health: a time series analysis of the life course

Background: The causal relationship between sports participation, as physical activity, and subjective health is examined accounting for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which it was hoped would ‘inspire a generation’ by contributing to public health. Improvements to weaknesses in the literature are offered. First, stronger causal claims about the relationship between sports participation and health and second, the actual minutes and intensity of different measures of participation are used. Methods: The rolling monthly survey design of the annually reported Taking Part Survey (TPS) is used to create time series data. This is analysed using a time series modelling strategy. Results: Increases in the level of subjective health requires accelerating sport participation, but no effect from the 2012 Olympics is revealed. Reductions in the level of health are brought about by increases in sports participation in early adulthood, although this gets reversed in middle age. However, a reduction in health re-emerges for older males compared with females. Conclusions: For the population as a whole, sport can contribute to health, with diminishing impact, but impacts vary across the life course and genders. Policy accounting for these variations is necessary. Policy aspirations that London 2012 would produce health benefits from increased sports participation are misplaced

Analysis of the UK Government's 2011 tourism policy

This review considers the UK Government's 2011 tourism policy document. The policy was produced during a period of public sector restructuring in the UK and also during the global economic crisis, which began in 2008. The policy sets out a number of reforms to the governance of tourism at the national and local levels, which aim to increase the level of private sector involvement in leading and developing the tourism sector and to reduce the sector's dependence on public funding. During a period of economic slowdown in the UK, the tourism industry can make a significant contribution to growth, but it is not yet clear whether these proposed reforms will support or impede the future development of the tourism industry in the UK

Regional imaginaries of governance agencies: practising the region of South West Britain

publication-status: AcceptedHarvey D C, Hawkins H, Thomas N J, 2011. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Environment and Planning A 43(2) 470 – 486 DOI: 10.1068/a43380Copyright © 2011 PionChanges in government and governmentality in the UK have witnessed what has been termed a ‘regional renaissance’ over the last decade. This has led to an increase in the number of offices, institutions and agencies operating with a regional remit that is based upon a notion of fixed territorial containers. One sector that has increasingly been brought into the orbit of the new regional policy framework is that of the creative industries, and research is required in order to understand how creative industry governance agencies imagine and interpret the regional spaces that they administer. Notwithstanding the supposedly agreed upon and bounded nature of the territories over which they have competence, we find that personnel working within these regional bodies negotiate and imagine regional space in a number of ways. Drawing on empirical work with three creative governance agencies in the South West of Britain, we consider a range of dynamic and sometimes contradictory understandings of regional space as practised through their policy development and implementation. The paper traces how the practice of creative industry governance challenges the governmentally determined region and, by implication, any territorial unit as a naturally given container that is internally coherent and a discrete space available for governance. In doing so, the paper has broader lessons for effective policy delivery more generally

Drivers of success in implementing sustainable tourism policies in urban areas

The existing literature in the field of sustainable tourism highlights a number of barriers that impede the implementation of policies in this area. Yet, not many studies have so far considered the factors that would contribute to putting this concept into practice, and few address the case of urban areas. The concept of sustainability has only received limited attention in urban tourism research, even though large cities are recognised as one of the most important tourist destinations that attract vast numbers of visitors. Adopting a case study approach, this paper discusses a number of drivers of success identified by policy-makers in London to contribute to the implementation of sustainable tourisms policies at the local level, and briefly looks at the relationship between these drivers and the constraints perceived by the respondents to hinder the implementation of such policies in practice. These findings may help policy-makers in other large cities to successfully develop and implement policies towards sustainable development of tourism in their area

The political process of constructing a sustainable London Olympics sports development legacy

This study attempts to develop a research agenda for understanding the process of constructing a sustainable Olympic sports development legacy. The research uses a social constructivist perspective to examine the link between the 2012 London Olympic Games and sustainable sports development. The first part of the paper provides justification for the study of sport policy processes using a constructivist lens. This is followed by a section which critically unpacks sustainable sports development drawing on Mosse’s (1998) ideas of process-oriented research and Searle’s conceptualisation of the construction of social reality. Searle’s (1995) concepts of the assignment of function, collective intentionality, collective rules, and human capacity to cope with the environment are considered in relation to the events and discourses emerging from the legacy vision(s) associated with the 2012 London Olympic Games. The paper concludes by proposing a framework for engaging in process oriented research and highlights key elements, research questions, and methodological issues. The proposed constructivist approach can be used to inform policy, practice, and research on sustainable Olympic sports development legacy

Access Inequalities in the Artistic Labour Market in the UK: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Precariousness, Entrepreneurialism and Voluntarism

This paper investigates the roles played by social enterprise and social activism in mitigating access inequalities in the artistic labour market in the UK. Our analysis focuses on underpaid internships as a primary form of access inequalities. By employing critical discourse analysis, this study contrasts the discourses of entrepreneurialism and voluntarism advocated by the government and social enterprises, with the counter-discourse of precarity advanced by social activists. The central argument is that precarity is not simply an innate characteristic of artistic labour, but is also a social construct and discourse which is directly linked to social class and the experience of less privileged creative workers

Reflections on a degree initiative: the UK's Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers enter the University of Birmingham

This paper provides an opportunity to share experiences and perceptions of the first 5 years of a degree programme for professional dancers. A partnership developed in the mid-1990s between the UK's Birmingham Royal Ballet and the University of Birmingham, Westhill (now School of Education), to provide a part-time, post-experience, flexible study programme for full-time Company dancers. This is the first 'company customised' higher education programme to dovetail studies around rehearsal, performance and touring schedules. Methodology is based on a narrative by the author, informed by ongoing internal and external evaluations, in-depth interviews with dancers and Company managers, documentation and secondary sources. Outcomes indicate that the programme has made a positive difference to the Company, to the dancers and to the wider education and dance/arts world