Synopses & Reviews
Responding to the creative economy's status as an industry, education and government priority, this edited volume brings together original contributions to examine the experiences and realities of working within a number of creative sectors and addresses how higher education can both enable students to pursue and critically examine work in the cultural industries. Debates on cultural work are garnering more interest than ever before and this volume presents critical discussion based on research findings from academics and policy-makers in the fields of media and cultural studies, enterprise, employability, psychology, and education. The volume addresses: what cultural work is and how higher education is connected with its growth as a sector; educational initiatives that see students gaining ever more detailed experiences and insights; the ways in which students and cultural workers position their identities; and the politics of access and issues of exclusion as they relate to industry networks, race and gender.
Review
To come
Review
"This is a valuable and timely book that addresses a clear gap in an expanding scholarly field. It makes a strong contribution to the growing literature, exploring what is at stake in the relationship between higher education and the cultural industries, interrogating some of the current challenges and problematic aspects of creative work." - Paul Long, Reader in Media and Cultural History, Birmingham City University, UK
"Ashton and Noonan have assembled an impressive array of perspectives that deftly explore the relationships between higher education and the cultural industries workplace. As universities further adapt to market pressures, this book reiterates what remains a fundamentally important question - what is an education in arts and culture really for?" - Mark Banks, Reader in Sociology, The Open University, UK
"Universities are increasingly pushed by governments to produce compliant working subjects, and this is increasingly true in the arts and creative industries. This excellent book provides hugely valuable critical perspectives on the implications for cultural workers, for universities, and for us all." - David Hesmondhalgh, Head of the Institute of Communications Studies and Professor of Media and Music Industries, University of Leeds, UK
Synopsis
The cultural industries are an area of continued international debate. This edited volume brings together original contributions to examine the experiences and realities of working within a number of creative sectors and address how higher education can both enable students to pursue and critically examine work in the cultural industries.
About the Author
Dr Daniel Ashton is a Senior Lecturer at Bath Spa University, UK, and teaches on the Media Communications and Creative Media Practice degree courses. His research addresses the links between cultural work and higher education in relation to identity, employability and cultural workforce issues.
Dr Caitriona Noonan is a Lecturer in Media, Culture and Communication at the University of South Wales, UK. She has published in the International Journal of Cultural Policy and the European Journal of Cultural Studies on topics such as television production cultures, cultural policy, and professional identity within the media.
Table of Contents
List of Contents
Introduction: Cultural Work and Higher Education; Daniel Ashton and Caitriona Noonan
PART I: THE DYNAMICS OF CULTURAL WORK
1. Making Workers: Higher Education and the Cultural Industries Workplace; Kate Oakley
2. Making Your Way: Empirical Evidence from a Survey of 3,500 Graduates; Emma Pollard
PART II: CULTURAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AND THE CURRICULUM
3. Precariously Mobile: Tensions Between the Local and the Global in Higher Education Approaches to Cultural Work; Susan Luckman
4. No Longer Just Making the Tea: Media Work-Placements and Work-Based Learning in Higher Education; Richard Berger, Jon Wardle, and Marketa Zezulkova
5. Media Enterprise in Higher Education: A Laboratory for Learning; Annette Naudin
PART III: IDENTITIES AND TRANSITIONS
6. Smashing Childlike Wonder? The Early Journey into Higher Education; Caitriona Noonan
7. Negotiating a Contemporary Creative Identity; Stephanie Taylor and Karen Littleton
8. Industry Professionals in Higher Education: Values, Identities and Cultural Work; Daniel Ashton
PART IV: THE POLITICS OF ACCESS
9. Creative Networks and Social Capital; David Lee
10. The Cultural Industries in a Critical Multicultural Pedagogy; Anamik Saha
11. 'What do you need to make it as a woman in this industry? Balls!': Work Placements, Gender and the Cultural Industries; Kim Allen
Afterword: Further and Future Directions for Cultural Work and Higher Education; Daniel Ashton and Caitriona Noonan