CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland
Creativity and the Creative Industries
Organisers: Sean Nixon and Ben Crewe
Hesmondhalgh, David (Open University,
United Kingdom) THE STRANGE NEGLECT OF CREATIVE WORK IN CULTURAL AND MEDIA
STUDIES AND WHAT MIGHT BE DONE TO CORRECT IT
There has been a remarkable neglect in cultural and media studies of those
primarily responsible for cultural and media products: those people who have
traditionally been labelled 'artists', but who are perhaps better thought of as
content creators, or symbol creators, such as musicians, writers, actors,
performers, designers, photographers, etc. This paper briefly analyses how
symbol creators have been approached in a range of disciplines, and examines how
changes in the cultural industries are affecting the working lives, conditions,
career paths and outputs of symbol creators.
Crewe, Ben (University of Cambridge,
United Kingdom) 'EDITORSHIP' AND THE UK MEN'S MAGAZINE MARKET
It is now widely claimed that cultural intermediaries play a pivotal role in the
construction of commercial-cultural products. However, few studies have actually
demonstrated how the knowledges and interests of these practitioners imprint the
goods upon which they work. This paper examines the development of the UK men's
magazine market in the 1990s, and shows how and why this sector crystallised in
clear ways around the concerns, ambitions and identities of some specific
editorial personnel. The notion of 'editorship' is developed further through a
brief analysis of the conditions under which certain editors were able to
establish their cultural authority at individual magazines and within the market
as a whole.
Boese, Martina (Manchester Metropolitan
University, United Kingdom) PLAYING THE 'CREATIVE INDUSTRIES': NEW OPPORTUNITIES
OR OLD EXCLUSIONS?
The history of popular music shows a notable presence of black artistic styles
and products. However, the position of black artists in the industry has
traditionally been a precarious one, exoticised and celebrated for their soul
and 'real-ness' yet at the same time marginalized and economically exploited.
This paper will explore the position of African Caribbean practitioners in the
night time industry in Manchester, England, laying emphasis on the highly
networked nature of employment in this industry and the multiple exclusions this
particular group of creatives faces. The tensions between neo-liberal approaches
to the creative sector and cultural diversity policies within 'the arts' seem to
also affect the work roles and paths chosen by the so-called 'cultural
intermediaries'. While public-private partnerships increase in the sphere of
crime prevention in the night time industries, black cultural entrepreneur
engage in various individual and/or collective strategies to counter the
industry-immanent racism(s).
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