MA Creative and Cultural Industries / Course details

This module will survey the key theoretical frameworks and perspectives for understanding practices within Creative and Cultural Industries (CCIs) and their place in contemporary global economies and policy ecosystems. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the course will provide students with methodological tools through which to analyse these industries using theoretical and applied rationales, to build critical knowledge and enhance capacity to make qualified interventions as decision-makers, managers and practitioners within the field. Students will gain a comprehensive overview of the history and policy rationales that have defined CCIs world-wide, and critical understanding of the different sectors, such as film and television, publishing, games, fashion, music, performing and visual arts. The course will emphasise distinctions production, distribution and consumption of CCIs goods and services through international case studies and with regard to multiple cultural, political and social challenges, including inequalities of access to production and consumption, creative business model and product innovation, sustainable development and the impact of technological advance. 

• To transfer key concepts and theories which support critical analysis and understanding of the genesis, historical performance and policy rationales of the Creative and Cultural Industries in global economic, political and societal contexts. 

• To produce a comprehensive understanding of issues and debates relating to the local/particular and global/common trends present in relevant countries in the cycles of production and consumption of CCIs services and products. 

• To raise critical interpretation of the main social and economic innovations that occurred and are presently impacting selected CCIs sectors. 

• Prepare students to develop careers in the creative and cultural industries and support the advancement of the sector through both the education of entry-level recruits and the continuing development of in-service professionals. 

Themes and content will include:  

Conceptual Framework 
Week 1: Exploring Value, Growth and Development in the Economy of Creative and Cultural Industries: a multidimensional route. 
Week 2: Global context of the ecosystem of CCIs business: USA, Asia and continental Europe 
Week 3: The UK model for Creative Industries: past, present and future 

Entrepreneurship, Innovation and CCIs

Week 4: Defining Creativity and its impacts on growth, development and social innovation Week 5: Management, Participation and Entrepreneurship in the Cultural and Creative Sector 
Week 6: Rethinking Copyrights: IP models and its impacts in innovation 
Week 7: Creative economies, classes and cities: continent or islands? 
Week 8: Themes in Social Development and Creative Industries: diversity, otherness and distributive issues.

Sectoral Analysis: an overview

Week 9: Music, film industry and digital museums: digitisation, platforms and the disruptive transformation. 
Week 10: Games, gamification and social media markets 
Week 11: Publishing industries and the emergence of new supports 
Week 12: Fashion, textiles and new pathways of sustainability 

Weekly one-hour lecture/two-hour seminars with directed learning and presentations to be prepared from week to week, including presentations by guest lecturers.  

The course will have a Blackboard site with all elements of the minimum specification including: 

1. Aims, Objectives, Timetable and Mode of Assessment 

2. Course Materials 

3. Reading lists 

4. Guidance on assessment 

5. Group project discussion board 

• Show systematic and critical understanding and knowledge of sectoral, thematic and theoretical issues related to creative and cultural industries which can be applied to interrogate and explicate professional practice, in both historical and contemporary contexts.  

• Demonstrate understanding of the philosophical, political, social, economic and ethical contexts and issues affecting creative industries practitioners across the range of sectors and from artists and freelancers to managers and leaders  

• Gain an understanding of the global architecture of the markets in Creative and Cultural Industries and how to communicate this through academic writing and presentation to academic and non-academic audiences. 

• Apply skills and ideas learned during the course unit to interpret the role of the evidence for the policies for Arts and Creative Industries.   

• Communicate complex research findings through clear written and verbal articulation, supported by appropriate technological tools  

• Achieve an advanced and critically informed level of group work  

• Gain experience in decision-making based on evidence  

• Retrieve, select, and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources, including libraries, archives, and the internet  

• Orchestrate group work in disciplinary and multi-disciplinary contexts and work constructively within a team  

• Communicate information and ideas effectively in a professional, as well as an academic, environment  

• Demonstrate independent learning ability suitable for continuing study and professional development  

• Essay Proposal surgery and written comments (formative)
• Academic advisor meeting (formative)
• Turnitin (summative)

Brown, Abbe E. L., and Charlotte Waelde. Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Creative Industries. Ed. Abbe E. L. (Abbe Elizabeth Lockhart) Brown and Charlotte Waelde. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2018. Print. 

Campbell, Peter. Persistent Creativity: Making the Case for Art, Culture and the Creative Industries. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. Web. 

Currid-Halkett, Elizabeth. The Warhol Economy : How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City - New Edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020.  

Granger, Rachel. Value Construction in the Creative Economy: Negotiating Innovation and Transformation. Ed. Rachel Granger. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Print. 

Kolb, Bonita M. Entrepreneurship for the Creative and Cultural Industries. 2nd ed. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. Print. 

Kong, Lily., and Justin. O’Connor. Creative Economies, Creative Cities: Asian-European Perspectives. Ed. Lily. Kong and Justin. O’Connor. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2009.  

Otmazgin, Nissim., and Eyal Ben-Ari. Creative Context: Creativity and Innovation in the Media and Cultural Industries. Singapore: Springer, 2020. Print. 

Peris-Ortiz, Marta. Cultural and Creative Industries. 1st ed. Springer International Publishing, 2019 

Pellegrin-Boucher, Estelle., and Pierre. Roy. Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2020. Print. 

Potts, J.; Cunningham, S. Four models of the creative industries. International Journal of Cultural Policy, v. 14, n. 3, p. 233–247, 2008. 

Rogers, Jim. The Death and Life of the Music Industry in the Digital Age. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. 

Woodcock, Jamie, and Mark Graham. The Gig Economy : a Critical Introduction. Cambridge ;: Polity, 2020. Print.