Disruption in the Creative Industries

Dr. Emma Augusta (University of the West of England) Visualising the hostile environment: creative studies of family immigration and separation

In this talk, Dr Emma Agusita will discuss her research work that uses creative digital methods to explore people’s experiences of encountering UK family immigration regulations that result in prolonged periods of separation from their partners and families. Using creative approaches, including digital illustration and documentary film, Emma has worked on a series of collaborative research projects with affected partners and families. These research activities produced visual works which reveal the challenges posed by family immigration rules and the distressing impacts of cross-border separation, within the context of a hostile environment for immigration. A core theme of these critical creative studies has been to unsettle and to disrupt institutional and normative framing and positioning of migrants and their families.

Emma’s most recent project, with researcher and video artist Dr Katie Davies, produced a short documentary film, Divided by Law. Captured just before and during the Coronavirus outbreak and in the lead up to Brexit, the film reveals personal accounts of participant’s experiences of the UK’s Home Office spouse visa application process and of separation from their loved ones. The film won an award at the prestigious (67th) Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany in May 2021 and has been screened at a number of film festivals and events in the UK and Europe. It will be shown at London Short Film Festival in January 2022.

Prof. Rachel Granger (De Montfort University) Creative Splintering in Creative Lifecycles, and the Spatial Fix of Civic Creativity – 2 February 2022

Drawing on statistical data and performance in the years leading up to the Covid-19 outbreak, I will argue that the UK’s creative industries exhibited significant signs of splintering. The national data masks important regional and sector variations. This was particularly pronounced in some areas of the arts, crafts, design and GLAM sectors, while digital sub-sectors enjoyed a renewed growth. That some sector and spatial areas of the creative industries have seen propulsive growth over the last 5 years when read with the data, suggests spatial and sector discontinuities and a life cycle for creative products and places. A creative area life cycle provides a conceptual framework for unpicking sector and spatial performance over time and for understanding current trends and policy interventions. When viewed alongside a ‘6 models of the creative industries’ reading of creative economies, I note the value of civic creativity as a new built environment – or spatial fix – in creative cities and economies.

About the speakers:

Dr Emma Agusita is a Senior Lecturer in Digital and Cultural Production and Media Communications at the University of the West of England. Emma has a background in creative production, including community media and youth media. She is particularly interested in the use of creative and media practices for social justice and civic participation. Her research experience includes studies that explore Creative and Visual Methodologies, Participatory and Civic Media, Emerging forms of Creative Entrepreneurship, and pedagogies for Creative and Cultural Learning and Education.

Rachel Granger is Professor of Urban Economies in the Department of Politics, People and Place in Business and Law. Rachel’s research and teaching interests are directed towards normative and practice-based issues of creative cities in advanced societies, smart and experimental governance, and inclusive growth.

A major set of research themes is concerned with cultural economy of the city, with recent work examining hidden cultures and relational processes, the influence of networks and clusters, and the shaping of evolving creative sectors. Rachel is currently conducting research on the 6 Models of Creative Industries, creative life cycles, and design as a major growth pole. A second principal area of work concerns processes and implications of transformative change in creative cities.

Rachel is site director for the AHRC Midlands 4 Cities programme, co-lead on the Leicester Civic University Agreement for Economy and Business, and Director for De Montfort University’s Creative and Heritage Industries research theme. Her recent publications include books on Value Construction in the Creative Economy and Design Culture and the City, as well as papers on creative splintering and the evolution of culture as civic innovation. Rachel also leads on the Leicester Urban Innovation Lab, with publications on sharing cities, urban regeneration, and urban transitions.

Rachel works closely with several stakeholder groups to support regrowth of urban economies, including Leicester City Council, the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, the East Midlands Chambers, Made.UK and several sector-based associations.