Co-Convenor, Reframing the Nation

My  main interest is in work, employment and identity formation in the creative and cultural industries. I currently lead research on 'The Cultural Industries' in the context of the Reframing the Nation research theme.  

Recent research has been concerned with issues of autonomy and creativity, craft values and artistic labour in the creative industries. Recently I co-edited (with Justin O'Connor, QUT) a special issue of the International Journal of Cultural Policy entitled 'After the Creative Industries' (2009) which examined the legacy of the UK creative industries policy model and questioned assumptions around the normative union of cultural and economic policy.

I am also contributing a strand on 'cultural ownership' to the AHRC 'What is Black British Jazz?' project led by Jason Toynbee. This examines musical production as a distinctive practice (drawing on MacIntyre and Bourdieu) and theorises historical moments in the consecration of British jazz. Other interests include gendered aspects of cultural work and the role of putatively 'radical' leisure in  enhancing creative and cultural work identities. Finally, I am conducting research into 'artmoney' a complementary currency based on the exchange of original art, looking at relationships between art and money objects and their circulation amongst different communities and interest groups.