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Cultures of Creativity

Module description

This module explores concepts, structures and issues that draw from creative industries narratives and challenges. By looking at the past, present and future of the creative industries, you will form an understanding of how cultural value is created, consumed and evaluated. This module provides you with an overview of the creative industries in a global context and equips you with a rich, critically informed understanding of the sector. Through engaging with organisational challenges, disruptive innovation and strategic change, you will learn how the business of creativity and value capture has resulted in a growing creative economy, and will analyse, reflect and creatively respond to a range of professional, sustainable contemporary contexts.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims:

• To develop critical skills through the analysis of contemporary case studies from a range of creative organisations.
• To interrogate the notion of value as applied to creativity and to creative industries.
• To equip you with skills to develop and communicate key business concepts and ideas.
• To develop a balanced understanding of generic business content, such as business structures, business models and funding streams.
• To equip you with an understanding of how the creative sector is adapting to digital technology, social media and changing audience behaviour
• To introduce and study the role and impact of social entrepreneurship.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Describe at an advanced level the characteristics and cultural value of the creative industries across a range of key markets and territories
• 2. Evaluate in detail the academic debates in the field, and the key issues pertaining to an analysis of creative industry theory and practice
• 3. Critically analyse case studies that exemplify particular phases in the development of creative companies and projects across the sector
• 4. Critically discuss and respond to the role and impact of creativity on organisations seeking innovative solutions to social and environmental issues

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Produce a portfolio of work that demonstrates the application of theory to multimedia practice in relation to a particular disciplinary theme or practice
• 6. Engage in critical discussion and debate about past and contemporary developments within creative industries locally and internationally
• 7. Demonstrate advanced and precise skills in the area of narrative, story structure and the power of storytelling when communicating core creative concepts

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Through research for seminars, essays, and presentations retrieve and analyse information at an advanced level
• 9. Present ideas to different audiences/investors/stakeholders using appropriate media

Syllabus plan

The module will comprise:

• Lectures and workshops that focus on the historical development of key and emerging creative industry markets across the globe and the current challenges facing these different sectors
• Workshops and challenge-led learning focusing on developing specific creative industry knowledge and practical skills
• Seminars that focus on a range of key themes, such as (but not limited to) creative, cultural and/or social entrepreneurship, measuring of creativity and/or targeting a market for a product

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Reassessment exercises will carry the same weightings as the original assessments.

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Adorno, T. and Horkheimer, M. (1944). The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In Gigi Durham, M. and Kellner, D. (eds). (2001). Media and Cultural Studies. London: Wiley Blackwell.
• Benjamin, W. (2008). ‘The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction’. London: Penguin.
• Bourdieu, P. (2010). A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge
• Boyd, D., ItÃ?��Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½, M., and Jenkins, H. (2015) Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics. London: Polity
• Cialdini, R. (2007). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. HarperBusiness.
• English, James. (2008). The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value. Harvard University Press. pp.16-106.
• Flew, T. (2012). Creative Industries. London: Sage.
• Florida, R. (2012). The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited. New York: Basic Books.
• Fujishin, R. (2016). The Natural Speaker. London: Routledge.
• Goldsmith, K. (2011) Uncreative Writing. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Hartley, J. (2005). Creative Industries. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Hesmondhalgh, D. (2013). Cultural Industries. 3rd ed. London: Sage.
• Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press.
• Lazzeretti, L. (2013). Creative Industries and Innovation in Europe: Concepts, Measures and Comparative Case Studies. London: Routledge.
• Lorenzen, M., Sapsed, J., and Jones, C. (Eds). (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• McRobbie, A. (2014). Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries. Cambridge: Polity Press. 
• Morton, T. (2018). Being Ecological. London: Pelican
• Mould, 0. (2018). Against Creativity. London: Verso.
• Murray, S. (2013). The Adaptation Industry: The Cultural Economy of Contemporary Literary Adaptation. London: Routledge
• Nicholls, A. (Ed). (2006). Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Osterwalder, A. & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation, New Jersey, Wiley & Sons.
• Thomas, Gary (2015). How to Do Your Case Study. Sage.
• Walia, C., (2019). A Dynamic Definition of Creativity, Creativity Research Journal, DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2019.1641787
• Troilo, G. (2015 ). Marketing in Creative Industries: Value, Experience and Creativity. London: Palgrave.
• Yorke, J. (2013). Into The Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them. London: Pengui

Key words search

Strategy, business, pitching, presenting, storytelling, audiences and marketing, innovation