Undergraduate Course: Creativity in Theory and Practice (BUST10131)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The cultural and creative industries are an important area of study. The Cultural and Creative Industries¿¿ described by UK government as the Creative Industries ¿ are ¿those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property¿. British fashion, architecture, publishing, craft and design, film and TV, video games and software, museums, theatre, dance, popular and classical music and visual arts are internationally recognized as world class. 1.7 million people work in these UK industries. Together they contribute almost £77bn in value added, equivalent to 5.0% of the UK economy. The latest DCMS estimates show that they grew by 9.9% in 2013, higher than any other sector. Allowing for the contribution of creative talent outside the creative industries, the creative economy¿s share may be approaching one-tenth of UK¿s economy.
Behind all these figures and within all these industries there are complex creative people, practices and processes and this brings distinct challenges, organisationally and managerially. Within this course we explore these complexities practically and theoretically.
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| Course description |
This course seeks to give students an understanding of the cultural, social and economic importance of creativity and the creative industries, and insights into the organisational and management practices within the cultural and creative industries, in addition to insights into creative lives and creative work processes. The course will have invited guest speakers from creative organisations and institutions, as well as academic specialists in the field of cultural and creative industries. The reflective learning practices and innovative, empirically based assessments aim to develop your practice-based skills for your future careers. In so doing this course aims to provide practically applicable knowledge and skills for those seeking to work within the cultural and creative industries, and organisations more generally - the practices that have been common in organisations in the cultural and creative industries are increasingly of particular relevance more broadly as organisations in other sectors seek to be creative, focused on performance, flexibly organised, work across organisational boundaries and engaged with customers/service users. This practice-based work will be done in conjunction with theory based learning i.e. theories of management in the creative industries, creative process, artistic and organisational practice within the cultural and creative industries, in addition to cultural entrepreneurship and leadership. Thus the course aims to provide an understanding of managing and organising creativity by interlinking theory and practice. Mutually productive links between theory and practice will be forged through reading and class examination of academic and practitioner literature; detailed analysis of particular examples and contexts; and engagement with industry and organisational partners.
Syllabus:
Reflexivity and Theories of Creativity
Culture and Creativity
Creative Lives
Fieldwork trip: creative organisation to be confirmed
Fieldwork trip: Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
Organisational Perspectives: theory and practice
Cultural Entrepreneurship
Leadership and leading in the cultural and creative industries
Managing in the Creative industries
Group presentations
Student Learning Experience:
A core element of the assessment of this course is the engagement with theory and practice. The course features a number of practitioner guest speakers, and there will be two fieldwork trips to experience creative practice at first hand, and to engage with creative practitioners and their work. One of the confirmed organisations is the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, and on the student visit, we experience the creative space, interview artists and view their work, in addition students are also given the opportunity to create their own piece of work. The second organisation is to be confirmed, however it is likely to be a music organisation.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Year 4 only. Business Honours entry required |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Business Studies courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2018/19, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Fieldwork Hours 3,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
173 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
There are two elements to the assessment of this course:
1) Reflective web folio: 60% of the total course grade
2) Group presentation + web folio: 40% (10% of which will be moderated by the peer assessment marks using WebPA) of the total course grade
A core element of the assessment of this course will be visits to different creative organisations: the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and one other organisation to be confirmed.
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| Feedback |
Generic feedback on your coursework, together with individual marks, will be available on Learn.
Your marks will be posted on Learn as soon as possible after the Board of Examiners' meeting (normally end of January/beginning of February). |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of, and critical engagement with, the principal theories and practices of creativity and design thinking
- Apply a range of practical techniques and frameworks for managing creativity and design thinking within a range of organisational settings
- Critically appraise the range of management and organisational challenges involved in managing creativity across different organisational settings
- Critically evaluate theories and methods for effectively harnessing and managing creativity and design thinking within organisations
- Apply knowledge, skills and understanding through reflective critical analysis of the ideas and concepts discussed and experienced on the course
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Learning Resources
There is no core text due to the scope of the course content.
Example readings:
Bain, A. (2005) Constructing an Artistic Identity. Work, Employment and Society 19(1): 25-46.
Bilton, C. (2008) Management and Creativity: From Creative Industries to Creative Management, Blackwell Publishing.
Coulson, S. (2012) Collaborating in a Competitive World: Musicians, Working Lives and Understandings of Entrepreneurship. Work, Employment and Society 26(2): 246-261.
Collinson, D.L. (2003) Identities and Insecurities: Selves at work. Organization 10(3): 527-547.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999) Creativity as the outcome of a system "Implications of a Systems Perspective for the Study of Creativity" Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge Press.
Davies, R. & Sigthorsson, G. (2013) Introducing the Creative Industries: from Theory to Practice Source?
Elsbach, K. D. (2009) Identity affirmation through `signature style': A study of toy car designers. Human Relations 62(7): 1041-1072.
Feldman, D. (1999) Role of family, education & socio-cultural forces in creativity in Cambridge Handbook of Creativity pp. 169 - 186. Cambridge Press.
Garnham, N. (2005) From Cultural to Creative Industries: An analysis of the implications of the ¿creative industries¿ approach to arts and media policy making in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Cultural Policy 11(1): 15-29.
Goodman, S.M. & Goodman, M. (2012) Creativity and Strategic Innovation Management. Routledge.
Gotsi, M., Andriopoulos, C., Lewis, M. W. and Ingram, A. E. (2010). Managing creatives: Paradoxical approaches to identity regulation. Human Relations 63(6): 781-805
Grey, C. (1994). "Career as a Project of the Self and Labour Process Discipline", Sociology, 28 (2), pp.479-497.
Hassard, J., Morris, J. and McCann, L. (2012) My brilliant career? New organizational forms and changing management careers in Japan, the UK and the USA. Journal of Management Studies 49(3): 571-599.
Leadbeater, C. & Oakey, K. (1999) The independents: Britain¿s New Cultural Entrepreneurs. London: Demos.
Moeran, B. & BO T Christensen. (2013) Exploring Creativity. Evaluating Practices in Innovation, Design and the Arts. Cambridge University Press.
Montuori, A. (2003). The complexity of improvisation and the improvisation of complexity. Social science, art, and creativity. Human Relations. 56(2) 237-255
Sternberg, R. (2006) The Nature of Creativity . Creativity Research Journal . 18:1 pp. 87-98.
Townley, B. & Beech, N. (2009) Managing Creativity: Exploring the Paradox. Cambridge University Press.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Generic cognitive skills (e.g. evaluation, critical analysis)
a) Critically identify, define, conceptualise and analyse complex practice based and theoretical issues in relation to culture and creativity within different management and organisational frameworks
b) Critically and reflectively review relevant theoretical and practice based literature, in relation to first hand experience of different creative practices, and your own day to day experiences of creativity.
Communication, numeracy and IT skills
a) Communicate with practitioners through direct interaction and engagement on the fieldtrips and with creative practitioners who come to guest lecture on the course, in addition to interacting with practitioners within your own group presentation and webfolio experiences
b) Communicate and engage with artists about their practice, in addition to observing their creation, work and performance
Autonomy, accountability and working with others
a) Write a personal reflective learning webfolio in which students reflect on theories within the cultural and creative industries related to artistic, management and organisational practices, in conjunction with and drawing in their own personal experiences of creativity
b) Prepare group presentations and group webfolio that demonstrate management, organisational and collaborative creative work processes when assessing, developing and planning for ¿real life¿ contemporary arts organisation(s).
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND SUBJECT SPECIFIC SKILLS
Course aims
To give an understanding of:
- the concept of creativity, both in theory and practice
- the structure and value of the cultural and creative industries nationally and internationally
- how creative people and processes are managed within organisations
- the consequences of different managerial approaches for creative people¿s satisfaction and organisational effectiveness
- how creative people create and manage their work within different practice-based contexts
Course objectives
- to explore different theories of creativity
- to understand different creative organisational and management practices
- to explore empirically creative practices
- to engage with creativity and creative practices, and to reflect upon these in practical and theoretical terms
Course questions
a) what do we mean by the cultural and creative industries?
b) how is creativity conceptualised both within the practice based and academic literature?
c) how are creative processes managed within different organisational contexts? (Here, focusing on case studies of different creative practices within the UK, for example sculpture, advertising and music)
d) how do people working within the creative industries manage themselves creative and organisationally, (again illustrated by empirical examples from the creative industries within the UK)?
e) how can we foster creativity in others and ourselves, in relation to the management and organisational practices that we have experienced within the organisations that we have visited?
f) What elements of organisational practice can help or hinder creativity?
Subject Specific Skills: Communication / Personal and Intellectual Autonomy
- an understanding of creativity both in theory and practice;
- a critical understanding of different approaches to managing creativity both in organisationally or individually;
- an understanding of the processes of creative practice within different creative industries;
- an ability to discuss and write critically and reflectively on practice-based experiences and link these to theoretical frameworks within the creative industries context.
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| Special Arrangements |
Year 4 only; Business Honours entry |
| Keywords | CTP |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Charlotte Gilmore
Tel:
Email: Charlotte.Gilmore@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Chrysanthi Manidou
Tel: (0131 6) 50 3826
Email: Chrysanthi.Manidou@ed.ac.uk |
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