This programme will give you the opportunity to explore the use of the arts, and cultural approaches to local and global development challenges. It examines the impact of arts and culture in a range of contexts in ‘advanced’ and ‘developing’ countries, including post-communist societies, religious republics and conflict zones, and in small-scale local economies.
You will consider the rights and wrongs of using arts and culture within such contexts and explore how they can be used to further social justice as well as economic growth. You will develop your vocational direction and capacity for active involvement in development projects.
Core modules
Major Project
The Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies is an interdisciplinary centre for teaching and research in the fields of cultural and media policy and the creative industries. The commitment to interdisciplinarity is reflected in our Major Projects, where you will be encouraged to draw on approaches from across the humanities and social sciences in producing your work. Successful projects can emerge from creative engagement with scholarly debates, from the design and analysis of original empirical work, or from some combination of these. This openness of approach is also reflected in how Major Project research can be represented.
Culture in Development
This module examines the global policy frameworks for culture, arts and development: the ideas, aspirations, ethics and policy strategies for using the arts, culture and creative industries within human, social and urban development.
In this module, we will explore the place of culture, art and creative enterprise within the global discourses of Sustainable Development. We will assess how development projects have always had a ‘cultural’ dimension, whether this has been acknowledged or not. We use case studies to look at how global ideas and policies are interpreted "on the ground" — using business enterprise, arts curating and administration, project management and political protest.
Arts, Community and Enterprise
The core module Culture in Development considers the global policy contexts of the arts and culture in International Development. In this module we will focus on practice and local realities. How does enterprise work? What is creativity in practice?
To do this the module will tackle the questions of why have arts enterprise and culture been proposed as a solution to ‘development’ problems? What does this type of creativity offer that mainstream development strategy does not? What can the creative economy do that the mainstream economy cannot? Throughout this module we will explore the role of arts, creativity and enterprise in community development, focussing on questions of practice and local realities. We will investigate who is involved in arts enterprise and how we can know what is effective, appropriate, and ethically justifiable in community development projects.
We will explore what creative/arts and/or cultural models of development have to offer whilst examining the limitations of the theories, policies and practices. The central purpose of this module then is to critically explore the tensions and contradictions in the use of economic models, models of business enterprise and entrepreneurialism for social, local and community development. You will be encouraged to develop both your theoretical knowledge and practical skills in order to understand the complexities involved with engaging the arts in community development problems.
Research Design
This module aims to prepare you for your Major Project, which is a substantial piece of independent research on a topic of your choice. The module will equip you with a broad understanding of relevant research methods from which to select an appropriate approach for your own project. It will introduce you to ethical dimensions of research. It will equip you to write an effective proposal (including research questions, rationale, explanation and justification of research methods, identifying relevant literature and data sources).
By the end of the module, you should be ready to submit your proposal and be equipped with a broad understanding of research methods in the cultural, creative and media industries field.
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Cultural Entrepreneurship
- Developing Audiences for Cultural Organisations
- Marketing and Markets
- Media, Policy and Management
- The Mediated Self Project
- Managing Creativity for Sustainable Development
All students will take a total of 3 option modules which also includes their course specific applied management module. The bespoke applied management module for this MA is Project Management for Cultural Enterprise. This module gives you the opportunity to apply your learning in practice- or industry-related contexts.
