Jack Newsinger | University of Nottingham (original) (raw)

Research Interests

My primary research interests are in the cultural and creative industries, cultural policy and film policy, and creative practice.

I have an overarching interest in cultural politics in the post war period informed by the traditions of cultural materialism and critical political economy which, for me, has meant a focus on structures, policy and creative agency. All my work seeks to understand power relations and their effect on practices and identities, and I particularly like working with organisations and people outside academia. I’ve published on a range of subjects including cultural policy, film policy, the creative industries, radical documentary, short film, disability arts and the films of Shane Meadows. My current work can be divided into three overlapping themes, summarised below – I’m always interested to hear from potential collaborators and research students in these areas.

Cultural Value and Evaluation

I am interested in current debates on the epistemology and methodology of cultural value as they relate to cultural policy, practice and participation. I am the lead academic on an interdisciplinary project that seeks to investigate the value of cultural practice from the point of view of practitioners themselves. I am particularly interested in the application of qualitative, narrative and textual approaches that move away from traditional ethnographic and interview-based research, for example in archival and digital sites.

Austerity Cultural Policy

The global financial crisis that began in 2007 is radically realigning the relationship between the state and the private sector in media and cultural provision. I have published on austerity film policy and the creative industries post-New Labour as part of a wider interest in neoliberalism and culture. From May 2014 I’ve been working with The Mighty Creatives and Embrace Arts on researching the effects of austerity on cultural provision for disabled children and young people.

Film Policy and Practice

My PhD research analysed the development of regional film-making in England from the 1960s. My thesis charts the shift from ‘arts’-based funding to creative industries policies and structures, and maps this onto the wider political economy of the period, specifically the transition from social democratic reformism to free-market neoliberalism at the end of the 1970s. The central argument is summarised in my 2012 article in the International Journal of Cultural Policy and you can read one of the case studies as an article in the Journal of British Cinema and Television (see also here). I retain an interest in radical and alternative film culture, and am a member of the Radical Film Network.

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