PhD Studentship: Cultural policy in Glasgow, 1970-1989

Issued: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 14:01:00 BST

Glasgow Life and the University of Glasgow, School of Culture and Creative Arts
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award

Cultural policy in Glasgow, 1970-1989

Summary
Glasgow Life and the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow are seeking to award one fully-funded PhD studentship to commence 1 October 2013.  

The studentship, which will support three years of full-time study, is funded through the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Programme’s award to Glasgow Life. The student will undertake research into Cultural policy in Glasgow, 1970-1989.  Through the partnership with Glasgow Life, the student will have an opportunity to acquire a range of creative industry skills and knowledge whilst pursuing critically-informed research into a period of cultural policy-making in a city where that work was hugely influential.  Working directly with Glasgow Life, and supported by its Director of Policy and Research, Dr Mark O’Neill, the student's research will help establish a new critical history of cultural policy in Scotland.

The project
Glasgow’s reign as European Capital of Culture in 1990 transformed the city’s image internationally so that it became the third most visited tourist city in the UK. It boosted the confidence of local arts organisations and increased local participation from below to above the Scottish average. There is a substantial literature analysing the impacts and significance of this event from a wide range of perspectives, such as cultural policy, critical theory, urban geography and cultural economics.

Between 1971 and 1991 Glasgow lost 100,000 manufacturing jobs and suffered a significant decline in population. According to The Observer the city had ‘no vision in the face of urban devastation’. A whole range of initiatives were taken to regenerate the economy, including investment in and development of culture as a key sector for the city. The broad narrative of the development of this strategy is well known. Major consultancy reports - Developing the Potential [of cultural tourism] (McKinsey 1984) and The Economic Value of Arts in Glasgow (Policy Studies Institute 1988) gave it momentum. However, these were commissioned to test and develop an emerging strategy but were not its origin. On the basis of a review of the literature one recent appraisal has been that in Glasgow as ‘a Cultural Capital then, various forms of cultural capital have been defined anew, mobilised, projected into and beyond the city in ways that are, in general, proving to be socially, politically, economically and culturally sustainable’ (Louise Johnson Cultural Capitals: Revaluing the Arts, Remaking Urban Spaces, 2009:120).

The aim of this PhD is to gain a deep understanding of the emergence of this strategy in the decades leading up to 1990, based on documentary research and on interviews with the key surviving decision makers.

The specific direction taken by the project will depend on the student’s skills and interests.  At this stage, the expertise of the proposed supervision team, along with the initial outline suggested by Glasgow Life, prompts steering the work towards engagement with and understanding of municipal politics; the potential of international networks and benchmarks, and how they operated in Glasgow before the 1990 City of Culture bid/event; the role of ideas and idea-brokers in the cultural field; and, wider issues regarding post-industrial urban repositioning and the rise of culture-led regeneration.

The award
The successful candidate will be awarded a fully-funded PhD scholarship consisting of fees (at Home/EU rate) and a stipend.  At 2013-14 rates the stipend is £14,276 per year.  Glasgow Life will make a further £3,000 cash contribution to each student: £1,000 as maintenance and £2,000 as a research budget, to support necessary book or equipment purchases and/or to facilitate any practice-based elements. Funding for other aspects of research may be considered under Glasgow Life’s various learning and interpretation budgets. Additional modest funds may be available for further resources – e.g., travel for research or conference attendance. Students will also be able to bid for research support from the University of Glasgow College of Arts Graduate School.  It is intended to hold specialist seminars related to the project at key points in the research, supported by a budget established for this purpose at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research.  Students will be given security credentials to allow effective working at relevant Glasgow Life sites. Glasgow Life will provide access to a workstation and hot-desking arrangements, IT services, photocopying, scanning and photography at no cost. Other training available to Glasgow Life staff, including for career development, will also be provided as an in-kind support.

The partnership: Glasgow Life and the University of Glasgow (School of Culture and the Creative Arts)
Glasgow Life is an independent charity which manages arts, archives, libraries, museums, community centres and sports for the City of Glasgow. With a turnover of more than £114 million and 16.5 million in person usages each year, Glasgow Life is the largest organisation of its kind in the UK, and possibly in Europe. Glasgow Life is responsible for the best civic museums and archival collections, the largest complex of museums and the most visited museums and art galleries outside London, which contribute to the city’s vibrant cultural life, educational provision and creative and tourist economies. At the same time Glasgow has the largest concentration of poor and unhealthy people in the UK, and has been subject to massive large-scale regeneration initiatives which included the relocation/dispersal of entire communities, with many unintended consequences. These include the destruction of the palimpsest of the built environment, dislocating people’s sense of place, time and community, while increasing diversity. Glasgow Life works with partners across the city (including universities, NHS, housing associations, commercial partners and the voluntary sector) to develop cultural services which respond to these complex realities, engage with the widest possible range of audiences and help achieve our mission of inspiring people to lead richer and more active lives.

The School of Culture and Creative Arts is a leading research School in the University of Glasgow.  The School’s researchers and graduates contribute to the creative economy, health and well-being in Scotland and beyond, through the depth of their analytical insight and the quality of their creativity, cultural activity, innovation and entrepreneurship.  The School is exceptionally well connected to the creative industries of Glasgow and beyond. Staff in are board members of The Arches, the Citizens’ Theatre, Ofcom Scotland and Glasgow Sculpture Studios.  The School has a strong record in respect of the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Awards scheme with projects recently completed and/or in progress with partners The Arches, BBC Scotland, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow International Jazz Festival, Glasgow Life (Glasgow Museums), the National Theatre of Scotland and Mull Theatre.  The applicant appointed to this studentship will, therefore, be supervised by an academic team experience in CDA projects.

The supervisors
The academic supervisors for this project are Professors Philip Schlesinger and Adrienne Scullion. Schlesinger has developed a considerable record of research into cultural policy and the creative economy, and is presently a PI/CI on four major projects in this field. He is Deputy Director of the RCUK’s CREATe research centre, based at UoG and focused on the cultural economy, and he has held a range of visiting professorships that, together with his other associations and connections, can be mobilised to support the student grow international as well as local networks relevant for his/her research. A critical analysis of cultural policy-making in its wider socio-cultural contexts is central to his research, and articulates strongly with GL’s ambitions for the project. Scullion is a cultural historian with a particular commitment to working on and with policy agencies – e.g. with the Scottish Executive/Government and Scottish Arts Council on issues of governance, the National Library of Scotland on Scottish theatre history, and Shetland Islands Council and the Shetland Arts Trust on cultural policy in Shetland. Her networks in fields of cultural practice offer the student new ways of framing and testing his/her research. Both are former academic directors of the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Cultural Policy Research.

The Glasgow Life supervisor is Dr Mark O’Neill.  He is the Director of Policy and Research for Glasgow Life. He moved to Glasgow in 1985 to set up a community museum in Springburn.  In 1990 he joined Glasgow Museums, becoming Head of Museums in 1998, before taking up his current post in 2009. He was responsible for the development of the Open Museum, St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life and Art, the refurbishment of the People’s Palace and of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the master planning of the Riverside Museum. He has lectured and published on issues relating to museum philosophy and practice and to cultural policy and urban regeneration.

Informal enquiries
Candidates considering making an application may direct informal enquiries to –

Adrienne Scullion
School of Culture and Creative Arts
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, G12 8QQ
0141 330 4677
adrienne.scullion@glasgow.ac.uk


The application process
Applicants must meet the AHRC’s academic criteria for doctoral study and – to draw down the full funding package – its requirements for UK/EU residency: only students meeting the UK residency requirement will be eligible for the stipend.  See the relevant AHRC webpage for information on eligibility.

Applicants should have at least a 2.1 honours degree in a relevant subject and have completed or be about to complete an appropriate Masters level qualification or be able to demonstrate equivalent preparedness for doctoral-level research through, for example, relevant professional experience.  The successful applicant will need to have an enthusiasm for the subject area, show the potential to develop a range of advanced research skills and demonstrate the ability to work effectively in academic and non-academic environments.  

To apply, please follow the general application process detailed here .  

In place of a Research Proposals please include a paper outlining your interest in the project, what skills and experiences you bring to it and your initial and approach to the project as outlined in this document.  This document should not exceed two pages of A4 paper in 11 point Arial.

Applications must be received by 12 noon on Monday 22 July 2013 and short listed candidates may be called to interview in Glasgow on Friday 2 August 2013.  Short listed candidates will be required to submit an example of Master’s-level academic writing – eg, an essay or extract of a dissertation or equivalent. Applicants with relevant professional experience, but no Masters degree, may submit an alternative piece of written work – eg, a project outline/ evaluation, a funding application.

Please note that this studentship is subject to confirmation of the funding from AHRC, but has been confirmed by Glasgow Life under its Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the AHRC.