Inside a Cultural Agency: Team Ethnography and Knowledge Exchange

Abstract

This article undertakes an auto-critical analysis of the research team's ethnographic study of Cultural Enterprise Office (CEO), a Scottish creative business support agency. We discuss the team's composition and how this relates to other analyses of ethnographic teamwork. Our research is situated in the wider policy context of the "creative-economic" turn in the UK's research funding. This has been accompanied by increased emphasis on "knowledge exchange" and "impact" in the drive for greater accountability in higher education. The team's evolution in the course of undertaking research is illustrated by reference to four "pivotal moments," which illustrate how we "performed" knowledge exchange.

Building soft skills in the creative economy: Creative intermediaries, business support and the ‘soft skills gap”

“…First, they have neither the time nor the resources to do so, as demand soars and budgets are cut. Second, as I have shown elsewhere (Schlesinger et al, 2015b) evidence is mounting that ideas about creative-economic support, minted in London some 25 years ago are not as one-size-fits all as government, policymakers, consultants and think-tanks seem to suggest. However within policymaking circles, where macro-level data and trends are both the basis for action and the desired end-result, there appears to be no demand for the challenging, qualitative, micro-level data that bodies like CEO produce.…”

“…I also draw on ethnographic field notes (taken as part of my participant observation within CEO, within advice sessions and client meetings, and at events organised by CEO), and present material in the form of ethnographic 'vignettes', adapted from my field notes (Gertler 2003;Humphreys and Watson 2009). In other publications arising from the project, myself and other members of the research team have discussed CEO's development and practice (Schlesinger et al, 2015a), and the experience of conducting team ethnography (Schlesinger et al, 2015b).…”

“…There is a great deal of dependency between the Scottish government and the UK government when it comes to the governing of the creative economy (Schlesinger et al 2015a(Schlesinger et al , 2015b. Generally speaking, the Scottish government has taken on board the same set of assumptions that drive the development of creative activity elsewhere: that the creative and digital industries are high-growth sectors, central to the development of the wider economy; that they are potential drivers of economic and social regeneration, and that intervention is key to ensuring that creative microbusinesses and individuals fulfil their potential within the sector.…”

Intellectual practices: an interview with Philip Schlesinger

“…So I do think this interest has been there for quite a while, not least in work done for this 23 Schlesinger 2013;Schlesinger, Selfe and Munro (2015b);and Schlesinger (2015c, in press). 24 Schlesinger and Waelde (2011);Schlesinger and Waelde (2012); Waelde and Schlesinger (2011).…”

Doing digital team ethnography: being there together and digital social data

“…Recent ethnographic teams, such as Clerke and Hopwood (2014) and Creese et al (2008), have provided detailed accounts of how work is produced in teams and how this process is carried out (Schlesinger et al, 2015). This research is particularly interested in the latter point, not only regarding internal team dynamics, but also with respect to the roles that digital data and digital technologies play within this process.…”