Making workers: Higher Education and the cultural industries workplace

Oakley, K. (2013) Making workers: Higher Education and the cultural industries workplace. In: Ashton, D. and Noonan, C. (eds.) Cultural Work and Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan: London, UK, pp. 25-44. ISBN 9781349436750

Abstract

The last 30 years or so have seen a rapid evolution in the relationship between higher education (HE) and the cultural industries. While HE has always been vital to the production of fine artists, designers and musicians, among others, the links between HE and the cultural workplace have often been as much social as vocational. As Frith and Horne (1987) pointed out and many studies have testified since, the experience of going away to college, full student grants, and the chance for a period of cultural and personal experimentation, were all more significant in terms of producing cultural workers than the provision of particular courses at universities. As late as 2000 or so, the role of universities as incubators of the cultural industries could be seen primarily as a by-product of their teaching, an aspect of their role in the incubation of certain aspects of youth culture, rather than the implementation of public policy.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Oakley, Professor Kate
• Authors: Oakley, K.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• ISBN: 9781349436750