Research interests
I am an interdisciplinary researcher with a Cultural Studies background engaging with and bringing together perspectives from digital culture, sociology of work and organisations, cultural policy, science and technology studies, and media industries and management. I have experience in developing mixed-methods approaches and am particularly interested in creative methods and dissemination. I enthusiastically explore approaches to research-informed teaching and create opportunities to engage students as researchers.
My research focuses on the following areas:
Work in the cultural and creative industries
I have a long-standing research focus on cultural work that explores policy contexts, organisational practices, the impact of technologies, and issues of identity. This was first developed in my PhD on digital games design titled, 'The industry of creativity: economic visions, creative subjects and innovative technologies in process' (AHRC funded at Lancaster University). This research was subsequently developed in relation to several cultural and creative industries. In 2013 I co-edited Cultural Work and Higher Education (with Dr Caitriona Noonan). Solo authored articles in this area examined “cultural workers-in-the-making” (2013) and pathways into working in the creative economy (2015).
Research and publications with Dr Karen Patel have examined social media influencers and vlogging in terms of textual and visual narration strategies and forms of cultural work and gendered sites of cultural production. Aspects of this were developed with Dr Emma Agusita in the 2018-19 Unexpected Enterprises project funded by Enterprise Educators UK. Findings from this project were shared as an iDoc, a report, and published as a book chapter in Pathways into Creative Working Lives (2020; edited by Stephanie Taylor and Susan Luckman).
During 2021-22 I am the Principal Investigator on the Creative Futures Exchange project funded through a University Global Partnership Award. Developed in partnership with the University of Ghana, the project creates spaces for educators, industry practitioners and students to share international experiences and address possible futures for working in the creative industries. The project centres on four online workshops exploring: civic relationships; sustainable business models and practices; platforms and technologies; and equality, diversity and inclusion (equity and belonging). Three thematic reports on internationalisation, creative industries pedagogies, and collaborative online internationalisation of learning (COIL) are available on the website here.
Bringing together research from the Unexpected Enterprises and Creative Futures Exchange projects, I will be participating in the British Academy funded project Entanglements: Transcultural Encounters, New Forms of Work and Entrepreneurship in April 2022 (project team: Dr Ranji Devadason, Dr Thomas Morsch, Dr Jens Wegner).
Artificial intelligence and creative work/industries
Since 2019 my research on working in the cultural and creative industries has connected with developments and issues relating to artificial intelligence. This has included presentations at the Cultural Histories, Creative Futures conference (Winchester, July 2019) and Artificial Creativity conference (Malmö, October 2020), and a public workshop and discussion with Dr Karen Patel as part of the University of Southampton’s Human Worlds festival (November 2020). I contributed the article ‘Creative work and artificial intelligence: Imaginaries, assemblages and portfolios’ to the Artificial Creativity special issue of the open access journal Transformations. This article examines sociotechnical imaginaries of artificial intelligence and creative work constructed in UK policy discourse and critically nuances this through the concepts of human and non-human assemblages and portfolio working.
Data analytics and practices for creative ecosystems
Developing my past projects on creative cities and placemaking/shaping, I am currently researching how data generation and analysis informs understandings of place and decision-making relating to creative ecosystems.
Past research includes a chapter with Dr Roberta Comunian on universities as creative hubs in Creative Hubs in Question (2019; edited by Ros Gill, Andy C. Pratt and Tarek E. Virani), keynote presentations in China on entrepreneurship and culture-led urban regeneration (Digital Suzhou and Nanjing), and a talk as part of the Southampton Institute Arts and Humanities event on ‘Culture and Post-Covid Regeneration’ available here.
During 2021-22 I am the Principal Investigator on the Local government data analytics for culture and creativity project funded by Southampton Institute of Arts and Humanities’ Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) funding. This project builds on my experiences working in the research and evaluation group for the Southampton 2025 City of Culture bid with Southampton City Council and cultural and creative industries stakeholders (developed as an article on City of Culture data relations and frictions currently under review). It engages with policy contexts identifying the creative industries as assets to local economies and communities to address the research and policy gap around how local authorities generate and use data. The project has created a steering group with members from higher education, local government, and the cultural sector. Knowledge exchange and networking opportunities will follow in July 2022.
Arts and cultural organisations
Closely linked to the above research areas, other projects focus on different dimensions of arts and cultural organisations.
I am currently part of the research team for the Arts Council England supported Connecting Culture research project examining young people’s engagement with Southampton’s Cultural Quarter. This connects with my wider research on the UK city of culture competition, including organising a roundtable of academic and practitioner participants with Dr Toby Bennett for the Creativity, Knowledge, Cities conference.
I recently completed a project supported by the Winchester School of Art Strategic Research Fund examining the funding of culture/cultures of funding. This project included a workshop with academic, industry and policy participants documented in this video, presentations at several conferences and a journal article in Poetics. It is also the basis for collaborations with Laboratory Adelaide: The Value of Culture at Flinders Research (Australia), including a presentation from Professor Julian Meyrick at John Hansard Gallery and a visit to Dr Tully Barnett in Adelaide in March 2020.
I have undertaken research on data practices of audience profiling and segmentation, and co-authored with Dr Ronda Gowland-Pryde an article in Cultural Trends in 2019.
During 2022, I am part of a Faculty of Arts and Humanities Strategic Research Fund project with Dr Yuanyuan Yin (PI) and Dr Yasmin Sekhon partnering with Hampshire Cultural Trust to examine: (1) how technology/digitisation is a facilitator in ensuring the long-term sustainability of museums and (2) how the hybrid approach to audience engagement (both in person and virtual) will help from an equality, diversity, and inclusion perspective.
Research group
Transforming Creativity Research Group
Affiliate research group
Works Futures Research Centre
Dr Daniel AshtonWinchester School of Art, University of Southampton, Park Avenue, Winchester SO23 8DL, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Room Number : 63A/1035
