'Creative destruction': knowledge economy policy and the future of arts and humanities in the academy

Policy conceptualizations of the global knowledge economy have led to the channelling of much Higher Education and Research and Development funding into the priority areas of science and technology. Among other things, this diversion of funding calls into question the future of traditional humanities and creative arts faculties. How these faculties, and the disciplines within them, might reconfigure themselves for the knowledge economy is, therefore, a question of great importance, although one that as yet has not been adequately answered. This paper explores some of the reasons for this by looking at how innovation in the knowledge economy is typically theorized. It takes one policy trajectory informing Australia's key innovation statement as an example. It argues that, insofar as the formation of this knowledge economy policy has been informed by a techno-economic paradigm, it works to preclude many humanities and creative arts disciplines. This paper, therefore, looks at how an alternative theorization of the knowledge economy might offer a more robust framework from within which to develop humanities and creative arts Higher Education and Research policy in the knowledge economy, both in Australia and internationally.
1 This article draws on the Australian Research Council project, Knowledge/economy/society: a sociological study of an education policy discourse in Australia in globalising circumstances, being conducted by Jane Kenway, Elizabeth Bullen and Simon Robb. This 3-year project looks at how understandings of the knowledge economy and knowledge society inform current education policy and, in turn, how this policy translates into educational practice. The methodology includes policy analysis, interviews with policy makers in government, and supranational organizations. It also includes cameo studies of innovative educational practice, two of which we draw on here.

What does it meme? The Exegesis as valorization of creative arts research

This paper will draw on Richard Dawkin's idea of the 'meme' to discuss how the creative arts exegesis can operate as valorisation and validation of creative arts research. According to Dawkins, the rate and fecundity of replication permits an artefact to achieve recognition and stability as a meme within a culture. The value and application of traditional forms of research is underpinned by a secondary order of production, publication, that establishes visibility of the work and articulates its empirical processes and findings as sources of social benefit and cultural enhancement.

In the arts, conventional modes of valorisation such as the gallery system, reviews and criticism focus on the artistic product and hence, lack sustained engagement with the creative processes as models of research. Such engagement is necessary to articulate and validate studio practices as modes of enquiry.

A crucial question to initiate this engagement is: 'What did the studio process reveal that could not have been revealed by any other mode of enquiry?'

Re-versioning of the studio process and its significant moments through the exegesis locates the work within the broader field of practice and theory. It is also part of the replication process that establishes the creative arts as a stable research discipline, able to withstand peer and wider assessment. The exegesis is a primary means of realising creative arts research as 'meme'.

Creative arts research : a pedagogical perspective

This paper emerges from current work related to a number of research projects across several creative arts disciplines. It poses the following questions: What implication does creative arts research have for extending our understandings of the role of experiential, problem-based learning and multiple intelligences in the production of knowledge? How can the application of such understandings influence policy and enhance opportunities for support of creative arts research in the university and the broader arena? In a previous paper examining the function of the exegesis (Barrett, 2004), I referred to the suggestion made by Lauchlan Chipman that: in a knowledge economy, it is necessary for a large number of people to comprehend the creative output of others in order for such output to be sufficiently taken up for the enhancement of society. This paper is an extension of the previous one in its attempt to promote wider understanding of the value of creative arts research. I will focus on the dialogic relationship between the exegesis and studio practice in painting, creative writing, performance and dance, in order to demonstrate that creative arts enquiry can promote a more profound understanding of how knowledge is revealed, acquired and expressed. Four successful research projects will be examined as 'case studies' to show how creative arts research methodologies may be applied in the development of more critical and innovative pedagogies and to argue that the role of creative arts research is still to be fully realized and acknowledged in the knowledge economy.

Exploring metaphor as an alternative marketing language

Purpose: – The main aim of this paper is to stimulate more relevant and critical ideas about marketing and the wider management field by exploring the actual and potential contribution of metaphor to marketing theory and practice. The subsequent connections made can help contribute towards understanding and coping with the theory/practice gap.

Design/methodology/approach: – To date, the majority of metaphor application has tended to be literal and surface-level rather than theoretically grounded. This paper interrogates the literature surrounding metaphor in marketing and management fields, while also examining the contribution of other areas such as art. The paper constructs and debates the conceptual notion of the marketer as an artist.

Findings: – Incorporation of theoretically grounded metaphors into marketing theory can help develop a form of marketing which is capable of dealing with ambiguity, chaotic market conditions, creative thinking and practice.

Originality/value: – Adoption of a metaphorical approach to marketing research helps to instil a critical and creative ethos in the research process. Marketers are concerned with identification and exploitation of opportunities. Metaphor assists in the process by enhancing visualisation of these future directions. We live out our lives to a large degree through the making of metaphorical connections. We should therefore embrace more qualitative, creative associations in marketing theory, as well as practice.

Exploring creative music making as a vehicle for integrated teaching and learning

The arts have evolved with each society as a means of consolidating cultural and social identity and connecting past with future generations (Russell-Bowie, 2006, p3). Situating the arts within a broader interdisciplinary curriculum, we believe, allows students to discover and explore social issues and their relevance to students' contemporary lives. We argue that creative music making through composition promotes a deeper and more personally relevant teaching and learning experience for teacher education students, particularly when situated within an interdisciplinary framework.

The challenge for us as teacher educators' is to prepare pre-service teachers for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning as is required by the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). At Deakin University, in the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary/Secondary) Degree, the postgraduate unit called Humanities, Societies and Environments; Language and Music Education adopts an interdisciplinary pedagogy that encourages students to learn from each other, share content knowledge and make links between and across VELS domains.

In this paper we reflect on the possibilities exploring of creative music making to enhance the teaching and learning of social education, with particular reference to issues of environmental change. Specifically, we reflect on non-music specialist students' experiences in Semester 1, 2008 using Jeannie Baker's book Window (1991) as a platform to deliberate about the impact of urbanisation on the environment. Through dramatisation and a sonic environment students were able to both further conceptualise issues of social change and their understandings of the power of integrating music across other VELS domains.

Stephen Procter: reflections of a glass artist

Stephen Procter: Reflections of a Glass Artist, records the thoughts and philosophies of the artist and glassmaker who for a number of years headed the Glass Department of the Australian National University School of Art. It traces his career in glass working from his first interest developed through a pointillist technique while living on Dartmoor; through his British Council-funded grant that enabled him to learn glass blowing and cutting techniques in Austria; to the mature landscape paintings and glass sculptures created during his years living in Australia.