UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING CREATIVE ECONOMIES IN AFRICA
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The AHRC funded international research network "UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING CREATIVE ECONOMIES IN AFRICA" run between 2017 and 2020. While the official network activities are now ended, we are still actively writing and sharing information from our research findings and work. 
Keep up to date through our blog and read our research outputs.
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Aims & Objectives

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the role that cultural and creative industries play in developing economies - both in terms of their economic contribution but also in connection with social change and cultural engagement (UNESCO, 2013). To contribute to this field and to support related policy agendas, the research network will connect and mobilise different communities, including academics, practitioners in the creative/cultural sector and cultural and creative policy bodies. The aim will be to develop a better understanding of the creative economies in emerging African countries and to explore strategies to encourage and enable sustainable context-specific cultural, social and economic development.

​In line with the Highlight Notice and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to build collaborations across a range of countries which receive Official Development Assistance (ODA), the research network will connect and mobilise different communities, including academics, practitioners in the creative/cultural sector and cultural and creative policy bodies. It aims to develop a better understanding of the creative economies in emerging African countries and to explore strategies to encourage and enable sustainable context-specific cultural, social and economic development. The network will provide a platform for academics, creative practitioners, and policy and network bodies to reflect on their work and practice in relation to creative economies in Africa. It will facilitate knowledge exchanges between the Global North and the Global South, highlighting the importance of context specific knowledge and encouraging connections between local
cultural production networks.
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The research network has four main objectives:
1. Compile a literature review of existing research which aims to understand the specific context of emerging creative economies in Africa, with a focus on the role of creative education, cultural production networks and policy;
2. Develop an open access knowledge platform which acts as a point of reference for the work of academics and
practitioners in this area, with case studies, links, interviews, working papers and policy briefings;
3. Through systematic analysis, develop a clearer articulation of the relationship between localised knowledge and practice in the creative economies of three African countries (Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa) and opportunities for the development of sustainable ecologies of cultural production and consumption;
4. Explore the potential role that universities might play in the African context for bringing together researchers, creative practitioners, policy makers and civil society to work towards sustainable and local cultural development.


Research Team

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Dr. Roberta Comunian is Reader in Creative Economy at the Department for Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King's College London.   She is interested in: relationship between public and private investments in the arts, art and cultural regeneration projects, cultural and creative industries, creativity and competitiveness. She has been Marie Curie Fellow at University of Newcastle (Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies) investigating the relationship between creative industries, cultural policy and public supported art institutions. She has also undertaken research on knowledge transfer and creative industries within an AHRC Impact Fellowship award at the University of Leeds.  She has previously researched the role of higher education in the creative economy and has recently explored in various papers the career opportunities and patterns of creative graduates in UK. 

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Brian J. Hracs is a lecturer at the School of Geography and Environment at the University of Southampton, UK. He is interested in how digital technologies and global competition are reshaping the marketplace for cultural products and the working lives and spatial dynamics of entrepreneurs and intermediaries in the creative economy. He has published articles about the contemporary music industry, aesthetic labour, cultural intermediaries, the linkages between music and fashion and the factors that motivate 'talent' to move within and between cities. In 2016 he co-edited a book for Routledge entitled ‘The Production and Consumption of Music in the Digital Age.’ Brian is currently conducting research on curation in the music industry and the trans-local nature of cultural scenes.
  

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Dr Lauren England is Baxter Fellow in Creative Economies at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee (UK). For her PhD at King’s College London she investigated professional development in craft higher education and early-career practice. Lauren is interested in creative enterprise and education with a focus on craft and sustainable development in both global North and global South contexts. She has published research on craft skills evolution, higher education and social enterprises.

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​The research network is supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)  
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Academic Partners

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  • Research Outputs
  • Research Network
    • Final Conference London
    • People & Partners
  • news
  • Research in Africa
    • Research in Nigeria
    • Research in South Africa
    • Research in Kenya
    • Archive
  • Contact