Studentships
Business School
Migration and Creative Environments: Social, Political and Economic Implications of Diverse Participation
Dr Katarzyna Kosmala
katarzyna.kosmala@uws.ac.uk
This application reflects multidisciplinary on-going research activity in the University, particularly but not exclusively in the Business School and the School of Media and Languages as well as strategic continuing research developments at the Centre for Contemporary European Studies: a recognised Centre in the Business School and the University that received 4 rating in the last RAE.
Research staff at the Centre also contributes to CRCEES, an inter-institutional Centre of Excellence funded under the Languages Based Area Studies initiative, a joint funding programme by the ESRC, the AHRC, the HEFCE and the SFC. This Centre has an established research profile in the areas of identity and culture and their socio-economic, political and organisational implications.
Doctoral studentships are offered in the broad areas of gender, identity and creative industries.
This studentship may focus on the following areas below. However, the precise nature of the research will be dependent on the expertise and interests of the candidate.
The significant growth prospects of creative sectors highlight their importance for the employment market through the generation of new job opportunities, with the inclusion of migrant labour a significant factor in overcoming supply limitations, as well as the potential promotion of strategies for ‘life-long learning’ and ‘equal opportunities for all’.
Yet, research at a European level states that there are problems within the creative sectors in terms of diverse participation on the one hand and an apparent tendency for creative activity to be gendered and culturally biased (International Intelligence on Culture, Conference report). These sectoral conditions present particular challenges in terms of how to facilitate new mechanisms for equality in employment, fairness in working practice relations and enhancement of participation of diverse groups, including migratory communities from new European states in the UK.
There is a potential to undertake this research within a frame of the importance of migrant labour in Scotland/UK, attending to underutilisation of their skills and opportunities within a multi-cultural society locally and in Europe more generally.
The subject is motivated by participatory, policy-relevant action research, qualitative in nature, designed to examine the existing and potential barriers to participation in creative careers and addresses employability strategies in diverse groups, including migratory communities.