Inside a Cultural Agency: Team Ethnography and Knowledge Exchange

Citation

Schlesinger P, Selfe M & Munro E (2015) Inside a Cultural Agency: Team Ethnography and Knowledge Exchange. Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, 45 (2), pp. 66-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/10632921.2015.1039741

Abstract
This article undertakes an auto-critical analysis of the research team's ethnographic study of Cultural Enterprise Office (CEO), a Scottish creative business support agency. We discuss the team's composition and how this relates to other analyses of ethnographic teamwork. Our research is situated in the wider policy context of the “creative-economic” turn in the UK's research funding. This has been accompanied by increased emphasis on “knowledge exchange” and “impact” in the drive for greater accountability in higher education. The team's evolution in the course of undertaking research is illustrated by reference to four “pivotal moments,” which illustrate how we “performed” knowledge exchange.

Keywords
creative economy; cultural enterprise; ethnography; knowledge exchange; performance; teamwork

Journal
Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society: Volume 45, Issue 2