Sian Joel-Edgar (Exeter University)Kai Lui (Greenwich Univesity)
Social Network Analysis and the Creative Industries:
searching for similarities between creative domains
Creativity"There is a broad consensus that creativity is the capacity to produce things that are original and valuable" (Gaut, 2010 p 039)
- Creativity as individual cognitive attributes and traits ( Sternberg 1985, Tardif and Sternberg 1988, Glynn 1996)
- The network side of individual creativity (Perry-Smith and Shalley 2003, Burt 2004, Perry-Smith 2006)
- "Creative individual be placed within a network of interpersonal relationships” (Simonton 1984a, p. 1273). Creativity “is all in your social network” (Brass 1995)
Creative labour force- Creative Class (Florida, 2002 & 2005)- Freelancers and flexiable labour (O’Connor, 2007)
Theoretical background
Social network in CIs• End of Fordism and “The Rise of the Network Society”
(Castells, 1996) • Social Capital (Lin, 1999; Bourdieu 1986)• Social network market (Potts, J., Cunningham, S., Hartley, J., &
Ormerod, P. 2008) and the role of network to reduce uncertainty and risks (Banks et al, 2000; Raffo et al, 2000; Shorthose, 2004; Bilton, 2007).
• Project-based and networked organisations (Christopherson, 2004; Grabher, 2004)
• Freelancers and Micro business (Banks, 2010)• Creative city and Clusters (Lazzeretti, 2008; Landy, 2012)
Define Creative IndustriesUK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as:• “…those industries which have their origin in individual
creativity, skill and talent which have a potential for job and wealth creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property” (‘Creative Industries Mapping Document’, DCMS, 2001)
• Advertising, Architecture, Crafts, Design, Film/TV/Video/Radio/Photography, I.T./Software, Publishing, Museums/Galleries/Libraries - DCMS 2015
• In 2012 8.5% of total U.K. workforce was employed in CI• £71.4 billion and 5.2% of U.K. economy
What are the major themes being used by CI research using SNA
Are some CIs using Social Network Analysis more than other CIs
Key research questions
• Literature review: Creative & Cultural Industries research using SNA perspective
• Bottom up approach: looking at individual industrials
• Top down approach: looking at Creative and Cultural industries as a whole
Method and research design
• Decision criteria used:
• 1) "design" + "social network analysis”
• 2) Advanced search [CI + social networks] - Title only
• Search engines used: 1) Google Scholar 2) Science Direct
• Issues of this approach• CIs terms as verbs: e.g. design
• CIs terms that are the application or tool rather than industry. SNA software, not the software industry
Bottom up approach
Variation between each Creative industry
Adverti
sing
Archite
cture Arts
Culture
CraftDesi
gn Film
Museum
Librar
ies
Librar
y
Galleri
es
Gallery
Music
Publishing
Software
05000
100001500020000250003000035000400004500050000
Design Designer0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
50000
Each CI industryOver time
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
AdvertisingArchitectureArtsCulture CraftDesignFilmMuseumLibrariesLibraryGalleriesGalleryMusicPublishingSoftware
Bottom up science direct results
• Advanced search [CI + social networks] - Title only• 38 papers (across disciplines)
•Qualitative analysis approach: looking for themes
• Diffusion and adoption, team collaboration, learning/skills
and social media
• Decision criteria used:
- Identify the application of SNA in the cultural and creative industries
- All the papers published which explicitly methioned “social network analysis”, “creative industries” and “cultural industries”
- Quality control by only looking at peer reviewed journals
- Initial number of papers 528
- 145 cleaned papers, of which 100 had keywords listed
• Search engines used: Google Scholar (title, abstract and full text)
• Issues of this approach• Doesn’t look at specific industries
Top down approach
Keywords
SNA (S
ocial N
etworks
inclu
ding just
networks
)
Creativit
y/Crea
tive In
dustry/I
ndustries
Culture/
Cultural
industr
y/industr
ies
Cluster
Organiza
tion or Orga
nisation
Innovation
Music
Markets
Film (a
nd motion pict
ure) Art
Producti
on
Socia
l (human
) cap
ital
Media
(not socia
l med
ia)Urb
an
Projec
t
Knowledge
Local
GlobalPolicy
Manag
emen
t
Fash
ion
Game i
ndustry
Communication
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Journal Number of papers
Creative Industries Journal
9
Cultural Sociology
7
International Journal of Cultural Policy
6
Journals
Conlusion
• Bearing in mind that the DCMS definition of Creative Industries is very U.K. Centric and controversial , and each data collection method has its flaws:
• Varying and conflicting results between two methodological approaches
• Is the software industry a "creative" industry?
• Some industries are under-represented e.g. craft.
• Does the craft industry not utilise social capital in the same way other creative industries do?
Future work
•What defines a creative network?
•What techniques are used and what are found in creative networks?
• Look at abstract and title as well as keywords
• Discover themes from each paper found through the top down approach.
Thank you
Sian Joel-Edgar (Exeter University Business School) [email protected] @kurtesysian
Kai Liu (University of Greenwich)[email protected].