Tourism, culture and creativity
Project Title:
Tourism, culture and creativity: preparing Hastings and Bexhill for economic regeneration through education and workforce development in the creative and cultural sectors of the local economy
Project Client:
Hastings and Bexhill Economic Alliance
Project Team:
Andrew Church, Paul Gilchrist, Neil Ravenscroft, Gill Rogers, Belinda Heys, Graham Sharp, Judith Watson, Cathy Palmer
Brief Description:
This research explored the nature of cultural employment through a case study of the creative and cultural industries in a post-industrialising English coastal conurbation (Bexhill, Hastings, St. Leonards). Its premise was to seek to understand shifts in the (cultural) economy and its implications for employment, education and society. The research was grounded in the experiences and lives of cultural workers and employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The report (see below) draws on extensive consultation with local people and an analysis of the education and training provision in the towns and sets out some of the key changes required for cultural and education-led regeneration to be realised.
Reports
Download the summary report (pdf 106 KB) and full report (pdf 308KB)
Tourism, Culture and Creativity event, 18 September 2007
University Centre Hastings is hosting a research workshop which is designed to feedback findings from the research. The event is taking place from 2-5pm at UCH (www.uch.ac.uk) and is followed by a drinks reception. If you have received an invitation then please can you confirm your attendance with Paul Gilchrist
( P.M.Gilchrist@Brighton.ac.uk ). Or, if you have heard about the event and would like to attend, then please contact Paul.
Dissemination
Gilchrist, P. ‘The revitalisation of public space? Leisure and the cultural industries in Hastings’, British Sociological Association annual conference, University of East London, 13 April 2007
Church, A. ‘Tourism, power, culture and the creative industries in the core’s periphery’, Association of American Geographers annual conference, San Francisco, April 2007.
Church, A., Gilchrist, P. and Ravenscroft, N. ‘Tourism, cultural and creative industries’, On the Edge – Seaside towns and coastal areas, the community solution, British Urban Regeneration Association, Brighton, 25 May 2007
Gilchrist, P. and Ravenscroft, N. ‘The emerging working society of leisure’ ‘Whatever happened to the leisure society? Critical and multidisciplinary (retro)spectives’, Leisure Studies Association annual conference, University of Brighton, 4 July 2007