A 2019-2021 Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP190100349)

Lead researcher: Prof Susan Luckman

In the digital future, craft skills embedded and working in collaboration with industry are essential to innovation as Australia looks to develop high-end advanced manufacturing. However, our capacity to grow pioneering manufacturing is profoundly threatened by the generational loss of the often highly-embodied nature of crafts and hands-on making expertise. A recent study in the UK found that the non-creative industries employing the most people in craft occupations are generally manufacturing-based (Crafts Council/Tuck 2014, p. 16), but the link between craft and manufacturing is an old but vulnerable one, with the risks today profoundly exacerbated by the loss of traditional manufacturing industries in countries such as Australia. This loss of practical making skills and knowledge of materials and their capacities is further compounded by the closure of many key TAFE courses focussed on craft and manual skills, and the winding back of expensive studio training by schools and universities. This deficit affects not only current industries, but also threatens future innovation and the growth of high-end manufacturing at a time of profound global change enabled by advances in digital technology.

Therefore, the primary aim of the project is to identify ways in which the essential embedded making skills required to sustain and grow future manufacturing can be maintained and extended, supporting not only the survival and updating of current production but, significantly, enabling the kind of fertile ground out of which the innovation necessary for developing advanced manufacturing can grow.

The research questions driving this investigation are:

1. Having established a statistical analysis framework to enable an Australian mapping, where are workers with craft skills embedded within making ecosystems, and what are these craft skills?
2. What is lost if these skills are not embedded within making ecosystems? What skills and knowledges are themselves currently at risk of being lost; which are crucially needed but not present?
3. What difference do context, location, age, gender, race and ethnicity, educational attainment and perceived class location make to craftspeople’s ability to work across different making skillsets, infrastructures and needs?
4. To what degree have skills been gained through informal rather than formal training networks, that is through immersion in a making habitus (‘tacit skills’), and how is this best replicated moving forward?

Focussing on three key groups of craftspeople: those employed in craft industries, in craft occupations in ‘other’ creative industries, and craft occupations in non-creative industries (Crafts Council/Tuck 2014), this project will identify where craft skills are utilised within Australian making ecologies, are under threat, need re-imagining or are needed to realise the potential of advanced manufacturing in Australia.

Contact Prof Susan Luckman for more information. 

An Australian Research Council project (DP190102863)

Lead researchers: Dr Christopher Hogarth and AsPr Natalie Edwards (University of Adelaide)

This project aims to examine texts authored by French-speaking migrants to Australia in order to explore how migrating subjects write their identity, how migrants represent the self between nations and between languages, and how Australia is viewed through the prism of another language. Expected outcomes to this project include enhanced knowledge of Australian literature, of practices of migrant writing, and of the construction of Australian identity. This will provide significant benefits, such as a wider understanding of the diversity of Australian literature, an increased awareness of literature in Languages Other Than English in Australia, and a more nuanced appreciation of Australian identity.

For more information on this research, please contact Dr Christopher Hogarth.

An Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP180102074)

This project aims to identify new directions for urban cultural policy by conducting international comparative research around the emerging nexus between the cultural industries and manufacturing. Policies that govern Australia’s cultural economy focus predominately on cultural consumption. This approach does not account for the changing dynamics of the cultural economy, particularly the emergent relationships with a complex urban manufacturing sector. As a result, many innovation, employment and urban development opportunities around cultural production are unrealised. The results of the project are expected to yield insights into urban industry dynamics and change how Australians conceptualise urban cultural policy.

Visit the project website for more information. 

In collaboration with Guildhouse, funded by the Ian Potter Foundation

Lead researchers: Prof Susan Luckman and Dr Jane Andrew

Extending the work of the ARC project ‘Promoting the making self in the creative micro-economy’, Professor Susan Luckman and Dr Jane Andrew (MatchStudio) have been asked to provide a research-informed evaluation of Guildhouse’s new three year ‘Catapult’ mentorship program which will be examining the impact of mentorships on artistic careers over time. Supported by funding from the Ian Potter Foundation (Total UniSA income over the project: $21,000 - $4,000 in 2018; $7,000 in 2019; $6,000 in 2020; $4,000 in 2021), we will develop a suite of iterative qualitative and quantitative survey feedback tools for rolling out through the project’s life. We will contact past and present participants (both mentees and mentors) to assess the impact of the program on them, their practice, and their economic/business skills development. Additionally, further survey tools will be developed to identify the outcomes for all key stakeholder groups across the wider sectoral community (such as galleries and design retail outlets). In keeping with the national focus of the Crafting Self project and drawing upon our international track record as leaders in rural, regional and remote as well as urban creative industries research, this evaluation of the impacts of the program will also importantly explore how the participants in ‘Catapult’ impact upon their local communities and contribute to regional development.

For more information on this research project, contact Prof Susan Luckman or Dr Jane Andrew.

An Australian Research Council project

This project aims to influence global cultural policy and governance and the way 'actors' like UNESCO shape local policy and practice. Focusing on the global South, it will reveal complex connections between levels of governance, documenting and providing guidance on innovative policy approaches for dealing with major social, economic and development challenges. Outcomes will be compelling insights for cultural policy development and implementation, and a critical reshaping of global-local cultural dynamics to support sustainable and equitable development in the global South.

Dr Ben Stubbs won a $10,000 research grant from Ignite SA in 2019 which is exploring next-generation technologies that require high-speed, advanced networks and are transforming how we live, work and play. Dr Stubbs will be using the grant to enhance the capabilities of the VR Storytelling app 'Immerse' for desktop functionality, live streaming and Oculus and Vice use.

Journalism is changing and it is important that journalism education evolves as well. As the host of the only dedicated journalism program in the state, it is crucial that UniSA's graduates are engaging with an environment which makes them relevant, technologically-capable and employable. This project has the potential to be an important contributor to this renewal process.

For more information on Immerse, contact Dr Ben Stubbs.​

ARC LIEF Project 2018-19 (LE180100094) 

Lead researchers: Prof Susan Luckman, Prof Maureen Dollard, Prof Ian Olver (UniSA Cancer Research Institute)

UniSA is a major partner of the Analysis & Policy Observatory, and a key part of this partnership is UniSA’s integral role in the Australian Research Council LIEF (Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities) Project (LE180100094): ‘Linked semantic platforms for social and physical infrastructure and wellbeing’. UniSA will host the end of this project that includes three local Chief Investigators (Prof Susan Luckman, Prof Maureen Dollard and Prof Ian Olver).

The ‘Linked semantic platforms’ (LSP) project is significant because it aims to revolutionise the way researchers are able to access and analyse policy documents and data. The main objective of the two-year LSP Project is to develop the next generation of decision-support tools for interdisciplinary research on critical public policy issues. By applying linked open data, knowledge graphs and collaborations across existing research infrastructure projects, the project aims to improve interoperability across major social science databases. The ultimate outcome of this project will be the creation of new analytical tools that will transform the research capabilities for evidence-based policy making. As part of this, UniSA will further develop the content of three of the APO collections: Cultural Policy and Creative Industries, Work in the Digital Economy and Digital Health Systems, and develop innovative data visualisation and interface tools to enhance the collection offerings and accessibility to users.

An Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP150100485)

Lead researchers: Prof Susan Luckman and Dr Jane Andrew

Funded by an Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project grant (DP150100485), ‘Promoting the making self in the creative micro-economy’ was a four-year study of Australian designer-makers and craftspeople investigating how online distribution is changing the environment for operating a creative micro-enterprise, and with it, the larger relationship between the public and private spheres. We recognise that not all handmade micro-entrepreneurs are at the same stage of their career or have the same origin story. Therefore, this qualitative, mixed methods national research project consisted of three parallel data collection activities: semi-structured interviews with established makers; a three-year annual interview monitoring of arts, design and craft graduates as they seek to establish their making careers; and a historical overview of the support mechanisms available to Australian handmade producers. The project employed this phenomenological approach to offer a rich and yet also broad ‘insider’ perspective on creative micro-enterprise.

2018 was the fourth and final year of the project. Across this time, the project interviewed 20 peak and/or industry organisations, 81 Established Makers, and over 78 interviews with Emerging Makers (Year 1/’1-Up’ = 32; Year 2/’2-Up’ = 27; Year 3/’3-Up’ = 19). Multiple book chapters and journal articles had already arisen from this research and a book has been published as a result of this research. The project received media coverage including in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and on the ABC.

Read the completed report. 

Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Project 2017-2019

UniSA lead investigators: Prof Susan Luckman and Dr Jane Andrew

CIDEII arose out of cross-fertilisation collaborations seeded by the Hawke EU Centre, in particular with colleagues at the Copenhagen Business School. The Project co-developed cutting edge EU-relevant content for cultural and creative industries (CCI) teaching. It consisted of two interlinked teaching and research programs: Action 1, an academic workshop which brings together leading scholars of European creative work and digital economy to focus upon developing research-informed dialogue with EU policy and practice around CCIs and the digital economy. A key focus of this was developing a set of guidelines for how EU-relevant business skills and personal competencies could be better embedded into university creative industries courses and programs within the EU, Australia and Russia. This was informed by the evaluation of Action 2, Stage 1 – the Match Tournament in Adelaide, Australia where teams of undergraduate students, guided by academic and industry advisors, apply EDP and design thinking to address ‘real world’ governmental challenges, including those around enhanced cultural and economic integration. Action 1’s recommendations will themselves subsequently be incorporated into Action 2, in Adelaide, Australia and Copenhagen, Denmark.

Read the final report (PDF).

Do we want the art to be uniquely of our place? If so, what does this mean: is it the maker, the materials, the story, the artwork’s form – or all of these? Are we also open to the best the world offers – art for art’s sake? Professor Susan Luckman was invited to briefly explore this question in an opening essay, ‘The Art of the Public’, in the City of Adelaide’s Public Art Discussion Paper, released February 2019.