Katherine M Champion

The Glasgow School of Art, Design Innovation, Post-Doc

Followers

Following

Co-author

Public Views

Katherine is employed as a Research Fellow In InDI on the AHRC-funded Knowledge Exchange Hub ‘Design in Action’ (KEHDiA) programme which is a Scotland-wide partnership between: Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, University of At Andrews, University of Abertay Dundee, Edinburgh College of Art, Gray’s School of Art and the Glasgow School of Art. The aim is to apply strategic design principles to support the development of innovative products, processes and services via the chiasma method. The resulting design-led innovation will help to ensure that Scotland can maximise its capacity to operate effectively, contribute to the creative economy and compete in world markets.

Prior to this she was employed as a research associate on an ESRC project funded project 'Multi-platform media and the digital challenge: Strategy, Distribution and Policy'. This set out to analyse the recent migration of media businesses towards diversified digital distribution and multi-platform growth strategies and the impact this has had on economic efficiency, the organisation of production, and on the nature and diversity of content.

Further information on the ESRC-funded project can be found here.

She is also Co-Investigator on an RSE-funded series of workshops ‘Shaping Scotland’s Talent: Change, Flexibility and New Pathways in the Screen Industries’

Further information on the RSE-funded project can be found here.

Katherine's research interests include the spatial organisation of creative and digital media industries, cultural and creative industries policy, culture-led regeneration, creative cities and multi-platform media strategy.
Biography

Katherine graduated with a MA Hons in Politics from University of Edinburgh in 2003 before going on to complete an MPhil in Urban Policy and Practice at the University of Glasgow. This was followed by an MRes in Urban Studies. She holds a PhD from the Urban Studies Department at the University of Glasgow. Her thesis examined the logic guiding firm location in the advertising and film and television sectors of a transforming regional city.

Since completing her thesis she has worked in a range of roles in academia as well as the private and public sectors. From 2009-10 she worked as RA on an ESRC-funded Business Engagement Project ‘Supporting Small Firm Growth Strategies in the Digital Media Industries’ at Dundee Business School, University of Abertay. Following this, she was employed as a research analyst supporting sustainable growth within the digital media and technology-based sectors. She has also undertaken a range of freelance work for the Work Foundation, Glasgow School of Art and Creative Scotland.
Address: InDI, 20 Trongate, Glasgow

less

InterestsView All (6)

Uploads

Papers by Katherine M Champion

Developing Creative Cities

Culture and creativity have been promoted as the panacea to reversing urban decline in the knowle... more Culture and creativity have been promoted as the panacea to reversing urban decline in the knowledge age. The posited benefits of becoming a ‘creative city’ cut across many aspects of policy and evidence suggests that unlocking the creative potential may well improve the prospects for successful urban regeneration. Such activity may be cultivated to attract economic gain (in the form of investment, developing the creative industry sector, business start up locations, tourism spend and knowledge workers) and also social cohesion (strengthening identity, civic pride and accommodating cultural diversity). There are some caveats to this approach: the benefits may be overstated and are often hard to measure. There is evidence that unintended consequences of policy in this area can include gentrification, a loss of distinctiveness and pricing out the creative sector pioneers. This paper presents an overview of UK activity, drawing on the approaches undertaken in three main categories of creative industries, public art and events programming.

The difference that place makes: a case study of selectedcreative industry sectors in Greater Manchester

Download

Developing creative cities: a perspective from the UK

Problematizing a Homogeneous Spatial Logic for the Creative Industries: The Case of the Digital Games Industry

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

The computer games industry can be regarded, in many ways, as a paradigmatic sector of the creati... more The computer games industry can be regarded, in many ways, as a paradigmatic sector of the creative economy. It has been firmly on the policy agenda in the United Kingdom since New Labour’s election in 1997 and, in particular, since 1998 with the inclusion of digital games as a sub-sector of creative industries as defined by the Creative Industries Task Force. Its high public profile has been justified by claims of economic weight and potential externalities (DCMS, 2012a; TIGA, 2012). As well as a belief that the sector can provide direct benefits to the economy, it is suggested that it also provides additional advantages through a multiplier effect and can even ameliorate the impact of the recent recession. In terms of policy interventions aimed at fostering growth within the computer games industry, many efforts have taken a spatially targeted focus including the funding and development of hubs and clusters. The rationale for this attention rests on a belief that the sector has a particular spatial logic in common with the wider creative industries, which preferences proximity and is subject to advantages of agglomeration. Despite a paucity of empirical research specifically reviewing the spatial rationale of the computer games sector, significant work has been undertaken to identify the location patterns within the wider creative economy. The existing research suggests that the creative industries have a dominant spatial rationale which tends to favour co-location, and that large metropolitan centres act as natural hubs of activity, but there remain gaps in the evidence base.

Measuring Content Diversity in a Multi-Platform Context

The Political Economy of Communication, Jul 6, 2015

Media diversity, or the heterogeneity of media content, is considered a central pillar of a democ... more Media diversity, or the heterogeneity of media content, is considered a central pillar of a democratic society, but it has seldom been studied in a systematic way. Concerns about the relationship between media concentration and the abuse of power through the overrepresentation of particular views have been a longstanding focus for debate within communication studies. Logically, highly concentrated media ownership patterns correlate with a more limited range of media sources, implying a less pluralistic system. Recent technological developments and digital innovations have added to the complexity of researching plurality. Meanwhile, media organizations have embarked on new forms of corporate expansion, leading to disagreement amongst commentators over the impact of these changes on the ownership patterns of media content providers. For some political economists, this has heralded a discontinuity and a departure from capitalism, but, for many, new media has deepened and extended the commodification of audiences. The existence of multiple owners, in any case, may not be sufficient to ensure plurality; studies of media diversity should also review the content of the outputs themselves. Despite the fact that many television companies and print publishers have transformed themselves into multi-platform suppliers of content, little is known about the impact of these strategies on the diversity of media content. This article is based on initial findings from a study of media content being undertaken as part of a three year Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded project 'Multi-platform media and the digital challenge'. This project has sampled, coded and analyzed the composition of content bundles from a selection of key media organizations drawn from broadcasting, newspaper, and magazine publishing industries, including the BBC, STV, MTV, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, Elle UK, T3 and NME. To this end, the first two of three phases of content analysis have been employed. This work confirms volumes of content have increased across the sample, but also finds evidence for the recycling and repurposing of content and for the concentration on particular programmes or stories. Finally, the article argues for the systematic examination of media content outputs and for the development of new ways to measure media content diversity across platform and sector.

Download

Smoothing Out the Peaks and Troughs: Examining the Sustainability Strategies of Island-Based Creative Practitioners

Rowman and Littlefield eBooks, 2020

First paragraph: This chapter takes as its focus an exploration of the everyday experiences of cr... more First paragraph: This chapter takes as its focus an exploration of the everyday experiences of craft workers in island geographies and how they adapt and manage their activities in distinct, informal and, arguably, entrepreneurial ways. As argued by Annette Naudin elsewhere in this book, exploration of the everyday practices of craft workers allows for a more nuanced examination which takes account of some of the contradictions and complexities associated with a conceptualisation of craft entrepreneurship. The chapter draws on a research project aimed at developing a better understanding of contemporary cultural work within geographical contexts considered to be rural and remote and, in particular, at contributing to knowledge regarding the factors that support sustainable careers in cultural work in such locations. Focusing on craft entrepreneurs active in the Northern Isles of Scotland, this chapter examines some of the specific challenges and complexities they faced and explores the techniques they adopted in an effort to reduce their precarious status

Media content in a multi-platform context, 2013-2015

Dataset resulting from media content analysis on how the adoption of a multi-platform outlook is ... more Dataset resulting from media content analysis on how the adoption of a multi-platform outlook is affecting the diversity of content output in the UK. A comparison was made how the composition of media output has changed over time during the period 2013-2015, and how strategies have moved towards multi-platform delivery. Data for content analysis was collected from eleven case study media organisations across the newspaper and magazine publishing and broadcasting sectors. Media platforms include print, online and mobile. Data were gathered from publicly available online websites, broadcasting schedules, newspaper and magazine printed and digital editions. Coding and analysis was carried out of a sample of content outputs for selected case studies in the broadcasting, newspaper and magazine sectors in spring 2013, 2014 and 2015. The resulting dataset provides a basis for preliminary comparative analysis, across organisations, sectors of the media and time, of how the composition of media content outputs has changed while suppliers of media have migrated towards multi-platform delivery.

From Participation to Collaboration: Reflections on the co - creation of innovative business ideas

DRS2016: Future-Focused Thinking, 2016

Design-led innovation interventions are predicated on the importance of establishing complex disc... more Design-led innovation interventions are predicated on the importance of establishing complex disciplinary collaborations. This paper reflects on the effects of different co-design methods to support knowledge exchange and the co-creation of new business ideas with multidisciplinary participants. It draws on data collected from sandpit style events entitled Chiasma, undertaken as part of the knowledge exchange hub, Design in Action (DiA) in which co-design methods were used to bring designers, entrepreneurs, and academics together to develop innovative business ideas in Scotland. Employing a thematic analysis of idea generation, team formation, and idea development, we suggest that a more nuanced range of methods, tools, and techniques can strengthen multidisciplinary engagement and participation. We argue that such approaches can be enhanced by designers and researchers' shifting focus from co-design methods to supporting collaborative mindsets in knowledge exchange towards innovation.

Download

Harmonics: Landscapes of Development

This final report explores the two year programme in evaluation complexity initially setup as a c... more This final report explores the two year programme in evaluation complexity initially setup as a core programme of the Creative Futures Partnership. It covers the concepts of negative capability and how it is applied to evaluating the efficacy of the partnership. Using creative methods of participatory workshops, reflective making and narrative tracking it aims to develop a future framework in understanding and capturing the impact of the partnership.

Download

The difference that place makes: a case study of creative industries in Greater Manchester

Broader transformations in the economy are linked to a changing spatial organisation for economic... more Broader transformations in the economy are linked to a changing spatial organisation for economic activity, particularly in industries imbued with a high creative content, although there are competing explanations regarding the nature of this logic. Until recently, relatively more attention has been given to the inter-urban and indeed international scales, than to the intra-urban geography of the economic transformation and, within this,there has also been a tendency to focus on a small set of global cities. With the aim of redressing these imbalances, this article examines the logic guiding creative industry concentration in the central core of a city, as opposed to more peripheral sites in the wider city region, and uses the example of a transforming regional city negotiating its place in the knowledge economy, Manchester, UK.

Beyond the bottom line: redefining the value of design in SME formation

For SMEs to operate in the complex and globalised economic landscape of today engaging with innov... more For SMEs to operate in the complex and globalised economic landscape of today engaging with innovation can sustain competitive advantage. Within Design Management, design is being increasingly posited as a strategic resource to facilitate the absorption of new design resources and leverage design knowledge in ways that support SMEs through such economic pressures. Evidencing the relationship between design and economic performance is complex, leading to extensive current research and industry efforts to show how design adds economic value. Despite the value of such efforts, it is important to recognise that innovation means different things to different organizations, especially for start-ups and SMEs. Within the rising tide of design-led innovation, there is a gap being explored in how design can effectively capture and evaluate its contribution within the complex and diverse situations of business development it engages. In seeking to address this gap, this paper presents findings...

Download

Design Innovation for creative growth: Modelling relational exchange to support and evaluate creative enterprise in the Scottish Highlands and Islands

Artifact, 2019

This article examines the development and delivery of a Creative Growth Model as part of a progra... more This article examines the development and delivery of a Creative Growth Model as part of a programme of Design Innovation activities with creative micro-enterprises and support organizations in the Highlands and Islands region of Scotland. There is a growing body of critique for how creative enterprise is framed, supported and evaluated in relation to economic notions of value and growth that struggle to incorporate the sociocultural interests and activities of sole traders and micro-enterprises. This article presents a Design Innovation approach for identifying situated conceptions of value, modelled as emergent value constellations, based on the diverse interactions and relational exchanges prevalent within the creative enterprise. This research draws predominantly on the work of Design Innovation for New Growth (DING), a two-year AHRC follow-on funded project between 2017 and 2019, which engaged with existing creative expertise in the Highlands and Northern Isles of Scotland to m...

Download

Crafting the local: the lived experience of craft production in the Northern Isles of Scotland

Cultural Trends, 2019

National creative and cultural industries policy agendas tend to focus on the economic impact of ... more National creative and cultural industries policy agendas tend to focus on the economic impact of the sector often favouring scalable digital activities based in global clusters, which underpin notions of growth. There has, however, been a re-emergence of craft, which may not be scalable in the same way, into public debate, but which is increasingly recognised as part of a growing industrial sector, with benefits linked to educational, cultural and economic policy agendas. Accordingly, policymakers have begun to view craft as a stimulus to develop local and regional economies, skills and materials in relation to wider networks. Within this push towards craft-driven creative place making and economic growth, it has been argued that more sophisticated understandings of the "local" are needed that go beyond those which are inward and parochial. Based on AHRC-funded empirical research undertaken in the Northern Isles of Scotland with craft practitioners, this article attempts to provide evidence of the place-based nature of craft work highlighting both opportunities as well as constraints linked to contexts that are often referred to as remote and peripheral when contrasted with urban locations. This article argues that there is a dissonance between high-profile creative-economy policies and the political economy of the "lived experience" of craft work in non-metropolitan settings. We argue for future investigation into, what we term, fractal growthgrowth and development that considers multiple dimensionsas being a valid and valuable outcome of creative practice, which cannot be easily scaled.

Download

Craft, textiles, and cultural assets in the Northern Isles: innovation from tradition in the Shetland Islands

Island Studies Journal, 2018

This article explores design innovation approaches in the creative economy in the Northern Isles ... more This article explores design innovation approaches in the creative economy in the Northern Isles of Scotland, specifically, the Shetland archipelago, focusing on the textiles sector. Shetland has a rich history of craft work, including Fair Isle knitting and lace making. We contend that the value of cultural assets in contributing to the creative economy is underexamined and that there is a paucity of understanding of the innovative potential of craft and creative practitioners in the region. The insights presented are derived from Innovation from Tradition workshops, which aimed to reframe the creative economy within an island context, elicit knowledge surrounding local cultural assets and explore the innovative capabilities of creative practitioners. We reflect on how a design innovation approach allowed us to garner the collective wisdom held in communities and foreground the focal themes of practice, place and people.

Download

Materiality Matters: Exploring the use of design tools in innovation workshops with the craft and creative sector in the Northern Isles of Scotland

The Design Journal, 2017

This paper presents initial reflections regarding the use of bespoke design tools within a series... more This paper presents initial reflections regarding the use of bespoke design tools within a series of innovation workshops carried out with practitioners and stakeholders active in the craft and creative industry sector in the Scottish Islands of Orkney and Shetland. We argue that by emphasising such bespoke material tools located in and inspired by the local landscape, history and culture, we encouraged engagement, provided space for innovation and enabled creative collectives in their goal of enhancing and sustaining the creative economy in rural geographies.

Download

Harmonics: Towards Enlightened Evaluation

The Design Journal, 2017

Download

Experimentation and Imitation: The Journey to Elle 360

The Journal of Media Innovations, 2015

It is widely acknowledged that the media industries are facing an unprecedented period of disrupt... more It is widely acknowledged that the media industries are facing an unprecedented period of disruption within the internet age. Whilst avoiding technological determinism, it is important to recognize the scale of the changes being faced and the altering landscape which media businesses, particularly those with a strong legacy, are forced to operate in (Chan-Olmsted and Chang, 2003; Küng, 2008; Küng, Picard and Towse, 2008; Küng, 2013). This paper focuses on the initial findings from a case study of Elle, UK and the title’s explicit engagement with multi-platform which has involved multiple and wide ranging product, process and content innovations. The paper focuses on an analysis of documentary evidence and semi-structured interviews with Hearst Magazines UK and Elle UK senior employees. With regard to adjusting to a multiplatform approach to publishing, Hearst UK is considered to have innovated more quickly than rivals (Halliday and Sweney, 2013) and Elle UK has engaged with a multi-...

Download

Shaping screen talent: Conceptualising and developing the film and TV workforce in Scotland

Cultural Trends, 2015

Together with 'creativity', the concept of 'talent' has emerged within UK and global policy discu... more Together with 'creativity', the concept of 'talent' has emerged within UK and global policy discussions as being central to unlocking economic success within the creative industries. At a crucial time of political and technological change, Scotland finds itself competing within a highly competitive global market to identify, attract and retain creative talent and strengthen its skills base. As such, developing 'talent' is a key aspect of the Scottish Government's Strategy for the Creative Industries (2011). However, while creativity has been interrogated across academic disciplines in recent years 2007 2006), talent remains under-theorised within the academy and lacks a clear definition across policy and industry. Taking the screen industries as its focus, this paper draws on empirical data derived from a series of knowledge exchange workshops funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh designed to initiate dialogue between academics, policymakers and stakeholders within Scotland and beyond. In doing so, it examines the various ways in which screen 'talent' is conceptualised by these groups and raises questions regarding how particular understandings may impact on policies designed to identify, attract and retain a diversity of skilled screen industries workers both onscreen and behind the scenes. We argue that there should be greater precision regarding the discourse used in policy to emphasize the importance of the development of particular and discrete craft skills rather than a stress on flexibility and mobility. We suggest that policymakers and educators must acknowledge and encourage transparency regarding the precariousness of building a career within the screen industries.

Download

Squeezing the Spaces of Creative Production: A Case Study of the Northern Quarter in Manchester, Uk

Regions: The Newsletter of The Regional Studies Association, 2010

Short article published in Regions magazine exploring the gentrification of creative industry spa... more

Book Review: Perspectives on Learning Cities and Regions: Policy, Practice and Participation

Urban Studies, 2011

inclusionary housing is about dispersing the poor in order to avoid, or mitigate, not just segreg... more inclusionary housing is about dispersing the poor in order to avoid, or mitigate, not just segregation but also to avoid riots. Then it also turns into a question on class politics because dispersing the poor disfavours or also undermines the basis for turning exploitation into resistance and political struggle which might lead to (justified and just) riots. It is also a belief that the middle-class way of life is the standard to be sought for. In addition, settling low-income households with children in middle-class areas might be stigmatising because they can hardly afford the consumption and leisure time activities of the middle class. As Calavita and Mallach write in the conclusion, it is difficult to tell whether the poor being ‘included’ or the larger society benefit from ‘‘whatever inclusion taking place’’ (p. 379), but this issue has not been the focus of this book.

Katherine M Champion

Uploads

Papers by Katherine M Champion

Log In