Publications and Projects

Our People

About our network

The Cultural Policy Network brings together academics with an interest in cultural policy across local, national, and international contexts. Cultural Policy is understood in its broadest sense. The Network aims to strengthen and amplify existing high-quality research while also creating new opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange

Creative Communities Project

Dr David Wright at the University of Warwick will work in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority, Coventry City Council and cultural organisation Talking Birds to co-create a new foundational economy framework to better understand and represent the value of culture for sustainable and inclusive growth in devolved mayoral authority areas.

Creative PEC–Green Transitions and Sustainability

This network explores sustainability and the green transition in media, screen, and digital production. These mediums shape environmental awareness yet are embedded within complex social, economic and political systems. The network will examine tensions in policy and practice, identify knowledge gaps, and inform future research aimed at fostering a sustainable and equitable industry.

Funded by a Creative PEC Small Network Grant. Intended completion by March 2026.

Museums Get Social! With Ellen Charlesworth (Durham University)

Our hosts Chris Bilton and guest host Cecilia Ghidotti are joined by Ellen Charlesworth from Durham University to discuss how museums, often with very limited resources, attempt to use social media and online collections to engage audiences – and how these efforts can sometimes misfire or distract. Ellen’s current research looks at the invisible absences in museums’ digital collections – and she offers some tips on how museums can engage their audiences more effectively

Coventry City Of Culture 2021 Focus Study Civic, Cultural And Business Partnerships (2022)

The study with specific bodies within Coventry’s civic, cultural and business communities aimed to understand the impact of the Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 title on their operations, networks and partnerships. It identifies the impact of the title in developing and strengthening partnerships and assesses the value and their sustainability beyond the UK CoC 2021 year. Funded by Coventry City of Culture Trust.

'City of Culture' and Mega Events as sites of local cultural decision making

This paper examines the policy legacies and governance implications of large-scale cultural events, such as the UK City of Culture programme. Using comparative case studies, it interrogates how major events influence investment patterns, civic participation and urban transformation. Published as part of The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK.

Surveying the creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem in the West Midlands

This regional research paper provides a detailed account of the West Midlands’ creative and cultural landscape within the context of devolution. Combining historical analysis, policy mapping and stakeholder interviews, it identifies both the region’s pioneering achievements and its persistent structural challenges. The paper shows how overlapping governance structures, fragmented investment, and the legacy of austerity have produced uneven opportunities across the region. Yet it also highlights growing leadership from the West Midlands Combined Authority, local councils and anchor cultural institutions in fostering cross-sector collaboration.

A role for Cultural Rights in local cultural decision making?

This discussion paper argues that culture should be understood and protected as a fundamental human right, essential to individual freedom, dignity and democratic participation. Drawing on international law and cultural rights frameworks, it explores how the UK could embed this principle across governance systems through legislation, funding and education.

How are different legal entities and business models supporting creative, cultural, and heritage sector organisations in place?

This study demonstrates a real lack of information and learning about business models and legal entities in the sector that can be readily accessed by individual creatives, business owners and policy makers. Alongside a lack of quantitative data about size and scope of legal entities across all sub sectors, the qualitative information available, primarily through case studies and testimonials is also not easy to access and often biased towards highlighting the positive impacts of specific initiatives. Case studies of business failure, reasons for winding up and stories relating to growth after business failure or loss are rare. Case studies that provide evidence of impact abound, however, their focus, depth, intention, and availability are sporadic

Creating the golden thread - an ambition for major events in the UK

This research paper examines how different legal entities and business models support the growth and sustainability of organisations within the UK’s creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem.

The State of the Arts

This major new report from the Campaign for the Arts and the University of Warwick is a health check on the UK’s arts and culture, bringing together vital information and official statistics on arts funding, provision, engagement, education and employment. It serves as a stark warning and a call to action for all of us.

‘Not here to help'–Equity members’ experiences of Universal Credit and the Minimum Income Floor

This report uses new data from a survey of 674 Equity members, alongside six focused interviews, to analyse the experiences of social security of those working in the cultural and creative industries. On the basis of this analysis, it makes two recommendations for reform, to better support a workforce which directly generates £28.3bn in turnover and £13.5bn in Gross Value Added annually within the creative industries, which overall make up nearly 6% of the UK economy.

Comparative analysis of pay and conditions: London’s West End and New York’s Broadway

The paper compares the employment situations of musical theatre performers in London’s West End with those working on New York’s Broadway. Based on a combination of in-depth interviews, ethnographic research and sector-specific data, it shows that freelance performers in the UK are paid less and experience greater job insecurity than their counterparts in the US. Further analysis shows that the employment conditions for UK musicians in the West End are more favourable than those of other performers.

Creative and Cultural Work in Europe–Coming Soon

This book gathers evidence and case studies from various parts of Europe and across the different sectors that comprise the creative industries, including the visual and performing arts, popular music, the platform economy, and film.

The creative economy has been lauded by national and regional governments for its job-creating potential, even though the jobs created might be insecure or poorly paid. This edited collection emerges from a research network examining this contradiction. It gathers empirical material and case studies across European creative sectors to explore how creative work is perceived by both workers and policymakers, and how these understandings shape practical worker support

Evidence Review: UK City of Culture Programme

Researchers from Warwick Business School were commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to undertake an evidence review of the UK City of Culture programme, ahead of the design and announcement of the next competition round. This research informed the decision to deliver a UK City of Culture 2029 competition.

Joint Cultural Needs Assessment GuidelinesLink opens in a new window

To coincide with the launch of the new Culture and Place Data Explorer, Arts Council England and the Local Government Association commissioned the University of Warwick to update the Joint Cultural Needs Assessment (JCNA) guidelines, to reference how the new tool can be used.

The JCNA helps local government, creative and cultural organisations respond to the needs of their local communities, with a view to reducing inequalities and obstacles to participation in Arts and Culture.

Joint Cultural Needs Assessment West Midlands

The Joint Cultural Needs Assessment (JCNA) Guidelines were developed by researchers at Warwick Business School (WBS) to support cultural investment within local authorities across England. In partnership with Culture Central, the WBS research team is leading the development of JCNAs in four West Midlands local authorities: Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent, Sandwell, and Worcester. The JCNA process is designed to ensure that culture delivers meaningful, measurable benefits to local communities

Connecting the Golden Thread–Culture shaping the future of major events

This report identifies both the barriers to progress and the practical steps required to unlock greater value within the major events sector. The analysis highlights persistent challenges that limit long-term impact: fragmented policy and an unclear national ambition, funding models that do not match the realities of the event lifecycle, inconsistent evaluation, fragile and temporary governance, and workforce and infrastructure pressures. These factors reduce the UK’s ability to compete internationally and to translate one-off successes into lasting benefits for people and places

We'll Meet Again

Recorded in 2020, 'We'll Meet Again' invites industry experts from film, TV, advertising, publishing, digital, theatre and classical music to reflect on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. How has their work been affected, what underlying issues are being foregrounded, and what are the prospects for change? A flashback to a time of upheaval when we were all trying to imagine a different future....

Empowering Young Voices through Performance Poetry

In this paper we examine the potential of writing and performing poetry to empower young people from marginalized backgrounds to participate in the political life of their communities. Our method combines philosophical analysis with the design and implementation of a poetry workshop in Coventry

Drawing on Cavell’s notion of ‘acknowledgement’, we begin with a philosophical account of the pedagogy that informed the workshop’s design. We then explore how this account informed implementation of the workshop. Finally, we present the results. To unpack the significance of our findings, we examine two poems performed by young people at the project’s concluding event

The potential impact of increased local decision making on freelance workers in the UK's creative industries and cultural sector

This research paper investigates how devolution and increased local cultural decision-making could affect the UK’s freelance creative workforce. Drawing on analysis of labour market data and sector evidence, it exposes how deregulated and project-based employment structures have left many freelancers in precarious conditions, falling between categories of employment law and policy support.

Greening European Film Policy

While climate change has pushed Europe and the world to the point of crisis, it also presents an opportunity to drive positive change in cultural values and industry practices - the creative screen (film, television, and streaming, or FTS) industries are no exception.

These industries, with government policy support and financial incentivisation, must act, and act quickly in ramping up sustainability planning, skills, and value mandates. This will not only enhance their efficiency and strengthen their competitiveness in years to come but will position them as torchbearers in the emerging expansion of green economy strategies and creative industry climate action.

Sustainable Digitalisation– Ensuring a sustainable digital future for UK film and television

This new report from Hunter Vaughan and Pietari Kääpä examines both digitalisation and sustainability across the film and television industry; identifies government and industry levers for positive change; and recommends areas for future policy action.

The report calls on the UK film and television industry to design frameworks for sustainable digital practices. It also argues that policymakers should put requirements and incentives in place to encourage good digital practices across the industry.

Artists with Benefits

How can the benefits system be harnessed to develop a more sustainable and equitable cultural sector? Three episodes featuring academics from University of Warwick, Telemark Institute in Norway and speakers from the UK cultural sector and Arts Council England

Technology for good? AI, hubris and the environmental costs of big data

In the final episode of this academic year, hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk to Sebastián Lehuedé about the environmental costs of AI. AI’s data centres generate carbon emissions and burn through rare minerals, but these hidden environmental costs are often ignored, offshored to remote locations. At the same time, hubristic claims that AI can solve environmental problems from Google and other big tech companies don’t quite measure up. Perhaps we need a more humble yet ambitious approach to AI, recognising its limitations and costs as well as its undoubted benefits

Sebastián Lehuedé is a lecturer in Ethics, AI and Society at Kings College London. He examines AI from a social justice perspective and has published extensively on data colonialism, the ethics of data extraction and the relationship between AI, ‘technology for good’ and the environment