Academic interest in the contemporary cultural industries and creative sector has converged recently on the workers themselves, with a corresponding shift to empirical work using practitioners’ and novices’ own accounts of their creative work and their experiences and expectations. This biographical material includes talk and writing. It is a rich source of illustrative quotations, but how else can it be analysed? What is its status as research evidence? And can creative works themselves become an additional form of data?
 
This half-day workshop will begin with presentations from three researchers who make different use of biographical materials: Linda Sandino (Camberwell College of Arts/ V&A), Maria Tamboukou (UEL) and Stephanie Taylor (Open University). They will describe their empirical work in this broad area, focussing on the data collection and analytic approach, the premises and broad purpose of the research and empirical issues which it raises.
 
Groups will then discuss data extracts which have previously been circulated. A plenary session will be led by Prof. Rosalind Gill (Open University), as discussant. The workshop is for academics and postgraduates with an interest in empirical research on creative work and its practitioners. One purpose is to encourage dialogue between researchers and promote future research contacts. Workshop participants will be invited to indicate in advance any areas of interest for possible collaborations.