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Cultural Production and Consumption

The CP&C Research Group is concerned with the cultural economy of value. In the context of consumer economies increasingly driven by creative work, cultural goods and the immaterial, CP&C research examines how cultural values are accomplished through fields and practices of production and consumption—how they are produced and consumed, negotiated and contested, accomplished and promoted. The group is co-directed by Jennifer Smith Maguire and Julian Matthews. Check out our events.

 

CP&C research is multi-disciplinary and embraces a variety of methodologies. Its principal research streams examine:

  • the cultural economy of value (e.g. authenticity, thrift, Britishness)
  • studying production and consumption 'in the round'
  • media and consumption spaces (e.g. lifestyle media; advertising; brands)
  • cultural producers and cultural intermediaries
  • consumers and consumer issues
  • cultural policy and regulation.

 

Who We Are:

Anna Claydon, Roger Dickinson, Barrie Gunter, Peter Lunt, Julian Matthews, Jack Newsinger, Jennifer Smith Maguire, Elizabeth Van Couvering, Natasha Whiteman

Jennifer Cole (PhD Student; Graduate Research Assistant), Hyewon Choo (PhD Student), Ben Coles (Associate Member), Helen Goworek (Associate Member)

 

Current Projects:

Special issue of the European Journal of Cultural Studies on Cultural Intermediaries, 15 (5), October 2012, edited by Jennifer Smith Maguire & Julian Matthews.

Research projects currently running:

  • What does 'local food' mean? Comparing how 'local food' is represented in the marketplace and how it's understood and practiced by people in their everyday lives: see CP&C Events below.
  • packaging of landscapes in cultural artefacts (family photographs, tourism, television drama etc...) [Claydon]
  • food and the media: production, representation, consumption [Dickinson]
  • cultural policy and the creative industries [Newsinger]
  • cultural subsidy and the cuts [Newsinger]
  • wine cultural intermediaries and the construction of provenance [Smith Maguire]
  • territorial brands: the case of champagne [Smith Maguire]
  • ethics of media consumption [Whiteman]
  • lifestyle media and the production and consumption of the value of thrift: a case study of food magazines [Cole]
  • the cultural production and consumption of the fit body in Korea [Choo]

Previous Projects:

Research projects recently completed:

  • research on people's attitudes towards sustainable consumption of clothing [Goworek]
  • investigating infant formula advertising and retail presentation [Gunter, Dickinson & Matthews]
  • research on infant formula advertising, contributing to a Food Standards Agency independent review of infant formula advertising regulations [Gunter, Dickinson & Matthews]
  • the case of English film and the territorialization of cultural policy [Newsinger]
  • examining the mismatch between the commercial fitness field and population health [Smith Maguire]
  • conceptualizing cultural intermediaries [Smith Maguire and Matthews]

 

CP&C Events:

Find more research-related news and other items in News from the Department.

Cultural Production & Consumption Brown Bag Lunches

  • Informal meetings that focus on members' current research projects. Feel free to come along—bring your lunch!

    • Next date: autumn 2013; TBC

    Location: Bankfield House (132 New Walk, Leicester, LE17JA), 3rd floor boardroom (311)

    Past talks:

        • Jennifer Smith Maguire provided an overview of her work on cultural intermediaries, provenance, and the super-premium wine market. (05.13 College of Social Science ‘Cultures of Consumption Research Lunch’)

        • Helen  Goworek provided an overview of her research in a Defra-funded study on the sustainable consumption of clothing, which aimed: to explore  consumers’ professed opinions and behaviour in relation to the sustainable consumption of clothing; to examine which factors, if any, could influence consumers to behave more sustainably in relation to clothing purchase, maintenance and divestment. (11.12)

        • Jack Newsinger provided a critical primer on current debates around cultural policy, and cultural and creative industries, and introduced work he is doing with a local SME that works with disadvantaged or marginalized populations. (03.12)
        • Natasha Whiteman reflected on her current research on disappearing sites of media consumption, audience (dis)connection and loss. (11.11)

     

    Cultural Production & Consumption Annual Research Events

    2012/13:

    'What does 'local food' mean?' (Autumn/Winter 2012/13)

    Building on last year's 'Thinking with Food' event, we're putting our ideas to work! The CP&C Research Event for  2012/13 is a collaborative research project on what local food means: how is local food represented in the marketplace?; what does local food mean to people in their everyday lives? Data collection will focus on two local food sites: The Leicester Winter Food Festival (18 November) and the Leicester Farmers Market (7 February). A findings report will be freely available, circulated to local groups and organizations involved with local food initiatives, and is part of Greener Leicester and the Leicester City Council's Climate Change Programme of Action.

    Past events:

    'Thinking with Food: An Ideas Exchange' (28 September 2011)

    'Thinking with Food' was CP&C's first annual research event. Co-organized by Julian Matthews and Jennifer Smith Maguire, the event attracted participants from across the UK and EU, including academics, postgraduate students and practitioners involved with the study of food. Designed as an interactive event, the day included a mixture of sessions: formal research papers focused on food in the media and the mediation of food, and hands-on and reflective activities through which all participants had a chance to critically and creatively engage with, apply and develop the ideas and concepts related to the cultural production and consumption of food. In short: a busy and productive day! See the full write-up of the event, including programme and participant list.

     

    Interested in Doing a PhD?

    Members of the research group would be interested in supervising research that considers issues of cultural production and consumption. Please follow the links above to individual members' web pages for a list of potential topics.

    Interested in getting involved as a member or associate member?
    Please get in touch with Jennifer Smith Maguire (jbs7@le.ac.uk).

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