In my new role as Head of Cultural Policy & Impact research at the Institute of Cultural Capital, I have posted a brief think piece reflecting on my experience researching these topics over the last decade.
This conversation started privately with a few colleagues. I was curious to know which REF 2014 panels they were being submitted to and out of six people, it is fascinating to see how diverse our submissions may end up looking like. Even though we all write on very similar topics, it is likely we are submitted to panels as different as sociology, drama & dance, communication & media studies, and sport & leisure studies.
This brings me back to the experience with RAE 2008, which led to similarly fragmented submissions within this area of research. Given the great progress made over the last ten years proving the case for cultural policy as a distinct area of academic research, this ongoing fragmentation deserves some attention and public debate.
What do you think?