Now, let's analyze how we can apply
the categories of culture and creative industries to the academic world.
And first of all, we should stress that academic work would be considered as
a creative work just because it's realized personally by workers,
by themself, and mainly it is realized not on
the vertical hierarchical control but under
the horizontal collaboration based on networked relationship.
So, it's the idea that you should not constantly push, we'll say,
the people to work somehow,
they're pushed by themself because it's not
only the job for them but also a kind of self-expression.
So, another important thing is that
academic work is the production of immaterial goods with a high symbolic added value.
And from this point of view,
it could be considered as a creative work.
And as we know,
academia is considered as a very flexible regime of
work similar than in the lot of creative cultural industries.
It's a flexible work.
Sometimes very concentrated in particular periods of years.
For example, at first half of the year,
you have courses, and you have a lot of students, et cetera.
And a second half of the year, you have no,
and you are much more related towards, we'll say,
conference participation or towards the creation of scientific texts.
Some principles of cultural industries could be directly, we'll say,
applicable, pliable to the university,
to the academic realm.
First of all, as we know in cultural industries,
they use values non-predictable,
and it's used mainly after the consumption of the product.
So, it means that the marketing of demand is very difficult.
I think then, the complexity of education
result makes the education very similar for students.
It means that, yeah,
university use particular marketing form in order to attract students for the programs,
but university can't guarantee how students will use
this knowledge personally just because the ability
of people to use the political knowledge is not predictable in a particular way.
And another thing is, of course,
a particular system of risk curbing,
which is used in creative industries.
And I think that this quite similar model could be used in the university,
applied to the university system, especially, for example,
such models of risk curbing as the catalog.
For example, catalog of courses.
Catalog of courses is historical form coming from
the Scholastic University and the craft-based principal of creative work.
It means that the main concepts of
the cultural and creative goods are produced by a very narrow,
we'll say, craft-based groups and not massively.
I think in education is the same.
Education is mainly narrow group product.
It means that they've quite narrow groups of creative person creating something,
new cars, some new program,
et cetera, et cetera.
Yes, of course they have to approve this program on the committee,
for example, but at the same time, they should,
of course they're liberating
the project of this program by themself in a very narrow groups,
and this is very similar.
Let's take a look on our risk strategies inside
the academia and inside the cultural industries.
First of all, first model of curbing
the risk is the cost planning based on a series of product,
tube and catalog logics,
and not selling piece-by-piece.
I think that this principle of culture industry could
be completely pliable to the university.
University prefer not to sell the courses separately but to sell
their curricula entirely because it's
the possibility to curb some particular risks of course.
Another, it's the higher margin prices,
and I think that this strategy is also very used in universities because,
as we know, the difference of prices over
the university admitment fee in different university could be very, very different.
The difference between one university and another university in terms of,
we'll say, fee could be very,
very high, few times higher.
So, it means that some university using their brands,
using their good name,
et cetera are making a price with a high margin
in order to be able to improve the curricula,
in order to hire the best academics,
et cetera, et cetera.
Another strategy of curbing
the risk is also non-salary based remuneration for creative workers.
Probably, it's not completely employed by the university,
but we'll speak a little bit about the so-called "academic contract",
and we'll see some similarities.
Academic contract is a form of making academic people,
we'll say, free or independent in some way from the administration.
So, it's a kind of the same model than in creative industries.
But in creative industries,
it's ensurate especially in cultural industries.
This independence is ensurate by non-salary based remuneration.
So, the so-called free market relationship based on royalties project-by-project,
in university, this independence is guaranteed by the long-term contract,
even the life contracts.
Another is sharing the risk on the basis of specialized outsourcing.
Of course, for instance,
university are not doing these the good manner,
but we can see the rise actually of the new forms of the so-called
"networked education" when a part of curricular
is insured by one university and another by another university,
and it could be, we'll say,
they consider it as the development and introducing
this particular form of the curbing the risks.
Claiming state funding and support,
and this is not only for cultural industries,
it's not only could be applied to cultural industries,
but also to the university, to the academia.
System of stars, "starization".
I think that university is entirely responding to this condition,
a lot of universities.
We know in each discipline,
there're particular professor stars in
a particular universities who are considered to be best in their field.
Pilot projects, when you're launching the project,
which probably will be closed if it fails,
and if it, we'll say, improve some result,
demonstrating some particular objectives,
this project could be few times,
we'll say, reinvested and finalized.
So, I think that this model is,
for instance, not very largely used in universities.
And finally, the reproduction of successful forms,
which is very important in cultural industries when you're after
the first film on Pirates of Caribbean in launching the second film about them.
I think that the particular strategies or
similar strategies we can observe in the universities when
the university launching after
one successful program another program based on the success of this one.
So, as we can see,
a lot of risk strategies or strategies of risk curbing
coming from cultural industries could be
appliable inside the university, inside the academia.
And probably, we will observe the rise of these models
of risk curbing from the cultural industries
in education in the coming years just because of the,
we'll say, appearance of new forms of
the university's innovations in universities, et cetera.
Iliya KiriaProfessor
