Researching Creative Freelancers
Dr Holly Patrick-Thomson has been researching Creative Freelancers since 2018, under 2 project titles: Creatives in Crisis and Freelance Advisor.
Creatives in Crisis is a research project which aimed to explore the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on creative freelancers, and to look at how freelancers mobilised online communities in response.
Undertaken by Dr Holly Patrick-Thomson, funded by Creative Informatics and currently in write up.
Freelance Advisor builds on the findings of earlier research to build an AI powered peer-advice platform for creative freelancers.
Led by Dr Holly Patrick-Thomson with Dr Paul Lapok and Associate Professor Alistair Lawson, seed funded by Creative Informatics, currently in development.
Creative Freelancers
Background
Creative industries in the UK have, at least since the UK government’s 2001 Creative Industries Task Force, been recognised as a driver of economic growth and cultural expression.
Methods
Creatives in Crisis used a netnographic approach (Kozinets, 2010) as adopted by previous research on online communities (e.g. Kirk and Milnes, 2015, Patrick-Thomson and Kranert, 2020), supplemented by online video interviews. Freelance Advisor is an interdisciplinary project drawing on design methodologies.
Ethics
This research has received ethical approval from the Research Integrity Committee at Edinburgh Napier University’s Business School. The main concerns in any piece of netnographic research relate to
(1) the ability to inform all participants about the research and
(2) the use of data that was created by the participant for a reason other than the research.
The Researcher
This research is led by Dr Holly Patrick-Thomson.
Holly has studied organisations, creative industries and work at the University of St Andrews, the University of Technology of Sydney, and now researches and lectures at Edinburgh Napier University.
Her research on creative work predominantly focusses on the tensions and precarity experienced by creative workers, particularly freelancers, and the forms of peer support and solidarity this produces. She has published articles on these topics in international journals such as Work Employment and Society, Management Learning, and the Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management. She collaborates with creative businesses, campaign groups and industry bodies in the UK and is Chair of the British Academy of Management Special Interest Group for Creative and Cultural Industries.
Outcomes
Holly’s work on creative freelancers has been published in Work, Employment and Society and outcomes of the 2 projects featured here have been presented at the British Academy of Management and the European Group for Organisation Studies, in addition to presentations to partners and industry bodies.
Contact us.
Dr Holly Patrick
The Business School
Edinburgh Napier University
219 Colinton Road
Edinburgh
EH14 1DJ