Program Overview

MA Culture Industry

Course Overview

The MA Culture Industry is a postgraduate program that explores the interface between contemporary economics and culture, from the scale of a start-up or artwork to that of governmental policy, a city, or the global marketplace. The program focuses on the paradoxes and potentials of the relationship between culture and capitalism, providing approaches in critical and theoretical analysis that enable students to conduct further academic research in areas ranging from art history to urban studies and critical theory.

Department

Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Length

1 year full-time or 2 years part-time

Course Structure

• Compulsory Modules:
  • Theories of the Culture Industry (30 credits)
  • MA Culture Industry Dissertation (60 credits)
  • Research Lab (30 credits)
• Recommended Option Modules:
  • Students take option modules to the value of 30 credits, chosen from across Goldsmiths departments and centers, including the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) and the Department of Visual Cultures.

Assessment

• Essays
• Project report and documentation/placement report and documentation
• Research lab participation

Entry Requirements

• An undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in a relevant/related subject
• Previous experience in studying and analyzing contemporary theory, policy, and sociology, especially as it applies to the creative and artistic fields
• IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing and no element lower than 6.0

Fees, Funding & Scholarships

• Tuition fees: Check the postgraduate fees guidance or contact the Fees Office
• Additional costs: Buying stationery, photocopying, field trips, and specialist materials for assignments
• Funding opportunities: Postgraduate fees and explore funding opportunities
• Scholarships:
  • Media, Communications and Cultural Studies 20% MA fee waivers
  • Media, Communications and Cultural Studies First in Family Fee Waivers

Careers

• Government and non-government sectors
• Arts and arts administration
• Design
• Curation
• Publishing
• The academic sphere
• Journalism
• Media
• The cultural sector

Skills

• Trans-disciplinary analysis of cultural work, aesthetics, urban development, governmentality, financialisation, cultural policy development, technology, intellectual property rights, and the role of cultural institutions

Placements

• Placements are self-initiated by students and supported by the research and organisational network of the course leaders
• Previous placements: BBC, Stephen Graham Gallery, White Cube gallery, SHAPE Arts, Chinatown Oral History Project, Maximum Rock n Roll, the British Council, Black Dog Publishing, Resonance FM, Glasgow Biennale, London Architecture Week, Glastonbury Festival, London Film Festival, the British Museum, South Bank Centre, Grizedale Arts, the Japan Foundation, the London Anime and Gaming Con, and Sound and Music

Suggested Reading

• Theodor W Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, London: Routledge Classics, 2005
• Franco “Bifo” Berardi, The Soul at Work, Cambridge MA; MIT Press, 2009
• Bernadette Corporation, Reena Spaulings, LA: Semiotexte, 2004
• Isabelle Graw, High Price, Sternberg Press, 2010
• Richard Florida, ‘The 3T’s of Economic Development’, in The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited, Basic Books, New York, 2011, pp. 228-265
• Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study, Wivenhoe, New York and Port Watson, Minor Compositions, 2013
• David Harvey, Rebel Cities, London: Verso, 2012
• Robert Hewison, Cultural Capital, London: Verso, 2014
• Grant H Kester, The One and The Many, USA: Duke University Press, 2011
• Thorbjorn Knudsen, Marcus Becker, Richard Swedberg, The Entrepreneur: Classic Texts by Joseph A. Schumpeter, Stanford Business Books, 2011
• Scott Lash and Celia Lury, Global Culture Industry, Cambridge: Polity, 2006
• Maurizio Lazzarato, ‘Immaterial Labour’, in Radical Thought in Italy, Paolo Virno and Michael Hardt (eds), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996
• Angela McRobbie, Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries, Polity Press, 2015
• Andrew Ross, No Collar, the Humane Workplace and its Hidden Costs, New York: Basic Books, 2003
• Richard Sennett, The Craftsman, London: Penguin, 2009
• Tiziana Terranova, Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age, Pluto Press, London, 2004, pp. 73-97

Student Work

• Xueqing Yu: In this project, I have attempted to use the shaping of fiction as a starting point to depict and explore the possibilities of these issues through storytelling, frame-by-frame animation, and audio-visual.

Similar Programmes

• MA Cultural Studies
• MA Gender, Media & Culture
• MA Postcolonial Culture & Global Policy