Theme: Media, Culture and Production

Work in Text, Genre and Visual Culture takes a special interest in the textual analysis of film, television, and visual culture. Particular areas of focus include melodrama (visit: http://www.qmu.ac.uk/mcpa/staffMichaelStewart.htm) and screen adaptations of Scottish literature (visit: http://www.qmu.ac.uk/mcpa/staffRichardButt.htm)

Research in Culture, Industry and Production targets cultural production. Its focus includes social and economic history, ethnography and links between culture and economy. For example, we are particularly interested in the way in which culture (books, films, festivals and TV) is produced, marketed, sold and promoted both in the UK and globally (visit: http://www.qmu.ac.uk/mcpa/staffDavidFinkelstein.htm). We also research lifestyle and cultural consumption with particular reference to fashion and popular music.

Our work in Culture, Place, Identity and Diaspora looks at issues of migration, skills transfer and cultural mobility in a globalised world. Examples of project within this area include studies of nineteenth-century printers’ social networks and skills transfer (visit: http://www.sapphire.ac.uk/printersonthemove.htm), and contemporary assimilation across national borders of popular music, for example between Scotland, New Zealand and Canada (for details visit: http://www.qmu.ac.uk/mcpa/staffMarkPercival.htm).

Researchers in the Discursive Practices areafocus on organisational communication in political, cultural and social contexts. Among areas covered are corporate social responsibility (visit http://www.qmu.ac.uk/mcpa/staffEmmaWood.htm), links between media, culture and politics (for further details visit: http://www.qmu.ac.uk/mcpa/staffJeremyValentine.htm) and the study of communication in public engagement and policy making (for further details visit: http://www.qmu.ac.uk/mcpa/staffMagdaPiezcka.htm).

DIALOGUE PROJECT: Peer learning through dialogue

The Portobello High School project ‘Peer Learning Through Dialogue: Young People and Alcohol’ was funded by an Edinburgh Beltane Public Engagement Challenge grant in 2010. A state-of-the-art engagement format was utilised to tap into young people’s knowledge, experiences and needs so that they could ‘co-design’ their own learning, as recommended by the Scottish Youth Commission on Alcohol in 2010.

The starting point was to assume that any peer group of young people could generate a high level of relevant knowledge and develop sensible coping strategies to suit different personal journeys through adolescence and alcohol.

The team spent four months working with volunteers in a series of dialogue and deliberation meetings. As the group came together, developing trust and confidence, it found that beyond the freely admitted mistakes and uncertainties, participants were shrewd observers of the inconsistencies of the world around them where alcohol is simultaneously glorified and vilified; that friends looked out for one another in situations where alcohol could be a danger, and that participants knew what would make a difference for them.

The ideas generated by the group are now being developed into a school-wide project lead by participants of the dialogue group. QMU lecturers, Magda Pieczka and Emma Wood, who developed and ran the project in 2010 are now supporting Portobello High School pupils in developing their own engagement and learning project about alcohol.


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