Research student
United Kingdom
My career has spanned academia, civil service, senior management and professional theatre. During this time, I have gained in-depth knowledge of organisation and management, research and grant funding, government policy development and delivery,higher education teaching and immersive theatre production. This career trajectory offers the advantage of a distinctive approach to research and research consultancy. Presently completing a PhD, my research and practice is within organisation and management. More specifically, within the processes necessary to deliver meaningful and profitable ‘experiences’ within a developing experience economy.
I am affiliated with the department of Organisation, Work and Technology in the Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), Computing and Communications and the Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts (LICA).
PhD Synopsis
There is a growing consumer interest in purchasing ‘immersive’ experiences. The phenomenon of experiential consumption, driven by live interactions and digital interfaces, is evident within routine retail, themed restaurants, exotic tourism, and more recently, the purchasing of both virtual and live simulated experiences. Primarily associated with business development, I argue the emerging experience economy is an expression of fundamental cultural change. More specifically, subjectivity itself is becoming the product in which consumers of ‘experience’ invest; exposing a new ethos of consumption. The consumer’s ‘sense of reality’ is potentially ‘altered’ (Pine and Gilmore,1999) by the entering of increasingly convincing simulated situations. However, such encounters can be indicative of an ‘ethical inarticulacy’ (Taylor, 1989) leading to conflicting and often irreconcilable ethical demands that underlie the production and consumption of experience.
I explore seminal literature on management theories in a way that allows accessibly to all. More specifically, I reflect the theories and concepts by global examples from today’s organisations to inspire debates and discussions that enable critical understanding, challenge preconceptions and facilitate independent thinking. Topics taught:
Teaching includes:
I am particularly interested in developing the following research area:
CONFERENCE PAPERS:
Digital Research in the Humanities and the Arts (DRHA) 2016 – University of Brighton Sept 2016. Joint-author Dr I. Willcock (Hertfordshire). Ecologies of Experience: A Survey of Contemporary Immersive Practices