Collaborative Doctoral Award Case study - Manfredi De Bernard

Manfredi De Bernard has been awarded a LAHP AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) at King’s College London to research ‘Complex Cultural Ecologies: capturing value through connections between public, private and not-for-profit organisations in the creative economy’ in collaboration with Creative United, an entrepreneurial community interest company committed to supporting the growth and development of the arts and creative industries. Manfredi is co-supervised between King’s College London and UCL, which enables him to interact with academics and access resources at both institutions. Manfredi started his CDA in October 2019. His research addresses the following questions:

• What are the characteristics, dynamics and direction of these networks and exchanges?
• What are the motivations? What benefits do these exchanges and networks deliver from the perspective of the PFCOs and from the perspective of the CCIs companies or individuals?
• What kind of value (economic, social and cultural) is generated by these interactions and the diversity of the partners and stakeholders?

The project aims to map the collaborative networks connecting PFCOs and CCIs and reflect on the motivations and benefits behind these interconnections. It also aims to quantify the impact and value – economic, social and cultural – of these exchanges, looking at how public funding for culture channels through key cultural organisations to create broader benefits for the private and not-for-profit sector in the CCIs.  The project will take as initial case studies a selection of major arts and cultural institutions and through snowballing and secondary dataset analysis map their ecologies.

The CDA is enabling Manfredi to gain first-hand experience of work outside the university environment through an insight into trends in business and practice in UK CCIs and access to a wide range of professional training and development opportunities as part of the Creative United team. Creative United will be instrumental in providing Manfredi with a wealth of data, expertise, knowledge and contacts to undertake his fieldwork. The project will be of significant value to Creative United’s role in helping to improve their understanding of the intersections between public and private investment in the arts and creative industries, in order to support the growth, development and productivity of the sector as a whole. The findings from Manfredi’s research will help inform public policy towards culture and recognise their interconnections and synergies in a more consistent and transparent way.