“A Question of Value?” Mapping and measuring the Scottish music industries

Allan, Robert (2024) “A Question of Value?” Mapping and measuring the Scottish music industries. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The Scottish music industries have so far been neglected in favour of mapping UK-wide music activities. Although small in scale, Scotland often punches above its weight in creative output and deserves to be examined on its own merit. Therefore, this study will redirect the academic focus to the Scottish context, offering the first national mapping investigation of the last twenty years.

The thesis is a sociological investigation exploring the working lives and experiences of music creators and cultural intermediaries living in Scotland. The thesis uses semi-structured interviews and an online survey with the additional collection of desk-based research. The study first provides a foundation for the remainder of the thesis by examining seven key sectors of activity from an artistcentric perspective. Those sectors are then measured to estimate their economic worth. The music sector is then examined for its value-creating abilities, arguing that exchange-value should not be given primacy over use-value. Finally, the thesis examines the impact of Covid-19 in Scotland, arguing that several structural flaws, identifiable pre-pandemic, were only exacerbated by lockdown measures.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor; H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; M Music and Books on Music > M Music
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts
• Supervisor's Name: Brennan, Professor Matt and Williamson, Dr. John C.
• Date of Award: 2024
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2024-84649
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 05 Nov 2024 08:58
• Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 09:02
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84649
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84649