Dr Michael Scott

I am a sociologist of cultural production and urban cultural economies, and engage with classical and contemporary social theory to analyse current trends and institutions.

I have a particular research interest in theorising entrepreneurial action within the Creative Industries, the state-market nexus of cultural production, and how the assemblage of finance and digital data shapes creative practice.

My research includes 'Craft fields and the temporal structures of quilting' (2021, International Journal of Cultural Studies), 'Hipster Capitalism in the age of Austerity' (2017, Cultural Sociology), ‘Cultural Entrepreneurs and the Vacancy Fix’ (2018, City, Culture, and Society), the influential 'Cultural entrepreneurs/Cultural entrepreneurship' article in Poetics (2012, available here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael-Scott-4), and the monograph Making New Zealand's Pop Renaissance (Routledge, 2016).

I am currently working on a College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences funded project entitled Creativity and Credit investigating the relationships emerging artists negotiate with contemporary finance and debt.

I teach across undergraduate Sociology topics with a focus on social theory and cultural sociology. I also teach into the Creative Industries degrees, including Creative Cities, Understanding the Music Industry, and Introduction to Popular Music. My involvement in the new CHASS Music Industry program is informed by extensive prior experience as an independent international touring and recording musician (for an oral history see: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/music101/audio/2018840947/eye-tv-s-sean-sturm-on-their-career).

I am a member of The Australian Sociological Association and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.