Creativity and tourism: the use of paradoxical thinking and arts-based methods to question western research practices.

Following Hewlett, Bond and Hinrichs-Krapels’ 2017 publication The Creative Role of Research: Understanding Research in the Creative and Cultural Sector a range of astute observations emerged concerning long-standing issues relating to the role and understanding of creative practice in Higher Education, especially it’s social and cultural impact. This is of course not new to practitioners in HE but as a result of Hewlett, Bond and Hinrich-Krapel’s report we have for the first time the closest picture of what practice-based impact looks like in the creative and cultural sector. Released between the 2014 and 2021 REF exercises, the report highlighted a number of on-going concerns including the inconsistency of narrative approaches to evidencing impact, approaches to successfully quantifying public benefit and the need for greater consideration of longer-term impact more suited to creative and cultural practice. Consequently, a number of questions remain which help to shape this symposium including but not limited to: What can we learn from approaches to narrativising research and impact claims in and for creative practice? How can we strategically develop and secure recognition for creative practice artefacts as research objects in their own right? What measures of recognising value and impact are discredited or absent from the REF exercise? What might we be able to say about the lessons learned from the 2021 REF exercise and the role of creative practice researchers? How might we accommodate the on-going sector changes in the UK when pursuing creative practice-based research?