[iDC] Praxis-based Ph.D.s

[Danny Butt]

A couple of questions which I think are fundamental to the practice- 
based PhD:

1) The PhD is fundamentally a research training qualification, and in  
different countries and institutions the research/creativepractice  
homologies are more or less developed. Is the practice component seen  
as i) research in itself, ii) somehow equivalent to research but not  
exactly the same, or iii) not research but a reflexive form of  
practice which requires academic writing to secure its contribution  
to knowledge (or transferability)? In my view, there are no right  
answers to these questions but they are more or less determined by  
the institutions responsible for the money, with governments taking a  
much stronger role in the Commonwealth countries than in the US, and  
a range of different approaches among the non-English speaking  
countries which others will know more about than me. The point is  
that one needs to have a viable definition of research, and be  
prepared to make a strong case for the role that practice plays in  
the research qualification.

2) There are a whole lot of useful questions in other professions  
that are relevant to this discussion. In particular, I'm intrigued by  
why there isn't more discussion of professional doctorates such as  
those found in disciplines like engineering, business administration  
or clinical psychology; which seem to have similar issues about the  
inseparability of the professional domain from disciplinary  
leadership, and could provide useful models. My gut feeling is that  
there is a lot of anxiety about branding and the PhD is surely the  
most exclusive brand among research qualifications, with a near- 
mystical appeal for the artist-academic who may or may not have a  
very strong academic research orientation in their work. I'm  
surprised at how little benchmarking with other professions seems to  
have taken place with some of these qualifications (which vary  
greatly from institution to institution as far as I can tell).

Another off the cuff:
3) What role does laboratory practice and training play in the hard  
sciences, and how would those be equated with craft skills in the  
creative sector? Would this question have implications for how we  
conceive practice-based creative research?

Anyone interested in this discussion may wish to check out the PhD  
Design list which has a whole bunch of experienced people discussing  
these issues:

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/phd-design.html

Best regards,

Danny


-- 
Danny Butt
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