Ben Eltham
Biographic Data
| ID | 351891 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ben Eltham |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ben |
| FAMILY NAME | Eltham |
| SIGNATURE | BEN ELTHAM |
| AFFILIATIONS | Monash University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4639-460X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Infrastructure or industry
For the arts and culture to be regarded as components of overlooked, everyday and providential foundational economy, we need to address the obstacle of how they are currently seen by policy. This article explores how evidence-based policymaking (EBPM) uses statistical data analysis to articulate the value of cultural activity and appraise the policy interventions designed to enhance this value to society and to economy. Within dominant UK and Aus…
Artists as workers’? Re-imagining cultural policy for insecure and precarious artists and cultural workers
In recent decades, policymakers have advanced cultural policies aimed at spurring the economic value and employment growth of cultural and creative industries. The Australian government's 2023 cultural policy, Revive , refers to ‘artists as workers’ and champions the ‘centrality of the artist’ in Australian culture. But a closer examination of the conditions of cultural work yields a gloomy perspective on Australian cultural labour markets. This …
Through a glass darkly
This paper presents findings based on a novel approach to researching identity and inequality in the workplace. Our research results from a large survey of camera department employees in the Australian screen industry. Workers were invited to self-nominate various personal identifications, but also to tell us how they thought they were perceived by others. With this information we analysed workplace discrimination in terms of the various possible…
Trouble at the Mill
Nousferatu”
Universities and management consultants are locked in a danse macabre. We turn to the vampire genre to elaborate on the relationship of consulting companies to the university sector, focusing on the University of Alberta in Canada and Monash University in Australia. We are academics with long experience of the consequences of change management and the employment of consultants in universities. Deb is sufficiently "long in the tooth" that her enti…
A ‘natural experiment’ in Australian cultural policy
In Australia, cultural policy settings differentiate between purported ‘small-to-medium’ and ‘major’ performing arts organisations, primarily in relation to their revenue size and institutional stability. This article publishes a quantitative analysis of the relative creative outputs of these Australian performing arts organisations, focusing primarily on the production of so-called ‘new works’: original cultural texts, created and performed rece…
Australia's Strategic Culture
This article draws on fourth generation strategic culture debates to show the gap between the rhetoric of Australian defence and the more modest reality. Our analysis shows that these limits derive from tensions between national strategic culture and organizational strategic subcultures. There are serious debates in the nation regarding the preferred course of the Australian military and security policy. This article frames these debates by exami…
Three arguments against ‘soft innovation’
n\t\t\t\t\tThis paper critiques recent research on innovation in the cultural and creative industries. In particular, this paper examines Paul Stoneman’s idea of ‘soft innovation’ as a jumping off point for discussing theories of cultural innovation more broadly. Three critiques are advanced. Firstly, soft innovation is a theoretical perspective that has developed from neoclassical economics, and is therefore vulnerable to criticisms levelled at …
Boom and Bust in Australian Screen Policy
In recent years, a narrative has emerged in the Australian popular media about the box office 'unpopularity' of Australian feature films and the 'failure' of the domestic screen industry. This article explores the recent history of Australian screen policy with particular reference to the '10BA' tax incentive of the 1980s; the Film Finance Corporation of Australia (FFC), a government screen agency established in 1988 to bring investment bank-styl…
Catastrophic Failure' Theories and Disaster Journalism
In recent decades, academic researchers of natural disasters and emergency management have developed a canonical literature on 'catastrophe failure' theories such as disaster responses from US emergency management services (Drabek, 2010; Quarantelli, 1998) and the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (Perrow, 1999). This article examines six influential theories from this field in an attempt to explore why Victoria's disaster and emergency manag…
Australian cultural and innovation policies
n\t\t\t\t\t In recent years, Australian cultural policy-makers have begun to pay more attention to innovation policy. Several of the Australian states specifically address issues of innovation in their formal cultural policies, and the Australia Council for the Arts has published an Innovation Strategy which purports to constitute 'a coordinated approach to supporting creativity as one of Australia's most valuable assets' (Australia Council 2006)…
Australia's Strategic Culture
This article draws on fourth generation strategic culture debates to show the gap between the rhetoric of Australian defence and the more modest reality. Our analysis shows that these limits derive from tensions between national strategic culture and organizational strategic subcultures. There are serious debates in the nation regarding the preferred course of the Australian military and security policy. This article frames these debates by exami…
A ‘natural experiment’ in Australian cultural policy
In Australia, cultural policy settings differentiate between purported ‘small-to-medium’ and ‘major’ performing arts organisations, primarily in relation to their revenue size and institutional stability. This article publishes a quantitative analysis of the relative creative outputs of these Australian performing arts organisations, focusing primarily on the production of so-called ‘new works’: original cultural texts, created and performed rece…
Catastrophic Failure' Theories and Disaster Journalism
In recent decades, academic researchers of natural disasters and emergency management have developed a canonical literature on 'catastrophe failure' theories such as disaster responses from US emergency management services (Drabek, 2010; Quarantelli, 1998) and the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (Perrow, 1999). This article examines six influential theories from this field in an attempt to explore why Victoria's disaster and emergency manag…
Australian cultural and innovation policies
n\t\t\t\t\t In recent years, Australian cultural policy-makers have begun to pay more attention to innovation policy. Several of the Australian states specifically address issues of innovation in their formal cultural policies, and the Australia Council for the Arts has published an Innovation Strategy which purports to constitute 'a coordinated approach to supporting creativity as one of Australia's most valuable assets' (Australia Council 2006)…
Boom and Bust in Australian Screen Policy
In recent years, a narrative has emerged in the Australian popular media about the box office 'unpopularity' of Australian feature films and the 'failure' of the domestic screen industry. This article explores the recent history of Australian screen policy with particular reference to the '10BA' tax incentive of the 1980s; the Film Finance Corporation of Australia (FFC), a government screen agency established in 1988 to bring investment bank-styl…
Catastrophic Failure' Theories and Disaster Journalism
In recent decades, academic researchers of natural disasters and emergency management have developed a canonical literature on 'catastrophe failure' theories such as disaster responses from US emergency management services (Drabek, 2010; Quarantelli, 1998) and the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (Perrow, 1999). This article examines six influential theories from this field in an attempt to explore why Victoria's disaster and emergency manag…
Three arguments against ‘soft innovation’
n\t\t\t\t\tThis paper critiques recent research on innovation in the cultural and creative industries. In particular, this paper examines Paul Stoneman’s idea of ‘soft innovation’ as a jumping off point for discussing theories of cultural innovation more broadly. Three critiques are advanced. Firstly, soft innovation is a theoretical perspective that has developed from neoclassical economics, and is therefore vulnerable to criticisms levelled at …
Australia's Strategic Culture
This article draws on fourth generation strategic culture debates to show the gap between the rhetoric of Australian defence and the more modest reality. Our analysis shows that these limits derive from tensions between national strategic culture and organizational strategic subcultures. There are serious debates in the nation regarding the preferred course of the Australian military and security policy. This article frames these debates by exami…
A ‘natural experiment’ in Australian cultural policy
In Australia, cultural policy settings differentiate between purported ‘small-to-medium’ and ‘major’ performing arts organisations, primarily in relation to their revenue size and institutional stability. This article publishes a quantitative analysis of the relative creative outputs of these Australian performing arts organisations, focusing primarily on the production of so-called ‘new works’: original cultural texts, created and performed rece…
Nousferatu”
Universities and management consultants are locked in a danse macabre. We turn to the vampire genre to elaborate on the relationship of consulting companies to the university sector, focusing on the University of Alberta in Canada and Monash University in Australia. We are academics with long experience of the consequences of change management and the employment of consultants in universities. Deb is sufficiently "long in the tooth" that her enti…
Trouble at the Mill
Artists as workers’? Re-imagining cultural policy for insecure and precarious artists and cultural workers
In recent decades, policymakers have advanced cultural policies aimed at spurring the economic value and employment growth of cultural and creative industries. The Australian government's 2023 cultural policy, Revive , refers to ‘artists as workers’ and champions the ‘centrality of the artist’ in Australian culture. But a closer examination of the conditions of cultural work yields a gloomy perspective on Australian cultural labour markets. This …
Through a glass darkly
This paper presents findings based on a novel approach to researching identity and inequality in the workplace. Our research results from a large survey of camera department employees in the Australian screen industry. Workers were invited to self-nominate various personal identifications, but also to tell us how they thought they were perceived by others. With this information we analysed workplace discrimination in terms of the various possible…
Infrastructure or industry
For the arts and culture to be regarded as components of overlooked, everyday and providential foundational economy, we need to address the obstacle of how they are currently seen by policy. This article explores how evidence-based policymaking (EBPM) uses statistical data analysis to articulate the value of cultural activity and appraise the policy interventions designed to enhance this value to society and to economy. Within dominant UK and Aus…
Sociology (7 works) · Cultural Industries and Urban Development (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · Cultural policy (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Public relations (4 works) · Art History and Market Analysis (3 works) · Creative industries (3 works) · Economics (3 works) · Government (linguistics (3 works)