Taking matters into third hands: intermediaries and the organization ...

Taking matters into third hands: intermediaries and the organization of
the creative economy
Organizers: Doreen Jakob (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) and Bas van Heur
(Maastricht University)
For the past twenty years geographers have been analyzing the meaning, role and
importance of the creative economy. It is heralded as a job and wealth creator and as a
prominent tool for urban and regional revitalization. Whether one agrees with these
assertions or not, the effectiveness and ethics of the creative economy will largely
depend on the intermediaries that shape and regulate it. While much attention has
been paid recently to the political projects that introduce a focus on the creative
economy, less is known about the intermediaries that organize and govern it. When
implementing dominant policy imaginaries, intermediaries translate and transform
them in often unexpected ways.
Various intermediaries shaping the development of the creative economy can be
identified, including: arts and cultural councils, policy networks, economic development
agencies, foundations and unions to arts collectives, cultural centers, creative industries
incubators, festivals and tradeshows as well as crowd-sourcing and web 2.0
technologies or marketing and consumption websites. All these intermediaries are
bound together by their critical involvement in and shaping of the production and
consumption of creative goods and services.
This session aims to investigate intermediaries and to further explore their role in
producing the creative economy. Above all, this session aims to provide a forum to not
only investigate these themes but also to establish a basis for future research on
intermediaries in the creative economy.
Session 1: Conceptualizing Intermediaries in the Creative Economy
Chair: Bas van Heur
Presenters:
- Pacey Foster (University of Massachusetts Boston) and Richard Ocejo (John Jay
College, CUNY), Gatekeepers, tastemakers and co-producers: Understanding the
changing role of cultural intermediaries in the new creative economy
- Calvin Taylor (University of Leeds), Between Culture, Policy and Industry: The
Ambiguities of Intermediation in the Creative Economy
- Chris Gibson (University of Wollongong), Academics as expert intermediaries in the
creative economy: negotiating knowledges and positions of authority
- Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt (University of Strathclyde) (tbc), Methods for researching
intermediaries
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- Tone Haraldsen (Institute of Transport Economics) and Atle Hauge (Eastern Norway
Research Institute), Consumerpower in the experience economy
Session 2: Urban Hierarchies
Chair: Doreen Jakob
Presenters:
- Elizabeth Currid-Halkett (University of Southern California) and Allen J Scott (UCLA),
The Geography of Celebrity and Glamour: Economy, Culture and Desire in the City
- Robert Kloosterman (AISSR, University of Amsterdam) and Mariangela Lavanga
(AISSR, University of Amsterdam), Global Urban Hierarchies and Cultural Industries.
A Comparison of the Development of Cultural Industries in Amsterdam, Genoa,
London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, and Zurich, 1900-2000
- Dominic J. Power (Uppsala University) and Mark Lorenzen (Copenhagen Business
School), Trusty Places and Quality-Based Competition: The Geographies of Cultural-
Product Origins and Outlets
- Bas Van Heur (Maastricht University), Mapping the Geographies of Policy Change:
Creative Industries in the Netherlands
Session 3: Government Policies and Strategies
Chair: Benjamin Schultz
Presenters:
- Jules Channer (University of Exeter), In search of solid ground: state intermediaries
and the creative industries
- Galina Gornostaeva (University of Greenwich) and Noel Campbell (University of
Greenwich), Publicly funded intermediaries in the British film industry and the
paradox of embeddedness: the example of the Film Council
- Cheryl Hughes, Study of Local Arts Agencies: A Case for Local Government Support of
the Arts
- Justin O'Connor (Queensland University of Technology) and Xin Gu (Queensland
University of Technology), designing creative clusters in China - a western model?
Session 4: Place and Path Dependencies
Chair: Galina Gornostaeva
Presenters:
- Carl Grodach (University of Texas Arlington), Cultural Planning in a Creative City: The
Role of Context, Institutions, and Process
- Norma Rantisi (Concordia University) and Deborah Leslie (University of Toronto), The
Role of Localized Institutions in 'Path Creation': the Case of the Cirque du Soleil
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- Naomi Bartz (University of Chicago), The Emergence of a Neighborhood-Level
Creative Economy and the Various Intermediaries that Shape it: Divergent Models,
Uneasy Alliances, and Unexpected Tensions across Stakeholder Groups in a Pluralistic
Political Arena
- Özge Öner (Jönköping International Business School), Location of Recreation: A
probability presence approach
Session 5: Inside/Outside the Creative Economy I
Chair: Carl Grodach
Presenters:
- Tara Vinodrai (University of Waterloo), Constructing creativity: Design,
intermediaries and institutions in Canada and Denmark
- Benjamin Shultz (University of Tennessee), The Alternative Art Worlds of the Indie
and DiY Movements
- Karenjit Clare (University of Oxford), Reproducing Gender Divisions: The Role of
Headhunters in the Creative Economy
- Jeffrey S. Boggs (Brock University), The evolution of intermediaries in Canada's book
trade
Session 6: Inside/Outside the Creative Economy II
Chair: Karenjit Clare
Presenters:
- Doreen Jakob (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill), Arts practices in Flux: new
artist collectives for a creative economy
- Catherine Morel (Kingston University), The role of art fairs in the contemporary art
galleries' acquisition and management of legitimacy
- Ned Rossiter (University of Nottingham Ningbo), Logistics and Informal Circuits of
Labour in China
- Harvey Molotch (New York University), Public Restrooms as Taboo Scenarios
Session 7: The Future of Creative Economy Research
Chair: Bas van Heur and Doreen Jakob
Panelists:
- Steve Millington
- Deborah Leslie
- Justin O'Connor
- Tara Vinodrai
- Graeme Evans
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Submitted Abstracts
Session 1: Conceptualizing Intermediaries in the Creative Economy
Gatekeepers, tastemakers and co-producers: Understanding the changing role of
cultural intermediaries in the new creative economy
Pacey C Foster, University of Massachusetts Boston pacey.foster@umb.edu
Richard Ocejo, John Jay College, CUNY rocejo@jjay.cuny.edu
Scholarship on creative economies, art worlds and the production of culture all include
frequent references to intermediaries who manage the search for, selection, production
and promotion of creative products. Sometimes called gatekeepers and sometimes
cultural intermediaries, existing scholarship recognizes the importance of these
functions but has rarely studied them systematically. As a result, there remains
ambiguity about how cultural intermediaries should be defined and what roles they play
in creative economies. In this paper, we contrast Bourdieu's definition of cultural
intermediaries with definitions drawn from art worlds and cultural industries
scholarship. Through this review we identify and distinguish among a diverse set of
roles played by cultural intermediaries including search, selection, co-production,
tastemaking and sense-making. We conclude by describing several contemporary
contexts that illustrate rapid changes in the traditional roles played by cultural
intermediaries. In particular, we argue that changes in the production and distribution
of creative products and the simultaneous fragmentation and globalization of markets
are generating complex new roles for cultural intermediaries. In these spaces, cultural
intermediaries are both separate from and at the same embedded within systems of
mass production. These new landscapes problematize the traditional relationship
between producers, intermediaries and consumers as niche products and experiences
are increasingly being disseminated through mass forms of digital and social media that
include as much as they exclude.
Between Culture, Policy and Industry: The Ambiguities of Intermediation in the
Creative Economy
Calvin Taylor, University of Leeds c.f.taylor@leeds.ac.uk
The networked nature of late-capitalist organization has raised important questions
about both the efficacy and the legitimacy of the role undertaken by intermediary
agents. These questions are particularly acute in the context of the governance of the
creative economy for three reasons. The first arises from the radical scalar asymmetry
of the creative economy itself: what does intermediation mean when economic activity
is granulated according to two predominant levels: at TNC scale at one end, and, SME
(and micro) scale at the other? The second arises from the discontinuity between policy
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short-hand - for example 'the creative industries' (as a category of administration) – and
– its economically idiosyncratic (and often-times policy-indifferent) industrial referent.
The third arises from the spatial ambiguities of the creative economy itself. It simply
does not know what kind of space it is: social, geographic, political or economic? This
paper argues that current thinking about the role of intermediaries appears to
underplay the significance of these three discontinuities, leading to an overly
functionalist (institutionalized) account of intermediation with respect to role, an overlyconsensualist
account with respect to governance and legitimacy, and an undertheorised
account of intermediary agency. As a consequence, the practice of
intermediation appears radically divergent from the theory, leaving intermediary
agencies to navigate the ambiguities of these three sets of discontinuities. The paper
uses cultural political economy to examine the discursive construction of these
ambiguities and draws on the author's ten years experience as a Director of an
intermediary agency.
Academics as expert intermediaries in the creative economy: negotiating knowledges
and positions of authority
Chris Gibson, University of Wollongong cgibson@uow.edu.au
Some time ago (Gibson and Klocker 2004, in Area), I wrote critically about the role of
academics researching the creative economy in the creative economy itself. Academics
researching the creative economy are a key part of the creative economy, expert
intermediaries dispersing knowledges through communities of influence, within policy
circles, and via 'celebrity' circuits of appearances and consultancies. Through these
means, I argued, normative, and often quite neoliberal, ideas of creative economy gain
traction. In this paper, I reflect upon more recent experiences conducting research on
the creative economy as part of two Australian government-funded projects. In both
projects, partner organisations (local councils, especially) contributed funding, and ideas
for research. There were moments in the projects where my position as academic
'expert' was validated by others, and 'performed' by me, in ways that kept intact
qualities of the academic-as-expert intermediary. Advice sought from local councils
invited performances of expertise - especially when considering methods for analysing
the creative economy. Yet too, there were opportunities for the academic-as-expert
intermediary to act as critical gatekeeper, especially when assessing the relevance (or
otherwise) of normative, Anglo-American conceptions of the creative economy.
Accepting the terms of being academic-as-expert intermediary meant negotiating
expected performances, and intervening sometimes in global flows of knowledge about
the creative economy, for political-ethical reasons – discarding irrelevant theories, and
differentiating policy jargon from genuine insight. What matters is less that academics
are expert intermediaries, and more that this position of privilege is acknowledged and
productively negotiated towards progressive political ends.
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Consumerpower in the experience economy
Atle Hauge, Eastern Norway Research Institute atle.hauge@ostforsk.no
Tone Haraldsen, Institute of Transport Economics toh@toi.no
Recently there has been a growing interest in the consumers' role in the innovation
process, their role as powerful agents in the branding process, as important sources of
information etc. This is a much anticipated development, since, especially within
economic geography, the role of the consumers is under theorized and there is also a
lack of empirically based studies on this topic. However, one should not forget that even
though consumers play a new and important role in contemporary economy, there are
still obvious and important differences between consumers and producers, in particular
when it come to distribution of knowledge and information. One way to analyze these
differences is to look at the key players in the knowledge distribution process, vital
actors holding strategic positions - the gatekeepers and the tastemakers. These actors
play the role as mediators of external communication, and are powerful agents in
production, innovation and distribution of goods and services. Based on recent research
on the role the cultural industries play in the so called experience economy, we use
empirical material from these industries to illustrate our argument, and in particular one
of Norway's most important music festival. The empirical findings show that the power
relations that govern the flows of influence and knowledge are quite complex, but never
the less important in the understanding of relations underpinning today's knowledge
intensive economy.
Session 2: Urban Hierarchies
The Geography of Celebrity and Glamour: Economy, Culture and Desire in the City
Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, University of Southern California currid@usc.edu
Allen J Scott, UCLA ajscott@ucla.edu
We have entered a new phase of capitalism and urbanization characterized by the
emergence of a cognitive-cultural economy. This economy is significantly focused on
diverse forms of cultural production that are highly commodified and generate
substantial revenue. These forms of production, therefore, have evolved from
"symbolic capital" to meaningful economic forces. The cognitive-cultural economy in
general and the cultural economy in particular engage in a "winner-take-all" market
whereby the respective industries and workers are concentrated in major metropolitan
areas. The cultural economy is also the locus of a peculiar fraction of the labor force
characterized by high levels of celebrity and glamour, in which the hierarchy among
metropolitan areas is particularly visible. This fraction is both an urban social
phenomenon in its own right and a critical element, both as labor and as icon, of the
cultural economy as such. In other words, the top talent within the cultural economy is
not just a social elite composed of "stars" and "celebrities" but also a highly localized
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social phenomenon. While celebrity and glamour (in various historically-specific guises)
have always been present in large cities, they have today assumed a highly distinctive
functional and symbolic form that is at the same time of unprecedented significance in
the overall dynamic of urbanization and urban life. Those cities which capture the
majority of glamour capital tend to hold strong positions in the global economy as this
attribute tends to operate as strong attractor for, while also being partially created by,
other forms of capital.
Global Urban Hierarchies and Cultural Industries. A Comparison of the Development of
Cultural Industries in Amsterdam, Genoa, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, and
Zurich, 1900-2000
Robert Kloosterman, AISSR/University of Amsterdam r.c.kloosterman@uva.nl
Mariangela Lavanga, AISSR/Universiteit van Amsterdam m.lavanga@uva.nl
Why are some cities doing better in terms of cultural industries than some other cities?
Size, as is often the case, matters. We, however, want to go beyond that and explore to
what extent the position in the global urban hierarchy matters in determining the role
and contribution of cultural industries in cities. We hypothesised that not just the
current position in the global hierarchy is important, but-through path-dependent
processes-also the position in the past. We focus on two groups of cities. The first group
comprises those cities which now occupy a similar position in the global urban system.
The second group of cities concerns those cities which at some point of their history
have been the financial and economic centre of the (western) global urban system
(Genoa, Amsterdam, London, and New York). According to our findings, the past indeed
matters, but the present even more.
Trusty Places and Quality-Based Competition: The Geographies of Cultural-Product
Origins and Outlets
Dominic J. Power, Uppsala University dominic.power@kultgeog.uu.se
Mark Lorenzen, Copenhagen Business School ml.ivs@cbs.dk
In cultural-product markets, from fashion to film, the role of quality and a reputation for
quality is often a considerable asset. This paper addresses the notion that in order to
understand the sustainability of cultural industry clusters we must take into account the
idea that it is not simply the places that generate innovative or novel creative ideas that
win out. The production of quality and its recognition by consumers is also a crucial
process. In this paper we discuss what quality in the cultural industries means and how
it shapes competitive strategy at the level of both the firm and cluster. In particular we
address how two types of place are invoked in quality-based competition. First, we look
at examples of places of origin. These are often, but not always, the production and
origination locality where quality products are produced. Second, we examine how
places of outlet and consumption are crucial sites for the negotiation and dissemination
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of quality. In both cases we stress reflexive processes of building trust around products
and places. We argue that the impact of globalization on the cultural industries means
that complex hybrid geographies exist and that these forge deep interconnections and
interdependencies between places of origin and outlet.
Mapping the Geographies of Policy Change: Creative Industries in the Netherlands
Bas van Heur, Maastricht University b.vanheur@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Drawing on text analysis of policy documents and interviews with policy makers and
independent consultants, in this paper I contribute to recent relational debates on
policy transfer by mapping the geographies of policy change in the case of the creative
industries in the Netherlands.
Emerging in the early 2000s, the debate on the creative industries enabled a variety of
actors to stake out their claims as to what actually constitutes the creative industries.
Strongly influenced on the surface by Richard Florida's creative class argument, the
mainstream of the Dutch debate on the creative industries is a more hybrid affair:
including references to Florida, but also drawing on geography debates on
agglomeration as well as sector-based definitions developed by the applied research
organization TNO. Most recently, we can observe a shift towards a creative economy
approach in which the creative industries become service providers facilitating
innovation in other sectors of the economy. At the same time, consultants have
emerged and have offered their advice to various Dutch cities. Only partly related to the
debate on the national level, these consultants have developed a narrative more closely
aligned with cultural policy and social welfare initiatives. In mapping these shifting
definitions and the various actors involved, I make visible the networks of expertise that
have shaped the debate on the Dutch creative industries and point to the in- and
exclusions that are the result of this particular social order. I conclude by speculating on
the future of creative industries debates in the Netherlands.
Session 3: Government Policies and Strategies
In search of solid ground: state intermediaries and the creative industries
Jules Channer, University of Exeter jc338@exeter.ac.uk
The paper examines the coherence, or otherwise, of state governance of the creative
industries, in relation to 'arms length' intermediaries, witnessed in the United Kingdom
over the last decade. From New Labour's election in 1997, state-led initiatives were
badged as 'creative industries', in pursuit of a Knowledge Based Economy (Jessop, 2008;
Pratt, 2005), and proliferation of intermediaries and a 'joined up' mode of governance
were introduced as the delivery mechanism. However, the notion of coherence, let
alone policy completion, seems more ideological than achievable in the turbulent world
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of neoliberal politics (UK or elsewhere). Do intermediaries search endlessly for terra
firma in a maelstrom, or do are connections made on solid ground?
Focusing on the relationality of intermediaries and State vis-à-vis creative industry
policy, the paper explores a geography of 'different moments' (Jones, 2009:2), in order
to illuminate the effectiveness of intermediaries. Empirical analysis is based on doctoral
study, and on professional experience of cultural development agencies. Drawing on
Jones' notion of 'phase space', scalar governance (Goodwin et al, 2006) and Jessop's
strategic relational approach (2001; 2008), I contend that: (1) spatial-temporal
'moments' of coherence and 'solidity' emerge from multiple processes of state
governance; (2) these fixes are critical to State and intermediaries for (re)producing
hierarchies and power relations, and (re)aligning political goals. I conclude that state
entities are more than messengers of the State, but their devolved regulatory powers
are fragile and transitory. Under New Labour, state intermediaries flourished - today
they are again in search of solid ground.
Publicly funded intermediaries in the British film industry and the paradox of
embeddedness: the example of the Film Council
Galina Gornostaeva, University of Greenwich g.gornostaeva@btinternet.com
Noel Campbell, University of Greenwich noel.campbell2@btinternet.com
The recent decision of the coalition government to abolish Film Council (UKFC) reasserts
the question of the role that publicly funded intermediaries play in the development of
the film industry in the UK. Dependence on the US majors, on the one hand, and public
funds, on the other, made British film industry fragmented and cottage-like in its
organisation and performance. The economic tools of state governance such as
incentives and tax regimes are controversial, promoting foreign inward investment
rather than local industrial growth. UKFC, as its multiple predecessors, was an
intermediary between small-scale, commercially weak film production and an
anticipated consumer with specialised taste for 'British movie', creating artificial and
temporary marketplace. UKFC became the financier and a distributor for many
independent projects in film supporting their development, production and exhibition.
UKFC also contributed to the regional development of the industry, as well as,
controversially, to the stronger position of US TNCs in the industry. All above is of
particular interest to geographers with specialism in cultural industries, creative
networks and clusters. The 'exit' of the UKFC represents one of the 'paradoxes of
embeddedness' (Uzzi 1997) resulting in the increase of negotiation costs and failure of
new entrants to develop the product. That can also lead to the destabilisation of
arrangements between the tightly interrelated players in the London's media village.
The paper draws on the interviews with film producers and the UKFC officials, published
data on the UKFC financial decisions and reflections on the industry issues in media.
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Study of Local Arts Agencies: A Case for Local Government Support of the Arts
Cheryl Hughes, cherylhughes@earthlink.net
My paper, takes a much-needed look at the arts and culture on the municipal level by
examining local arts agencies (LAAs)—the non-profits and government agencies tasked
with defining cities' cultural policies and representing the interests of local arts
organizations and artists.
Specifically, this paper is a benchmark study of the websites of the LAA's of 60 of the
largest cities in the United States. Included is an overview of the agencies that are a
part of this study and an investigation of their governance, their funding, and the
programs and services that they offer. Central to this study is a comparison of the LAAs
that are government agencies to the LAAs that are non-profit organizations and to
determine which model serves larger cities better.
The findings of this study clearly demonstrate that cities are best served by local arts
agencies that are a part of the local government. The financial and programmatic
disparities between a government LAA and a non-profit LAA are substantial. The results
of this study also show that cities with government LAAs rank significantly higher on the
Florida index than cities with non-profit LAAs. On the strength of the data presented in
this study, it can be concluded that communities with local arts agencies that are a part
of local government are more likely to have a better-supported artistic community, and
thus have more arts and cultural opportunities than cities that do not have government
agencies dedicated to advancing arts and culture.
Designing creative clusters in China - a western model?
Justin O'Connor, Queensland University of Technology justin.oconnor@qut.edu.au
Xin Gu, Queensland University of Technology x1.gu@qut.edu.au
This paper draws on some initial findings from a three year research Project under the
Australian Research Council linkage scheme: "Designing creative clusters in Australia
and China". It is looking at the complex emergence of 'creative clusters' in China and
their connections (or lack thereof) with the wider urban creative economy. Focusing on
the policy context, the motivations of cluster developers and the involvement of cultural
entrepreneurs in Shanghai, this research paper suggests that the modeling of the
creative economy in China through western theory gives a distorted picture. This is
compounded by extensive policy borrowing from the west - such as creative cluster -
which nevertheless bears little resemblance beyond the superficial terminology. The
paper focuses on the space available for cultural entrepreneurs within the Chinese
urban creative economy and suggests that this has many similarities but also important
differences from how this unfolded in the western urban context.
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Session 4: Place and Path Dependencies
Cultural Planning in a Creative City: The Role of Context, Institutions, and Process
Carl Grodach, University of Texas Arlington grodach@uta.edu
A significant body of research has demonstrated that cultural-creative economy activity
tends to be motivated less by the cost-based incentives that characterize much
economic development than specific characteristics of place, qualities of the local labor
force, education and networking opportunities, and/or amenities. However, political
and institutional factors may steer the direction of policy in this sphere with little regard
for industrial dynamics or workforce needs. Unfortunately, little research has examined
how cities actually fashion their cultural or creative economy initiatives and how various
actors in the private and nonprofit sector attempt to mediate this process and
transform policy outcomes and imaginaries. This is a significant omission because as
local governments turn more attention to the cultural-creative economy, policy in this
arena is increasingly likely to impact urban development and influence aspects of urban
governance. To address this gap, this paper focuses on the ways that factors related to
the institutional context intersect with outside influences to shape cultural planning and
policy in Austin, Texas. Not only does this research illustrate the complexity of creating
informed policy, but also it highlights that the functional underpinnings of the cultural
economy may depend as much on policy coalitions and context as on the general
internal workings of the field across different places.
The Role of Localized Institutions in 'Path Creation': the Case of the Cirque du Soleil
Norma Rantisi, Concordia University norma.rantisi@gmail.com
Deborah Leslie, University of Toronto deborah.leslie@utoronto.ca
Within the literature on path dependency, it is acknowledged that a path is not
necessarily fixed; that ruptures may occur along the way, in the form of exogenous
shocks or internal disturbances. However, to date, much of the research focus has
centered on how paths are reinforced. Less attention is paid to how a new course of
development emerges, how a path is created. Martin and Sunley (2006) argue, for
example, that a process of 'path creation' is often related to purposive action on the
part of agents to mobilize change. Path creation is enabled by existing policies and
institutions in a given place. As a result, there is a need to conceptualize the
evolutionary process as place - as well as path - dependent. This paper explores the role
or cultural policies in the evolution of the Cirque du Soleil in Montreal. In particular, we
highlight the role of the government supported National Circus School in the emergence
of the firm and in its ongoing creative development.
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The Emergence of a Neighborhood-Level Creative Economy and the Various
Intermediaries that Shape it: Divergent Models, Uneasy Alliances, and Unexpected
Tensions across Stakeholder Groups in a Pluralistic Political Arena
Naomi Bartz, University of Chicago nbartz@uchicago.edu
Much of the literature on the "creative economy" focuses on corporate interests and
their desired profit sector; the young urban professional. However, there are other
intermediaries that play a significant role in shaping and contesting consumer notions of
arts and culture in the city. One site in which this pluralism is brought into sharp relief is
in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver, British Columbia. Ethnographic field
research illuminates three models for the neighborhood's emergent arts identity and
revitalization. The city, in tandem with local/international developers, is cultivating a
corporate model; funding artist-designed doors in new condos to attract higher-income
residents, and courting the arts department of Simon Fraser University to establish its
home in the DTES. In contrast, artists with "do-it-yourself" philosophies have battled to
maintain a toehold in the DTES; one of the few places left in Vancouver with venues that
welcome local bands and rents that allow the viability of small galleries. Finally
community activists promote an outsider art/Native model; celebrating the homeless
and low-income residents of the DTES. Each of these stakeholder groups have a specific
vision for the neighborhood and while power imbalances favor corporate and city
interests, artists and residents have been able to leverage influence through protest and
subversion. Further, the city and developers, at times, recognize other intermediaries as
lending an 'authenticity' to the creative economy; capitalizing on the 'grit' of the DTES.
Thus, the identity of the neighborhood is emerging in unexpected ways through
alliances and tensions across stakeholder groups.
Location of Recreation: A probability presence approach
Özge Öner, Jönköping International Business School onerozge@gmail.com
Presence of recreational services and, entertainment and art related facilities plays an
important role for urban regions. Previous studies have shown that the urban economic
vitality is highly dependent on the existence of cultural activities, city amenities,
concentration of certain types of services and clustering power of people that are
involved in creative occupational activities.
Recreational services, entertainment, and art related facilities play a dual role. First,
they make up a part of the service industry, which has been growing over the last
decades. They also play an amenity role, where their presence makes the region a more
attractive place to be in. Moreover as most services, entertainment and art related
facilities are highly location specific, since they most often are consumed and produced
in the same place. This implies that they are dependent on a big enough market nearby
to secure the demand and to keep the average fixed costs down. Therefore the
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elationship between market size and the presence of recreational services is important
to understand for the intermediaries that are involved in the development of such
services by policy making, planning or investing; and especially for the countries where
state-led policies are relatively dominant in shaping the market circumstances.
This paper aims to examine the probability of finding a number of entertainment and art
related services with respect to market size accessibility in Swedish municipalities. The
empirical results will be discussed with respect to their use for different parties that are
involved in decision making.
Session 5: Inside/Outside the Creative Economy I
Constructing creativity: Design, intermediaries and institutions in Canada and
Denmark
Tara Vinodrai, University of Waterloo tara.vinodrai@uwaterloo.ca
Over the past several decades, geographers have turned to understanding the spatial
and organizational dynamics of creative and cultural activities. The forms of knowledge
and creativity that are most often privileged in this discussion are those that are
embodied in professional classes of workers and embedded within particular social
relations. Work on the 'creative class' is perhaps best known and has generated
significant debate. While controversial, this work usefully draws attention to the critical
importance of creative labour in the contemporary economy. Such creative workers are
often represented through intermediary organizations, such as professional associations
or guilds, which secure the position of these creative communities in the local or
regional economy. Such organizations may also play a key role in forming and shaping
the social and professional networks of these practice-based communities. Yet, our
knowledge of how such intermediaries intervene in labour markets and construct the
underlying conditions for the creative economy remains somewhat limited. Drawing
upon case study evidence from Canada and Denmark, the paper discusses the role
played by professional associations in securing the position of one group of creative
workers: designers. The analysis investigates the commonalties and differences in the
strategies and pathways taken by design-based professional associations in constructing
the local and national creative economy and securing their position within it. The
findings reveal that labour market intermediaries representing the interests of particular
creativity-based professions can be powerful actors that actively shape the trajectory of
regional and national economic development.
The Alternative Art Worlds of the Indie and DiY Movements
Benjamin Shultz, University of Tennessee bshultz@utk.edu
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The independent arts and crafts (indie crafts) movement is a recent phenomenon that
attempts to reclaim traditional skills like knitting and sewing for a younger, hipper
generation. Underpinning the movement is a politicized effort to reduce the social and
physical distance between the makers and consumers of artistic and cultural products.
Adherents encourage people to "make things" on their own as an expression of
creativity, as an alternative to purchasing mass-produced items, and as a way to engage
personally with the artistic production process. While the prevailing research focus in
geography emphasizes art- and culture-led development for the elites of global cities,
the indie crafts movement provides an accessible, democratic creative outlet with
relatively low barriers to entry. Through in-depth interviews with independent artists
and crafters, I explore the ideological foundations of indie crafts from the perspective of
social movement theory. I then examine how indie crafters use web-based technologies
to communicate with and organize a spatially dispersed social movement. I conclude by
positioning my findings within debates concerning the role of art and culture in the
economy and the role of technology in geography.
Reproducing Gender Divisions: The Role of Headhunters in the Creative Economy
Karenjit Clare, University of Oxford karenjit.clare@gtc.ox.ac.uk
Recently, the growing importance of a number of labour market intermediaries has
grabbed the attention of a range of scholars, resulting in the opening up of a range of
new debates. This talk, which draws on a case study of employment practices in the
advertising sector in London, contributes to an understanding of recruitment and
promotion practices of workers. It argues that the rise of headhunters, should be seen
as integral factors in understanding career trajectories of workers in the creative
industries. These intermediaries are viewed as important for assisting in the processes
of job recruitment, advancement and various other aspects of career development.
Drawing on data from interviews, I reveal how headhunters, as labour market
intermediaries affect the professional lives of many employees, and I document how
their work has a profound, though hidden, effect on the employment picture. It is
argued that scholars need to pay attention to the role of headhunters if they are to
understand the informal mechanisms in the maintenance of gender inequality in the
creative economy.
The evolution of intermediaries in Canada's book trade
Jeff Boggs, Brock University jeff.boggs@brocku.ca
As an ideal type, the contemporary Canadian book trade can be conceived of as a series
of tasks — a technical division of labor — that begins as a completed yet unpublished
manuscript and ends as a book in a retail environment. These tasks are often bundled
together — a social division of labor — that emerges in part from tradition, in part from
legal requirements and in part to capture economies of scale or scope. Examples here
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include publishing houses, packagers, distributors, or book stores. This social and
technical division of labor, however, is not static, but dynamic. It is dynamic in response
to a range of tensions and opportunities that impinge on these bundles of tasks.
Analytically, intermediaries emerge to moderate these tensions or exploit these
opportunities, and empirically play a crucial role in the evolution of Canada's book
trade.
This paper focuses on three intermediaries: the now defunct Book Expo Canada; literary
agents; and BookNet Canada. Until its closure in 2009, Book Expo Canada fostered
communication between publishers, suppliers and book stores by temporarily reducing
the cost of face-to-face contact. Literary agents, by virtue of their position between
networks of authors and publishers, manage information gaps in order to collect rents.
BookNet Canada — unlike the other two intermediaries — is a not-for-profit, tasked
with technological and organizational upgrading throughout the book supply chain.
Collectively, these examples provide a glimpse into the regulation of market failures
and the provision of collective goods within one cultural industry.
Session 6: Inside/Outside the Creative Economy II
Arts practices in Flux: new artist collectives for a creative economy
Doreen Jakob, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill djakob@email.unc.edu
During the past 20 years, the art world has experienced a revival and resurgence of
artist collectives as intermediaries between individual artistic production and
institutionalized consumption. However, these groups differ significantly from their
predecessors. Understanding the 'collective' as a form within a socialist social system,
many former artist collectives saw themselves as products of and/or influenced by social
movements. Collectivity was a condition of both cultural and political work. While some
of these traditions persist, new forms of art collectives have emerged that fuse and
combine the idealistic notion of sharing with enterprise culture. The widely celebrated
new artist collectives are, as some critics put it, "hot," "fast, cheap, and exuberant,"
"insouciant" and offer "colorful, guilt-free fun" and "cultural distraction without the
heavy intellectual price tag." Yet their transformation reflects in many ways more
general social, economic and political changes of western society. Like other former
'alternative' and non-commercialized activities, artist collectives have been included in
and thus transformed by mainstream culture and commerce by separating their image
from their history of political activism. To illustrate, this paper highlights the
development of Flux Factory, a New York City artist collective. Founded on the principles
of collectivity and bohemia, its introduction to the institutionalized art world and
subsequent establishment and success within it, increasingly undermines the
organization's ability to sustain its original character. No longer directly concerned with
political work, the new, "hot" artist collectives are symbols of and reactions to a creative
economy that embodies the power of the market.
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The role of art fairs in the contemporary art galleries' acquisition and management of
legitimacy
Catherine Morel, Kingston University c.morel@kingston.ac.uk
Contemporary art fairs are creative industry events which, not only provide a venue for
the (re)enactment of institutional arrangements in the art world but also for the
negotiation and affirmation of different values that underpin them (Moeran and
Pedersen (2009. Through their intensive business negotiations and social interactions
with other fair attendees, art world actors reveal and simultaneously (re)configure the
field to which they belong.
Beyond their economic role, art fairs are largely about symbolic hierarchies and cultural
capital prized by the institutions and individuals attending them. For a gallery owner,
being accepted at a top art fair is not only the promise of a sold out show but also an
'official' accolade given by one of these 'informal academies' of the art world described
by Moulin (2003:48).
Based on intensive fieldwork at various top European art fairs (and their satellite fairs)
and interviews with gallery owners and fair organizers, this paper will provide an
account of the art fair practices with a view to determine how art fairs contribute to
contemporary art galleries' acquisition and management of legitimacy. This paper will
fill a gap in the knowledge about art fairs which, despite their rapid increase in number-
the so-called artfairisation of the art world (Barragan 2008: 18)- remain largely underresearched.
After reviewing the literature on tradeshows and fairs in the creative industries (Skov,
2006, Morean, 2010), the concept of legitimacy (Suchman, 1995) will be discussed in
relation with institutional theory and the art world.
Logistics and Informal Circuits of Labour in China
Ned Rossiter, University of Nottingham Ningbo ned@nedrossiter.org
This paper identifies two key and often ignored intermediaries in creative economies
and culture industries: logistics and informal labour. The paper considers the role of the
informal economy of provincial migrant workers and small businesses in China as an
invisible or partitioned intermediary in the creation of 'innovation' for the so-called
creative economies. Whether it is the pirate culture of shenzhai or self-organization
labour in the electronic waste industries, the informal economy underscores the
possibility of creative economies. This paper proposes that the formal economy of the
creative industries is anything but inventive. More notable is the parasitical manner in
which the formal economy expropriates innovation as it is developed across informal
circuits of labour. Arguably such a relation has always been central to the dynamics of
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colonial and imperial capitalism. But to cast aside such dynamics is to relegate new
conjunctures of the political to the dustbin of history.
In order to account for these dynamics, the paper situates the global logistics industry as
a dominant architecture of governance that modulates relations between informal and
formal economies in China and across the world. Concerned with the algorithmic
management of the movement of people and things in the interests of communication,
transport and economic efficiencies, logistics operates as a key technology of control in
the production of subjectivity. Through a study of social mobilities within and under the
creative economies, the paper investigates how constituent practices associated with
the organization of labour and life foreground new contours of the political.
Public Restrooms as Taboo Scenarios
Harvey Molotch, New York University harvey.molotch@nyu.edu
Toilets, and their aggregation as public restrooms, repel discourse -- that includes
serious analytic attention from social science. This helps public facilities persist as zones
of inequality, indignity, and as mechanisms of exclusion from participation in urban life. I
discuss implications of these dynamics in regard to class, gender, dirt and sensuality
(among other phenomena). I describe mechanisms of spatial, technological, and cultural
reform.
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