Cultural Engineering Group

During the last decades an increasing interest can be observed among urban and economic geographers in creative industries, the creative economy, creative cities, as well as the creative class (Chapain et al. 2012). In addition to this increasing academic interest, testified by several recent special issues in journals such as Urban Studies, the Journal of Economic Geography, Regional Studies and the Creative Industries Journal, also policy-makers at several spatial levels (urban, regional, national, as well as supranational) try to find ways how to foster creative industries. Many studies focused both on the economic functions of creative industries, mainly in terms of employment, value-added production, and exports, as well as on their current organizational features. However, evolutionary and history-informed perspectives are often neglected (Rantisi et al., 2006), as well as explaining differences in dynamics between different creative industries in a regional context. Why is it that some creative industries grow fast in some regions while stagnate in other regions?

The aim of this session is therefore to shed a more evolutionary and dynamic light on creative industries in a local and regional context. In a similar vein as Comunian (2011) recently used complexity theory and complex adaptive systems to explain the development of creative industries in the North East of England, this session particularly welcomes abstracts linking theories used in other fields to shed a new, more dynamic light on creative industries. One potentially fruitful paradigm to draw on, in this context, is evolutionary economic geography (Boschma & Frenken 2011). In contrast to neoclassical theory, this school takes history and geography seriously by recognizing the importance of place-specific elements and processes to explain broader spatial patterns of technology evolution. In this session, therefore, we would like to explore whether notions of evolutionary economic geography, such as path creation, path dependence and co-evolution, can contribute to analyzing and explaining the spatial dynamics of creative industries.
We welcome both empirical, theoretical, as well as policy-related abstracts. The focus can be on any creative industries, such as publishing and literature, performing arts, music, film, video and photography, broadcasting, design, fashion, visual arts, advertising and interactive media as well as creative jobs. We also welcome abstracts that go beyond the narrow focus of creative clusters, namely those dealing with creative cities, the creative economy, as well as creative class in relation to creative industries.
Potential questions include:

• How do creative industries in cities and regions develop through time?
• How can we explain differences in dynamics between creative industries in a regional economy?
• What is the impact of policies at several spatial levels on the dynamics of creative industries and jobs?
• How can individual talents be fosted in the creative industries?
• How can firms in creative clusters be fostered?
• How does the national institutional context affect the development of creative industries in cities and regions through?

References

• Chapain, C., Clifton, N., & Comunian, R. (2012) Understanding Creative Regions: Bridging the Gap between Global Discourses and Regional and National Contexts. Regional Studies, (ahead-of-print), 1-4.
• Comunian, R. (2011) Rethinking the Creative City The Role of Complexity, Networks and Interactions in the Urban Creative Economy. Urban Studies, 48(6), 1157-1179.
• Boschma, R., & Frenken, K. (2011). The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography. Journal of Economic Geography, 11(2), 295-307.
• Rantisi N M, Leslie D, Christopherson S (2006) Placing the creative economy: scale, politics, and the material. Environment and Planning A 38(10) 1789 – 1797

Abstract Submission:
If you would like to contribute to this session, please send your abstract of not more than 250 words to Su-Hyun Berg (berg@geographie.uni-kiel.de) by Friday, 8th February 2013.

Organisers: 
Su-Hyun Berg (Dept. of Geography, University of Kiel, Germany)
Roberta Comunian (Dept for Culture, Media and Creative Industries, King’s College London)
Robert Hassink (Dept. of Geography, University of Kiel, Germany).

Source :

Creative Regions Network

Creative Industries in Europe is a Regional Studies Association Research Network

More information: www.creative-regions.org

Take part to the Creative Regions Summer School 2012
www.creative-regions.org.uk

Filed under: Analyses, Expériences, Gouvernances, Ingénieries, Politiques culturelles, Creative cities, Creative Regions, Culture et développement territorial, Industries créatives, Politique des territoires