Christopher R Brennan-Horley

Where is Creativity in the City? Integrating Qualitative and GIS Methods

This paper discusses a new blend of methods developed to answer the question of where creativity is in the city. Experimentation with new methods was required because of empirical shortcomings with existing creative city research techniques; but also to respond to increasingly important questions of where nascent economic activities occur outside the formal sector, and governmental spheres of planning and economic development policy. In response we discuss here how qualitative methods can be used to address such concerns, based on experiences from an empirical project charged with the task of documenting creative activity in Darwin—a small city in Australias tropical north. Diverse creative practitioners were interviewed about their interactions with the city—and hard-copy maps were used as anchoring devices around spatially orientated interview questions. Results from this interview-mapping process were accumulated and analysed in a geographical information system (GIS). Digital maps produced by this method revealed patterns of concentration and imagined ‘epicentres’ of creativity in Darwin, and showed how types of sites and spaces of the city are imagined as ‘creative’ in different ways. Qualitative mapping of creativity enabled the teasing out of contradictory and divergent stories of the location of creativity in the urban landscape. The opportunities which such methods present for researchers interested in how economic activities are ‘lived’ by workers, situated in social networks, and reproduced in everyday, material, spaces of the city are described.

GIS, Ethnography, and Cultural Research: Putting Maps Back into Ethnographic Mapping

This article discusses how geographic information system (GIS) technologies were used to enhance ethnographic methodologies within a cultural research project, Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwins Creative Industries. It shows how mapping technologies can broaden the scope of data available via interview practices and produce innovative ways of communicating research results to stakeholder communities. A key component of the interview process was a “mental mapping” exercise whereby interviewees drew sketches, revealing important sites and linkages between people and places. A GIS linked responses to real-world locations, collating and displaying them in meaningful ways. Responses uncovered Darwins unique geography of creative inspiration—a geography that preferences Darwins natural environment over sites of urban creative milieu.

Cool places, creative places? Community perceptions of cultural vitality in the suburbs

This article stems from a project examining cultural assets in Wollongong – a medium-sized Australian city with a decentralized and linear suburban pattern that challenges orthodox binaries of inner-city bohemia/outer-suburban domesticity. In Wollongong we documented community perceptions of cultural assets across this unusual setting, through a simple public research method. At the city’s largest annual festival we recruited the general public to nominate the city’s most ‘cool’ and ‘creative’ places, by drawing on a map of Wollongong and telling their stories. Hand-drawn maps from 205 participants were combined in a Geographical Information System and 50 hours of stories transcribed for qualitative analysis. Over 2300 places were identified. Among them were some surprising results: although places known for the arts and bohemian creative industries figured prominently, these were not only in the inner-city but in beachside suburbs with unique cultural histories. Also, a range of affective engagements with place, including unconventional forms of creativity, were described in industrial and blue-collar suburbs. Network topology analysis by place of residence also revealed the extent of localism, as well as specializations and aggrandizements among suburbs. Our conclusions are threefold: first, that ‘creativity’ is relationally situated and linked across all parts of the city; second, that decentralized forms of small-scale cultural infrastructure provision are vital for vernacular cultural pursuits; and, third, that ‘creativity’ is a polysemic and contested category – only ever partially revealing the contours of cultural vitality in the suburbs.

Multiple Work Sites and City-wide Networks: a topological approach to understanding creative work

Abstract This paper attempts to further spatial understandings of creative work by focusing on the inherent topology linking workplaces together. Topographical approaches to creative employment are advanced by reflecting on how creative activity is linked and enacted across space. Everyday realities of creative work mean that multiple locations are used (for rehearsal, exhibition, for networking or for performance). It is difficult to ascertain relationships between these places using conventional methods such as mapping census data. Instead, I draw on workplace data taken from a creative industry research project conducted in Darwin, a remote city in Australias Northern Territory, where qualitative interviews and mental maps were combined. The analysis proffers two key advances. First, mental map interviews conducted with creative workers can yield, on average, a fivefold increase over census data in the number of important, everyday work sites reported by creative practitioners. This means more detail and subtlety can be woven into analysis. Second, a hierarchy of important intra and inter-suburban linkages can be mapped, revealing the citys creative topology and furthering breakdown of the ‘creative inner/uncreative outer’ urban binary. A topological approach reveals that rather than being CBD (central business district)-centric (which static readings of raw workplace counts per neighbourhood show) creativity is highly interconnected across the city. Such findings bolster the case for reimagining suburbs as vital and functional parts of the creative city. Rather than being typified as secondary to internal-CBD milieus, outer suburbs are highly connected, performing specialised roles in Darwins creative topology.

Geographic Information Technologies for cultural research: cultural mapping and the prospects of colliding epistemologies

This article discusses potential applications of Geographic Information Technologies in cultural research – amidst concern that confusion surrounds what these technologies are, and how they might be used. We discuss the adoption of Geographic Information Technologies in our own cultural research projects, motivated by empirical shortcomings with existing creative industries and cultural planning research methods, coupled with a desire to more fully explore the geography of cultural life within Australian cities. Geographic Information Technologies can comprise a range of technologies (proprietary GIS software systems, GPS, web mapping) that seek to accumulate geographical information for analysis within computer database systems. In our projects, Geographic Information Technologies enabled spatially sensitive questions about creative activity, affective links to city environments and cultural vitality (asked in interviews and focus groups) to be linked to central map databases. “Collisions of epistemologies” (Brown & Knopp, 2008) were made possible, dissolving boundaries between qualitative and quantitative methods, and connecting our philosophical commitment to everyday, vernacular forms of culture to matters of cultural planning. Results showed a refreshing amount of creative activity occurring beyond visible “hubs”, in suburbs and the vernacular spaces of everyday life. Moreover, cultural life – and creative activities more specifically – was layered, localized and multifaceted within cities, in ways that preclude singular generalizations. Geographic Information Technologies and maps – with their capacities to capture complexity and layered phenomena – helped communicate such findings in digestible formats, to a range of community and government audiences.

Life in a northern (Australian) town: Darwin's mercurial music scene

In the present article, we seek to bring critical attention to the idea of ‘scene’ in relation to musical activity in Darwin, an iconic northern, remote, (post)colonial city. The idea of ‘scenes’, in the sense of ‘connections between audiences, musicians, industry and infrastructure’ (Street 1995, 255–63) is pervasive in music scholarship and journalism (Cohen 1999). The word ‘scene’ has a certain linguistic utility, and it conveys a sense of social allegiance and interaction imbued with positive overtones – of people hanging out, creating music and experimenting together, and sharing aural pleasures. Whether explicitly or by default, the corpus of music scene research has been particularly attuned to the uniqueness of place. Ethnographic methods invariably focus research in particular places (Cohen 1995; Bennett 2000) and, more often than not, locational discourses permeate talk of ‘scenes’ to the extent that a scene and its place are often considered inseparable – a form of ‘place-consciousness’ (Street 1995; Connell and Gibson 2003). In some places, musical ‘sounds’ become associated with place because of their genesis in scenes that emerged in particular eras around certain venues, record labels, shops or city districts (Cohen 1994; Connell and Gibson 2003; McLeay 1994; Mitchell 1997). Accordingly, geographical detail and depth characterizes much music scene research.

Landscape Preferences, Amenity, and Bushfire Risk in New South Wales, Australia

This paper examines landscape preferences of residents in amenity-rich bushfire-prone landscapes in New South Wales, Australia. Insights are provided into vegetation preferences in areas where properties neighbor large areas of native vegetation, such as national parks, or exist within a matrix of cleared and vegetated private and public land. In such areas, managing fuel loads in the proximity of houses is likely to reduce the risk of house loss and damage. Preferences for vegetation appearance and structure were related to varying fuel loads, particularly the density of understorey vegetation and larger trees. The study adopted a qualitative visual research approach, which used ranking and photo-elicitation as part of a broader interview. A visual approach aids in focusing on outcomes of fuel management interventions, for example, by using the same photo scenes to firstly derive residents’ perceptions of amenity and secondly, residents’ perceptions of bushfire risk. The results are consistent with existing research on landscape preferences; residents tend to prefer relatively open woodland or forest landscapes with good visual and physical access but with elements that provoke their interest. Overall, residents’ landscape preferences were found to be consistent with vegetation management that reduces bushfire risk to houses. The terms in which preferences were expressed provide scope for agency engagement with residents in order to facilitate management that meets amenity and hazard reduction goals on private land.

Involvement of people with dementia in raising awareness and changing attitudes in a dementia friendly community pilot project

Low levels of public understanding can contribute to the fear, stigma and social exclusion associated with living with dementia. Dementia friendly communities aim to address this by empowering people with dementia and increasing their social inclusion. As a part of a Community Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) process, a multicomponent dementia friendly community intervention supported: research; the establishment of a Dementia Advisory Group and Alliance; an awareness campaign and education in community organisations. Educational events were co-designed and co-facilitated by people with dementia and their care partners. To assess project reach and changes in attitudes of community members, two cross sectional surveys were conducted with adults (aged over 18 years) using validated scales. Independent samples t-tests compared responses to the surveys prior to the commencement of the project (2014) and two years later (2016). In 2016, respondents showed increased agreement with the statements: ‘People with dementia participate in a wide variety of activities and interests,’ and, ‘It is easy to find out about dementia friendly services or organisations in Kiama’. Respondents who attended an educational event reported less negative views about how they themselves would feel if they were diagnosed with dementia compared with respondents who did not attend an event. CBPAR appears useful to support the involvement of people with dementia and the engagement of the community to improve awareness of dementia services. The direct involvement of people living with dementia as spokespeople and educators was an effective way to improve positive attitudes and reduce the negative stereotypes associated with living with dementia. Further research is needed to compare different approaches to the creation of dementia friendly communities in different locations, and to establish the extent to which local interventions are useful to complement efforts to raise awareness of dementia at a national level.

Reflections and Recommendations for Conducting In-Depth Interviews With People With Dementia

Despite the importance and advantages of including people with dementia in research, there are various challenges for researchers and participants to their involvement. This article draws on the literature and experiences of a diverse group of authors, including a person with dementia, to provide recommendations about conducting research with people with dementia. Particular attention is given to in-depth interviews as a qualitative technique. More specifically, topics discussed include interview guide preparation, recruitment, obtaining consent/assent, conducting effective interviews, analysis and interpretation of data, effective communication of research findings, and reflections and recommendations for maintaining researcher and participant health. Given the current obstacles to participation in research of people with dementia, this is a timely article providing useful insights to promote improved outcomes using in-depth interviews.

Maps and Mobilities: On the Possibilities and Limits of Spatial Technologies for Humanities Research

This paper explores the limits of spatial representation for understanding historic mobilities in a rural Australian setting. For this research, an historical GIS was populated from paper map archives denoting where and when bitumen roads were sealed in the Bega Valley, NSW. Using existing geospatial methods, a temporally sensitive network analysis was conducted, revealing a picture of regional mobility reshaped by modernist infrastructure improvements. Yet a straightforward binary pitting sealed roads as ‘good’ vs unsealed roads as ‘bad’ was challenged in subsequent qualitative interviews with long-time residents. Instead, a range of opinions emerged about the role that differing road surfaces played in everyday and historic mobilities. A fuller picture of the motivations and cultural associations of bitumen vs dirt road driving resulted from deploying humanities research methods of interviewing and discourse analysis. Such an approach revealed preferences and motivations that sometimes challenged infere...