Emma Felton

Making Connections: creative industries networks in outer-suburban locations

Abstract The role of networks and their contribution to sustaining and developing creative industries is well documented. This article argues that although networks operate across geographical boundaries, particularly through the use of communication technologies, the majority of studies have focused on the ways in which networks operate in (a) specific inner-urban metropolitan regions or (b) specific industries. Such studies are informed by the geographical mindset of creative city proponents in which inner-urban precincts are seen as the prime location for creative industries activity, business development and opportunity. But what of those creative industries situated beyond the inner city? Evidence in Australia suggests there is increasing creative industries activity beyond the inner city, in outer-suburban and ex-urban areas. This article identifies characteristics of creative industries networks in outer-suburban locations in Melbourne and Brisbane drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork. It argues that supporting and sustaining creative industries networks in these locations may require different strategies than those applied to inner-city networks.

Beyond the Inner City: Real and Imagined Places in Creative Place Policy and Practice

As the economic and social benefits of creative industries development become increasingly visible, policymakers worldwide are working to create policy drivers to ensure that certain places become or remain “creative places.” Richard Floridas work has become particularly influential among policymakers, as has Charles Landrys. But as the first wave of creative industrial policy development and implementation wanes, important questions are emerging. It is by now clear that an “ideal creative place” has arisen from creative industries policy and planning literature and that this ideal place is located in inner cities. In this article, the authors shift focus away from the inner city to where most Australians live: the outer suburbs. They report on a qualitative research study into the practices of outer-suburban creative industries workers in Redcliffe, Australia, arguing that the accepted geography of creative places requires some recalibration once the material and experiential aspects of creative places are taken into account.

Creativity and the Australian suburbs: the appeal of suburban localities for the creative industries workforce

Abstract The locus of creative inspiration and production is commonly associated with either the dynamism of the inner city or with the natural landscape, with its Arcadian transformative associations. This article considers the spatiality of creative work in an in-between site: the outer suburbs in Australia. The outer suburbs occupy a conflicted status in the national imaginary: frequently regarded as the locus of consumption and materialism, they are localities which few associate with creativity or creative industries. Creative city discourse further instils the idea that all things creative occur only in the inner city. Yet Australia is a highly suburbanised country: the middle and outer suburbs are where most Australians live and work. This article challenges the perception that creativity is spatially clustered in the inner city. It is based on empirical and qualitative research that maps and investigates the experience of creative industries workers in outer-suburban localities of Brisbane and Melbourne. One of the key findings is the significance of the relationship between work and place for creative workers located in outer-suburban localities, rupturing assumptions about suburbia and “creative” inner-city enclaves.

Creative suburbia : cultural research and suburban geographies

Suburbanisation today is not necessarily what it used to be: rather than suburbs being outer urban commuter zones for people who work in the central business district, people living in new suburbs are increasingly likely to work in those suburbs, or to commute to other outer suburbs as their places of work. At one level, such trends affirm the analyses of the ‘Los Angeles School’ of urban geographers about the shift from the classical modernist city, with radial zones spreading out from a city centre where core businesses were located, to a more decentralised, ‘postmodern’ city. But they increasingly move beyond this postmodern perspective, in that the many suburbs are themselves centres of work and industry, and not simply centres of lifestyle and consumption. This article critically reflects upon the contemporary dynamics of the suburbs, and the public discourses that surround their development, in the context of the rise of the creative industries.

Widening participation creatively: creative arts education for social inclusion

University participation among students from low socio-economic backgrounds in Australia is low and nationwide strategies are in place to help bridge the gap. This article presents a preliminary evaluation of a creative arts-based outreach program to raise awareness and aspiration for university study among students from low-income backgrounds. The program is part of a national Australian federally funded initiative, the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program. It reviews an outreach advertising program facilitated by a Brisbane university. We argue that arts education has a particular role in provoking attitudinal change, due to the self-reflective, meaning-making and expressive characteristics of arts-based disciplines. In evaluating the advertising program, the value of creativity and trust as techniques of student engagement is considered. Evaluation occurred in two outer suburban high schools in Brisbane (a State capital city), using surveys and ethnographic fieldwork. The findings support an engagement model that employs creativity and uses student facilitators (undergraduate and postgraduate) to deliver the program, to meet the programs aims.

'Getting the City Right': The City as Crucible for Social Reform

The ways in which urban planning has attempted to address disadvantage through social reform agendas that have been integral to urban planning are outlined, particularly since the origin of mass urbanisation and industrialisation in Europe in the nineteenth century. The ways, in which housing and homelessness are treated, as problems of urban disorder, are examined.