Mark Jayne

Cities and consumption

1. Introduction to Cities and Consumption 2. Consumption and the Modern Day City 3. Consumption and the Post-Modern City 4. Consumption and Everyday Life 5. Cities, Consumption and Identity 6. Consuming the City 7. Consumption and Urban Regeneration 8. Conclusion

Drunk and disorderly: Alcohol, urban life and public space

This paper shows that, despite receiving significant attention, the relationship between alcohol, drunkenness and public space has been undertheorized. We show that where drinking has been considered it has generally been as a peripheral concern of political-economy accounts that have sought to conceptualize the development of the modern city, or more recently the impact of global economic restructuring on urban life and public space. Moreover, such work has posited the relationship between drinking and the political, economic, social, cultural and spatial practices and processes bound up with, for example, social control in modern city or with contemporary gentrification, corporatization, fragmentation and regulation of the night-time economy, public space and revanchist urban policy in very general terms. While drawing on evidence from around the world, this paper focuses on the UK and highlights the need for a research agenda underpinned by a more specific consideration of urban drinking. We suggest that such a project must seek to unpack the connections and differences between supranational, national, regional and local drinking practices and related issues, and in particular pursue a more nuanced understanding of the social relations and cultural practices associated with the emergence of particular kinds of urban drinking spaces.

Geographies of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness: a review of progress:

This paper explores geographical contributions to the study of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness. We argue that where alcohol studies have engaged with geographical issues research has been dominated by a case study approach that has undertheorized the relationship between practices and processes relating to alcohol, drinking and drunkenness and the people and places being studied. We then go on to show the ways in which human geographers are approaching alcohol, drinking and drunkenness via complex interpenetrations of political, economic, social, cultural and spatial issues and unpacking connections, similarities, differences and mobilities between supranational, national, regional and local spatial scales. We argue that such an approach represents a conceptually and empirically important contribution to alcohol studies research. The paper concludes, however, that if geographers are to have a central role in shaping future research agendas then they must engage with theoretical issues in a more detailed and sustained manner, particularly in relation to epistemological and ontological impasses that have to date characterized the study of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness.

Creative industries: the regional dimension?

Creative Industries: The Regional Dimension is one of a series of reports published in recent years by the UK government which outlines the importance of creative industries to economic growth. It is in these terms that central government has promoted the creative industries as a newly recognised and fast-growing sector of the economy, thus seeking to quantify the Cool Britania branding so famously propagated by the then newly elected Labour government. The author unpacks the enthusiasm for the creative industries at the national level, and further investigates how the creative-industries developmental agenda has been unfolding within UK regions. The trajectory of the United Kingdoms creative-industries agenda is contrasted with policy and developmental strategies undertaken elsewhere in the world. It is argued that implementation of a creative-industries agenda at the regional level in the United Kingdom is at best patchy, and there is currently a lack of strategic planning, best-practice models, and empirical research to guide policymakers. The West Midlands is then addressed in more detail, and it is argued that at the regional administrative level, a creative industries development agenda per se is all but lost. The implications of this policy trajectory are discussed.

Culture that works? Creative industries development in a working-class city

Creative industries development has been underway in the city of Stoke-on-Trent for the past fifteen years. Two urban quarters, a creative industries network, ‘design-led’ regeneration initiatives, and live-work spaces for craft businesses are some of the main projects undertaken in this period. In the past year, this raft of developments has been augmented by a creative industries mapping exercise, and a subsequent funding bid that seeks to draw on UK government and European structural funds in order to act on the research findings, and to put their recommendations into operation. This paper reviews this process both in terms of the political, economic, social, cultural and spatial context of the city, and in terms of broader urban agendas. It provides something of a corrective to the rather ‘rose-tinted’ picture often drawn of the role and significance of the creative industries for future economic and cultural well-being. Stoke-on-Trent: ‘The most working-class city in England’

Fluid Boundaries—British Binge Drinking and European Civility: Alcohol and the Production and Consumption of Public Space

Abstract During the past few years, debate surrounding depictions of a ‘British disease’ of binge drinking in contrast to civil European drinking cultures has been a central feature of popular and political debate in the UK. This paper investigates the ways in which these drinking categories have been constructed and identifies how they have become key elements in the production and consumption of public space. Empirical findings are presented from a city in the UK to show how these labels are being translated into policy agendas through the construction of models of citizenship and ways of behaviour and operationalised through the designation and regulation of particular spaces via exclusion zones, quartering, planning and policing. The paper also highlights the ways in which discourses relating to British binge- and European-drinking are being adopted and interpreted by consumers and unpacks how this impacts on perception and experience of public space.

'Design-led' urban regeneration: a critical perspective

This paper develops a critical perspective on ‘design-led’ urban regeneration, which is a fuzzy term used to describe a diverse raft of economic development strategies. A definition of design is outlined and then utilised in an assessment of a number of local and regional design-led urban regeneration schemes. A more detailed critique of one such project, the North Staffordshire Design Initiative, is then undertaken. We argue that there is a lack of best practice models and empirical research to guide policy makers.

Drunken mobilities: Backpackers, alcohol, 'doing place'

This article seeks to advance the understanding of the role of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness as an important, if under-researched, element of tourism. In so doing, we work at the intersection of three bodies of writing focused on mundane mobilities; performativities of tourism and geographies of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness. Drawing on empirical research undertaken in Australia, we highlight how alcohol, drinking and drunkenness are key to backpacking holidays: first, to help soften a number of (un)comfortable embodied and emotional materialities associated with budget travel; second, as an aid to spatial and temporal imperatives of ‘passing the time’ and ‘being able to do nothing’ and finally, to heighten senses of belonging with fellow travellers and ‘locals’. Crucial is participation in specific experiential practices and performativities that are fundamental to practices of ‘doing place’. Alcohol, drinking and drunkenness are key to unpacking backpacking and offer potentially fruitful research avenues for broader theoretical and empirical debates in tourist studies.

The place of drink: geographical contributions to alcohol studies

This paper considers how geographies of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness have been considered within and beyond the discipline of geography. We argue that while there has been a large amount of relevant, detailed and rich research considering ‘geographical’ issues, alcohol studies has tended to under-theorize the role of space and place. While geographers, on the other hand, have been relatively slow to engage with the alcohol, drinking and drunkenness, we show that geography have much to offer future research agendas. Despite recent progress, however, a failing of geographers’ engagement with alcohol, drinking and drunkenness has been an inability to transcend disciplinary boundaries. We conclude by arguing that geographical research into alcohol, drinking and drunkenness must continue to pursue theoretical and empirical advances, but also offer policy-relevant ‘public geographies’ that speak to non-academic audiences.

Worlding a city: Twinning and urban theory

Twinning is a practice that creates formal and informal political, economic, social and cultural relationships between cities throughout the world. Despite its prevalence there has been relatively little academic attention paid to twinning. Indeed, where writers have considered city twinning they have tended to describe local institutional structures and programmes of events rather than theorising the importance of twinning as a global practice. Although producing a detailed picture of current twinning arrangements, existing research has thus glossed over the wider significance of twinning. In this paper, we argue that there is much to be gained from a more focused and sustained theoretical engagement with twinning. We do this by highlighting the twinning activities of the city of Manchester (UK), drawing out two key dimensions of twinning, namely, hospitality and relationality, which reveal twinning as a symptomatic urban process. In doing so we signpost the important contribution that research into twinning can make to broader debates within urban theory.