Oli Mould

The Cultural Dimension

As Raymond Williams argued, ‘culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’ (Williams, 1985, 87), and I would argue that perhaps ‘city’ is one of the other words. Therefore, to attempt to describe the relationship between culture and the city is to open a Pandora’s box of experiences, emotions, practices, places, memories and moments. From the theatre districts of Broadway in New York and the West End in London, via the mosques of Istanbul to the subcultural activities of graffiti artists or underground raves in Shanghai, culture has a very intangible, tacit and complex affiliation with urbanity. From Saskia Sassen’s original articulation of global cities, academic literature has focused almost exclusively on the political economic functions of these cities, and how they exert hegemonic power globally. The work of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) group based at Loughborough University in the UK, under the directorship of Peter Taylor (see Taylor, 2004b), has also done much to forward the rhetoric of global cities as existing within, and the creators of, a world-wide network of advanced producer service (APS) firms, which are often used as a means to quantify how ‘global’ a global city is. In counterbalance to this, critiques of the global (and world) city concept have focused on how there is a Global North bias to those cities which are considered ‘Global’, with other cities being framed in the ‘development’ debate (Robinson, 2002; Watson, this collection).

Invisible Creativity? Highlighting the Hidden Impact of Freelancing in London's Creative Industries

Abstract The creative industries have been identified as a key sector for the UKs economic recovery. Despite the intense focus, however, the working practices of their labour force remain largely enigmatic to public policy. Particularly, freelancers, who make up a large proportion of labour within the creative industries, remain largely under-researched. This paper seeks to highlight the importance of freelancers to the creative industries through a case study of Londons creative economy. Moreover, by discussing the prevalence of project-based work, this research shows there is a high propensity for firms to regularly engage with freelancers on a project basis—but it is the freelancers who often conduct the more creative aspects of the work. The paper concludes by suggesting that freelancers are a crucial component of the creative industries and should be included in future political decision-making.

My Networking Is Not Working! Conceptualizing the Latent and Dysfunctional Dimensions of the Network Paradigm

Abstract Networks have become a major analytical concept in economic geography and have served to extend both empirical and theoretical research agendas. However, much of the literature on networks is characterized as associative, considering them only as cumulative constructs through the constant enrollment of additional actors. Through the lens of social capital and a discussion of the limitations of the networking paradigm in economic geography, this article aims to move beyond this associative nature and introduce variance in network practices in the form of nonworking and not working. By presenting a hypothetical example of a project-based network, we introduce the concepts of nonworking and not working as latency and disassociation as dimensions of network practices. In doing so, we present a more nuanced approach to the networking paradigm in relational economic geography, one that moves beyond a purely associative understanding to incorporate nonworking and not working.

My networking is not working! Conceptualizing the latent and dysfunctional dimensions of the network paradigm

Abstract Networks have become a major analytical concept in economic geography and have served to extend both empirical and theoretical research agendas. However, much of the literature on networks is characterized as associative, considering them only as cumulative constructs through the constant enrollment of additional actors. Through the lens of social capital and a discussion of the limitations of the networking paradigm in economic geography, this article aims to move beyond this associative nature and introduce variance in network practices in the form of nonworking and not working. By presenting a hypothetical example of a project-based network, we introduce the concepts of nonworking and not working as latency and disassociation as dimensions of network practices. In doing so, we present a more nuanced approach to the networking paradigm in relational economic geography, one that moves beyond a purely associative understanding to incorporate nonworking and not working.

Realizing capabilities—academic creativity and the creative industries

Abstract Higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide are in an era of change. In England universities have been challenged to realize their potential their potential under guise of the so called ‘Third Mission’, which has emphasised the commercialization and technology transfer of academic research. Much of the existing literature is devoted to the scientific dimension of the Third Mission, with little if any recognition as to the non-scientific creative capacity of HEIs. Indeed, the absence of (non-scientific) academic creativity from the Third Mission of HEIs, and by other stakeholders such as the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), means HEIs are not realizing their potential. Realizing the creative potential of HEIs is the second wave of the entrepreneurial university, and entails a new research agenda, as institutions seek to protect and commercialize creative intellectual property (IP). This paper focuses on the spaces and resources of cultural quarters (CQs) as an example of a specific domain in and with which HEIs engage to realize the potential of their non-scientific creative knowledge. In short, the paper proposes that the creative capacity of HEIs represents an under-exploited resource of the new or knowledge- based economy, of which HEIs are themselves key organizations.

INTRODUCTION TO GEOGRAPHICAL ECONOMIES OF CREATIVITY, ENTERPRISE AND THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Abstract. This special issue brings together creativity and enterprise through the geographies of the creative industries. In recent years the focus of academic debate has privileged business and corporate economies, and so this issue seeks to contribute both empirically and theoretically to the burgeoning literature of creative industries. Economic geography offers a rich domain through which to engage with these debates, exploring the nuances of creativity and enterprise. Our aim, as well as bringing together a set of interesting papers, is to contribute critically to understanding the organization and spatial structure of creative industries and the broader creative economy.

Hung, Drawn and Cultural Quartered: Rethinking Cultural Quarter Development Policy in the UK

Abstract Throughout the last two decades, cultural quarters have been used by many local councils across the UK as attempts to redevelop and revitalize declining urban centres. Cities have spent millions of pounds developing cultural quarter policies, justified by the prevailing rhetoric of culture revitalizing the local economy and the creation of a “cultural milieu” that stimulates creative industry activity. However, in many cases in the UK, visitor numbers remain lower than expected, and in some cases, flagship projects have been sold off or closed down. High rents force out small and freelance creative industry actors, and (non-commercial) artistic interventions are strictly policed. Forming part of the wider debate on the political circumscription of the creativity paradigm, this paper argues that cultural quarters have been viewed within a predominately economistic, dichotomous and simplistic framework. This paper argues that there is a need for a more practiced-based, subjective account of cultural quarters that goes beyond such a traditional framework to include more deleterious practices such as community impoverishment, precariousness and short-termism.

The not-so-concrete Jungle: material precarity in the Calais refugee camp:

On the outskirts of Calais, the refugee camp known as ‘the Jungle’ was recently demolished, the final violent act in a long history of enforced precarity. In recent years, the camp had massively increased in inhabitants, and through the collective actions of these inhabitants, along with the volunteers that helped there, the Jungle inculcated what Doreen Massey would have described as a ‘progressive sense of place’, in that it espoused cultural and social richness, but also violent conflict. Richness in that the camp was a site where home is constantly made by the refugees and asylum seekers with help from the volunteers, but also of conflict because it was under constant attack from the authorities and prefecture of the site, culminating in its eventual demolition. They enacted domicidal and home ‘un-making’ practices, which meant that the inhabitants had to continually (re)make their notions of home. This home-making/un-making/re-making cycle was played out most readily via its materiality which was highly precarious. Through ethnographic and participative methods conducted as a volunteer, I posit that the Jungle was, and arguably still is, a site with material precarity embedded throughout, making it a ‘progressive’ place that mixed hope and despair, richness and conflict, home-making and un-making.

The Calais Jungle

The Calais Jungle has existed in some form for several years. It grew in size tremendously as a result of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, but was spectacularly demolished in October 2016. When the Jungle was still standing, it was a site of intense violence perpetuated by the local police, state authorities as well as French legal systems. Much of the literature that has explored the Jungle thus far has rightly depicted it as an unofficial refugee camp, a ‘state of exception’ and a site of biopolitical experimentation with distinct ‘camp geographies’. However, it is the contention of this paper that while these experimentations occur and fuel the precariousness of the site, the Jungle can be seen as a slum, and indeed, that it can be seen as a slum of London’s making.

Mission impossible? Reconsidering the research into Sydney's film industry

Abstract This article addresses the presence of the large mainly Hollywood productions in the city of Sydney and the perception that there is a marked difference between a film industry in Sydney and a Sydney film industry. Rather than viewing the two figurations of film-making in Sydney as two distinct entities, an approach inspired by Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is deployed, using interview and ethnographic data to argue that if the networks and collaborative connections within the industry in Sydney, and between Sydney and other cities, are considered, Sydneys position within the global film industry becomes clearer. This enables the two differing ‘roles’ of Sydney to be understood as working symbiotically. The first section of the article sketches the underlying literature of the film industry, highlights its preoccupation with economics, and moves on to consider some of the current issues and concerns that emanate from the domestic production industry in Sydney, using interview data gathered in fieldwork conducted in the period October 2004 to June 2005. The debate is ultimately reconceptualized via a focus on the performativity and action of the networks involved in the industry, challenging previous academic literature on the film industry and formulating an argument for the redirection of policy within the Sydney film industry.