MICA MA students visit, 15 June 2009
Don't expect these notes to make sense on their own...
We're going to discuss theories of clusters and the ways in which creative industries businesses rely on a variety of networks for their existence, ranging from infrastructure to access to talented people.
But first, a digression on the question of what is a commodity in the "digital economy" (DCMS 2009).
Charles Arthur, in a post on The Guardian's Datablog, questions the impact of downloads on CD sales by comparing them with the sales of games, DVDs and DVD rentals 1999-2008. Here's a badly-behaved motion-bubble visualization that illustrates how dramatically the buying habits of UK consumers have changed over the past 10 years, based on his data:
Here's Charles Arthur's own visualization:
Social, cultural, symbolic and economic capital (Bourdieu) and cluster theory, particularly creative class theory (Florida 2009), and the emphasis on social networks as generators of value for certain creative industries in what Currid (2007) calls "the Warhol economy".
Local cluster example: Deptford Art map
However, urban regeneration researchers are growing skeptical of policy-makers' faith in cluster theory. Graeme Evans (2009) is critical of how new-industrial clusters and the policy rationales behind them are "used to justify the redevelopment of former and residual industrial zones, with cities utilizing the creative quarter/knowledge hub as a panacea to implement broader city expansion and regeneration plans."
References / Further Reading:
Arthur, Charles. 2009. Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it something else? The Guardian Technology Blog. June 9. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/jun/09/games-dvd-music-downloads-piracy.
Currid, Elizabeth. 2007. The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art and Music Drive New York City. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
DCMS. 2009. Digital Britain: The Interim Report. January 29. http://www.dcms.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5944.aspx.
Evans, Graeme. 2009. Creative Cities, Creative Spaces and Urban Policy. Urban Studies 46, no. 5-6: 1003-140.
Florida, Richard. 2009. How the Crash Will Reshape America - The Atlantic (March 2009). Magazine. The Atlantic. March. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/meltdown-geography.