Caroline Chapain, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham ... Soft infrastructure: some places often emerge in the creative industries map not ...
Location, location, location: exploring the complex relationship between creative industries and place
Roberta Comunian, School of Geography, University of Southampton Caroline Chapain, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham Nick Clifton, Cardiff School of Management, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
Abstract This special issue is concerned with developing a better understanding of the dynamics which affect the relationship between creative industries and their geographical context. A wide literature has attempted to explain the general characteristics of ‗creative places‘, nevertheless there is still little knowledge of the micro-interactions that creative practitioners and businesses establish within specific local contexts. The papers included in this special issue aim to address this question from a range of perspectives; earlier versions were presented at the seminar series organised by the Regional Studies Association Research Network on ―Creative Industries and the Regions‖ (www.creative-regions.org.uk).
Keyworks Creative industries, creative clusters, creative city, location, place.
Creative industries have become a new key dimension in measuring local competitiveness in the last 10 years. Influenced by precursor work on the creative industries in Australia (Cunningham, 2002), the work of Florida (2002) on the creative class in the United States and a strong push from the UK government to foster the development of creative industries at the local and regional levels (Jayne 2005; DCMS and BERR 2008) a new focus has emerged on the importance of place for the creative economy in Europe (European Commission 2010) and worldwide (UNDP/UNCTAD 2008). Therefore, an increasing number of cities and towns in the UK (Oakley, 2006) and worldwide (Tay, 2005; Scott, 2006; Yun, 2008; Kong and O‘Connor, 2009), are interested in understanding what makes specific places successful in fostering and developing creative industries and creative economies.
In fact, although much research on the creative industries engages with detailed case studies of specific cities or areas, both the geographical dimension and scale are are often considered a-critically. More attention thus needs to be placed on trying to understand the advantages and disadvantages offered by specific places (Chapain and Comunian, 2010), not only in reference to their infrastructure or profile, but also in reference to the kind of networks, policy and market dynamics that they can offer to facilitate the sector.
The relationship of each creative business with its location is a complex balance of factors. Scott (2000) underlines how in world cities such as London, Paris or Los Angeles there almost seems to be an organic continuity between the place specific features (architecture and streetscapes), the social and cultural infrastructure (such as art galleries or theatres) and the industrial vocation of certain areas, whether it is graphic design, fashion or others.
Nevertheless, based on the case studies presented in this special issue, we can argue that the complex relationship between creative industries and place effects and impacts both world cities but also smaller cities and rural areas. Four interrelated dimensions seem to determine the
potential of certain locations to support the growth of the creative economy (see fig. 1). These dimensions are as follows: 1. Infrastructure: this is a very broad dimension which can include factors external to the creative economy per se. Issues such as the local availability of business spaces, the wealth of the local population or the tourism and/or transport infrastructure of a place can impact upon the development of local creative industries; 2. Governance: here are included aspects of policy strategies and initiatives and interaction between institutional and non-institutional actors at various levels. Like other economic actors, the creative industries can engage with various policy arenas such as local regeneration, economic development, social inclusion, etc. and therefore all of these can affect them in return; 3. Soft infrastructure: some places often emerge in the creative industries map not thanks to hard infrastructural characteristics but due to soft, idiosyncratic reasons such as networks, a specific image or identity of the place, the presence of traditions which might become meaningful factors in terms of the support for CCIs to develop and grow, and with regard to the attractiveness of certain places for creative people to live and work (Clifton, 2008). 4. Markets: the creative industries work in very fast changing markets (Potts et al. 2008). Uncertainty of demand (Caves 2000) and interaction with clients and customers play a key role for the sector. Markets are also important in reference to the link between creative industries and other related aspects of consumption, in particular tourism and the image of the city. However, it is important to notice that markets are not only physical places but also virtual spaces that have enabled new global perspectives in creative production (Lorenzen et al., 2008).
Infrastructure Built environment, local economic conditions etc.
Soft infrastructure Networks, local knowledge, city image etc
Governance
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES & PLACE
Policy infrastructure at local and other levels, institutional frameworks etc
Markets Local, national and international markets and etc
Figure 1: the complex interconnections between creative industries and place (Authors‘ own)
Geographical scale and location play a role in all of these dimensions. Different creative businesses perceive and experience different levels of ‗embeddedness‘ in relation to local infrastructure, networks, governance and markets. Infrastructure is often place-based. For example, Rosenfield (2004) discusses
the role of local attractions and amenities in the
development of a cluster based on creativity, suggesting that the physical aspects of a place are meaningful to its cultural and creative production. However, it can be argued that the local infrastructure is not always a given, it can be the process of negotiation within national policies and funding as well as with international competitions - see for example the way the European Capital of Culture title is now used as a shaper of creative economies in different cities.
In reference to networks, Ekinsmyth (2002) distinguishes between a level of social embeddedness as well as geographical embeddedness. The first refers to the networks
established in work practices, the second is linked to the place where these networks are manifested; in fact the two aspects are interdependent.
Governance also works at a multi-scale level. Creative businesses connect to and interact with local and regional levels of governance but also affect and engage with national and international actors and policies and their respective types of governance and leadership.
Markets represent a critical dimension for creative businesses which can have both very culturebased and locally restricted markets, but also international and even global markets. These two extremes provide a challenging landscape within which creative industries produce and trade.
The papers included in this special issue present an analysis of the dynamics and interconnections between creative industries and places and shed some light on the way the four dimensions outlined above interplay with the location of creative businesses in different European contexts. Although the papers reinforce the view that the role played by major world cities in the creative economy is extremely important, they also explore different advantages and disadvantages of other types of local environment. Questions remain open as to the significance and properties of the ‗cutting edge in strange places‘ (Cornford and Naylor 2001: 22), and this special issue argues for more research to be undertaken in this area.
The first paper by Katherine Champion explores the old issue of how hard factors, such as the availability of cheap business space can shape the activities of creative businesses and their potential to grow, in the context of Greater Manchester.
Using qualitative interviews with
companies in advertising, film and TV, the author investigates the cycles of regeneration and gentrification in relation to the location of creative industries in different parts of the metropolitan area. In particular, the relationship between location factors and the availability of business
space is linked to the life-cycle of creative businesses, from their start-up phase to their ability to grow and mature.
The issue of business spaces and location seem to be at the heart of many governance approaches and initiatives. This is explored further by Monserat Pareja-Eastaway and Marc Pradel who, in their paper, detail two specific local creative initiatives in the Barcelona Metropolitan area. These raise some issues in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of top-down versus bottom-up attempts to develop the creative industries, especially in terms of economic and social sustainability over the longer term.
Moving from external factors and initiatives affecting creative industries in their specific context, the paper from Rachel Granger and focuses more closely on the soft infrastructure that surrounds the creative industries and considers the importance of network interactions among companies and other organisations. In particular, the author identifies the existence of an ‗upperground‘ and underground networking landscape within the art sector in and around Coventry (West Midlands, UK), where both formality and informally are present. Finally, the authors stress the difficulties of implementing policies in relation to networks as often these types of soft infrastructure cannot be enforced and need to take into account existing grassroots activities and actors.
The paper by Amanda Brandellero and Robert Kloosterman considers more specifically the role of markets and innovation in the relationship between creative industries and places. Markets are set into a variety of geographical scales, from local markets and local systems of innovation, to national and international markets. The influence and interaction between creative industries and their markets have typically been underexplored and this paper seeks to address this issue.
The last two reports included in this special issue present a more practical and policy oriented approach towards a better understanding of the potential that different localities have to attract, retain and grow local creative economies in a non-metropolitan context. Indeed, these two reflections present a policy take on the way rural or less central locations in Europe try to foster creative industries as a new engine for development. Pauline White presents the results of research undertaken in the Western Region of Ireland and considers the possible initiatives and policy interventions that could help develop the sector further, in combining access to resources and markets with the existing high quality of place and life within the region.
Finally, Karin Drda-Kühn and Dietmar Wiegand discuss the challenges of developing the creative economy in small towns in rural areas of Germany, and show the importance of networks as a key policy instrument in this process.
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