Placing the creative economy: scale, politics, and the material

摘要

Recent interest in the role of creativity in economic development has sparked a host of conceptual and empirical studies seeking to document the rise of a creative economy, and its socioeconomic and spatial manifestations (for example, Florida, 2002; Grabher, 2001; O'Connor, 1999; Power and Scott, 2004; Pratt, 1997; Scott, 2000). Following from the work of Scott (2000), industries that are characteristic of such an economy represent a blurring of the cultural and the economic; their outputs are valued because of aesthetic rather than solely utilitarian functions. While conglomerates dominate some areas of the creative-economic landscape, creative industries are generally made up of small, agile firms that operate within a networked chain of interrelated activities. Along with creation and production, marketing and distribution are key links of this chain, critical to commodities that rely on capturing (and manipulating) consumer sensibilities (Hirsch, 1972; Pratt, 1997).