Cities and the Cultural Economy

Thomas A. Hutton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781136251412
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

The cultural economy forms a leading trajectory of urban development, and has emerged as a key facet of globalizing cities. Cultural industries include new media, digital arts, music and film, and the design industries and professions, as well as allied consumption and spectacle in the city. The cultural economy now represents the third-largest sector in many metropolitan cities of the West including London, Berlin, New York, San Francisco, and Melbourne, and is increasingly influential in the development of East Asian cities (Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore), as well as the mega-cities of the Global South (e.g. Mumbai, Capetown, and São Paulo).

Cities and the Cultural Economy provides a critical integration of the burgeoning research and policy literatures in one of the most prominent sub-fields of contemporary urban studies. Policies for cultural economy are increasingly evident within planning, development and place-marketing programs, requiring large resource commitments, but producing – on the evidence – highly uneven results. Accordingly the volume includes a critical review of how the new cultural economy is reshaping urban labour, housing and property markets, contributing to gentrification and to 'precarious employment' formation, as well as to broadly favorable outcomes, such as community regeneration and urban vitality.

The volume acknowledges the important growth dynamics and sustainability of key creative industries. Written primarily as a text for upper-level undergraduate and Masters students in urban, economic and social geography; sociology; cultural studies; and planning, this provocative and compelling text will also be of interest to those studying urban land economics, architecture, landscape architecture and the built environment.

1 Introduction Cities, the cultural economy and urban studies

DOI: 10.4324/9780203104866-1

The cultural economy has emerged over the last three decades as a significant feature of urban development among both ‘advanced’ and ‘transitional’ societies, comprising a diversity of institutions, industries, firms and labour situated within both the production and consumption sectors.

The cultural economy represents not a total break with earlier economic periods, but rather a complex blend of novelty (notably innovations in production and communications technologies) and more established development factors: capital, labour markets, production systems and space.

While the growth of a ‘new cultural economy’ of new media, digital production, cultural tourism and social media takes centre stage both in the popular imagination and in the aspirations of city officials, ‘culture’ pervades every aspect of the city, including issues of identity formation, social organization, production modalities, performance and place. Each of these in turn contributes to shaping the structures and systems of the economy of the city and to urban development generally.

Chapter 1 sets the scene for the book by identifying key themes associated with the cultural economy of the city and examples of influential scholarship for each, including: culture and urban growth and development; cultural production and consumption; culture and the reshaping of urban space; culture and community regeneration; culture and the built environment; and cultural industries and new rounds of gentrification.

Culture and the city: historical and contemporary perspectives

Culture has been central to the development of cities through history, as seen in complex interdependencies between ‘process’ and ‘place’ in experiences of urban growth and change, and in the formation of imagery in the city, from antiquity to the present day. ‘Culture’ in its manifold forms represents one of the foundational elements of cities, complementing the social, political, administrative, trading, exchange and ecclesiastical functions, which together comprise the raison d’être of urban places within regional territories and nation states.

Cities – particularly primate cities at the peak of national urban hierarchies – have throughout history performed as sites of specialized, high-value cultural expression and production. Culture has underpinned the development of cities, and represents attributes of identity and power, as observed by Peter Hall in his magisterial treatment of cities at their key moments of ascendancy and influence in Cities in Civilisation (1998). The advantages of cities for cultural activity are derived in large part from their concentrations of capital, skilled labour, markets and political power. Cities have also throughout history encompassed affluent populations (as well as much larger populations of the poor), comprising economic and political élites who possess pools of discretionary wealth that can be used to consume what Allen Scott (1997) has described as high-value ‘cultural products’ – artwork, fashionable garments, jewellery, food and custom furniture, for example – markers of social status then, as now. There is also the tradition of patronage of the arts as a civic mission or personal commitment, in the form of financial support, space and endorsement for artists and other creative workers.

Elements of the cultural economy of the city: sectors and industries

As a general principle it seems sensible to take an inclusive view of the cultural economy of the city. Thus any human activity that embodies symbolic meaning, or is shaped by cultural factors, can be construed as contributing to cultural vitality in the city, although the potential for sale, trade, or exchange can be justified as a condition for inclusion within the urban economy. Culture and creativity may comprise end products within the consumer markets of economic systems, as in music performance and the visual arts; or, in other cases, as inputs to production processes in the urban economy (such as industrial design for consumer goods; architecture in the production of the built environment). Then there are myriad creative acts that remain internal to the individual for self-actualization purposes, and that therefore lie outside the ‘economy’ per se; but which may contribute to the development of personal creativity, and therefore to the ‘cultural capital’ of communities.

I acknowledge a productionist emphasis in analytical terms, as a means of imparting a logic and system of thinking about the place of the culture in the larger urban-regional economy. This stance accepts both the saliency of consumption in contemporary cities and the interpenetration of production and consumption in the cultural economy, but embodies a degree of scepticism regarding the more ebullient claims concerning the putative ‘consumer city’, or city as ‘entertainment machine’: tropes that offer an inadequate basis for retheorizing the contemporary city. But equally I want to establish a very expansive idea of cultural production that includes the centrality of creative impulses in the production of urban imaginaries, the role of culture in the production of space, and, more generally, the saliency of cultural content in knowledge production within advanced economies.

An important part of the task of estimating the dimensions of the cultural economy is that of establishing a robust taxonomy of activities for the purposes of analysis, theory-building and policy-making. This is a complex assignment, given both the ‘fuzzy boundaries’ of many creative fields, as well as the volatile nature of key cultural industries such as new media and social media in an era of near-constant technological innovation. Taxonomies established earlier for positioning the sectors, industries, labour and production systems of the classic Industrial City from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries were based on manufacturing industries and labour but comprised as well allied warehousing and distribution functions.

For the services sector, which encompasses many activities engaged in the production of ‘intangible outputs’ such as knowledge and information, one binary form of classification comprises (a) services provided directly to consumers for final demand, including retail, personal services and most public sector services, and, (b) intermediate demand services, which are largely supplied from service providers (for example, accounting firms, corporate law firms, consultancies) to other businesses. Final demand services are assumed to be oriented towards local-regional markets; while intermediate services are often sold in export markets (i.e. outside the region or nation), generating growth, and with the most specialized and highest-value industries (in terms of incomes and sales) termed ‘advanced producer services’ (APS) (Bryson and Daniels 2007).

A useful taxonomy of cultural economy activities has been generated by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the UK (Table 1.1). This functional approach frames activities within the categories of ‘cultural promotion and preservation’, including museums, galleries, art markets and exhibitions; ‘creative activities’ such as music and the performing arts; ‘creative communications’ including new media and social media as well as publishing and broadcasting; and ‘creative interfaces’ such as in the areas of business, regulation, ethics and intellectual property.

Table 1.1 Components of the creative economy: the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK

Cultural promotion and preservation	Creative activities	Creative communication	Creative interfaces
Museums, galleries, libraries and archives	Music and performing arts	Advertising, branding and the ‘experience economy’	Creative interfaces with business
Heritage services	Visual, literary and graphic art	Publishing and printed media	Creative R & D with science and technology
Arts and antiques markets	Video and computer games	Film, television, radio, ‘new media’ and other broadcasting	Cultural production alongside new technologies
Archaeological work	Architecture	Internet, social networking and other new media	Ethical interactions with technological advances
Exhibitions and festivals	Craft, design and Fashion		Regulations with intellectual property

Source: Luciana Lazzeretti (2013) Creative Industries and Innovation in Europe. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, p. 108.

The economic value of creative industries

Another key issue concerning the classification of creative industries concerns the contribution of arts and culture to the economy. As Andy Pratt (2009) has observed, the arts have been viewed by many as marginal elements of the urban economy, relative to principal ‘drivers’ such as banking and finance, head offices and corporate control, advanced producer services (APS), and high-value manufacturing. But with the resurgence of creative industries over the past three decades, coupled with (in many cases) the decline of manufacturing and some service industry employment categories (notably clerical work), a reappraisal of the economic value of culture is clearly required. To this end the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport (2001) developed an influential structure of key cultural industries (see text box below) together with estimates of economic value and employment levels.

Creative industries mapping document, Department for Culture, Media and Sport – UK

In 2001 the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published an inventory of key cultural industries in the UK economy, including an influential taxonomy of constituent activities, together with estimates of output value, labour force and employment, and regional concentrations of each. DCMS and its consultants and advisors, including Andy Pratt (then of LSE), acknowledged the technical and methodological problems inherent in the exercise, but deployed as a working definition of ‘creative industries’ as follows: ‘those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property’ (from the Background, p. 5).

The intent of the exercise was first, to raise awareness of the value of creative industries to the British economy (estimated at £112.5 billion) and employment (1.3 million), and then, more particularly, to help shape effective development policy and programs targeted towards these industries.

The inventory of the UK’s creative industries, and estimates of (annual) economic value in terms of sales and employment, was presented as follows.

Software and computer services. £36.4 billion; 555,000

DCMS described the UK as the second largest market in the EU after Germany for software, and important specializations include software for the financial industry.

Design. £26.7 billion; 76,000

The report suggested that the UK was a ‘world design leader’ in all fields, including ‘design education’.

Publishing. £18.5 billion; 141,000

Sales and employment underscore the great importance of publishing to the British economy, and its great status internationally.

Television and radio. £12.1 billion; 102,000

Here, the UK television industry is ‘acknowledged as one of Europe’s most dynamic’ (16), with significant overseas sales, and a reputation for excellence.

Music. £4.6 billion; 122,000

The UK represents the third-largest record market globally, and is experiencing high rates of growth in on-line music production and distribution; although ‘E-commerce is challenging traditional systems of delivery’, and on-line distribution ‘poses problems for content creators, e.g. protection of their rights and payment’ (15).

Film and video. £3.6 billion; 45,000

As for other sectors the UK is seen as strong internationally in film and video production and sales, and is increasingly reshaped by digitalization processes.

Art and antiques market. £3.5 billion; 37,000

Here DCMS assert that the ‘UK is home to the second largest art and antiques market in the world’ (14), where London acts as centre for European art commodity exchange, and where the British Council performs specialized support services for British artists.

Advertising. £3.0 billion; 93,000

In this sector, the UK’s status is underscored by London’s ranking as one of the world’s top three advertising centres.

Architecture. £1.7 billion; 21,000

The sales and export performance of the architectural sector of the UK economy has been potentiated by the expansion of British architects working overseas, or securing international commissions.

Interactive leisure software. £1.0 billion; 21,000

The UK Interactive Leisure Software industry is supported by ‘highly capitalized’ studios employing 50 or more, as well as a much larger number of smaller operations with 5–15 workers, and Britain is the third largest market after the U.S. and Japan.

Designer fashion. £0.6 billion; 12,000

The UK has the fourth-largest fashion design industry in the world, with ‘60% of companies exporting’ (14).

Performing arts. £0.5 billion

The UK has over 800 formal performance venues, and over 500 companies producing professional dance, drama, opera and music theatre, and...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• series
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: cities, the cultural economy and urban studies
• 2 The cultural economy and globalizing cities
• 3 The political economy of culture: governance, agency and actors
• 4 The cultural economy and the urban labour market
• 5 The cultural economy, housing markets and gentrification
• 6 Space in the cultural economy of the city: history, theory and taxonomies
• 7 Cultural industry districts in the metropolis: case studies and illustrative sketches
• 8 Assessing the policy record in the cultural economy of the city
• 9 Conclusion: critical reflections on theory, prospects and practice
• Bibliography
• Index