Making Places While Building Networks

An exploration of the role of the urban environment in book publishing

Barbara Heebels

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040794388
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts

The Amsterdam ring of canals is a much beloved location for Dutch book publishers. An exposition of the meaning of this urban environment for publishers adds to the existing knowledge on book publishers and their business locations. It also contributes to our understanding of the role of urban place in cultural production by looking at cultural production from a relatively unexplored angle – that of the cultural intermediary – and by conceptualizing place as a dynamic concept. Publishers function as cultural intermediaries by bringing together the creation of cultural value and the selling of cultural products. An exploration of the meaning of urban place for cultural intermediaries in building reputation and trust in their personal networks with authors, booksellers, colleagues and the press, shows that place is more than geographical proximity and is not a static condition for knowledge spill-overs: it is a process, one that is interdependent on social networks.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Series Page
• Dedication 1
• Dedication 2
• Table of Contents
• 1. Introduction
• 2 Creative clusters in Berlin: entrepreneurship and the quality of place in Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg: This chapter is co-authored by Irina van Aalst and is published as: Heebels, B. and van Aalst, I. (2010) Creative clusters in Berlin: entrepreneurship and the quality of place in Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg, Geografiska Annaler Series B, Human Geography, 92(4), pp. 347-363.
• 3 Performing in Dutch book publishing 1880–2008: the importance of entrepreneurial experience and the Amsterdam cluster: This chapter is co-authored by Ron Boschma and is published as: Heebels, B. and Boschma, R.A. (2011), Performing in Dutch book publishing 1880–2008: the importance of entrepreneurial experience and the Amsterdam cluster, Journal of Economic Geography, 11(6), pp. 1007-1029.
• 4 Place-making from publishing house to book fair: Dutch book publishers and the role of place in establishing trust and reputation: This chapter is accepted under revisions at Geoforum.
• 5 Social networks and cultural intermediaries: the multiplexity of personal ties in publishing: This chapter is co-authored by Oedzge Atzema and Irina van Aalst and is currently under review, preliminary results have been published in: Heebels, B., Atzema, O.A.L.C. and van Aalst, I. (2012) Publishers as cultural intermediaries: the cultural and economic importance of personal ties. In: Haagoort, G., Thomassen, A. and Kooyman, R. (eds) Pioneering Minds Worldwide: On the Entrepreneurial Principles of the Cultural and Creative Industries. Delft: Eburon, pp. 70-75.
• 6 Conclusions
• References
• Appendix A Descriptive statistics & correlations
• Appendix B Characteristics of interviewees
• Nederlandse samenvatting