Thinking creative clusters beyond the city: People, places and networks

• Published in: Geoforum Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 529 - 539
• Main Authors: Harvey, David C., Hawkins, Harriet, Thomas, Nicola J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2012; New York, NY Pergamon Press
• Subjects: Bgi / Prodig; Bias; Cities and towns; Cluster; Cluster analysis; Creative industries; Creative work; Creativity; Cultural relations; Dynamics; England; Ethnography; Europe; Geography; Geopolitics; Industry; Interdependence; Networks; Personnel; Practitioner; Production; Rural; Rural Areas; Rural geography; Social participation; Social Reproduction; Spatial analysis; Staff; The British Isles; United Kingdom; Urban Areas; Urban policy; Values; England; United Kingdom; Cornwall; Rural; Practitioner; Networks; Cluster; Personnel; Creative industries; Rural area; Creative industry; Innovation; Spatial embeddedness; Network
• ISSN: 0016-7185; 1872-9398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.11.010

► We broaden creative sector analysis by examining a small rural creative cluster. ► We contribute an ethnographic approach to the study of creative sector geographies. ► We examine the relations that constitute, and are constituted by, the cluster. ► We address the spatial and temporal complexity of creative clusters. ► We study the networks and intersections of creative governance, policy and practice. This paper develops an ethnographic study of a small rural based ‘creative cluster’, called Krowji, situated in the town of Redruth in West Cornwall, UK. The dominant geographies of creative industries research and policy in recent years have an acknowledged urban bias together with a focus on narratives of agglomeration. This paper sits alongside research that brings to the fore ‘other’ geographies of cultural production, and reflects an increasing interest in work on creativity in rural areas. Following work by Storper and Pratt, we explore Krowji’s complex interdependencies, investigating ‘the relations within, without and across the cluster’. We focus on the relationships between Krowji and its surrounding area together with the spatialities and temporalities of the relations that occur across and beyond the cluster. We address the dynamics and durability of relations formed within the cluster also paying attention to their disconnections. In offering this analysis we develop a valuable counterpoint to the urban bias of much work on creative clusters and we contribute to work that is looking more closely at the temporalities and spatialities of cultural production. Further, we point towards the value of ethnographical research on the creative industries.