[apologies for cross-posting]

Call for Papers AAG Annual Meeting, Chicago, 21-25 April 2015

Doing creative economies: social justice and transformative governance

Convenors: Phil Jones (University of Birmingham), Saskia Warren (University of Birmingham) and Melanie Fasche (University of Toronto)

The creative economy has for many years been positioned as the salvation of cities suffering post-industrial decline (Landry, 2000; Florida, 2002; even to the point of parody, see The Onion, 2014). Cities as varied as Rotterdam and Guangzhou, Medellín and Dundee have attempted to foster their creative economies, building on a global model, but implementing this in very different ways and with different (un)intended outcomes (Kong and O’Connor 2009). This session takes the opportunity to critically reflect on the ways that different cities have attempted to realise the benefits that have been claimed for the creative economy, in particular the tension between city marketing, growth and social justice outcomes (Peck 2005; Banks 2009; Leslie and Catungal 2012; Oakley 2013). We also want to explore the extent to which the creative economy can be considered a co-construction between policy makers, creative practitioners and communities.

We are particularly interested in papers that theoretically, methodologically and/or empirically address questions such as:

- Creative economy beyond the world cities

- From the global to the neighbourhood: rescaling the creative economy

- Governance and power

- Social framing and value-making

- Creative austerity economies

- Co-commissioning, co-design, co-curation

- Processes of cultural intermediation

- Agency, intermediation and interculturalism

- Interstices of social inclusion and exclusion

- Creative economies and creative communities: belonging; becoming; fracture; fragmentation; innovation and/or precarity

- Formal vs. informal manifestations of creative economic activity

- Marginalised practices and peripheral spaces of creativity

- The creative economy imaginary

- Creative methods for examining creative economies

Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words by email to Phil Jones ([log in to unmask]), Saskia Warren ([log in to unmask]) or Melanie Fasche ([log in to unmask]) by 3 October 2014.

We will let you know if your paper will included by 10 October 2014 and will expect all participants to register and submit abstracts to AAG by 31 October. Please remember that you have to pay to register abstracts with AAG.

References:

Banks, M. 2009, “Fit and working again? The instrumental leisure of the ‘creative class'” Environment and Planning A 41 668-681

Florida, R. 2002, The rise of the creative class and how it's transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life, Basic Books: New York

Kong, L. and O’ Connor, J. (eds) 2009 Creative Economies, Creative Cities: Asian–European Perspectives, Springer: Heidelberg and London.

Landry, C. 2000, The creative city: a toolkit for urban innovators, Earthscan: London

Leslie, D. and Catungal, J. P. 2012, “Social Justice and the Creative City: Class, Gender and Racial Inequalities, Geography Compass, 6: 111–122

Oakley, K. 2013, “A different class: politics and culture in London”, in The Politics of Urban Cultural Policy: Global Perspectives Eds Grodach C. and Silver D Routledge: London, 207–216

Peck, J. 2005, “Struggling with the Creative Class”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29: 740–770

The Onion, 2014. Mayor hits on crazy idea of developing city’s waterfront, green spaces http://www.theonion.com/articles/mayor-hits-on-crazy-idea-of-developing-citys-water,36829/ accessed 5 September 2014

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Dr Phil Jones

Senior Lecturer in Cultural Geography

Human Geography Research Group Co-Leader

School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences

University of Birmingham

Edgbaston

Birmingham

B15 2TT

t: +44 (0)121 414 5546