11 research outputs found
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âEssentialâPassion for Musicâ: Affirming, Critiquing, and Practising Passionate Work in Creative Industries
This chapter considers âpassionâ as an enthusiastic orientation to work within creative worlds: work motivated by intense attachments to the products of work and their conditions of production. Drawing on Luc Boltanskiâs pragmatic sociology of critique and justification, the chapter argues that the passionate lens most usefully trains our sights on normative questions: not what or howâbut why such work is undertaken. Embedded in research on cultural and creative industries, the contemporary recorded music sector is presented as a âpassionateâ industry in transformation. Interviews with workers, who both criticize and defend their industry, act as a springboard to explore three possible interpretive approaches: affirmative, critical, and pragmatic. Theoretical flexibility is needed to keep âpassionâ open to future inquiryâparticularly regarding inequalities in creative work
The impact of minority ethnic businesses on the spatial character of Londonâs high streets
Research shows that a variety of building types, sizes and street morphologies can support a diversified mix of uses and thus contribute to the vitality of town centres. Other studies have highlighted the special role of minority ethnic businesses in this context. This study set out to examine the relationship between spatial accessibility, commercial diversity (as a measure of land use mixing) and minority ethnic business (MEB) diversity in ten of Londonâs high streets. We found that streets with a significant MEB presence were more likely to benefit from commercial diversity and that the sampled MEB units were measurably smaller in size. We also found the location of larger clusters of MEB businesses to be more accessible, both locally and across the city. The study also found three distinct types of MEB centres: ranging from high streets with a small MEB presence, others with a high rate of MEB mixing, and a third type: the âethnic marketplaceâ, with a singular ethnic character. We conclude that greater attention should be given to designing street accessibility, lot configuration, mixed building sizes, and land use mixing, so as to serve the long-term economic and social vitality of local town centres