The location patterns of artistic clusters: A metro- and neighborhood-level analysis

Analysing census and industry data at the metro and neighbourhood levels, this paper seeks to identify the location characteristics associated with artistic clusters and determine how these characteristics vary across different places. We find that the arts cannot be taken overall as an urban panacea, but rather that their impact is place-specific and policy ought to reflect these nuances. However, our work also finds that, paradoxically, the arts' role in developing metro economies is as highly underestimated as it is overgeneralised. While arts clusters exhibit unique industry, scale and place-specific attributes, we also find evidence that they cluster in 'innovation districts', suggesting they can play a larger role in economic development. To this end, our results raise important questions and point toward new approaches for arts-based urban development policy that look beyond a focus on the arts as amenities to consider the localised dynamics between the arts and other industries. © Urban Studies Journal Limited 2013

Commodifying Leisure and Improving Its Social Value: Knitters’ Conspicuous Production on Ravelry.com

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Diamonds are a girl’s best friend …? Examining gender and careers in the jewellery industry

Using Acker’s (2009) concept of inequality regimes, this paper examines the practices and processes of gender inequality in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter (BJQ), highlighting the complex and subtle nature of discrimination sometimes at play and the strategies used by those that progress within this context. The project involved in-depth interviews during which participants recounted their career stories. Our research study examines the ways in which men and women in the BJQ account for their careers in order to examine the underlying gender regimes that influence the everyday practices of workers in this context. Our findings suggest that contrary to contemporary images of the creative industries, jewellery making remains deeply traditional with structures and processes that both overtly and covertly disadvantage women workers. Empirically the paper enhances our understanding of the way that this creative cluster operates and examines how that disadvantages particular groups of workers. Theoretically the paper contributes to our knowledge of the use of the concept of gender regimes at a cluster level