AAG 2009 Call for papers: The Cultural Economy of Small Cities
Annual Association of American Geographers Conference,
22-27 March 2009
Paper session:
The Cultural Economy of Small
Cities: Creativity, Knowledge and Urban
Spatial
Development.
Organizers: Mark Jayne (Geography,
Development,
(Maastricht Virtual
Knowledge Studio, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences,
The last decade in
particular has seen the emergence of a discourse
that understands creative
production as central to the economic
development of urban spaces. The
`urban' in this context, however, has
almost invariably referred to large
global or capital cities such as
exceptions (e.g. Christopherson 2004;
cities have
been ignored and remain under-investigated. This session
tries to counter
this bias in urban geography by focusing on the
following
questions:
In what ways are policy strategies developed for large cities
applicable to small cities?
Are creative entrepreneurs such as
artists, designers and musicians -
i.e. those actors analytically
privileged in most studies on the
creative economy and the cultural
industries - the most relevant
actors in the case of small cities? Or
should we be looking for other
creative and innovative actors (and actor
constellations) in other
fields?
Large cities tend to dominate the
surrounding landscape through their
concentration of media, jobs and
governmental institutions. How does
this urban hierarchy shape the very
attempts of small cities to
develop and promote local creative
economies?
To what extent do the dynamics of small cities necessitate a
rethinking of dominant theories and concepts used to explain the
creative economy?
Authors that address these - and other relevant -
questions are
invited to submit a brief abstract (not more than 250 words)
to the
session organizers Mark Jayne (mark.jayne@manchester.ac.uk)
and Bas
van Heur (b.vanheur@vks.unimaas.nl)
by October 1st at the latest.
