Networks of Aesthetic Production and the Urban Political Economy
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Networks of Aesthetic Production and the Urban Political Economy Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades des Doktors der Naturwissenschaften Eingereicht am Fachbereich Geowissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin 2008 Bas van Heur Networks of Aesthetic Production and the Urban Political Economy Doctoral dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the title of Doctor in the Natural Sciences at the Department of Earth Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin in March 2008 by Bas van Heur First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Gerhard O. Braun Freie Universität Berlin Institut für Geographische Wissenschaften Malteserstraße 74-100 12249 Berlin Germany Second Supervisor: Prof. Adam Krims University of Nottingham Department of Music University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD United Kingdom Date of disputation: 13.10.2008 Declaration of Originality To the best of my knowledge, this dissertation contains no copy or paraphrase of work published by another person, except where duly acknowledged in the text. This dissertation contains no material which has been presented for a degree at the Freie Universität Berlin or any other university. Berlin, Germany, March 2008 (Bas van Heur) Contents Acknowledgements ix I. Introduction 1 II. Methodology and Methods 22 III. Accumulation, Regulation, Networks 62 IV. Location 106 V. Communication 139 VI. Labor 197 VII. Concluding Comments 219 Appendices 229 References 254 Curriculum Vitae 283 Dissertation Summary 285 Detailed Contents Acknowledgements ix I. Introduction 1 I.1 Theme and Relevance 1 I.2 Research Questions and Focus 5 I.3 Thesis Statement 7 I.4 Case Selection 8 I.5 Chapter Organization 12 II. Methodology and Methods 22 II.1 Introduction 22 II.2 Cultural Studies and Critique 22 II.2.1 Culture as Ideology and the Hall/Jessop Debate 24 II.2.2 Urban Cultures and Critique 27 II.2.3 Culture, Political Economy and Urban Complexity 33 II.2.4 Cultural Analysis and Re-Specifying Critique 36 II.3 Critical Realism and Methodology 39 II.3.1 Retroductive Research 39 II.3.2 The Ontology of Critical Realism 42 II.3.3 Critical Realism and Social Research 44 II.3.4 Emergence 46 II.4 Between Disciplinary Deconstruction and Transdisciplinarity 49 II.5 Research Methods and Data Collection 52 II.5.1 Discourse Analysis 55 II.5.2 Qualitative Data 57 II.5.3 Spatial Data Analysis 58 II.5.3 Quantitative Data 59 II.6 Conclusion 61 III. Accumulation, Regulation, Networks 62 III.1 Introduction 62 III.2 Accumulation and Regulation 62 III.2.1 Accumulation Regime, Mode of Accumulation, Model of 64 Development III.2.2 The Crisis of Fordism, Post-Fordist Accumulation and the 68 Complexity of Regulation III.2.3 Meso-Level Investigations and the Intersection of Theories 75 III.2.4 Weaknesses of the Regulation Approach 79 III.3 Networks 81 III.3.1 Social Network Analysis 81 III.3.2 Inter-Urban Networks 84 III.3.3 Commodity Chains and Transnational Cultures 86 III.3.4 Actor-Network Theory 87 III.4 Towards a Cultural Political Economy of Emergence 89 III.5 Cities and Networks 96 III.5.1 London and Berlin 96 III.5.2 Music Networks 101 III.6 Conclusion 104 IV. Location 106 IV.1 Introduction 106 IV.2 Creative Cluster Policies in London and Berlin 106 IV.3 Music Clusters in London and Berlin 109 IV.3.1 London 109 IV.3.2 Berlin 113 IV.4 The Exclusions of Theory and Policy 117 IV.4.1 Vertical and Horizontal Linkages 117 IV.4.2 Knowledge and Learning 127 IV.4.3 Cluster Growth and Development 132 IV.5 Conclusion 137 V. Communication 139 V.1 Introduction 139 V.2 Urban Textures 140 V.3 Strategic Selectivity of the State 142 V.4 Creative Industries Policies on London and Berlin 145 V.4.1 Growth of the Creative Industries 145 V.4.2 Creative Entrepreneurs 147 V.4.3 Mapping and the Importance of Quantitative Data 152 V.4.4 The Ambivalence of Public Funding 155 V.4.5 Spatial Selectivities 156 V.4.6 The Discourse of Social Inclusion 159 V.5 Variety and the Problem of Retention 162 V.5.1 Intellectual Property 164 V.5.2 Free Choice and Commodification 174 V.5.3 Built Environment 176 V.5.4 The Discourse of Flexibility and Change 182 V.6 Stabilization and Differentiation of Networks 187 V.6.1 Beat Science 188 V.6.2 Future Technologies 190 V.6.3 Questioning Performance 193 V.7 Conclusion 195 VI. Labor 197 VI.1 Introduction 197 VI.2 Policy Discourses on Creative Labor 198 VI.3 The Institutional Logic of Entrepreneurialism 200 VI.3.1 Naturalization of the Market 201 VI.3.2 Market-Mediated Individual Autonomy 202 VI.3.3 Individualization of Risk 203 VI.3.4 Activity as the Entrepreneurial Ideal 205 VI.4 The Constitutive Role of Free Labor 206 VI.5 Questioning the Real Subsumption Thesis 208 VI.5.1 Real Subsumption and the General Intellect 209 VI.5.2 Inversion of the Labor/Capital Relation 212 VI.5.3 Immanent to Capital, or the Limits to Capital? 215 VI.6 Conclusion 218 VII. Concluding Comments 219 VII.1 Research Questions Revisited 219 VII.2 Further Research Directions 222 Appendices 229 Mapping Data London 229 Mapping Data Berlin 244 List of Interview Partners 253 References 254 Curriculum Vitae 283 Dissertation Summary 285 Acknowledgements Research is a process of inquiry and investigation that involves a continuous questioning and rethinking of previous assumptions, arguments and beliefs. As such, it is a process of learning that has to and can only remain unfinished. Although external and internalized pressures often obscure these important moments of questioning and doubt by presenting a strong narrative of scientific and intellectual progress, in the main body of this dissertation I try to do justice to the tentative nature of research practice by explicitly acknowledging not only the strengths but also the limits of my argument and by regularly posing questions that I – at least at this stage – cannot answer. In doing so, I aim to adopt a ‘question and answer’ approach that understands knowledge production as an ongoing process dependent on discussions with many other people as well as the creative appropriation of a wide variety of previous publications. The publications, not surprisingly, will be referenced in the main body of the text and listed at the end of this dissertation. Here, I want to acknowledge the contributions of various friends and colleagues whose names do not always appear in the list of referenced literature, but without whom this dissertation would have remained a mere collection of fragments. Although many of them did not directly comment on the contents of this dissertation, they have helped me think through empirical and theoretical problems during the period in which I worked on this dissertation. The project started with the idea to analyze music in relation to contemporary urban transformations and was very much influenced by a number of publications by Adam Krims on music and urban geography. Through his work – and in his role as a second supervisor – he provided much inspiration for my own efforts to analyze music in relation to political economic processes, even though I increasingly moved away from popular music studies and cultural studies towards a cultural political economy that keeps to a minimum the reflection on ‘the music itself’. First thoughts for this project were developed during a teaching stint at the Institute of Media and Representation, Utrecht University. Here I would like to thank Rosemarie Buikema for giving me the opportunity to teach in the field of media studies (despite having written an MA thesis on a rather different topic) and the many colleagues with whom I have taught the various courses. After one year in Utrecht, I moved to the Department of Media and Communications of Goldsmiths College at the University of London. Thanks are due to the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds in Amsterdam for partly funding this opportunity. I thank Angela McRobbie for her supervision and her thoughts on the role of creative but precarious labor in contemporary cities, Des Freedman for his pragmatic enthusiasm and for enabling me to coordinate and teach a course on the creative industries in an international context and Natalie Fenton, David Lee, Julian Henriques, Lucy O’Brien, Wendy Munro, Louise Chambers and Celia Jameson in their role as teaching colleagues. Although often forgotten in acknowledgements, I am also grateful to Zehra Arabadji, Celeste Hawes and Sarah Jackson at the departmental secretarial office for at least partially structuring the creative chaos of Goldsmiths. Finally, I would like to thank those that willingly discussed PhD-related thoughts over a drink at Loafers Café or elsewhere in London: in particular David Lee, Paolo Gerbaudo, Vana Goblot, Craig Carson and Menaka Bora. It was the move to Berlin that enabled me to work full-time on the research for and writing of this dissertation: for this I am grateful to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CMS). At the CMS, I found a transdisciplinary home that enabled me to improve many of the arguments I had developed so far. Not only could I discuss my dissertation with critical colleagues, I was also given the freedom to co-organize a number of conference sessions and workshops closely related to my dissertation topic. Thanks are due in particular to: Katja Sussner for creating almost perfect working conditions; Ignacio Farías for reading parts of the manuscript; Susanne Stemmler for co- organizing a session on urban soundscapes; Jenny Künkel for co-organizing a workshop on local space and social conflict; Margit Mayer and Jenny Künkel for co- editing a book on this topic; and Doreen Jakob for co-organizing a session on cultural entrepreneurs, clusters and networks.