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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE GEOGRAPHIES OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE INTERNATIONAL FRAGRANCE INDUSTRY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By BODO KUBARTZ Norman, Oklahoma 2009 GEOGRAPHIES OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE INTERNATIONAL FRAGRANCE INDUSTRY A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY BY ___________________________ Dr. Fred Shelley, Co-Chair ___________________________ Dr. Bret Wallach, Co-Chair ___________________________ Dr. Robert Cox ___________________________ Dr. Karl Offen ___________________________ Dr. Darren Purcell ___________________________ Dr. Laurel Smith ___________________________ Dr. Andrew Wood © Copyright by BODO KUBARTZ 2009 All Rights Reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The ‘discovery of the world’ has been a stereotypical focus of human geography. However, the research helped me to discover a new world for myself. The fragrance industry delineates a rich landscape of sensorial stimulations. I appreciated not only the experience of smelling perfumes in different environments and the ‘look behind the scenes’ but the diversity of approaches to perfumery in this artistic industry. Therefore, my first ‘thank you’ goes to the industry experts that spend their precious time with me and opened their doors for me in France, Germany, and the United States. Thank you very much for introducing me to a world that you experience, develop, and change every day. Second, a dissertation is a long journey. This one has seen different companions until it came into being. It developed quite a bit over time. My friends in the United States and in Germany contributed through their critique, mental support, active interest, questions, guidance, and feedback. Thus, the second ‘thank you’ goes to all companions. Third, I would like to say ‘thank you’ to my dissertation committee and, in particular, Prof. Dr. Fred Shelley and Prof. Dr. Andy Wood for the bureaucratic and academic support. Special thanks also to Prof. Dr. Oliver Ibert and Prof. Dr. Gernot Grabher, who contributed with their substantial comments and feedback. Finally, the life-long support of my parents can not be summarized in words. I dedicate this work to them. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x ABSTRACT xi 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Problem statement 1 1.2 Theme 3 1.3 Research interest 6 1.4 Structure of the dissertation 12 2. SPATIALIZING KNOWLEDGE PRACTICES 14 2.1 Introduction 14 2.2 The discussion of knowledge and practices of knowing in economic geography 15 2.2.1 Introduction 15 2.2.2 The mainstream conceptualization of knowledge and its criticism 16 2.2.3 Traditional spatializations of knowledge 19 2.2.4 The epistemology of practice 24 v 2.2.5 Practicing sensible knowledge 31 2.2.6 Repositories of practices of knowing 40 2.2.7 Spatializing practices of knowing 43 2.3 Summary 46 3. THE INTERNATIONAL FRAGRANCE INDUSTRY: SETUP, PRODUCTS, AND PROCESSES 47 3.1 Introduction 47 3.2 The context: cultural-product industries 48 3.3 The cultural product of perfume 53 3.4 The historical development of perfumery 62 3.5 Industry characteristics 72 3.6 Key actors and processes 79 3.6.1 Introduction 79 3.6.2 Manufacturers of fragranced goods 81 3.6.3 Fragrance suppliers 84 3.6.4 Other suppliers and industry stakeholders 96 3.7 Summary 102 4. METHODOLOGY 103 4.1 Introduction 103 4.2 Methodology and research objectives 103 4.2.1 Methodology 103 vi 4.2.2 Research objectives 109 4.3 Research design and research questions 111 4.3.1 Research design 111 4.3.2 Research questions 116 4.4 Interview recruitment, participation, and timetable 122 4.5 Summary 130 5. GEOGRAPHIES OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE INTERNATIONAL FRAGRANCE INDUSTRY: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS 131 5.1 Introduction 131 5.2 Experts and creative activities in perfume manufacturers and fragrance suppliers 133 5.2.1 The brand manager 133 5.2.2 The ‘creative team’ in a fragrance supplier 141 5.2.2.1 Introduction 141 5.2.2.2 The perfumer 144 5.2.2.3 The evaluator 160 5.2.2.4 The salesperson 162 5.2.2.5 The marketer 163 5.3 Practices of knowing and spatialities of knowledge 166 5.3.1 Introduction 166 5.3.2 Sensing a brand 169 5.3.3 The brief and initial formulation 183 vii 5.3.4 Sensing a fragrance 204 5.3.5 Winning the competition 233 5.3.6 Branding a scent 238 5.4 Toward a brand ecology of knowledge? 241 5.5 Summary 245 6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 249 6.1 Research summary 249 6.2 Research limitations and contribution 252 6.3 Future research 258 BIBLIOGRAPHY 260 viii LIST OF TABLES 4.1 Research interviews with experts of the fragrance industry per city and time period 129 4.2 Research interviews with experts of the fragrance industry per form of conduct 129 ix LIST OF FIGURES 5.1 The creative team: abstraction of functions to shape perfume 145 5.2 Practices of knowing and spatialities of knowledge in the international fragrance industry 168 5.3 The laboratory at the fine fragrance studio of drom in New York City 200 5.4 The work environment in a laboratory 201 5.5 The fragrance bar at the fine fragrance studio of drom in New York City 222 x ABSTRACT This study examines the international fragrance industry according to the practices of knowing and repositories and spatialities of knowledge. It is based on qualitative data from research interviews with industry experts in New York, USA, and Paris, France that were conducted between 2006 and 2008. The industry serves as an example to map sensible practices of knowing. Therewith, the study contributes to the developing field of practice-based studies of knowledge within economic geography. The study examines and documents that knowledge is produced in different learning places but also develops through the mobility of an emerging fragrance. Fragrances are epistemic objects that are mobilized in order to gain shape and this affects different practitioners and their ways of dealing with a scent. The study puts a focus on the epistemic object in certain learning places as well as its mobilizations. Furthermore, the study builds connections to the literatures on cultural-product industries and the geographies of emotion. xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Over the last two decades, knowledge, innovation, and creativity have become significant objects of inquiry in the geographic study of economic activities. The understanding is that specific locales such as cities, regions, and countries benefit economically from the promotion of knowledge, innovation, and creativity. Knowledge in particular is often seen as a major contributor to economic success. The great interest in these objects of inquiry is not only characterized by different literatures that the discipline makes use of and contributes to but, vice versa, shows the contribution that the sub-discipline of economic geography makes through its spatial perspective. The study of knowledge within economic geography has undergone two shifts over the last years. First, the traditional conceptualization of knowledge in economic geography recognized knowledge as located in and bounded to particular scales and locales such as the region (Thrift and Olds, 1996; Amin and Cohendet, 2004). Economic geography has seen an overwhelming richness of studies that investigate knowledge in specific locales. These studies have been summarized under the term “spatial innovation systems” (Mouleart and Sekia, 2003; Amin and Cohendet, 2004). This is due to the conceptualization of knowledge as a geographically coherent and immobile stock or asset. Recently, however, the concept of knowledge has become uncoupled from specific geographical scales (Amin and Cohendet, 2004; Vallance, 1 2007; Amin and Roberts, 2008a). Over the past few years a contrasting view emerged that has influenced economic geography: it conceives a different epistemology of knowledge (Amin, 2002; Grabher, 2002a; Amin and Cohendet, 2004; Grabher, 2004a, 2004b; Grabher and Ibert, 2006; Ibert, 2007a, 2007b; Amin and Roberts, 2008a, 2008b; Ibert, 2009). The study of practices has a long legacy in the social sciences (see the overviews in Gherardi, 2000; Schatzki, 2001; Nicolini et al., 2003; Thrift, 2005; Gherardi, 2006, 2009). It understands knowledge as a social practice that is always evolving and changing within and according to different socio-economic contexts. The comment that practices are always in flux – thus, evolving accomplishments, transient effects, and temporary alignments (Nicolini et al., 2003a) – implies that they are situated in specific geographical contexts that are developing and changing over time as well (Amin, 2002, 2003; Amin and Cohendet, 2004; Ibert, 2007; Vallence, 2007; Amin and Roberts, 2008a, 2008b; Gertler, 2008). A second shift in focus is connected with the repositories and loci of where to examine knowledge (Bathelt and Glückler, 2003). In the past, economic geographers have been keen to study private corporations as containers of knowledge (Taylor and Asheim, 2001; Yeung, 2003; Grabher, 2004a). Knowledge was seen as an asset of individuals as members of firms. However, the firm has become only one repository for practiced knowledge. In contrast to this view, the focal relevance of a firm as a locale for knowledge eroded to the extent that economic geographers still look at firms but with the intention to investigate corporate and inter-organizational networks, communities of practice and practitioners, and individual careers as contrasting and additional examples of repositories where knowledge is done (Bathelt and Glückler, 2 2003; Gherardi, 2006; Amin and Roberts, 2008b; Gertler, 2008). Research on networks in economic geography has particularly contributed to a temporal and dynamic understanding of ties, connections, and connectivity (Grabher and Ibert, 2006). These two re-orientations in research – the focus on practices of knowing and the understanding and investigation of diverse communities and social networks as temporal loci of knowing practices – have contributed to initially approach spatialities in novel ways that are contrasted by the preceding spatial fix of knowledge in firms and regions (Vallance, 2007; Amin and Roberts, 2008a).