QUAESTIONES GEOGRAPHICAE 34(2) • 2015 PLACE OF CREATION AND PLACE OF PRODUCTION: SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE BERLIN FASHION-DESIGN PRODUCTION NETWORK MARCO COPERCINI Institute of Economic and Social Geography, Potsdam University, Germany Manuscript received: December 6, 2014 Revised version: April 1, 2015 COPERCINI M., 2015. Place of creation and place of production: Spatial dimensions of the Berlin fashion-design pro- duction network. Quaestiones Geographicae 34(2), Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Poznań, pp. 75–85. DOI 10.1515/ quageo-2015-0017, ISSN 0137-477X. ABSTRACT: Fashion design plays a significant role in Berlin’s creative industries and for its start-up scene. Berlin has the highest concentration of designers in Germany, most of them working in small start-ups, while the spatial organ- isation of their production is stretched from the local level to the global network of fashion events, showing different entrepreneurial strategies within the production process. Different spatial structures of the production organisation are identifiable through which it is possible to discuss the role of Berlin in the production network of fashion designers and the kinds of relations holding between the city, designers, and their production network. KEY WORDS: fashion design, production network, Berlin, creative field Marco Copercini, Institute of Economic and Social Geography, Universität Potsdam, Germany; e-mail: [email protected] Introduction tures that make them legible only when consid- ered in their regional context (Pratt 2005; Staber A characteristic of creative industries that 2008). This paper will focus on the fashion design makes them appealing for debates on regional sector in Berlin in order to better understand the economics is related to their dynamism and the geographies of production and relations creative expectation of urban economic development that industries have with the city, not only different follows the agglomeration of creative and knowl- between sectors, but also within individual sec- edge-intensive sectors. Creative actors tend to use tors, where different entrepreneurial strategies cities and urban milieus as catalysts for new ideas and contingent structures play a role. Berlin is the and as sources of inspiration that, through dense most important agglomeration centre in Germa- communication networks, take place in urban ny for fashion designers as well as German fash- regions (cf. Mundelius 2008: 26; Anderson 1985: ion institutions (such as design schools and the 18; Davelaar, Nijkamp 1989: 571; Hall 2000; Scott fashion week). Furthermore, the city is also one 2008; Storper 2013). Within the general concept of the most important for German creative indus- of creative industries, different economic sectors tries, and the creative and knowledge industries are grouped so that, even if they share human play a relevant role in its economy (Krätke 2011: creativity as one of their central production and 162; Gornig et al. 2012; Brenke 2007; IBB 2011; value generation components, they show differ- Senat WiTF 2014). In this context, even if fashion ent production organisations and spatial struc- designers are concentrated in Berlin, their pro- 76 MARCO COPERCINI duction networks show different spatial organi- resources available in specific spaces and cities, sation and extension: from the very local, where or within sectoral and personal networks. In this every production phase is done in Berlin, to the sense, the city becomes the place where creativ- international level, where only the design is done ity is generated, applied, and, at the same time, in Berlin while other phases take place abroad. influenced by the creative activities that take This might not be something new to many sec- place. This kind of dynamics is well described tors, nor to the fashion design and apparel sec- by Scott (2006, 2008, 2010, 2014) in his concept tor (Dicken 2011), but then the question has to be of the creative field2. The concept underlines asked as to why designers decide to concentrate that creativity-based economic activities in an in one specific city and what the pivotal elements urban environment depend on different factors of production agglomeration are. What is the that can influence each other, without implying relation of individual fashion designers and the deterministic causal relations. In this sense, the city with the global networks of fashion? creative field “is represented by sets of industrial In this paper, the production network of Ber- activities and related social phenomena forming lin fashion design is analysed in order to devel- spatially differentiated webs of interaction that op first answers to these questions. The paper is mould entrepreneurial and innovative outcomes structured as follows: in the second part, a theo- in various ways. [...] Both the field on the one retical framework for the agglomeration of fash- side and its effects on entrepreneurship and in- ion designers is developed, based on the concept novation on the other are reflexively intertwined of Scott’s (2006, 2008, 2010, 2014) creative field with one another” (Scott 2006: 54). According to and of the production network, in order to ex- this definition, there is a shared relational context plain links between the city and the spatial or- between creative actors in a given place, as well ganisation of production in fashion design. In the as between them and the local socio-institutional third part, the main elements that determine Ber- context, so these relations cannot be reproduced lin as a creative field for the fashion designer are elsewhere; creative actors bring to bear their hu- presented. After the fourth part, which details man capital and their creativity, but they also the methodology of the empirical data collection, learn norms, strategies, and organisational forms different spatial organisations of the production from the context, or milieu, in which they oper- networks are presented in the fifth part. In the ate that can also influence production. As Scott last section, the results are discussed. writes, “The individuals who compose each com- munity typically internalize elements of their dai- ly environment and reflect these back in more or Creative field and production network less socially conditioned creative efforts” (Scott 2010: 119). This kind of knowledge is mostly re- Creative field lated to urban regions, and thus is influenced by local entrepreneurial characteristics and actions, The relation between creative activities and as well as by professional networks throughout the cities in which they are concentrated is one the local level. of mutual influence and dependence. This kind The creative field and related economic de- of relation, of a complex and multilayered na- velopment show the path dependency of regions, ture, is at the very core of the understanding of and it follows that the economic profile and in- creativity-driven urban economic development, novation capacity of a city are determined by and creativity itself (cf. Merkel 2008, 2012; Hall the main sectors based there (Storper 2013; Scott 1998; Florida 2002; Scott 2010, 2014; Landry 2000; fined in general, but the definition has to be based on Storper 2013; Krätke 2011). Creativity has gained local experience and practice (Pratt 2005). In Germa- a relevant role in the understanding of entre- ny, there is a shared definition at the federal level in preneurial activities, especially in the creative which the sectors are considered part of the creative sectors1, as well as having diffused immaterial industries (BMWi 2012; Enquete-Kommission 2007). 2 I am aware that the creative field is not the only con- cept that works out the creativity-entrepreneurs-city 1 What is understood as creative industries and what relation; however, the discussion of these concepts kind of sectors fall under this concept cannot be de- goes beyond the aims of this article. PLACE OF CREATION AND PLACE OF PRODUCTION: SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE BERLIN FASHION-DESIGN 77 2008; Hall 1998). In this sense, the development and relations, even though there can still be lin- of a specific sector, the related specialisations, earity in networks. On the other hand, different and the labour market direct local creative ener- kinds of relations and actors can be integrated in gies and expected innovation trajectories. Con- networks so that production forms can be the- sequently, the need for the recognition of crea- matised, as they are in many creative industries, tive results in one place can drive creative actors as non-linear structures that integrate informal present in a given city sector, because those kinds social components in production activities and, of creative inputs are sought after and acknowl- especially in some production phases, distinctive edged. As formulated by Staber (2008: 573), “Cul- local and urban components (cf. Lange, Bürkner tural regions specialize the way firms do, and 2010; Van Heur 2010; Krätke 2002; Heebels, van ideas that are consistent with the core ideas de- Aalst 2010; Merkel 2008; Lange 2007). Networks fining the region will have a survival advantage. are understood here as “relational processes which, The reason for this is that an environment filled when realized empirically within distinct time- with semantic associations, symbolic meanings and space-specific contexts, produce observable and cultural representations that reflect the core patterns [...]” (Dicken et al. 2001, italics in the set of ideas can trigger people to perceive a new original), but are not directly related to a specific idea as being consistent with that set than when scale (as the global scale in the GPN). such associations are absent.” The sectors of the The production network differs from the GPN creative field are linked to the urban production at the analytical level by focusing on the regional system and also generate dynamism on the local context of production forms that tends to be con- labour market (Storper, Scott 2009; Storper 2013). centrated at the urban and regional scale, even “In this way, the cumulative, localized nature of if it does not exclude international interactions.