Mapping the arts: industry concentrations,distribution, and change in the US, 1980–2010

This paper studies arts industries in all 366 US metropolitan statistical areas between 1980 and 2010. Our analysis provides evidence that the arts are an important component of many regional economies, but also highlights their volatility. After radical growth and diffusion between 1980 and 2000, in the last decade, the arts industries are defined more by shrinkage and reconcentration in fewer metropolitan areas. Further, we find that the vast majority of metros have strengths in particular sets of arts industries. As we discuss in the conclusion, these conditions present challenges and opportunities for urban cultural policy that goes beyond the current focus on the arts as consumption amenities.     

«Nature's workshop» industry and urban expansion in Southern California, 1900–1950

Scholars and pundits have cast Los Angeles as a prototype for the twentieth century North American metropolis. Most accounts focus primarily, if not exclusively, on residential development and rely on stock suburban theses for their interpretation. Regional expansion has been presented as a new landscape order where precise location is a secondary concern, development proceeds without planning, and the result is a homogeneous sprawl. Studies of manufacturing and industrial location in southern California often share these conventions. An historical investigation reveals that industry and industrial location have been key determinants of urban form, and that industrial, commercial, and residential development have been co-ordinated, complementary, and highly planned. These coincident enterprises recast the region during the first half of the twentieth century. There were three interrelated but qualitatively distinct types of industrial zones in Los Angeles during this period: a mixed-use, home-market district adjacent to the central business district; an industry-only, mass-production, branch-plant zone in Vernon and the eastside; and a series of oil, film, and aircraft satellites on the urban periphery. This finding challenges the received wisdom regarding industrial geography, a progressive narrative of technological innovation and production regimes that chronicle ascension, transformation, and succession.     

Multi‐level order,friction and contradiction: the evolution of Australian film industry policy

Cultural policy studies have previously highlighted the importance of multiple logics, friction and contradiction in cultural policy. Recent developments in institutional theory provide a framework for analysing change in cultural policy which explores movement between these multiple and sometimes contradictory logics. This paper analyses the role of friction in the evolution of Australian film industry policy and in particular the tension between competing logics regarding nationalism, commercialism and the state. The paper is suggestive of the relevance of institutional theory as a framework for understanding cultural policy evolution.     

Beyond the crabgrass frontier: industry and the spread of North American cities, 1850–1950

The conventional story of suburbanization in Canada and the United States portrays an outward movement of residences from the cities that only since World War II has been fuelled by the dispersal of employment to the urban fringe. This prevailing wisdom needs considerable revision. In this essay we present a theoretical interpretation of industrial suburbanization. We argue that the outward spread of factories and manuÍfacturing districts has been a distinctive and important feature of North American urbanization since the middle of the nineteenth century. The paper begins with a discussion of how industrial decentralization has been repeatedly misinterpreted as new and unprecedented, rather than an extension of past trends. In contrast to the prevailing interpretation, we claim that industrial suburbanization is the product of a combination of the economic logic of geographical industrialization, investment in real estate, and political guidance by business and government leaders. The result has been extensive, multinodal metropolitan regions.     

Race,space, and agency in the international introduction industry: how American men perceive women’s agency in Colombia,Ukraine and the Philippines

The international introduction industry, more commonly known as the ‘mail order bride’ industry, is often portrayed in American media as a conduit of human trafficking or a ploy by women from ‘third world’ countries to gain access to American citizenship. This study addresses how men participating in the international introduction industry perceived the industry and the agency/sincerity of women who participate in it across three different geographic spaces, namely Ukraine, Colombia and the Philippines, and how these perceptions often adopt racialized discourses that portrays white Ukrainian women as sexy ‘scammers’, while women of color are more likely to be portrayed as victims of poverty and patriarchy. Based on empirical data collected on romance tours within all geographic spaces with male participants, I suggest that men’s racialized assumptions regarding women’s intentions within the industry, as well as what type of agency they possess, are heavily based on tropes of the third world as backwards, traditional, and static.     

A history of failed innovation: continuous cooking and the Soviet pulp industry, 1940s–1960s

Abstract

In the years before and after the Second World War, chemical and related industries in a variety of countries experienced a surge in innovation and development. As a result, the pulp industry became a space for considerable innovation. In Sweden, Johan Richter developed the Kamyr digester, a pulp cooker that could run continuously and was adopted by industry within a decade. Prior to Richter, Soviet engineer Leonid Zherebov designed a similar cooker. But after 25 years of experiments, Zherebov’s design failed, and Soviet factories began to produce pulp using imported Kamyr digesters. This article examines the history of continuous pulp cooking in the Soviet Union as a means to understand the nature of Russian technological innovation and its failures. The paper contends that his effort failed because of the technological system developed by Soviet forestry – a system characterized by a lack of open communication among its main institutional actors and a scarcity of resources to facilitate innovation.     

The stranger that is welcomed: female foreign students from Asia,the English language industry,and the ambivalence of ‘Asia rising’ in British Columbia,Canada

In 2002, attacks on six Asian women and girls temporarily living in the Greater Vancouver Area, Canada to study the English language garnered significant attention. Beginning with the attempted murder of Korean national Ji-Won Park, and ending with the murder of Chinese national Wei Amanda Zhao, the attacks on Asian females sparked a national debate about the vulnerability of foreign language students of Asian origin, and Canada's responsibility to protect them. Drawing on mainstream media accounts, this article examines how the intersection of race, gender and class produced the event as a story of national interest and as one of the province of British Columbia's most significant events of 2002. Highlighting the shifting positioning of Asian difference in contemporary western space, this research contributes to recent theorizing on how Asianness in the west no longer primarily signifies backward, underdeveloped nations and peoples best kept in their place, in another space. I argue that western discourse on Asian difference is defined by ambivalence. While the economics of the English language industry and the geopolitics of ‘Asia rising’ led to a heightened interest in these acts of violence, gender and processes of feminization simultaneously reduced concern over what is arguably an anxiety producing event in the west: Asia's economic ascendancy and the west's positioning in the ‘Asia Pacific century’.     

Capturing gains by relocating global production networks: the rise of Chongqing’s notebook computer industry, 2008–2014

In 2008 a new notebook manufacturing cluster was established in Chongqing in western China. By 2013 it accounted for some 25% of world output by volume. Chongqing’s ability to attract this manufacturing supply chain was driven by several factors that permitted strategic coupling: the existence of complex networks of cooperation and economies external to the firm but internal to contemporary global production networks; changed conditions in southeast and east China; and the creation by Chongqing Municipal People’s Government with central state support of hard and soft infrastructures and externalities that drove down logistic and production costs and permitted constant product innovation.     

Chemists,engineers and entrepreneurs the chemical institute of sarrià's impact on Spanish industry (1916–1992)

This paper analyzes the influence the Chemical Institute of Sarrià (IQS) ‐a private institution devoted both to the education of chemists and chemical engineers and to applied research‐ has had on Spain's chemical industry from 1916 onwards. The research reported is based upon three data sources (articles on industrial chemistry published by the IQS’ journal Afinidad and M. Se. theses; IQS graduates’ industrial activities; and technical services carried out by the Institute's staff for several companies). The main conclusion is that the IQS has had a remarkable impact on Catalan and Spanish industry. Although there are no other similar studies on Spanish scientific and technical institutions, the IQS case confirms that technical education and institutionalized research have a positive impact on the economic and industrial development of “latecomers” like Spain.     

Socially useful production in the defence industry: the Lucas Aerospace combine committee and the Labour government, 1974–1979

In the late 1960s, a workers’ movement at Lucas Aerospace was formed and proposed alternative products other than military production. Reacting to some 5000 redundancies in the company across its 13 sites nationally, a ‘combine’ committee of shop-stewards and workers accused the company management of lobbying for defence orders ahead of civilian manufacturing. Despite acclaim for the combine from the left-wing of the Labour Party and the disarmament movement, the 1974–1979 Labour Government did not favour the workers’ proposals and referred the combine to the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. Behind the scenes, Labour ministers at the Department of Industry felt that the combine would upset the balance of the defence industry, which was at that time an important contributor to employment and the balance of payments, as well as Britain’s military role in the Cold War.     

Constructing Gendered Workplace ‘Types’: The weaver–millworker distinction in Dundee's jute industry,c. 1880–1910

Victorian and Edwardian Dundee was labelled a ‘woman's town’ due to the high proportion of women who worked in the city's staple jute industry. In this article, drawing on a range of contemporary sources, I use the work of feminist historians and Foucauldian notions of discourse to interrogate this label and explore why and how working women came to be marked as particularly problematic. Further, in questioning this label, I demonstrate how two specific workplace ‘types’—the weaver and millworker—were identified and constructed in contrast to one another. This article probes the processes through which these two ‘types’ were created, contested and performed in relation to the segregations and working conditions of their respective workplaces, and argues for a markedly spatial interrogation of gender identities and the category ‘working woman’.     

Exploring Bristol’s historic glass industry: archaeological investigation at the Soap Boilers’ and Hoopers’ glasshouses,and the Powell & Ricketts’ Bottle Works,Avon Street,Glass Wharf,Bristol

SUMMARY: In 2007, extensive archaeological excavation was undertaken on an important post-medieval glassworking site at Glass Wharf, Bristol. The excavation exposed remains relating to a series of glassworks dating between the early 18th and early 20th centuries and, significantly, uncovered a sequence of five glass-melting furnaces and covering structures, which together reflect wider changes in glassmaking technology throughout these periods. Detailed scientific analysis of glassworking debris from the excavation has also been undertaken, which provides much-needed detail on the development of recipes and raw materials used in bottle manufacture during the 18th and 19th centuries.     

Spinners and weavers of auffay. Rural industry and the sexual division of labour in a French village, 1750–1850

German scholars of Jewish origin who were students of Martin Heidegger in the 1920s and 1930s are frequently criticized for their supposed postwar refusal to ‘disavow earlier liaisons with Heidegger.’ These scholars are thus indicted for being fundamentally anti-liberal or apolitical, and for those reasons dangerous disciples of Heidegger. By examining the works of Karl Löwith and Hans Jonas, two of Heidegger's influential former students, the following paper presents a more nuanced reading of the relationship between master and disciples, namely that Jonas and Löwith operate with Heidegger's philosophical grammar in order to turn against Heidegger, philosophically and politically. Within this framework, the article fleshes out the crucial importance of theology to the understanding of Jonas’ and Löwith's philosophical critique of Heidegger's thought. Following this theological turn, the paper demonstrates the complexity of Jonas’ and Löwith's postwar approach, that is an anti-Heideggerian ethical and political quest which is anchored nonetheless in Heidegger's philosophy. As such, Jonas’ and Löwith's political projects demonstrate the manner in which Heideggerian categories are not exhausted by Heidegger's own political interpretation; they grippingly denotes the aptitude to steer Heideggerian philosophy towards new ethical and political shores.     

‘A Tale of Two Sibleys’: ceramic counter narratives,globalization, individuality and the last century of the Ely pottery industry c. 1770–1870

SUMMARY: Pottery production at Ely, Cambridgeshire, began in the 11th–12th centuries and continued until around 1864, but the 18th–19th century industry has largely been ignored. By considering the later stages of the industry, the issue of why the Ely pottery industry ended when it did will be considered at scales from the intimate and personal to broader ceramic globalization. This also demonstrates why British archaeologists need to pay more attention to Modern vernacular ceramics.     

Performance evaluation to support European regional development – A university–industry perspective

Regional-level innovation policies and development activities, which are not only technology oriented but that also address intellectual issues, knowledge and absorptive capacity enhancement as sources of innovation and economic growth, are posing challenges regarding their management. One of the main challenges that arises with these new types of regional-level development activities relates to their evaluation because insufficient attention is paid to the design and building of the current evaluation frameworks suggested for the context of regional development. This study presents a framework to design and build a performance evaluation system to support the performance measurement of regional development activities. Utilizing operational-level development activities as an empirical example, this study aims to improve the understanding of performance evaluation in university–industry collaborations in the context of regional development. The presented framework highlights the role of evaluation as part of the learning process in regional development activities between universities and industrial and public-sector organizations. The results of the study show that it is also possible to use the evaluation system to increase understanding of the interplay between operational level development activities and regional development programmes.     

A geographical analysis of the sea‐salt industry of North‐East England

This paper traces the evolution of the environmental implications. Future prospects for tourism in Malta since 1955. Data derived from a questionnaire survey of tourists are used to demonstrate the problems of the industry: discussion focuses on its uneven impact on the Maltese islands, the over‐dependence on British visitors, the seasonality problem, the inadequacies of the infrastructure and the industry are briefly assessed along with marketing strategies.