Creative Industries Journal: Volume: 1 - Issue: 1

Creative Industries Journal | Volume One Number One
Volume One Number One

ISSN 1751-0694
Creative Industries Journal
Volume 1 Number 1 – 2007 1.1
5–6 Editorial
Simon Roodhouse
Creative
Articles
7–30 Creative Industries Mapping: Where have we come from and where are
we going?
Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham
31–46
47–71
Creative clusters and city growth
Susan Bagwell
The film and television industry in london’s suburbs: lifestyle of the
Industries
Journal
rich or losers’ retreat?
Galina Gornostaeva and Randy Cohen
Report
73–75 A summary of The Americans for the Arts Economic Impact of
America’s Non-profit Arts and Culture Industry
Graeme Harper
Conference Report
77–78 Women in Games 2007: new platforms, new perspectives, new players:
University of Wales, Newport, School of Art, Media and Design, 19–21
April 2007. Conference report
Astrid Ensslin
79–83 Book Reviews
intellect Journals | Art & Design

ISSN 1751-0694
11
intellect
9 771751 069004 www.intellectbooks.com
CIJ_1.1_Cover.indd 1 1/23/08 3:39:40 PM

Creative Industries Journal | Volume One Number One
Volume One Number One

ISSN 1751-0694
Creative Industries Journal
Volume 1 Number 1 – 2007 1.1
5–6 Editorial
Simon Roodhouse
Creative
Articles
7–30 Creative Industries Mapping: Where have we come from and where are
we going?
Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham
31–46
47–71
Susan Bagwell
The film and television industry in london’s suburbs: lifestyle of the
Industries
Journal
rich or losers’ retreat?
Galina Gornostaeva and Randy Cohen
Report
73–75 A summary of The Americans for the Arts Economic Impact of
America’s Non-profit Arts and Culture Industry
Graeme Harper
Conference Report
77–78 Women in Games 2007: new platforms, new perspectives, new players:
University of Wales, Newport, School of Art, Media and Design, 19–21
April 2007. Conference report
Astrid Ensslin
79–83 Book Reviews
intellect Journals | Art & Design

ISSN 1751-0694
11
intellect
9 771751 069004 www.intellectbooks.com
CIJ_1.1_Cover.indd 1 1/23/08 3:39:40 PM

CIJ 1.1_00_FM.qxd 1/22/08 4:01 PM Page 1
Creative Industries Journal Journal Editor

Simon Roodhouse
School of Creative Enterprise and the
Volume 1 Number 1 2008 Creative Industries Observatory
London College of Communication
The scope of Creative Industries Journal (CIJ) University of the Arts
The Creative Industries Journal is a new peer-reviewed journal devoted to London SE1 6SB
advancing the social, economic, cultural and political understanding of the United Kingdom
creative industries. The journal offers a unique interdisciplinary platform Tel: + 44 (0) 1756 799340
to critically engage with and advance academic debates associated with E-mail:
this emerging and developing field. The CIJ provides a forum for empirical, simon@croodhouse.freeserve.co.uk
conceptual and theoretical papers relating to the creative industries Co-Editors
across local, regional, national and transnational scales. Debi Hayes
The creative industries, despite being an emerging field of study, have School of Creative Enterprise
already come to constitute an important sphere of practice, representing an London College of Communication
important sector of the ‘new economy’. The array of artistic and cultural pro- University of the Arts
duction and distribution enterprises that constitute the creative industries London SE1 6SB
has come to be consolidated under an umbrella that bridges the nexus United Kingdom
between culture and economy. What sets these creative industries apart from Tel: +44 (0) 207 514 6950
other industries is recognized to be their creativity, a largely understudied E-mail: d.m.hayes@lcc.arts.ac.uk
area. The platform of CIJ provides a de novo research agenda by seeking to Graeme Harper
advance the existing literary debates through synthesizing interdisciplinary Institute for Excellence in the
perspectives to better understand the dynamics of the creative industries. Creative Industries
The interdisciplinary approach to the creative industries draws on Bangor University
social sciences and critical perspectives encompassing the disciplines of College Road
Bangor LL57 2DG
management, economics, sociology, economic geography, gender studies,
Wales
linguistics, social anthropology, arts and design. Furthermore, the field of Tel: +44 (0) 1248 383215
the creative industries is increasingly relevant to policy makers and prac- E-mail:
titioners engaged in industry and, while being an academic journal, CIJ graeme.harper@bangor.ac.uk
aims to provide an international focal point for individuals interested in
the creative industries. Book Reviews Editors
Accordingly, CIJ invites contributions from scholars, researchers and Tim Vorley
practitioners from around the world who wish to increase the under- Department of Geography
standing and development of the creative industries. While original University of Cambridge
research papers are at the core of the journal, CIJ is also seeking to Downing Place
publish and engage in a constructive discourse as a means of informing Cambridge CB2 3EN
teaching, practice and policy. This invitation is extended, therefore, to Tel: +44 (0) 1223 766565
E-mail: tim.vorley@geog.cam.ac.uk
include commentary pieces, profiles of work in progress, particularly
from practitioners and research students, as well as reviews of confer- Oli Mould
ences, proceedings and reports. Creative Industries Observatory
Prospective guest editors are welcomed and may approach the London College of Communication
University of the Arts
editor with a proposal for a themed issue or a series. Prospective book
London SE1 6SB
reviewers and publishers should approach the editor directly. United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 207 514 9345
E-mail: o.mould@lcc.arts.ac.uk
The Creative Industries Journal is published three times per year by Intellect, ISSN 1751–0694
The Mill, Parnall Road, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK. The current subscription rates are
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CIJ 1.1_00_FM.qxd 1/5/08 4:56 PM Page 2
Editorial Board
Brigitte Borja De Mozota – Universite Paris x Nanterre
Roy Boyne – Durham University
Richard E. Caves – Harvard University
Costas Andriopoulos – Brunel University
Anna M Dempster – Birkbeck College, University of London
Philip Dodd – University of the Arts London
Christiane Eisenberg – Humboldt-Universität
Ann M. Galligan – Northeastern University
Graeme Evans – Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University
John Hartley – Queensland University of Technology
Greg Hearn – Queensland University of Technology
Desmond Hui – University of Hong Kong
Mark Lorenzen – Copenhagen Business School
Henry Lydiate – University of the Arts, London
Daragh O’Reilly – University of Sheffield Management School
Shaun Powell – Heriot Watt University
Jennifer Radbourne – Deakin University
Ruth Rentschler – Deakin University
Peter Robertson – University of Glamorgan
Barbara Townley – University of St Andrews
Michele Trimarchi – European Centre for Cultural Organisation and Management
CIJ 1.1_00_FM.qxd 1/22/08 4:01 PM Page 3
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CIJ 1.1_01_edt_Roodhouse.qxd 1/5/08 4:55 PM Page 5
Creative Industries Journal Volume 1 Number 1 © 2008 Intellect Ltd

Editorial. English language. doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.5/2
Editorial
Simon Roodhouse
Welcome to the first issue of the Creative Industries Journal.

The Creative Industries Journal (CIJ) is the first international academic
publication dedicated to an emerging and increasingly important multidis-
ciplinary field of research and scholarship. It is, as a result, intended to cap-
ture current ‘thinking’ through research-based papers, reports, conferences
and book reviews. It will also develop a co-editing philosophy and encour-
age working papers from practitioners and young researchers.
This first issue has focused on a contentious creative industries dis-
course, defining and mapping the creative industries, with an insightful and
thoughtful contribution by Stuart Cunningham and Peter Higgs. They pro-
pose in their article that the size and significance of creative industries can-
not be accurately measured by using the totals of a number of industry
activity codes (SIC) alone. As a result, they estimate, previous studies have
underestimated the employment impact of some creative sectors by up to
40 per cent, and the pre-2006 versions of some industry classification sys-
tems produce significant errors in sizing, possibly up to 25 per cent. An
alternative method is developed and explained, which is based on analysis
of multi-dimensional comprehensive datasets that provide the count of the
number of people within every income band for every combination of occu-
pation and industry of employment at the finest level of detail. It is thus
possible to calculate the annual earnings generated from employment as
well as the counts of people employed. In addition, this method reports
specialist, embedded and support employment levels, total annual earnings
and characteristics for sectors, segments and the creative workforce as a
whole, and not just overall levels of employment.
This is followed by an equally topical debate, clustering and social inclu-
sion in the creative industries, which Sue Bagnell thoroughly explores within
a city framework, in her case London, a major centre for this activity. The arti-
cle draws on the work of an ongoing evaluation of one of the initial pilot
City Growth areas – the City Fringe area of London, where six different cre-
ative clusters are being targeted as a means of stimulating economic devel-
opment and social inclusion in the area. Drawing on baseline research with
one of the most established clusters (jewellery) the article explores the
degree to which the jewellery cluster gains competitive advantage from
clustering in its inner city location and the extent to which it is able to con-
tribute to the regeneration of the local area. It thus provides a critique of
Porter’s theory and contributes to our understanding of the extent to which
creative clusters can act as a tool for inner city regeneration.
The influence of cities is examined further with an article by Galina
Gornostaeva, taking one of the popular sub-sectors, film, and suggesting
CIJ 1 (1) pp. 5–6 © Intellect Ltd 2008 5

CIJ 1.1_01_edt_Roodhouse.qxd 1/22/08 4:02 PM Page 6
the industry is becoming more and more ‘cottage-based’ in a very direct

sense – oriented on projects that run from the homes of producers in the
suburbs, a form of decentralization. The key factor is that rental levels force
change; therefore there is always interplay between the centrifugal force of
higher rents and congestion and the centripetal force of being part of a cre-
ative milieu in close proximity to the business counterparts and related
institutions, clustering that influences for the choice of location of the com-
pany. Consequently, the article argues, the FTV industry in the UK is charac-
terized by a large number of micro production companies running one
project at a time. The financing of these projects is often fragmented,
derived from various sources – often located abroad – and for the majority
this financing is small scale. These characteristics shape the FTV firm’s abil-
ity or inability to cover its overheads, including rents. As a result, it has
become common for many FTV companies to be run from home – a
suburban home.
In addition to these major contributions, CIJ has included a summary of
a major influential report on the not-for-profit creative economy in the
United States of America published by the most authoritive cultural lobby
group, Americans for the Arts. It is worth noting here that the creative econ-
omy is generally the term used to describe the creative industries in the
USA. Researchers collected detailed expenditure and attendance data from
6,080 non-profit arts and culture organizations and 94,478 of their atten-
dees to measure total industry spending. The report provides detailed
analysis of the industry, audiences, arts and cultural tourism and volunteering.
This issue’s conference report reflects on women, the interactive games
sub-sector of the creative industries and academic engagement. The main
investigative themes were game aesthetics, performance and play. Key
speakers included Sharon Knight, vice-president and general manager of
Europe Online, Alice Taylor, vice-president of BBC Worldwide, Digital
Content and Karen Wilkins-Mickey, diversity staffing program manager of
the Entertainment Services Division, Microsoft USA.
Books reviewed in this issue include Management and Creativity by Chris
Bilton and The Creative Industries edited by John Hartley.
We hope you enjoy this first issue.
6 Simon Roodhouse
CIJ 1.1_02_art_Higgs.qxd 1/16/08 4:54 PM Page 7

Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.7/1
Creative Industries Mapping: Where have

we come from and where are we going?
Peter Higgs Queensland University of Technology
Stuart Cunningham Queensland University of Technology
Abstract Keywords
Attempts to measure the bundle of activities termed the creative industries com- Creative Industries
menced with the UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Mapping
release in 1998 of its Creative Industries Mapping Study. Like many earlier International
attempts to study the size and impact of the cultural industries, these focused on Comparative
the employment and business activities (within selected industrial classifica- Mapping
tions) of either census of industry employment or surveys of businesses within Australia
industries. Since then, there have been mapping exercises in several countries, United Kingdom
based to a greater or lesser extent on the 1998 UK exercise. This paper proposes Employment Statistics
that there have been three iterations of creative industries mapping to date. It Creative Trident
outlines the issues faced, the methodologies applied and the findings produced
by representative projects in each iteration.
Research on which this article is based was supported by an Australian Research
Council Linkage-Project grant administered by Queensland University of
Technology in partnership with the Australian Government Department of
Communications, Information Technology and the Arts and the Australian Film
Commission.
Introduction
This article discusses a representative group of studies prompted by the 1. See Cultural and
release of the first Creative Industries Mapping Study by the UK Department Creative Industry
Promotion Team
of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS 1998). This important work became the (2004); Walton and
template for numerous other studies commissioned by governments at the Duncan (2002);
national (including those of Taiwan, New Zealand, Singapore and Heng et al (2003);
DCITA (2002).
Australia1), regional and even city level (for example, Queensland, London
and Brisbane2). It built on several earlier attempts to study the size and 2. ICF Consulting and
SGS Economics and
structure of the cultural industries (for example, those of UNESCO, Planning (2003);
StatisticsNZ, and cultural economist Andy Pratt3). The first iteration of cre- Creative London
ative industries studies primarily focused on the employment and business Commission (2002);
Cunningham
activities within selected industrial classifications using data from either et al (2003).
population surveys (or censuses) of the industry of people’s employment, or
3. UNESCO (1986);
on surveys of businesses within industries, most often labour force surveys. Statistics New
The second iteration of mapping studies, exemplified by the Hong Kong Zealand (1995);
Creative Industries Baseline Study (Centre for Cultural Policy Research Andy C. Pratt (1997).
2003), used a more comprehensive approach including examining specific
creative occupations in an endeavour to overcome some of the limitations
evidenced in the DCMS approach.

4. This is the subject of Steps towards implementing a third iteration for measuring employ-
a significant academic
and policy literature,
ment of the creative industries workforce have been taken in parallel in
eg., Burns Owens France and Australia. The French Culture Ministry’s Department for
Partnership et al Planning and Statistics’ report (French Ministry of Culture 2005) parallels
(2006) and in
Australia, Pattinson
work which we have conducted at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative
(2003). See also Andy Industries and Innovation. This approach has provided, at this early junc-
Pratt (forthcoming ture, some key findings. The size and significance of creative industries
2008) and
Wyszomirski
cannot be accurately measured by using the totals of a number of industry
(forthcoming 2008). activity codes alone. As a result, we estimate previous studies have under-
estimated the employment impact of some creative sectors by up to 40%,
and the pre-2006 versions of some industry classification systems produce
significant errors in sizing, possibly up to 25%.
Mapping studies can be of value to policy and industry as they provide
core data about industries which are hard to classify and document statisti-
cally. In many cases they can be used as background justification for gov-
ernment support. The development of robust methodologies is critical to
achieving the primary function of mapping studies. Both undervaluation
and overvaluation carries dangers.
These issues are part of the broader challenges of measuring effectively
domains undergoing substantial change through the progressive conver-
gence of the computer, communication, cultural and content industries.4
New hybrid occupations and industry sectors emerge that do not comfort-
ably fit into standard statistics classifications. The 10–15 year gap between
updates of these classification schemes means there is almost no compre-
hensive, standardised employment or industry data available during the
critical emergence period of many sectors. Measuring the production and
purchasing of physical products is difficult enough but measuring the num-
ber, ‘size’ and value of the delivery of services is an order of magnitude
more difficult. The challenges in seeking to measure the flow-on impact of
emergent digital creative industries services to other sectors of the econ-
omy are even greater.
In response to these challenges, four types of metrics recur in creative
industry mapping studies to express the size or contribution of the sector:
• Employment: primarily the full time employment within specific industry

classifications;
• Firm activity: primarily the number of firms, sometimes banded accord-
ing to their turnover and occasionally the degree of concentration of the
industry;
• Gross value add to the economy determined by national input/output
tables or specialist surveys;
• Exports: The value of exports from the industry usually determined by
either survey and extrapolation or from official product and service
export statistics.
Other measures relating to output, such as the numbers of books and film
titles, as used in the DCMS work, are more problematic as there are no com-
mon denominators across the sectors. Manufactured, finished goods such as
film DVDs, music CDs, printed books are relatively easy to count but have
little in common to provide a relevant quantity grouping except ‘units’.
8 Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham

Service outputs, such as product design or web development services, how-

ever, represent a substantial part of creative industries activities and these do
not lend themselves to standard measures that support cross sectoral com-
parisons other than the financial transaction value of the service. In addition,
many physical products are now also being transformed into service-based
delivery: digital music subscriptions instead of CDs, video downloads substi-
tuting for DVDs and cinema attendance and application service providers
(ASPs) delivering previously very expensive specialist software to online sub-
scribers on a monthly per-user fee basis.
First Iteration: The DCMS ‘Template’

Famously, the DCMS defines the creative industries as ‘those industries
which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have
a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploita-
tion of intellectual property’ (DCMS 2001a:4). The thirteen segments selected
in the UK Creative Industries Mapping Document 1998 (Advertising,
Architecture, Art & Antiques Market, Crafts, Design, Designer Fashion, Film &
Video, Interactive Leisure Software, Music, Performing Arts, Publishing,
Software & Computer Services and Television & Radio) had their own focused
reports.
This groundbreaking DCMS work was hampered by limitations beyond
their control: in the classifications, granularity and availability of relevant
data. Broadly speaking, the original DCMS definitions of the creative indus-
tries and segments appear to align more closely with government portfolio
responsibilities than with a rigorous framework to support analysis because
one did not yet exist. Notwithstanding, the 1998 and 2001 mapping docu-
ments broke new ground in defining the creative industries, highlighting
their importance and difficulties of measuring this diverse and rapidly
evolving section of the economy. The innovation and importance of the
reports should not be underestimated: they established a platform for the
creative industries to have a voice to governments at all levels. Their impact
was not confined to the UK as shown by the rapid undertaking of similar
studies in many countries.
The segment reports included data on the level of employment gener-
ated, the number, size, turnover and margins of firms in the segments and
the outputs including the value of exports and estimates of the value of
‘Gross Value Added’. Some of the segment reports – depending on available
data – also looked at the nature of the value chains, the level of competition
and concentration within the industry and the industry’s international com-
petitiveness. The method and coverage of the UK Creative Industries
Mapping Document 1998 ‘template’ was developed further in the 2001 ver-
sion and, as we have noted, was adopted widely.
There was no primary data in the two DCMS Mapping Studies reports,
instead they relied on a range of existing data collated from government
statistical agencies and from reports or surveys conducted by the various
industry bodies, such as the Royal Institute of British Architects for
Architecture, the Design Business Association and the Design Council for
Design, and the Arts Council of England for Performing Arts. Where no
direct data was available for creative activities that are subsumed in other
industries, proportional estimates were made. For example, the value of the
Creative Industries Mapping: Where have we come from and where are we going? 9
5. Now known as the Fashion Design segment in the UK was estimated as 5% of the apparel
DCMS Evidence
Toolkit Department
related industries – a best effort estimate at the time.
of Culture, Media The UK Mapping Studies’ three key limitations concerned segment def-
and Sport (2004). inition (leading to overreach, overlaps and gaps), data source and classifi-
cation (inconsistencies in measures, frequency and time periods), and
granularity (from relying on highly aggregated source data). These limita-
tions reduce the ability to compare the performance of segments over time
as well as between segments, regions and countries.
Definitional limitations
The industry activity-based segment definitions developed by the DCMS are
not consistent with respect to the definition of creative industries nor are
they consistent with respect to the stage of the value chain. While much of
these inconsistencies are the result of the limitations in industrial classifica-
tion systems, consistency is important as it provides the basis for cross-
sectoral and cross economy comparisons. As Andy Pratt (2000) points out,
there are problems with a focus for the selection of segments in the creation
stage and the retail or exchange stage of the cycle at the expense of the pro-
duction stage. Even within the retail group of industries, there are inconsis-
tencies: newsagencies, Art and Antique Dealers and retailing of Recorded
Music are included but Real Estate Sales offices are not.
The selection of industries appears to be based more on sectors cov-
ered by the portfolio than on a comprehensive approach to measure the
creative industries as such. Such an approach would require a consistent
framework focusing on the primary activities of each segment and enabling
the sizing of the segments to be combined to determine the overall size of
the creative industries without double counting. The 2002 UK DCMS
Cultural Data Framework5 was a substantial effort to address the need for
consistency in metrics as it details the industry activities and occupations
for each stage of a value chain for each segment:
1. Creation > 2. Making > 3. Dissemination > 4. Exhibition/Reception >

5. Archiving/Preservation > 6. Education/Understanding.
Unfortunately the framework does not differentiate between the primary

activities of the value chain and the support or infrastructure requirements.
As pointed out by those who developed the ‘Creative Chain’ from the
Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics (Culture Statistics Program
(2001) some important activities, such as training, government bodies and
associations are not part of the core value chain but are autonomous sup-
port activities.
Culture
goods
Creation Production Manufacturing Distribution and
services
Support
activites

We would take this further and suggest that while accounting for many 6. This is examined
in detail in a case
of these ‘autonomous’ activities is essential when conducting input/output of regional design
and multiplier factor studies they are not directly relevant when calculating in Higgs et al (2005).
the level of creative employment.
Comparability limitations
The UK Mapping documents utilised different sources for the data for
each of the segments which means that caution has to be exercised
when comparing segments or when adding them together in attempt to
create a total for the creative industries in a specific year. Another con-
cern is highlighted by the caveats in the 2001 Mapping Document that
suggests there is little point in comparing the figures for 1998 report to
that of the 2001 report because of methodological differences in the
years used as reference points, the time period covered and the classifi-
cations used (DCMS 2001b). The DCMS research unit addresses this
issue by commencing in 2002 to release reports that endeavour to use
the same metrics from the same source for each segment as a time
series: employment, the number of firms, the exports and the level of
gross value add. This is a valuable basis for further creative industries
mapping work.
The UK’s Annual Business Inquiry (ABI), a major data source sited in the
DCMS Evidence Toolkit, collects data from enterprises with employees and
codes the number of employees with the standard industry code.
Unfortunately the ABI does not survey non-employing enterprises so the sig-
nificant number of sole-practitioner creatives is not counted. (The creative
industries are composed to a greater extent than many other industry sectors
by sole traders: ‘39 per cent of those employed in cultural occupations as a
main job are self-employed compared with 12 per cent of those in non-
cultural employment’ [Davies and Lindley 2003].) Also, the UK Labour Force
Survey, according to the DCMS Evidence Toolkit, needs to be used with cau-
tion when looking at sectors within the creative industries as it is conducted
as a survey of UK households with a sample size of approximately one in 400
to provide the weighted results. As a consequence it could be hard to deter-
mine reliably the detailed patterns of employment within sub-segments. Data
from a population census would be much more suited for this – but can
quickly go out of date.
Classification limitations affecting data availability

The first iteration of mapping studies naturally focused on the industry
activities and therefore gathered data about the specialist firms operating
within each specific segment. However Pratt (2004) and Roodhouse
(2006) have noted that standard industrial classifications are poorly suited
to creative industries especially in the Design and Interactive Media seg-
ments. This means that the direct economic impact of creative industries
has been substantially under-estimated.6 For instance, the approach used
by most analysts to measure the employment impact of (say) the Design
segment is to count the people employed within firms in the specialist
design industries of Architectural Services and Photographic Services. Our
analysis (which we will exposit later) in the Australian instance has shown
this leads to under-counting by approximately 50 percent because of the
high number of designers embedded in other industries and poor statistical

industry definition coverage.
Many specialist design consulting activities are lost within broad classifi-
cations such as the Australian category of ‘Business Services’ or ‘Consultant
Engineering Services’ or even the several classifications related to clothing
manufacturing. Simon Roodhouse’s report on Fashion Design pointed to the
special difficulties of meaningfully defining sub-sectors in this sector: ‘The need
to define the sector is central to any attempt at collecting data and the impor-
tance of being precise about the descriptors for sub-sectors. This is where
judgements are needed to reflect the extent of a sub-sector within the
accepted national norms such as SIC and SOC and avoids some of the prob-
lems of overlap or double counting’ (Roodhouse 2003:4).
As an example of the problems Roodhouse identifies, in 2001 there
were 2402 Fashion Designers employed across Australia but only 133 of
these were employed within the appropriate specialist industry classification
(‘Business Services’) where they represented less than 1% of that industry’s
employment. 17% of Fashion Designers are working in ‘Clothing
Manufacturing’, undefined, 16% in ‘Clothing Wholesaling’ and a further
14% are working within ‘Womens and Girls Wear Manufacturing’. Similarly for
1,903 people whose occupation in 2001 was as an Industrial or Product
Designer, only 300 or 15% were employed in the ‘correct’ industry of
‘Consultant Engineering Services’ where they constitute less 1% of the
38,000 employed.
As we have noted, the DCMS Mapping studies used proportional esti-
mates to address this problem. The UK Design sector has no UK Standard
Industrial Classification (SIC) code and therefore data for it could not be
sourced from national surveys. The Design Mapping Report therefore had
to rely on industry surveys and other estimates which creates potential
inconsistencies with the data of other segments.
The 2003 Singapore study (Heng et al 2003) utilises a subset of the
copyright industries selection of industry classifications to size its industry,
ignoring the distribution stage of the value chain. The study was notable for
its comprehensive attempt to compare Singapore’s performance on a num-
ber of employment and economic indicators with the US, Hong Kong,
Australia and UK. But again a number of the industries selected, such as
newsagencies, are open to challenge for overreach and inconsistency as
libraries, cinemas and museums were excluded.
Second Iteration: Industry and Occupation

2003–4 saw the release of a second iteration of mapping methodology,
including the Hong Kong Baseline Study (Hui 2003) and the Ontario
Design Study (Gertler And Vinodrai 2004). This iteration also includes UK
Creative Industries Economic Estimates Statistical Bulletin July 2003 (DCMS
[2003-] and subsequent issues). In an effort to address the data availability
and industry classification shortcomings in the first iteration, these looked
beyond industry codes and began to include occupational data. This
approach had been previously used when measuring arts and cultural
employment (ABS 1991, 1993; Statistics New Zealand 1995). (To fore-
shadow our view of this iteration, our approach argues that by itself a ‘cre-
ative occupation’ approach can still result in a significant underestimation

of total employment as it does not take into account the support and man-
agement staff that work within specialist creative firms.)
The annual DCMS Creative Industries Economic Estimates Statistical
Bulletin series (since 2003) has been developing this more comprehensive
approach. The October 2005 report states: ‘In the summer quarter of 2004,
creative employment totalled 1.8 million jobs. This included just over 1 mil-
lion jobs in companies in the creative industries. There were a further esti-
mated 0.8 million creative jobs within companies outside the creative
industries’ (p2). These data were adduced by examining the annual labour
force survey (which is not a census) which records the occupations and
industries of people employed. The inclusion of embedded employment
adds a further 75% to the UK total creative employment. This rectifies to
some extent the underestimate of creative industries activity that was
occurring in previous mapping studies. This method of combining data
from occupation and industry classifications was further developed by the
Centre for Cultural Policy Research at the University of Hong Kong in their
Baseline Study on Hong Kong’s Creative Industries for the Central Policy
Unit of Hong Kong SAR. The Centre defines three types of creative employ-
ment: (1) Occupations of Creative Production (OCP); (2) Associate Profession
of Content/Creative Production (APCP) and (3) Occupations of Creative/
Content Production in all other industries.
Table 1: Hong Kong’s Matrix of Mapping Employment Data from Population Census.
Source: HK Creative Industries Baseline Study 2004.
For type 1 and 3 it developed a list of 10 core occupation codes and for
type 2 a separate list of 9 occupation codes. These are mapped across 9
industry groups.
Unfortunately the low resolution (3 digit) of the occupation and industry
codes available and used in the study constrained the accuracy of this
approach and substantially limits analysis at the segment level. In addition
the specifications of nine occupation codes to define the Associate
Profession of Content/Creative Production (APCP) is superfluous as this
unnecessarily constrains the identification of those employed in support
roles within the specialist creative industries. Our Australian analysis has
shown that there is a much wider range of occupations employed within the
creative industries in support and managerial roles than the nine codes
selected by Hong Kong.
The importance of combining occupation and industry data matrices is
evidenced in the 2004 Ontario Design Study. This was notable for, firstly,
comparing the number of people in a range of design occupations in
Ontario and the US per 1,000 people in the workforce. The benchmarking
of cities and regions on the basis of specific occupation densities revealed
some striking patterns in the competitiveness of some population centres
that would have been missed if the analysis was just made on the basis of
employment within the specialist design services industry. Secondly the
study was the first example we have been able to identify which analyses
the proportion of employment of a creative segment’s workforce across
the economy. The study looked beyond the simple number of “embedded”
designers to look for patterns in where they were employed and on what
basis.
Methodological limitations of the second iteration

Accurate metrics for the creative industries are most effectively generated
by teasing out the individual fine “strands” of creative occupations and
industry activities and then combining them into a “cord” for each segment
which can then be joined together to form the creative industries “rope”. It
cannot be reliably and consistently achieved by combining an arbitrary slice
or proportion of one rope with other slices or sections of other ropes as this
approach easily unravels under scrutiny.
Therefore it is important to analyse from the finest resolution of classifi-
cation possible. We use the term ‘resolution’ to refer to the degree of clas-
sification for which data is available. In a classification hierarchy, the finest
resolution is the one with the most digits. The lowest resolution is the top
level single digit classification which in the case of industry activity is the
‘division’ (in Australia) and in occupation it is the ‘Skill Level’ or ‘Major
Group’. The UK has a similar level of resolution in its occupation (SOC)
and industry (SIC) classifications but it would appear that because of the
limitations of the employment survey, the analysis was not conducted at the
finest possible level of detail.
Care also needs to be taken in selecting the industry and occupation
classifications used as the ones selected should vary depending on the pur-
pose and context. For instance the industry and occupation classifications
used to calculate employment by the UK DCMS appear to have been
selected in isolation with considering how they would interact. The UK

Annual Economic Estimates 2006 report includes in the publishing seg-

ment four occupations which would be correct when counted within the
publishing industries but which could not be considered creative occupa-
tions when embedded in the broader industry. These include Originators,
Compositors and Print preparers, Printers, Bookbinders and Print finishers
and Screen printers. Of the 35 occupation codes it uses to calculate embed-
ded creative employment, 10 are substantially or wholly irrelevant and
would substantially increase the size of the ‘embedded’ workforce.
Furthermore of the 25 industry classifications used by the DCMS in the cal-
culation of the industry employment, export and business numbers, six are
highly contentious as they would have a low degree of correlation with the
core creative industry value chain. These industries include Clothing
Manufacture, Newsagencies, Other Business Activities not elsewhere clas-
sified, Other Retail Sale in specialised stores, and Retail Sale of second-
hand goods in stores.
The use of broad classifications would prevent researchers from identi-
fying, separating and combining their threads of data and the use of inap-
propriate classifications would result in erroneous or misleading results.
Third Iteration: The ‘Creative Trident’ Approach

The first steps towards implementing a third iteration to measuring employ-
ment of the creative workforce, building, as we have noted, on cultural
employment frameworks, were taken in parallel in France and Australia.
Following from the recommendations of the European Union ‘Leadership
Group (LEG) on Cultural Statistics’, the French Culture Ministry’s
Department for Planning and Statistics (2005) produced a report on
Cultural Employment in Europe in 2002 (French Ministry of Culture 2005).
This defined cultural employment as ‘the total of active workers having
either a cultural profession, or working with an economic unit within the
cultural sector’. The definition supported three distinct occupational ‘situa-
tions’ which are directly equivalent to the parallel work which we have
dubbed the Creative Trident:
• Workers with a cultural profession working in a cultural sector (e.g. an artist

in an opera);
• Workers having a cultural profession but working outside the cultural
sector (e.g. a designer in car industry);
• Workers having a non-cultural profession and working in the cultural
sector (e.g. a secretary in a film production company).
Our research has shown that the primary impact of creative industries in both
employment and value add terms can be determined from a methodology
analysing a census-based matrix that combines the employment within the
specialist creative industry activity and the specialist occupations in a way that
either double counts or excludes people or businesses because of short-
comings in occupation and industry classification schemes.
Our methodology looked to provide metrics, especially employment
and earnings, that would be especially robust and of national scope. This
could not be achieved from scaling up from a survey of a proportion of the
segment or sector as the scaling factor is always open to challenge. We
developed a methodology and suite of tools that could enable robust

analysis of a range of national data-sets, such as census-based employ-
ment and business activity, from different periods that could be combined,
despite each data-set having different classification schemes such as
industry, occupation and qualification: often different versions of them
and different levels of aggregation.
Our project benefited from all the previous work outlined above. In
addition, Richard Florida’s work (Florida 2002; Florida and Tinagli 2004)
on the ‘Creative Index’ – notwithstanding its implausible corralling all
white and no-collar workers into its orbit – highlighted the importance of
those in creative occupations being studied in their own right, rather than
focus narrowly on industries in which they work. He has highlighted the
importance of such an occupational analytical focus to the competitive
advantage of cities and regions. We also were able to pilot the approach in
a series of reports at a regional level in Australia (CIRAC and SGS 2005).
Towards the Creative Trident

The straight forward approach to measuring the impact of creative indus-
tries is to count the number of people employed within a given bundle of
industry classifications. In Australia this is currently 28 classifications
within the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industry Classification
(1993 release).
Australian Employment 2001 Employment within

Population Census 28 Creative Industries
Total Creative Industry 299,916
Table 2: 2001 Australian employment using 22 tightly defined industry

classifications.
An alternative approach is to count the number of people employed

within eighty nine occupation codes (at six digits in Australia) that are
defined as specialist creative occupations.
Employment 2001 Total Creatives

Employment of people in 89 specialist Creative
271,467
Occupations
Through analysis of a custom data extract of the Census of population

consisting of the number of people employed in every occupation in every
industry at the finest level of occupation (at six digits) and industry (at
four digits) coding available it is possible to break down the creative indus-
try employment into two components: those within specialist occupations
and those performing other roles within the firms in the selected creative
industries.

Australian Employment 2001 Employment within 28

Population Census Creative Industries
People employed in Creative Occupations 134,450
People employed in Support and Management
165,466
Occupations
Total Creative Industry 299,916
Specialist Proportion 44.8%
Furthermore, by focussing on the specialist creative occupations it is

possible to determine those employed within the specialist creative indus-
tries and those in employment in other industries.
Employment within Employment within Total Embedded

Employment 2001
22 Creative Industries Other Industries Creatives Proportion
Employment of people in
89 specialist Creative 134,450 137,017 271,467 50.5%
Occupations
The Employment Creative Trident

We dub the combination of these two approaches into a single table the
‘Creative Trident’. (The metaphor of the trident is used because it points to
three parts of an employment quadrant composed of an occupation/indus-
try matrix of two rows and two columns.) This is the total of creative occu-
pations within the core creative industries (Specialists), plus the creative
occupations employed in other industries (Embedded), plus the non-creative
(better titled business and support) occupations employed in creative
industries who are often responsible for managing, accounting for, and
technically supporting creative activity. Simply put, the number of people
employed in the Creative Economy is the total of Creative Industries
employment (299,916) plus embedded employment (137,017) which in
2001 totalled 436,933 people.
Australian Census Employment within Employment within Total Embedded

2001 Employment Creative Industries Other Industries Creatives Proportion
Employment of people
in 89 specialist Creative 134,450 137,017 271,467 50.5%
Occupations
Business and Support 165,466 165,466

Workers
Total Creative Industry 299,916 137,017 436,933 35.7%
Creative Occupation
44.8% 62.1%
Proportion
Without a framework such as the trident it would be easy to double

count employment or overlook some embedded employment. The trident
aids the visualisation of the complete creative economy of a country, city or
region or at a finer level of a specific creative segment.
The values for the Trident are best captured from a single, custom pop-
ulation Census table of the number of people employed in every occupation
in every industry at the finest level of occupation and industry coding avail-
able. This is not a trivial analytical task as the 2001 Australian Census data-
set contained over 13 million cells.
While the Australian developed Trident is conceptually similar (after
rotation) to the methodology developed by Centre for Cultural Policy
Research at the University of Hong Kong, it differs in two important ways:
• The Creative Trident utilises combined occupation and industry matrices

and uses its toolset to enable two or three dimensional analysis by spec-
ifying the industries and occupations that are part of the core segment
or sector of interest. The remaining industries and occupations do not
have to be specified but the level of employment within them is
counted.
• The Creative Trident uses much higher resolution classifications to
select the occupations and industries of interest and excludes those that
are too broad or includes a significant proportion of activities that are
not core creative ones. It manages this complexity using the CCI toolset.
The Trident is also an advance on the UK Economic Estimates

approach of reporting creative industries employment plus embedded
employment as the Trident explicitly delineates specialist employment
and business occupations employment. Given that there is movement,
especially between specialist and embedded employment, it is important
to be able to monitor such trends as they can reveal significant patterns
within a segment. The other advantage of the Trident approach is that it
compensates for many of the coverage weaknesses in industry classifica-
tions by also being able to integrate the employment from the often more
finely-grained creative occupations. This is especially true in many of the
design segments where the industry coding is weak in Australia and non
existent in the UK. But there is good coverage of design occupations in
both jurisdictions.
The Financial Creative Trident (Creative Economy)

It has been very difficult for economists and industry researchers to develop
a consistent measurement of the overall ‘creative economy’. However the
Creative Trident has a contribution to make here as the custom Census
tables we used include the number of people employed within 16 income
bands for every occupation in every industry at the finest level of occupation
and industry coding available. Determination of the mid value of each of
the 16 income bands enables the calculation of the total annual income
generated by all persons employed for every combination of income band,
occupation and industry.
This is not the turnover of organisations within the industry but the
gross amount received as declared on the 2001 Census form. The total

Australian Creative Industries Other Industries Total

Census 2001 $Million $Million $Million
Creative $6,343 $6,467 $12,810

Occupations
Other $8,013 $8,013

Occupations
Total $14,356 $6,467 $20,823
Table 3: Annual Earnings generated from Employment in the Creative Trident.
costs to business of these personal earnings would be an estimated 30%

higher because of superannuation and other benefits, payroll tax and other
administrative costs.
To put this in context, the economic gross value added by an indus-
try or segment would approximate, within plus or minus 10%, the
value of the earnings of the people within the segment with much of
that gap being accounted for by the profit of the firms. This correlation
has been observed in economic modelling conducted on a statistically
significant survey of the creative industries in Queensland we con-
ducted in 2004.
Total trident Total Trident Earnings

Employment from Employment
Australia 2001 Australia 2001
Creative Segments (Persons) $Millions
Music & Performing Arts 29,618 $964
Film, Television & Radio 34,212 $1,670
Advertising & Marketing 45,401 $2,192
Software Development & 133,847 $8,605

Interactive Content
Writing, Publishing & Print 80,686 $3,098

Media
Architecture, Design & Visual 113,169 $4,295

Arts
Total Creative Segments 436,933 $20,692
Table 4: Employment and Earnings within the segments in the Creative Trident.
Using the Trident approach to measure the Creative Segments

The Trident approach to analysing the combined industry and occupation
employment matrix works just as effectively when analysing the individual
creative segments as it does on the total ‘creative economy’ employment
and earnings.
However each segment has different patterns in the proportion of sup-
port and embedded employment.
The Creative Industry Sub-total column is what first and second itera-
tion studies would identify as the size of the segment. The third iteration
approach reveals the variations between the segments with the Film,
Television & Radio segment having a very low (7%) rate of embeddedness
to the Advertising & Marketing segment having a very high rate at 44%.
Whole of economy impact

The significance of Creative Trident is felt across the whole of the
Australian economy either directly or through embedded employment.
Almost 2% of the total Australian workforce are people that are embedded,
Employment
of Creative
Occupation Employment Employment
within that of Others in of Creative Creative
Creative Creative that Creative Creative talent in other Occupations Total
Segment Industries Industry Industry Industries Sub-Total Trident
(Specialist) (Support) Sub-Total (Embedded) Sub-Total Total
Music & 9,812 8,568 18,380 11,238 21,050 29,618

Performing Arts
Film, Television 17,760 14,048 31,808 2,404 20,164 34,212

& Radio
Advertising & 7,963 17,390 25,353 20,048 28,011 45,401

Marketing
Software 34,818 60,930 95,748 38,099 72,917 133,847

Development &
Interactive
Content
Writing, 25,167 37,068 62,235 18,451 43,618 80,686

Publishing &
Print Media
Architecture, 38,930 27,462 66,392 46,777 85,707 113,169

Design & Visual
Arts
Grand Total 134,450 165,466 299,916 137,017 271,467 436,933
Table 5: The employment of each Creative Segment within the different Trident Modes.

Specialist
Total all Creative
Occupations Total Creative Segments
Employed Segments and within Total Embedded
Division within Division Embedded Creatives Divisions Creatives
# # % # # %
A Agriculture, Forestry 319,879 623 0.2% 623 0.2%
and Fishing
B Mining 73,827 520 0.7% 520 0.7%

C Manufacturing 987,986 78,886 8.0% 58409 20477 2.1%
D Electricity, Gas and 59,841 1,286 2.1% 1286 2.1%
Water Supply
E Construction 543,746 3,957 0.7% 3957 0.7%

F Wholesale Trade 428,546 8,808 2.1% 8808 2.1%
G Retail Trade 1,181,922 10,340 0.9% 10340 0.9%
H Accommodation, 400,604 2,429 0.6% 2429 0.6%

Cafes and Restaurants
I Transport and Storage 347,455 3,031 0.9% 3031 0.9%
J Communication 146,008 5,675 3.9% 5675 3.9%

Services
K Finance and 308,402 10,274 3.3% 10274 3.3%
Insurance
L Property and 904,689 186,735 20.6% 161947 24788 2.7%
Business Services
M Government Admini- 365,337 12,662 3.5% 12662 3.5%

stration and Defence
N Education 587,953 16,838 2.9% 16838 2.9%
O Health and 791,761 2,775 0.4% 2775 0.4%

Community Services
P Cultural and 198,851 79,767 40.1% 74791 4976 2.5%

Recreational Services
Q Personal and Other 294,874 9,681 3.3% 4769 4912 1.7%

Services
R Non-Classifiable 43,602 1,305 3.0% 1305 3.0%

Economic Units
Z Not Stated 117,736 1,341 1.1% 1341 1.1%

Total 8,103,019 436,933 5.4% 299,916 137,017 1.7%
Table 6: Using the Creative Trident to calculate the significance of creative segments and embedded
creatives within the broader economy.
Source: Analysis by CCI of custom data-set from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001 Census of Population and Housing.
Specialist Creative
Specialist Industry Embedded Occupations Total
Census Year Creative Support Subtotal Creative Sub Total Trident
Census 1976 4 26,932 58,207 85,139 73,759 100,691 158,898

digit occupations
Census 1991 4 45,507 126,205 171,712 57,698 103,205 229,410

digit occupations
Census 1996 4 87,430 150,496 237,926 101,008 188,438 338,934

digit occupations
Census 2001 4 95,936 194,929 290,865 124,679 220,615 415,544

digit occupations
Census 2001 6 134,450 165,466 299,916 137,017 271,467 436,933

digit occupations
Table 7: The numbers of people employed within the Creative Trident for 1978, 1991, 1996 and 2001.
Source: Analysis by CCI of custom data-set from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing.
that is, are employed in creative occupations outside of specific creative

industries. They are spread across all industry divisions. The extent of this
embeddedness can be totalled by generating from the combined industry
and occupation matrix a table of the industry division of employment of
those in creative industries and creative occupations.
3.5% of employment within the M Division (Government) are in core
creative (embedded) occupations which is almost as high as the proportion
of Division J (Communication Services) at 3.9%. By way of comparison,
the embedded employment within Manufacturing is relatively low at 2.1%.
The proportion increases to 8% when the specialist employment within
the publishing industries is considered.
The Trident applied to Time Series

The Trident approach is very useful when applied to combined census
matrices from different years as it allows the identification of the shifts in
the patterns of employment between specialist and embedded that occurs
as segments mature or with changes in the economic climate.
We sourced and analysed custom census tables from 1976, 1991, 1996
and 2001 at the highest resolution available in industry and occupation
industry classification. To align more closely with prior census classifica-
tion structures the 2001 census table were recalculated at 4 digits of occupation
classification as well as at 6 digits.
Because of the strict criteria used in selecting the occupation and indus-
try classification that are used, both at 6 and 4 digits, this led to 20,000 dif-
ference in the calculation of total employment in 2001 at 4 digits compared
to 6 digits of occupation.
Between 1976 and 2001 the number of people employed in the Creative
Trident has tripled. However the limitations of some the historical industry or

Specialist Creative
Specialist Industry Embedded Occupations Total
Year Creative Support Subtotal Creative Sub Total Trident
Census 1976 4 470 1,015 1,484 1,286 1,756 2,770

digit occupations
Census 1991 4 662 1,837 2,499 840 1,502 3,339

digit occupations
Census 1996 4 1,145 1,971 3,116 1,323 2,468 4,438

digit occupations
Census 2001 4 1,184 2,406 3,590 1,539 2,723 5,128

digit occupations
Census 2001 6 1,711 1,825 3,536 1,968 3,679 5,504

digit occupations
Table 8: The density of employment within the Creative Trident for 1978, 1991, 1996 and 2001 per
100,000 people in the workforce.
Source: Analysis by CCI of custom data-set from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing.
occupation classifications shows up in some of the shifts between specialist,

support and embedded employment. When looking for these sorts of pat-
terns we have found it more useful to compare the density of employment per
100,000 people in the work force.
The steady increase in the density of the Australian Creative Trident
from 1976 to 2001 can be clearly seen as the density of employment has
doubled. There has been a cumulative annual growth in the density of
employment of 2.5% which is more meaningful in some contexts than the
natural cumulative annual growth in employment of 3.9% as this does not
acknowledge the 1.4% annual growth in the workforce.
The density approach more clearly reveals classification weakness artefacts
such as the drop in embedded density between 1976 and 1991 but also the
peak in support density. A strength of the Trident approach is that weaknesses
in one classification dimension such as occupation maybe be compensated for
by the industry classification still covering relevant employment. The total
employment figures are likely to be more accurate even if there are artefact-
driven shifts in the mode of employment figures. This is not the case where sin-
gle dimension source tables such as count of industry of employment are used.
The Trident approach applied to different industry grouping

definitions
Our methodology allows the analysis of large multidimensional census
tables in ways that are relatively definition agnostic. For example, the
Creative Digital Industries is a partial subset of the Creative Industries which
has many elements in common with the Cultural Industries. It was therefore
critical not only to be able to track over time the transitions between them,
Specialist Creative
Definition Specialist Industry Embedded Occupations Total
Creative Support Subtotal Creative Sub Total Trident
Creative 134,450 165,466 299,916 137,017 271,467 436,933

Industries
Digital 109,457 146,125 255,582 120,545 230,002 376,127

Creative
Industries
Cultural 61,482 91,110 152,592 50,743 112,225 203,335

Industries
Table 9: The numbers of people employed in Australia in 2001 within the Creative Industry, the
Creative Digital Industry and the Cultural Industries.
Source: Analysis by CCI of custom data-set from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001 Census of Population
and Housing.
but also to be able to support the comparative analysis of any number of

different segment definitions that are relevant.
Conclusion
The argument of this paper can be simply summarised. The first mapping
iteration determines the employment within the businesses operating
within the creative industries. There is little ability to differentiate the
employment characteristics except on the basis of the limited number, and
therefore limited resolution, of industry classifications, thus:
Employment
within
the Creative
Industries
The second iteration establishes total creative employment by adding

employment within the businesses operating within the creative industries
and creative occupations working outside of these businesses. While the
total may be accurate this approach does not reveal any of the mix of occu-
pations in the businesses, thus:
Employed in
Creative
Employment Occupations in
within Other
the Creative Industries
Industries

An alternative ‘second’ approach, common in cultural employment studies,

is to add the total employment in creative occupations to the number of
people in support occupations (those outside of creative occupations) that
are working within the creative industries, thus:
Employed in
Creative Occupations
Employed in
Support
Occupations in
Creative
Industries
The third iteration determines the employment within each of three of the
four possible combinations of occupations and industries: specialist, sup-
port and embedded (the fourth being the rest of the economy). Each of the
creative segments has a different ratio between the three quadrants that
would be missed in the first or second iteration, thus:
Employed in Employed in
Creative Creative
Occupations in Occupations in
Creative Other
Industries Industries
Employed in
Support
Occupations in
Creative
Industries
The third iteration aids alternative perspectives. For instance, it is possi-

ble to determine the total employment in creative occupations by adding
specialist and embedded employment modes:
Creative Creative
Creative Other
Employed in
Support
Occupations in
Creative
Industries
Employment within the creative industries can be determined by adding

specialist and support employment:
Creative Creative
Creative Other
Employed in
Support
Occupations in
Creative
Industries
The level of total creative employment is determined by adding all three

modes. Because all three modes are determined from the same dataset at
the same time there is no likelihood that there is any double counting:
Creative Creative
Creative Other
Employed in
Support
Occupations in
Creative Total
Creative
Industries
Employment
Compared to previous iterations, the Creative Trident methodology has

increased our ability to analyse accurately the employment characteristics
of the creative economy. There are two key criteria for what defines a third
iteration mapping methodology:
• It is based on analysis of multi-dimensional comprehensive datasets that

provide the count of the number of people within every income band for
every combination of occupation and industry of employment at the finest
level of detail. It is therefore able to calculate the annual earnings generated
from employment as well as the counts of the people employed.
• It reports specialist, embedded and support employment levels, total
annual earnings and characteristics for sectors, segments and the cre-
ative workforce as a whole and not just overall levels of employment.
This methodology is more resilient to weaknesses in the coverage of a spe-

cific segment or sub-segment than a first iteration approach. A shortcom-
ing in one dimension – in an occupation or, as is more likely, an industry
classification, are at least partially counter-balanced by the other dimen-
sion. For example, the 1981 and 1991 UK censuses had no usable industry
classification for Architectural Services, but we can calculate ‘embedded’
employment through the architecture occupations.

It also supports comparability across the segments and the economy

than second iteration approaches. Being generated from a whole-of-economy
matrix, employment and income in the creative segments, and embedded
employment, can be compared economy-wide or to large-scale sectors
such as manufacturing or services. Also, the annual earnings in individual
segments are more accurate as they are calculated from the mean income
of each combination of a specific occupation with a specific industry. This is
a superior approach for creative employment than using the mean income
for an industry or occupation classification where any significant variations
are lost in the averages. With the right source dataset, the methodology
allows us to examine the distribution pattern of annual earnings within a
segment and to compare the distribution patterns of specialist, support
and embedded roles.
For industry strategists and government policy makers, the trident
methodology could have important implications. First, as we have noted, it
tell us that the size of the creative economy is significantly larger than pre-
viously assessed. It places a strong focus on the human capital dimension,
encouraging a stress on the value to the wider economy of creative ‘inputs’
as well as a focus on the robustness of creative industry sectors them-
selves. Programmes that focus on business development, account manage-
ment or support skills within the creative industries may find integrated
data on support occupations useful. Industry sectors such as product
design may find that analysis of the linkages between specialists and
embedded creatives may be useful in addressing the export potential of a
country’s manufacturing sector.
We are moving to apply the Creative Trident methodology in 2007 to
diverse national data sets, including the Australian and New Zealand census
conducted in 2006 which used recently updated classification schemes. We
expect this to demonstrate significant sizing advances as classifications
catch up with major changes in the structure of the workforce and industry –
as contemporary economies begin to look more ‘creative’.
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Suggested citation
Higgs, P. and Cunningham, S. (2008), ‘Creative Industries Mapping: Where have
we come from and where are we going?’, Creative Industries Journal, 1: 1, pp.
7–30, doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.7/1
Contributor details
Peter Higgs is Senior Research Fellow, Australian Research Council Centre of
Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of
Technology. He is manager of the centre’s mapping projects and has co-authored
several of the key reports which have informed national, state and local creative
industries policy development in Australia.
E-mail: p.higgs@qut.edu.au
Professor Stuart Cunningham is Director, Australian Research Council Centre of

Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of
Technology. He has written extensively on Australian screen industries, cultural
policy and on creative industries and innovation. His most recent work is What Price
a Creative Economy? (Platform Papers, 2006).
E-mail: s.cunningham@qut.edu.au

CIJ 1.1_03_art_Bagwell.qxd 1/16/08 3:25 PM Page 31


Susan Bagwell London Metropolitan University
Abstract Keywords
Inspired by US management guru Michael Porter (1995) the City Growth City Growth
Strategy initiative is promoting business clusters as a means of encouraging the Clusters
regeneration of deprived inner city areas in the UK. This paper draws on an on- Creative Industries
going evaluation of one of the initial pilots for this initiative – the City Fringe Regeneration
area of London where six creative clusters are being targeted as a means of stim-
ulating local economic development and social inclusion. Drawing on baseline
research with the jewellery cluster the paper explores the degree to which this
cluster gains competitive advantage from its inner city location and the extent to
which it is able to contribute to the regeneration of the local area. It thus pro-
vides a critique of Porter’s theory and contributes to our understanding of the
extent to which creative clusters can act as a tool for inner city regeneration.
Introduction
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the creative industries
and their potential role as a tool for addressing a number of key govern-
ment policies and concerns, particularly those concerned with our towns
and cities. This interest stems from the significant size of the sector as well
as the rapid growth it has reportedly experienced. In the UK in 2004, for
example, it is claimed that creative companies provided employment for
over 1.8 million people and accounted for 8 per cent of Gross Value Added of
the UK economy, while between 1997 and 2002 they grew at an average
of 6 per cent per annum compared to 3 per cent for the whole economy
(Creative London 2006). This growth appears to be particularly significant
within cities, often two to three times the national proportion (LDA 2005).
In London 1 in 5 of all new jobs are claimed to be in the creative industries
(Creative London 2006). Creative firms are seen as a source of innovation
for the knowledge economy, providing a limitless supply of new idea for
potential products across a range of industries. They are also perceived as
being linked to diversity, a further driver for innovation and heralded as a
major source of competitiveness for multi-cultural cities such as London.
While the arts and cultural industries have long since been harnessed as a
tool for engaging the socially excluded, the rapid growth within the creative
industries has led to the belief that the creative sector can provide valuable
employment opportunities for disadvantaged inner-city residents. The growth
in many of the new creative industry sectors has been found to be
important in providing some black and minority ethnic groups, notably
Asians, with opportunities for moving into higher value-added areas,
away from the less profitable sectors such as retail and clothing with

which they have traditionally been associated (Smallbone et al. 2005). The
creative industries are thus seen as offering the potential to meet wider
inclusion and diversity goals. Lastly, they are often at the forefront of place-
based regeneration and marketing strategies, contributing, through the cre-
ation of cultural quarters or city rebranding campaigns, to the regeneration
and renewal of redundant buildings and depressed urban areas. Little won-
der, then, that the creative industries hold so much appeal.
Equally popular with policy makers is the concept of business clusters.
This emphasizes the importance of location and inter-firm linkages or net-
works to productivity, seen as being particularly important in the context of
cities. Clustering is thought to lead to a number of advantages for both
firms and the regions in which they operate, including increased competi-
tiveness, higher productivity, new firm formation, growth, profitability, job
growth and innovation. As a result policy makers around the globe have
supported clusters as an economic development strategy. Creative clusters
are therefore a favoured concept and means of working with the creative
industries, and creative cluster development is now central to the economic
strategies of regional development agencies across the UK and in many
other regions of the world.
Clusters have been promoted as a means of encouraging the regenera-
tion of deprived inner city areas (Porter 1995) and this US-inspired model of
business-led regeneration has led to the introduction of the City Growth
Strategy (CGS) initiative in the UK. City Growth focuses on the positive
aspects and potential of distressed inner city areas rather than on their
problems, which have traditionally been the main drivers of government
intervention. Resources are focused on supporting key business clusters
that are seen as having the potential to boost local economic development
and thereby create jobs and wealth for local residents.
This paper draws on research from an ongoing evaluation of one of the
early pilot CGS areas: the City Fringe area of north London – an important
hub for the creative industries in London, accounting for over 8 per cent of
London’s creative sector firms (TBR 2005). The City Fringe’s City Growth
Strategy has targeted six creative clusters for support: jewellery, fashion, fur-
niture, publishing, digital media and cultural tourism. This article focuses
on the jewellery cluster, one of the most established clusters, to test the
validity of the City Growth Strategy approach in the context of creative
industries and local economic development. The article begins with a
review of the literature concerning business clusters and creative clusters.
It then moves on to outline the City Growth Strategy approach and its
operation in the City Fringe. An analysis of baseline data from the jewellery
cluster is used to explore the merits of the City Growth Strategy approach
and the potential of creative business clusters such as jewellery to contribute
to inner city regeneration.
Clusters: some key issues

There are several different definitions of clusters, but the most influential
is undoubtedly that of Michael Porter. Porter (1998) defines a cluster as
‘a geographic concentration of interconnected companies, specialized suppli-
ers, service providers, associated institutions and firms in related indus-
tries’. Firms networked with each other and operating in close proximity
32 Susan Bagwell
are seen to have a competitive advantage. Numerous research studies have

sought to identify what constitutes successful clusters and whether and
how policy can effectively support them (Lundequist and Power 2002; DTI
2004) A review of the cluster literature undertaken for the DTI (2004) iden-
tified three critical success factors or drivers of clusters:
• Presence of functioning networks and partnership

• A strong innovation base with supporting R&D activities
• The existence of a strong skills base.
The task of identifying clusters and evaluating their role, however, has
been hampered by the lack of clarity over definitions; for example, the
degree to which firms must interact locally to be defined as a cluster.
Questions have been raised regarding the relative importance of local link-
ages (Wolfe and Gertler 2004; Simmie 2004), and whether agglomeration
rather than clustering is more likely to be a reflection of urban economies
(Gordan and McCann 2000; Wolfe and Gertler 2004). The extreme flexibil-
ity of the concept, and its lack of clear geographical boundaries, has led to
clustering being described as a ‘chaotic concept’ (Martin and Sunley 2001;
DTI 2004) and cluster policies as ‘slippery concepts in slippery spaces’
(Bailey 2003; Lundequist and Power 2002; Markusen 1999).
The extent to which public intervention can help create successful clusters
or support existing ones is far from clear. A detailed study of more than 250
cluster initiatives (Solvell and Ketels 2003) suggested that cluster initiatives
seem to be more successful if they are focused on a cluster already strong
and set in a location with a good business environment. A shared conceptual
framework of competitiveness, and access to a small operational budget to
finance an office with a dedicated cluster facilitator, were also found to be
important. But many regional clusters do not succeed, and many that do, do
so for a time and then fail (Enright 2002). Others argue that effective clusters
are the result of a self-selection process by firms (Cooke and Morgan 1998)
that cannot be created by public intervention. Despite the huge popularity of
clusters among policy makers and practitioners, and the large number of
cluster initiatives, there is little evidence to demonstrate what they achieve in
different circumstances and locations (Andersson et al. 2004; Simmie 2004).
Instead there has, as Atherton (2003) notes, been an explicit or assumed link
between cluster formation and economic development.
Thus, as Enright (2002: 16) argues, ‘we must sharpen our analysis of
regional clusters and cluster development policies if clustering is to be used
successfully as a basis for economic development’. Enright emphasizes char-
acterizing the variety of clusters, understanding the state of development
of clusters, the importance of cluster identification and selection processes,
the links between market failures and cluster-based strategies, and whether
cluster-based strategies are appropriate in a particular context.
Creative industries, creative clusters and regeneration

Creative industries, and thus creative clusters, are considered to have dis-
tinct characteristics that differentiate them from other types of businesses
and business clusters. Creative industries have been defined by the UK’s
Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as ‘those activities which
Creative clusters and city growth 33

have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a
potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploita-
tion of intellectual property’ (DCMS 1998). They are characterized by a high
degree of individual skill and commitment and frequently place cultural
and creative objectives above potential commercial returns. They are
often characterized by flexible organizational arrangements, with tempo-
rary, project-based teams rather than a permanent workforce. Furthermore,
SMEs tend to feature more prominently in the creative industries than in
most other sectors of the economy. (DCMS 2006). Thus, creative clusters
differ from conventional business clusters because ‘additional factors are
critical to their development and form and their aims are different from con-
ventional business clusters – some have social as well as enterprise goals,
cultural as well as growth objectives’ (LDA 2005).
The perceived potential of creative clusters to address a number of pol-
icy issues has led to a raft of programmes designed to promote them.
Strategies to support creative sectors can be found across the globe. These
have included initiatives such as workspace provision, business advice and
training, grants and loans, and the development of physical and soft infra-
structure (LDA 2005). Miles (2005) highlights the significant amount of
regeneration funding that has recently been spent on cultural projects
through the Single Regeneration Budget in the UK. In 1998/99, for example,
Culture in SRBs generated a budget equivalent to about half that of the arts
in the public sector (Miles 2005). Programmes have been designed to
stimulate economic growth, enhance the tourism offering of a town, bring
redundant buildings back into use, and address social disadvantage and
exclusion. Frequently attempts are made to address a number of these
objectives within a single programme. In a study of creative strategies
adopted by number of world cities it was found that creative strategies are
being mobilized to fulfil several different, and arguably potentially contradic-
tory, strategic goals (economic development versus social inclusion, creative
enterprise/innovation versus visitor economies) (LDA 2005). This, argues
the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA), can
deter investors because it encourages them to see cultural industries as
different from other businesses. Existing public sector-led initiatives need
to be better connected to each other in order to create a more coherent
investment ‘landscape’ for new creative businesses (NESTA 2005).
The City Growth Strategy (CGS)

The City Growth Strategy (CGS) was launched in July 2001 by the UK govern-
ment’s Small Business Service. Inspired by the work of US management guru
Michael Porter and his Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), and dri-
ven by the former Chancellor Gordon Brown’s commitment to address disad-
vantage through enterprise development, the strategy focuses on exploiting
the perceived advantages of inner city areas. Porter (1995) identified four
main advantages of the inner city: strategic location, local market demand,
integration with regional clusters, and human resources, and argued that
firms exploiting these advantages were experiencing economic growth. The
City Growth approach focuses on developing concrete strategic action plans for
unleashing and developing these competitive advantages. The SBS defined
six primary objectives for City Growth here in the UK, namely to:
•
34 Susan Bagwell
Help local leaders create a new vision for their inner city by identifying market-
based strategies and engaging the private sector
• Make the inner city a more competitive location for business
• Increase income, wealth and job opportunities for inner city residents
• Change perceptions and attitudes regarding opportunities in inner cities
• Create leadership and institutions that will push the agenda forward
• Increase productivity of the region by revitalizing inner cities (SBS web-
site 2006).
The initiative has been promoted as a business-led approach to regen-

eration, and leadership for implementing these local plans is expected to
come from the private sector working in partnership with public sector
agencies and local businesses. Seven deprived inner city areas were chosen
in 2001 to pilot the approach, followed by a further 10 areas in 2004. Each
received two years’ pump-priming money (£150,000–£250,000) to
research local need, engage the business community and develop their
strategies.
The City Fringe City Growth Strategy (CF CGS)

The City Fringe borders the northern and eastern boundaries of the City of
London, the most prosperous area in the UK. It comprises 13 local author-
ity wards covering parts of the London Boroughs of Camden, Hackney,
Islington and Tower Hamlets (see Figure 1). The area includes a population
Figure 1: Map of the City Fringe area.

1. 14.2% of men and of 142,342, of which 58 per cent are from minority ethnic groups, the largest
10.38% of women in
the City Fringe were
group being the Bangladeshi community, which accounts for 26 per cent of
unemployed in 2001, the City Fringe residents (Census 2001). Some 22,000 businesses provide
as compared to 7.29% an estimated 276,000 jobs in the area (ABI 2004). The residential area,
of men and 5.47% of
women in London,
however, provides a stark contrast to the wealth of the City and the thriving
while in October 2005 business base in the City Fringe. Unemployment levels among local resi-
5.74% of working age dents in the City Fringe are almost twice the London average1 and 48 per
City Fringe residents
were claiming Job
cent of the City Fringe area is among the top 10 per cent most deprived
Seeker’s Allowance as wards in the country. In 2001 34.9 per cent of the City Fringe residents had no
compared to 3.4% in qualifications at all (compared to 29 per cent of London residents) and
London as a whole.
those in employment tended to be employed in lower-skilled occupations
2. The other three (Census 2001). Most jobs in the area, however, are for managers and profes-
clusters are Financial
and Professional
sionals (CESI 2003).
Services, Health and The City Growth Strategy for the City Fringe is being led by the City Fringe
Social Care, and Partnership (CFP), a regeneration agency operating from the Corporation of
Hospitality and
Catering.
London, but funded by the four City Fringe boroughs (Camden, Islington,
Hackney and Tower Hamlets) to manage their regeneration activity. The
strategy was launched in 2003 with the stated aim to ‘build an area of thriv-
ing competitive industries and an area whose residents prosper from the suc-
cess of the region’ and to ‘support and maintain a diverse economic base,
a diverse residential base and diversity in employment’ (CFP 2003).
The City Fringe has traditionally been a hub for the creative industries in
London and today they are still an important element of the local economy
accounting for at least 14 per cent of local employment as well as con-
tributing to the unique character of the area (TBR 2005). Six of the nine
clusters targeted for intervention by the CF CGS are or include creative sec-
tors (Cultural Tourism, Fashion, Furniture and Product Design, ICT &
Digital Media, Jewellery, and Printing and Publishing).2 These nine clusters
have been chosen ‘on the basis of their size, growth and concentration,
their importance to the regional economy and forecast population growth,
their ability to provide entry-level employment opportunities, and their level
of cluster activity’ (CFP 2003). Some of these clusters are based on estab-
lished networks of firms (for example jewellery, printing, furniture and fash-
ion) while others are emerging clusters or are in the process of being
developed, with support from the City Fringe Partnership. Work with each
cluster proceeds through a number of stages including:
• Research and analysis to identify barriers to competitiveness and oppor-

tunities for intervention
• The development of a Cluster Action Group (CAG), involving busi-
nesses and key local agencies, for each target cluster or industry sector
• The development of a Sector Investment Plan (SIP) which defines and
costs potential interventions.
Interventions proposed in the SIPs typically include a mixture of busi-

ness support initiatives and training programmes designed to enable local
people to meet skills gaps and access jobs in the sector. Funding is sought
for these programmes (primarily from or via the London Development
Agency [LDA]), and projects are delivered through a variety of delivery
agents and monitored by the CFP.
36 Susan Bagwell
The Jewellery cluster

The City Fringe has been a focus for the UK jewellery trade since the 16th
century. The London region accounts for 25 per cent of the UK’s precious
jewellery manufacturing and more than 42 per cent of this is based in the
City Fringe (MCA 2004). The extent of this relative concentration can be
seen from the location quotients for the sector. Our analysis of the Annual
Business Inquiry (ABI 2003) data for jewellery manufacturing gives a loca-
tion quotient (LQ) of 7.0 for premises and 5.9 for employment, in compari-
son with London, suggesting that there are over seven times as many firms
employing nearly six times as many people as one might expect. The cluster
includes an estimated 446 firms providing employment for 2,139 people
(TRB 2005) and is made up of jewellery manufacturers, suppliers, whole-
salers, silversmiths, retailers and designer-makers. Firms are predomi-
nantly small, independent family-owned businesses or sole traders, with 68
per cent having 10 or fewer employees (ABI 2003). The Hatton Garden area
in the London Borough of Camden is the base for over 85 per cent of these
firms, with an estimated 400 businesses located in just 28 acres (0.1 sq km).
The map in Figure 2 shows the relative concentration of firms in this area.
Hatton Garden is renowned as a major centre for the UK jewellery industry
and for diamonds in particular. Also present in the area are a number of
colleges and providers of specialist support to the cluster.
Over the last 10 to 15 years rising property prices, increasing overseas
competition and an ageing workforce have led to a decline in employment
and a concern that the future of the cluster may be threatened. Between
2001 and 2003 employment in the sector as a whole fell by 8.3 per cent,
with larger firms employing between 11and 49 employees experiencing
the greatest job losses (27.8 per cent). The employment trends suggest
that micro firms are increasingly forming a larger proportion of firms
Figure 2: Jewellery firms in the City Fringe.

3. Between 2001 within the cluster, possibly accounted for by the decline in manufacturing
and 2003 larger
firms employing
and the increasing number of designer-makers entering the cluster.3
11–49 employees The CFP involvement in the jewellery sector builds on a range of existing
experienced the support activities and private/public sector partnerships that pre-date the
greatest decline in
employment (27%).
introduction of the City Growth strategy. In 2000 a Department of Trade
Whereas firms of this and Industry-sponsored analysis of the competitiveness of the industry
size used to account prompted the setting up of the National Jewellery Steering Group, and the
for 34% of all
employment in the
establishment in 2003 of regional forums to represent the industry and to
sector in 2001, by act as mechanisms for generating ideas to address the headline themes
2003 they only identified in the report. The London Forum was set up to represent the
accounted for 26%.
In contrast, the
interests of firms in London. In 2001, local businesses in Hatton Garden,
proportion of supported by the London Borough of Camden and the City Fringe
employment provided Partnership, launched a proposal for a jewellery centre and successfully
by micro businesses
(i.e. those employing
secured funding for a dedicated Jewellery Sector Development Manager.
10 or fewer) increased Since then a range of research studies have been commissioned which
by 3% during the have looked at workforce development needs, mapped current training and
same period.
business support provision, and undertaken an economic analysis of the
Hatton Garden area.
A successful bid to the LDA in 2004 for a Jewellery sector coordination
project enabled consultants to be hired to work with local businesses to
develop a Jewellery Sector Investment Plan (JSIP) designed to address the
needs identified by the various research studies and business consulta-
tions. This focuses on issues such as:
• Availability of workspace – many businesses have been forced to move

out in recent years, leading to the fragmentation of the cluster and dilut-
ing many of its advantages for those who remain.
• Lack of business skills among jewellery trade enterprises.
• Insufficient skills in craft disciplines.
• Lack of competitiveness, especially in international trade opportunities
• Lack of collaboration and information sharing around design and manu-
facturing.
• Lack of leadership, particularly the lack of a voice to represent the
Hatton Garden cluster on a national level (City Fringe Partnership web-
site 2007).
The JSIP sets out a strategy for tackling these issues. It has three main
objectives:
• To stimulate the demand for quality, innovative design-led jewellery and

allied products.
• To build the capacity of the London jewellery sector to supply quality,
innovative and design-led jewellery and allied products, and
• To coordinate effective partnership and collaboration within the sector.
These key themes incorporate 16 sub-programmes or projects designed

to stimulate exports and customer demand for high-quality jewellery;
increase visitors to Hatton Garden through the development of a jewellery
visitor information centre; develop links with schools and apprenticeship
schemes to encourage wider access to the industry; encourage the greater
38 Susan Bagwell
use of new technology among firms; more workspace provision and better
coordination of initiatives – a total package of support budgeted at £12.8m
for the 2006–11 period, of which £4,180m is projected as being secured
from the private sector. To date over £2m has been secured from the LDA,
the initial projects have been launched and a new coordinating body
(ChangeActShare) established.
The competitive advantages of a City Fringe location

Porter identified four key advantages of the inner city, and these will now
be dealt with in turn to explore whether they contribute to the competi-
tiveness of the jewellery sector in the City Fringe, and the extent to which
any competitive advantage can ultimately contribute to the regeneration
of the area.
Strategic location
The Hatton Garden area is unique in the close linkages and specialisms
shared between different businesses. The cluster represents a highly
symbiotic interdependence, involving designers, silversmiths, stone setters
and polishers, chain makers, bullion dealers, precious stone specialists,
assayers (gold and silver valuers) retailers and wholesalers. Most of the
businesses interviewed, particularly traditional manufacturers and designer-
makers and retailers, have located in the area because of the competitive
advantages of operating in close proximity to this range of businesses
involved in the supply chain. This allows direct contact between those
involved in the supply chain, enabling customers’ requirements to be
quickly and easily dealt with, and supplies and materials to be purchased in
person in one place. The proximity of the Assay Office was particularly cited
as important, enabling pieces to be hallmarked overnight if required. For
retailers, Hatton Garden’s reputation as the centre for the diamond industry
in London means that a location in the area is seen as essential. Many of
these businesses suggested that they would lose most of their customers if
they did not have a base in the area.
However, this network of interdependent companies is gradually being
eroded by increasing rents, which are forcing many traditional craftspeople
out of business or to cheaper areas in the provinces. Similarly, while most
businesses rely to a large extent on local suppliers, they also use suppliers
from throughout the UK, and larger companies in particular are increas-
ingly sourcing supplies and raw materials from cheaper sources overseas.
Those firms whose supply chains and markets have diversified beyond the
City Fringe are less dependent on a base in the area. One company inter-
viewed had relocated to Hertfordshire, keeping a small, one-person office
in the City Fringe as a means of retaining links with the area. For such
businesses a base in the area is no longer essential – and indeed rising
property prices, transport difficulties and parking restrictions make it a
somewhat unattractive location. The main strategic locational advantage
of the City Fringe for these firms is its central location and good transport
links, which enable them to recruit and retain staff from across London
and the South East.
The strong local supply chains provide a useful informal source of infor-
mation, but despite these supply chain networks there appeared to be little

cross-over and sharing of information and skills between the different sub-
sectors within the industry. Particularly notable is the division between
young designer-makers and traditional manufacturers. The need for
enhanced design skills within traditional manufacturing businesses and the
lack of traditional technical skills among young designer-makers has been
highlighted in a number of the local and national studies (DTI 2001; BMG
2004). Yet cases where links between these different types of businesses
are happening naturally within the cluster seem to be the rare exception
rather than the rule. The increased knowledge flows that are generally
thought to result from clusters were not apparent. Indeed it could be per-
ceived that many of the organic knowledge flows within the jewellery cluster
were actually encouraging the status quo rather than stimulating innova-
tion. A key objective of the JSIP interventions therefore is to facilitate a
greater exchange of knowledge and skills within the sector.
Local market demand

There is clearly a strong internal market within the cluster along the supply
chain, particularly among the smaller firms. Designer-makers and retailers
rely most on the local City Fringe market, with those interviewed suggest-
ing that 50–80% of their sales were to other businesses in the City Fringe,
or to customers visiting retail outlets in the area. The retailers in Hatton
Garden benefit from their close proximity to the City of London, with afflu-
ent city workers making up a significant proportion of their customers but
by no means exclusively so. Most firms have a customer base that extends
well outside the local area, and manufacturing firms in particular rely on
the wider London area and the rest of the UK for their largest markets.
Local residents within the City Fringe are unlikely to be able to afford the
jewellery produced in the area, and clearly businesses need to look well
beyond the local area if they are to survive and grow. The future competi-
tiveness of the industry is thought to be dependent on its ability to move
to more added-value markets and increase its overseas exports (DTI
2001). Support for exporting, for example by providing assistance to
enable businesses to attend overseas trade fairs, therefore forms a key
programme within the JSIP.
Thus it is apparent that local market demand exists along the supply
chain within the cluster, but the ultimate customers are as likely to be based
in London’s West End, elsewhere in the UK or overseas, as in the City
Fringe. The future of the cluster is dependent on the creation of a growing
global retail market for British jewellery. Jewellery is certainly not a cluster
that can survive and thrive on local markets alone.
Integration with regional clusters

Porter suggests that the most exciting prospects for the future of inner city
economic development lie in capitalizing on nearby regional clusters. The
retail end of the jewellery cluster benefits from its close proximity to the City
of London – the centre of the financial services industry and the largest
and most prosperous business cluster in the UK. As well as benefiting
from the presence of an affluent local workforce, some retailers in Hatton
Garden have been commissioned to produce bespoke pieces for large
financial institutions. To a limited extent there are also links between
40 Susan Bagwell
other local creative industry clusters. Some designer-makers, for example,

are linked with the design and fashion clusters, which are also important
to the City Fringe. The various studies of the Hatton Garden area have
emphasized the importance of increasing its attractiveness as a visitor
destination and thus linking it to the tourist industry – another important
creative cluster in London (MCA 2004). Improvements to the streetscape,
an extension of the licensing laws (which currently restrict local cafés and
bars from opening on Saturday) were all perceived as ways of encouraging
footfall in the area. Whether such strategies, if implemented, will make a
significant difference to sales remains to be seen. Although attractions
such as Spitalfields market are drawing visitors beyond the core London
tourist hotspots, Hatton Garden still remains somewhat distant from
existing tourist destinations, and the West End is still seen as the major
destination for shopping. The experience of the Jewellery Quarter in
Birmingham suggests that it is difficult to attract customers beyond the
central shopping areas (Fields and Humphreys 2002).
At present it would appear that, in general, the jewellery cluster is not
actively exploiting potential links with other regional clusters to any great
extent and that maybe this is an area that could lead to some fruitful col-
laboration. Our research and previous studies have tended to conclude
that, with a few exceptions, the jewellery cluster tends to look inward on its
own very tight-knit networks rather than outward to the potential opportu-
nities that may exist for links with other local clusters.
Human resources
The fourth competitive advantage of the inner city, according to Porter
(1995), is the pool of inner city residents eager to work, supposedly, for
relatively low wages. The evidence from the jewellery cluster suggests
that they do not see this aspect of the City Fringe location as offering par-
ticular advantages. Interviews with the firms indicated that few of the
existing workforce live in the City Fringe and that recruitment is largely by
word of mouth, making it difficult for local residents to enter the indus-
try. As one interviewee explained, when you are dealing with diamonds it
is important to have a workforce that can be trusted and this inevitably
reinforces the tendency to recruit through existing networks. The proxim-
ity to a number of colleges offering courses in jewellery and design does,
however, provide advantages and a few businesses have good links with
course tutors and use these as a means of recruiting new talent.
Although there is concern regarding the ageing workforce and the short-
age of skilled crafts within the industry, few firms were thinking of recruit-
ing in the current economic climate and the number of job opportunities
is also clearly limited by the small size of most firms. Attempts have been
made to forge links with the local community, and local Bangladeshi
residents have been invited to visit firms in an attempt to raise aware-
ness of the job opportunities in the sector. This has met with limited
success and it is felt that there is still a long way to go before there is
likely to be meaningful engagement with local people. Getting busi-
nesses to change their recruitment practices and getting local people to
a point where they are willing and ready to enter the industry will also take
time. The JSIP intends to work closely with schools and colleges to

develop new apprenticeship schemes and training programmes that will,

hopefully, be more successful.
It would appear, therefore, that the jewellery sector offers limited scope
for tackling local unemployment levels in the area in the short term,
although by raising the educational levels, interest and aspirations of the
younger generation there is a real possibility that they could become the
jewellery design and manufacturing graduates of the future.
Private sector involvement and leadership

A further key aspect of the CGS approach is its emphasis on business
involvement and leadership, and in the case of the jewellery cluster there
has been considerable private sector involvement in the development of
the Jewellery Sector Investment Plan. Over 100 firms have been involved in
the various consultations and focus groups meetings. A key to their effective
engagement in the process has been the presence of a number of ‘cluster
sector champions’ – key local firms who have been prepared to invest con-
siderable time and money in promoting the proposals. The presence of a
jewellery sector coordinator has also helped galvanize private sector involve-
ment. The CGS process has also been able to build on a history of private
sector collaboration and leadership. Local retailers have previously pooled
resources to print and distribute a leaflet promoting the area to local hotels,
and are currently sharing the costs of a private security firm that patrols the
street to provide further protection to retailers and their customers. While
some of the larger businesses felt that the cluster action group could ulti-
mately become self sustaining, others felt that public sector support would
always be needed to support the coordination of activities and to ensure that
the needs of smaller firms, which often did not have the time and resources
to participate in meetings, were also addressed.
A better approach to regeneration?

The evaluation will be attempting to measure the impact of the CGS
approach by interrogating the beneficiaries of programmes and reviewing
local and national socio-economic datasets to measure change. This poses
a number of challenges that it is not intended to touch on here. At this time
it is only possible to report on the early impressions of those who have
been involved in the process. These include a mixture of healthy scepticism
and genuine enthusiasm. In some respects it could be argued that the way
in which the CGS approach is being implemented in the City Fringe (and
indeed in other areas in the UK) is not so very different from previous
regeneration programmes, many of which have targeted business clusters
and encouraged private sector participation. While considerable private
sector leverage has been obtained, the process is still dominated by public
sector control and funding.
On the other hand, it is also acknowledged that the process of develop-
ing the JSIP has involved the most thorough piece of research and con-
sultation ever undertaken with the sector. Rarely in the past have
programmes been based on such solid evidence. Others felt that the
process that the CGS has fostered, of encouraging businesses to work
together towards the achievement of a common goal, is excellent and that
this will have a ripple effect on the local area. The initiative has also brought
42 Susan Bagwell
the various local agencies together to develop and promote a common

strategy for the sector. This is likely to lead to the more effective coordina-
tion and marketing of programmes. The development of a clear strategy,
with significant resources to support it, has enabled the profile of the sup-
port available to be raised significantly. As a result, over 100 firms attended
a launch at which the JSIP projects were collectively promoted. The busi-
nesses interviewed felt that at long last something is really beginning to
happen, and this is encouraging firms that had been thinking of leaving the
City Fringe to stay in the area if at all possible.
Conclusions
This case study raises a number of issues that question the value of the
cluster concept as a tool for understanding how firms gain competitive
advantage. The experience of the jewellery cluster in the City Fringe sug-
gests that clustering can provide some competitive advantages to some
firms, particularly where production requires the input of a range of differ-
ent skills and where the close proximity of businesses offering these skills
facilitates the efficiency of the production process. But for other businesses
different considerations, such as the cost of supplies, are more important
than geographical proximity, and their supply chain networks extend well
beyond the local area as a result. This emphasizes the importance of under-
standing the different subgroups within a cluster when developing a strat-
egy for support. It also suggests that cluster boundaries are difficult to
define and are unlikely to coincide neatly with a given regeneration area.
This has significant implications for the management of cluster initiatives.
The experience of the jewellery cluster in the City Fringe also questions
the commonly held view that clustering enhances knowledge flows
between companies that in turn lead to increased innovation. In the City
Fringe the presence of so many young designers and traditional manufac-
turers all working in the same area should have led to a sharing of skills
and a range of innovative products, but this has rarely happened without
external intervention.
Second, the City Growth Strategy claims to offer a new, business-led
approach to regeneration, but is it so very different from previous
approaches that have increasingly aimed to engage the private sector and
work with key business clusters? What the City Growth Strategy has man-
aged to achieve is the development of more coherent, evidenced-based
strategies for public intervention delivered though a coordinated partner-
ship of public and private sector agencies and businesses. It has also effec-
tively engaged and galvanized the support, and in some cases leadership,
of the private sector.
Finally, there is the issue of whether the City Growth Strategy offers a
useful approach for working with creative clusters. The examples Porter
(1995) provides of businesses that have successfully exploited inner city
locations tend to be lower-order retail, service or manufacturing firms that
can exploit the opportunities of underserved local markets and that require
the sort of skills that can be offered by inner city residents. These are very
different from the creative industries, which rely heavily on specialist skills
and individual talent and which depend on high added-value markets for
their survival. The small size and fragile and informal structures of

the creative industries do not lend themselves well to providing stable job
opportunities for disadvantaged inner city residents. Recent analyses of
London’s creative industries have confirmed that black and ethnic minority
groups (who generally suffer significantly higher than average levels of
unemployment) are disproportionately represented in creative industries
employment (GLA 2007). As a result the City Fringe Partnership highlights
some of the non-creative sectors it is working with, in particular health and
social care, printing, and hospitality and catering, as being those that are
most likely to provide employment opportunities for local residents. The
expectation that business-led regeneration can deliver improved growth in
the inner city has been questioned by a number of studies (Blackburn and
Ram 2006; CEEDR 2003). It would appear to be an even greater issue with
respect to the creative industries. The creative industries can play a major role
in many inner city regeneration strategies, but perhaps their potential role
in job creation has been over emphasized. Does the City Growth Strategy
have too many conflicting objectives therefore, and is it feasible to expect
businesses to deliver economic growth and local employment? This would
certainly seem to be an unrealistic expectation in the case of creative clus-
ters such as jewellery in the City Fringe.
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Suggested citation
Bagwell, S. (2008), ‘Creative clusters and city growth’, Creative Industries Journal,
1:1, pp. 31–46, doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.31/1
Contributor details
Contact: Susan Bagwell, Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University, Ladbroke
House, 62–66 Highbury Grove, London N5 2AD.
E-mail: s.bagwell@londonmet.ac.uk
Website: www.citiesinstitute.org
46 Susan Bagwell
CIJ 1.1_04_art_Gomosaeva.qxd 1/22/08 4:05 PM Page 47

The film and television industry

in london’s suburbs: lifestyle of the rich
or losers’ retreat?
Galina Gornostaeva London Metropolitan University
Abstract Keywords
There is growing evidence of the decentralization of the film and television Film and Television
(FTV) industry in London. The article demonstrates that this decentralization is Industry
happening in a counter-intuitive manner: first, it is more widespread in micro Suburbs
production companies, which are most vulnerable to the loss of face-to-face con- Decentralization
nectivity; second, it occurs not in ‘town centres’ characterized by better services London
and connections, but in the residential suburbs. The article suggests that the
industry is becoming more and more ‘cottage-based’ in a very direct sense – ori-
ented to projects run from the homes of producers. This happens in both ‘positive’
and ‘negative’ ways: the former is typical for affluent ‘home-based’ producers;
the latter, for industry’s ‘losers’ and start-ups. The suburban concentrations of
FTV production are being explained not only by the specifics of industry organi-
zation and the diseconomies of high rents and overcrowding but also by the
requirements of particular lifestyles, as well as by simple business failure.
Introduction
For several decades, the established situation and ‘received wisdom’ was 1. In 1951(before the
that film and television (FTV) production companies are located in the very collapse of the studio
system) the proportion
centres of major cities (CoL, 2000). This was due to the fact that firms in of employed in the
those quarters enjoyed proximity to distributors and broadcasters, post- FTV industry (film
production houses, as well as restaurants, bars and clubs – felt to be nec- production and
distribution and
essary for networking (Granovetter 1985) and face-to-face exchange of television activities)
information (Nachum and Keeble 1999, 2000). These face-to-face contacts, in Westminster
co-presence and co-location of people and firms within the same industry (including Soho) in
comparison with
and place, are part of a ‘project’ ecology (Grabher 2001, 2002a, 2002b, London A.C. (equiva-
2004a, 2004b, 2006) characterized by specific types of information lent of Inner London)
exchange and communication referred to variously as ‘buzz’ (Storper and was 61%, and in 2005
only 37.1% (Data from
Venables 2004, Bathelt et al. 2004), ‘noise’ (Grabher 2001, 2002a), ‘local Annual Business
broadcasting’ (Owen-Smith and Powell 2004), or ‘industrial atmosphere’ Inquiry [ABI] and the
(Marshall 1920). However, the primary role of such areas, for example Soho census of population
[CP]).
in London, has been gradually eroded.1 The long-term shift of FTV produc-
tion into inner suburbs is also recorded in Paris2 (Scott 2000a, 2000b) and 2. In 1967, 55.6% of Paris
metropolitan region’s
Los-Angeles3 (Scott 2005). employment in film
The question of what peripheral parts of cities mean for economies production was conce-
and employment is not new. It relates to the idea that core/central business ntrated in the Eighth
arrondissement (the
district (CBD) areas have higher land costs and congestion levels

very centre of Paris); in and therefore such areas will increasingly specialize in activities with lim-
1997, only 18.2%
(Scott 2000a: 19).
ited space requirements and a high value placed on intensive face-to-face
interaction (Gordon 2006). According to this hypothesis, the city centre
3. New film production
companies are located
will be the best location for FTV production companies, which fit the crite-
outside the dense ria. However, according to the authors noted above, it is not always the
primary cluster (from case and processes of decentralization have occurred among FTV
Burbank in the north
and east through the
companies too. The main reason put forward is the same – rising rents
central pivot of (Scott 2000b).
Hollywood to Beverly Research on decentralization, though mainly related to financial ser-
Hills and Santa
Monica in the west)
vices (Goddard and Morris 1976), emphasizes that companies that relo-
(Scott 2005). cated from the centre to the periphery in order to gain access to cheaper
and more spacious offices and parking spaces need to compensate for the
4. ‘FTV’ ecology has
strong similarities loss of proximity to their counterparts in face-to-face contacts; first, by
with ‘advertising’ increasing their use of telecommunications (which is questionable, accord-
ecology, see works of ing to, for example, Charlot and Duranton 2006); second, by having longer
G. Grabher referenced
in the article. travel distances; and third, by the replacement of contacts with business
partners in the CBD area by local ones. Therefore there is always interplay
5. Enterprises with less
than 5 employees. between the centrifugal force of higher rents and congestion, and the cen-
tripetal force of being part of a creative milieu in close proximity to the busi-
ness counterparts and related institutions, that influences the location
choice decision of the company.
For FTV production companies, the results of this interplay will be
informed, first, by the specificity of the ‘project’ ecology of the overall
FTV industry.4 However, more importantly, there will be variations in this
interplay caused by the non-homogeneous nature of the FTV ecology
composed of a spectrum of firms with different networking practices
(Grabher 2006). These essential differences will be informed by the
characteristics of their individual markets, by the size of the firm, by the
specifics of their operations, and by their economic prosperity and
bargaining power.
These organizational differences divide FTV firms into two distinctive
groups: those that stay in the centre and those that prefer more peripheral
locations. The main candidates for decentralization, sustaining spatially
extended external relations, would be those with smaller budgets, working
on packaged and serialized products (e.g. television programmes), or those
with stable and long-term relational contracts to major distributors/ broad-
casters (Scott 2005) who would care less for a prestigious central address,
or those who would like to break away from the media establishment
(Leslie 1997; Grabher 2002).
The major differences between individual ecologies of FTV firms in
London are influenced by the specifics of their negotiation and coordination
activities (Allen 1999), as well as the historical conditions of deregulation,
contradictory incentives and dependence on foreign investment, which will
be discussed below. As a result of these particularities, decentralization in
London, we argue, happens in a manner that is counter-intuitive. First, it is
more prominent for micro production enterprises,5 which are most vulnera-
ble to the loss of face-to-face connectivity. Second, decentralizing micro
companies find their location not in the more urbanized suburban ‘town
centres’ of Outer London or sub-centres of more peripheral Inner London, as
one might expect, where they could enjoy better services and connections, but
48 Galina Gornostaeva
in the residential suburbs, where in many cases firms are run from the home 6. Data from the Annual
Business Inquiry
of the producer. (ABI), the Annual
The purpose of this article is to show that the FTV industry in the UK is Employment Survey
characterized by a large number of micro production companies running (AES) and the census
of population (CP)
one project at a time, with significant gaps in between. The financing of were used.
projects is often fragmented, comes from various sources – often located
abroad – and for the majority, this financing is small scale, especially
where it comes from public sources. These characteristics shape the FTV
firm’s ability or inability to cover its overheads, including rents. It has
become common for many FTV companies to be run from home, which
means, in a large number of cases, a suburban home. There are several
differential forces in operation here. Some FTV micro businesses are run
by affluent producers, with established networks and track record, for
whom the business is strongly integrated into their lifestyle. However,
another group can be described as ‘losers’, with completely different eco-
nomic imperatives.
The phenomenon of ‘suburban’ FTV production, we argue, can only par-
tially be explained by ‘overflowing work practices’ (Jarvis and Pratt 2006),
which, it is believed, dominate patterns of work in the creative indus-
tries. The point made by Jarvis and Pratt (2006) was that a large proportion
of the work in these industries is carried out at home, outside the firm’s
boundary, which may relate to increased distances between work and home
and an ability to compensate for this by the use of new technologies. The
present article, however, focuses on the extreme situation where the home
becomes a firm, so that the place of work and place of residence are amal-
gamated and all work is done from home. This particular FTV geography
reflects the spatial assemblage of the logics and interests of the project
team, the firm and the entrepreneur (Grabher 2006).
The article is organized into several sections. The first section considers
the nature of FTV production and outlines the reasons for the existence of
the large number of micro firms. The second provides evidence of decen-
tralization of the FTV industry and discusses which FTV firms decentralize
most. The third section investigates whether suburban areas concentrate a
growing proportion of small FTV production companies, and how many
micro businesses may be run from home. The final section uses interviews
with the managing directors of FTV firms located in London’s inner and
outer suburbs in order to characterize the factors that influence their spe-
cific locational choices.
The analysis is based on available statistics6 and a series of twenty
interviews conducted with managing directors of independent FTV pro-
duction companies in different (central and peripheral) parts of London
during the period 2001–2007. These interviews were a part of research
projects with wider agendas and larger interview series: GEMACA II
project (2002) (Gornostaeva and Cheshire 2002); a project on media
industries for Camden Council (2003); and research funded by the UK
Economic and Social Research Council (2003–2007). These research pro-
jects were similar in their main goal, which was to reveal the characteristics
of the FTV ecology. This paper also draws upon an extensive secondary lit-
erature search, including planning and consultancy reports and web-based
information.
The film and television industry in london’s suburbs: lifestyle of the rich… 49
7. Here and below Why are film and television production companies small?
data from the Annual
Business Inquiry (ABI). In 2005, 89% of FTV firms in London had fewer than 5 employees.7 The
process of miniaturization of the industry was prominent in the last decade:
8. See the list of US
majors in Scott, 2002. the proportion of micro companies was only 74% in 1995. The existence of
a large number of small, independent production companies in the FTV
9. This has been
changed for television industry has historical reasons, the key factor being deregulation, typical of
companies in 2003 FTV industries across the world (Christopherson and Storper 1986; Deakin
(GB, 2003) and Pratten 2000; Pratten and Deakin 2000). The erosion of the studio sys-
10. Here and below tem in the film industry in the 1950s–1960s triggered subcontracting and
quotations are from the need for the existence of independent production companies.
interviews with
managing directors. Deregulation of (public and commercial) television in the 1980s–1990s in
the UK provided another impetus for a large number of independent pro-
duction companies specializing in the production of commercials and out-
sourced TV programmes for new and established broadcasters. The
majority of these independents did not grow into large firms (Baillieu and
Goodchild 2002).
Other aspects of FTV organization also kept firms small. First, the
dominance of US studios (Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, etc.)8 in
British film distribution and exhibition (UKFC, 2006) is a very well
observed phenomenon (Baillieu and Goodchild 2002; Pratt and
Gornostaeva, forthcoming a, forthcoming b). British film production also
failed, in competition with Hollywood, to access the international markets
dominated by US majors. The finance of production companies remains
fragmented and often depends on the willingness of US companies to
invest in British films (co-productions) (Blair and Rainnie 2000). Public
funding and other protectionist measures introduced by government, such
as the investment of National Lottery funds into film franchises with the
purpose of sustaining mini-studios (Baillieu and Goodchild 2002) did not
improve the overall situation. British independents strongly depend on
foreign and national distributors and broadcasters, to whom they transfer
(totally or in part) the property rights of their product,9 which weakens
their ability to accumulate profits and does not allow them to maintain
film libraries. Existing tax incentives in the film industry also stimulate
industry fragmentation as it is the filming project and not the firm that is
the subject of tax benefits, and both financiers and government prefer to
keep accounts for each project separately, which means that the same
group of people create a new firm for every new project (Gornostaeva and
Pratt 2007, draft). Television-based independent production companies
fared better and many grew into substantial organizations via mergers and
acquisitions, diversifying their products and combining production and
distribution. However, even in television, presently only a few out of
approximately 300 production companies have regular contracts that keep
them buoyant and sustainable (McGown 2005) – the rest, as in film, are
small, with sporadic work streams. Most FTV independent production com-
panies work on one project at a time as it is ‘difficult financially and mentally to
sustain a slate of films’,10 and with considerable gaps in between projects.
Often a new firm is formed for a new project around a small core of people led
by a producer and a director (Pratten and Deakin 2000; Nachum and Keeble
2003). As a result, the British FTV industry has gained its nickname as ‘the cot-
tage economy’ (CMS 2003), the economy characterized by companies
that consist of ‘a producer, an assistant and a dog’, as one of our intervie- 11. Inner London in
comparison with
wees sadly joked. London as a whole.
It is not only the particularities of (de)regulation and general national
and international organization of the FTV industry that led to the domina-
tion of small companies. The specifics of the production chain are also
important. The FTV production company orchestrates a set of functions,
primarily the development (pre-production) of a film, programme or com-
mercial. This stage requires a lot of negotiations about the product itself, as
well as about its financing, distribution and conditions of the transfer of the
property rights. Indeed the FTV firm can be seen as a ‘negotiation agency’
(Gornostaeva 2007). These activities require a lot of face-to-face communi-
cation, but not many employees or much office space.
Moreover, a large part of these negotiations utilize spaces that are not
owned by the FTV production firm itself, which makes its requirement for
office space even less significant. The face-to-face communications often
happen not in the office of the independent production company, but in the
‘territory’ of the consumer, at festivals or in public spaces of clubs, bars,
pubs and restaurants (Gornostaeva 2007).
Other important activities of the FTV firm are also performed mainly
outside its own office space. Shooting, for example, in spite of the much
larger numbers of staff involved, does not relate directly to the office space
of the firm: coordination of filming may require a lot of attention, but shoot-
ing itself happens in studios or on location. Post-production activities are
usually conducted by subcontracted post-production companies. Only
some large television companies undertake these activities in house, which,
with the latest development of technology, does not demand much office
space (requiring only a PC) (Gornostaeva and Pratt 2006).
These particularities of the FTV production chain mean that indepen-
dent production companies conduct only some of their negotiation and
coordination activities in their own offices, so they can stay quite small and
low profile.
Decentralization of FTV activities

The evidence of decentralization? In general, the nature of the production
chain in the FTV industry suggests that a central location is the best for
conducting negotiation and coordination activities that are typical of FTV
independent production companies, especially for the smallest of them
with minimal demands for office space. However, the data shows that it is
not always the case.
For example, it was noticed elsewhere that Outer London in general now
plays an increasingly important role in terms of the cultural industries than
was previously the case (GLA 2004). There is some evidence of a trend for
some areas of Outer London to become a focus of growth for creatively
intensive industries, whereas the trend in Inner London shows a falling cre-
ative intensity (GLA 2004).
Of all the creative sectors, the FTV industry might be one of those with
the strongest residual attachment to the city centre (Gornostaeva and
Cheshire 2002). However, the general tendency for decentralization can
still be observed. First, Inner London has a declining proportion of FTV
firms inside London boundaries: 78.5%11 in 1995 and 74.2% in 2005, and
FTV – ALL*
Area Units Employees
W1 postcode area 8.7 2.4
Inner London 18.8 3.0
Outer London 26.4 4.8
London 20.4 3.3
Table 1: Annual growth of FTV industry, 1995–2005, %.

Source: Annual Business Inquiry, 1995–2005.
*
FTV includes: 9211, Motion picture and video production; 9212 , Motion picture and video dis-
tribution; 9220, Radio and television activities.
a slight decline in the proportion of employment: 83.1% in 1995 and 81.2%

in 2005. In Inner London the role of the commercial centre – the W1 postal
district – also declined: from 38.9% in 1995 to 25.2% in 2005 in terms of
the number of firms, and from 26.8% to 25.5% in terms of the number of
employees.
Moreover, during the last decade the number of FTV businesses and the
number of employees grew faster in Outer London (26.4% annually in number
of units; 4.8% in employment) than in Inner London (18.8% and 3%), and espe-
cially in comparison with the W1 postal district, which includes Soho (Table 1).
A separate consideration of subsectors of the FTV industry supports the
previous statement on decentralization, although not for film distribution
companies, and particularly for the number of units (firms) rather than for
the number of employees (Table 2).
Unfortunately, the available source of firm data (ABI) confuses the
issue. It is not possible to separate out FTV production companies from
the data set: the Standard Industry Classification (SIC) group ‘Motion
Area 9211: Motion 9212: Motion 9220: Radio

picture and picture and and television
video production video distribution activities
Units
W1 postcode area 10.7 2.4 7.0
Inner London 20.5 5.1 19.2
Outer London 30.1 5.1 26.9
London 22.4 5.1 21.0
Employed
W1 postcode area 5.5 3.2 0.3
Inner London 4.7 12.1 2.0
Outer London 1.5 6.9 5.9
London 4.0 11.0 2.6
Table 2: Annual growth of FTV industry by subsector, 1995–2005, %.

Source: Annual Business Inquiry, 1995, 2005.
picture and video production’ (SIC code 9211) contains not only produc- 12. Elstree Film and TV
Studios, Leavesden
tion companies but also post-production; the SIC group ‘Radio and televi- Studios, Pinewood
sion activities’ (SIC code 9220) joins together not only radio and television, Shepperton Studios
but also production companies and broadcasters. The geography of different (PS Plc), Bray Film
studios, etc.
parts of the FTV production chain is different, so an aggregated statement
about the decentralization process has low utility, as it does not actually
allow the identification of exactly which companies and activities decen-
tralize most.
Which FTV companies decentralize most? The reasons for decentraliza-
tion are suggested as being due to rising rents and diseconomies of con-
gestion and overcrowding in the CBD areas; however, some companies can
sustain changes, whereas others cannot. Taking for granted the existence of
those general forces, we will concentrate on possible variations in the per-
formance of the FTV firms that relate to their basic function – i.e. negotia-
tions. We suggest that it is the amount, frequency, efficiency (amount per
deal) and degree of routinization in negotiations, as well as the geography
of places where negotiations may be conducted, that subsequently deter-
mine locational decisions of FTV firms.
First, it is the geography of customers and suppliers, which form the
network of the FTV firm, that is important for identifying the geometry of
the firm’s negotiation and coordination activities. Historically, major film
distribution companies, some broadcasters (e.g. primarily Channel 4),
post-production houses and especially public places of negotiations,
were concentrated in or in close proximity to Soho, W1. In the 1980s,
Soho was a cheap place to rent, to dine and to entertain – one of the rea-
sons why the first independents started their businesses there (Darlow
2004). Major broadcasters today do gravitate to the city centre, but have
a much looser geography, especially foreign firms. The majority of post-
production houses are concentrated in Soho (Pratt and Gornostaeva
2007, forthcoming, a, forthcoming, b). Studios, however, do require a lot
of space and can be located at the periphery of the city, in suburban or
even rural locations, as happens with major studios12 servicing the
London film industry (see maps). Filming on sites, which may be located
anywhere in the world, contributes to the economies of film production
as a whole (Pratt 2005) but can hardly trigger the relocation of the FTV
firm itself. However, shooting on locations can induce the appearance of
local services, as evidence from the ‘run away production’ phenomenon
suggests (Coe 2000).
The ‘given’ geography of customers (distributors and broadcasters) and
suppliers (post-production houses, studios and sites) can, however, be
treated differently by different FTV firms when they choose their location.
First, there are differences in dependence on proximity to customers and
suppliers between FTV companies oriented on different products. ‘Just-in-
time’ production is most typical for companies producing commercials: their
production cycle is the shortest and a number of projects, if the firm is suc-
cessful, can be large. The interaction patterns of advertising agencies with
service suppliers are characterized by the short-term demand for specialized
inputs and the simultaneity of demand for a diverse range of inputs. Offers
are made at very short notice, as campaigns are increasingly designed to
react to political, cultural or sporting events (Grabher 2001). Some sense of
13. The phenomenon of urgency is also typical of the production of television programmes related to
‘run away’ production
mainly relates to
news and politics, but the production of TV drama series or long-shelf life
shooting and not to documentaries is conducted in more relaxed regimes – here negotiations and
development or post- coordination may be repetitive and over lower budgets, so there is a potential
production (see Scott
2005 and Coe 2000
to standardize the prices and requirements to the content or the format. The
for detailed conditions of the transfer of the property rights can also be easily routinized.
explanations). This is the very reason why the ‘run away’ production phenomenon, well
described elsewhere, is more typical for lower budget TV productions than for
high-budget feature films (Scott 2005). However, it is obvious that the logic of
intra-urban geography of the FTV industry does not correspond directly with
the logic of ‘run away’ production.13
The different quantities and frequencies of negotiation and coordination
activities characterizing companies oriented on different products suggest
that there should be different expected degrees of centralization: the high-
est for the production of commercials, the lower for TV programmes, and
the lowest (with the greatest potential for decentralization) for British film
companies with long periods of development (2–3 years) and with mainly
low budgets. Table 3 confirms this suggestion.
The second differentiating factor in patterns of negotiations is the firms’
bargaining power, which is expressed in an ability to get the deal done
efficiently in terms of time and resources. Bargaining power is built on the
FTV companies W1, % of Central London 1

Studios 9.6
Distributors 57.6
Broadcasters 32.4
Advertising Agencies 40.9
Production companies:
Commercials 51.3*
TV 39.7*
Documentary 24.3*
Feature Film 37.4*
Post-Production:
Sound studios 66.2
Facility chart 86.8*
Animation production companies 57.7*
Post-production (editing) 70.7*
Post-production (Film) 85.0*
Post-production (TV) 64.5*
Clubs & Restaurants 33.0*
Table 3: Concentration of different parts of the FTV production chain in W1.

Source: The Knowledge 2001(*), 2006; 1) Central London: postal areas – W, WC, EC, N, NW, SE,
SW, E.
14. It is wise to remember

9211: Motion 9211: Motion the nature of the data
source, so that bigger
picture and 9220: Radio picture and 9220: Radio production companies
Size band, video and television video and television in film can be post-
employees production activities production activities production companies
(orientation of the
2005 1995 centre), and bigger
companies in
1–4 19.2 11.5 28.8 21.5 television can be
broadcasters (less
5–10 40.2 26.2 50.8 36.3 central locations).
11–49 40.5 32.0 47.5 38.1
50–199 60.0 28.1 64.3 27.6
more than 200 50.0 25.0 0.0 7.7
Total 21.0 13.9 33.0 25.5
Table 4: Centre (W1) in comparison with London, number of units, %.

positive reputation and established track record of successfully completed

projects, and may be expressed, although not necessarily, in the larger size
of the firm. Firms with high bargaining power can complete the negotia-
tion of the deal ‘over a five minutes conversation by phone’ as our inter-
viewees reported, and that may suggest an enormous freedom of location
and potential for decentralization, if chosen. However, if bargaining power
is high, it usually means that the firm is financially successful and has less
difficulty with paying overheads, so it has a greater ability to be in the cen-
tral area with higher rents. If a firm is successful, it is also more likely it
will be of a larger size. So, paradoxically, it may be that the bigger firms
would be more able to keep a central position than smaller ones. For
example, Outer London has a higher proportion of micro FTV firms than
Inner London (respectively 93.5% and 87.4% in 2005) and the lowest pro-
portion of micro firms is in the W1 area (79%).
A different set of data, on companies located in the W1 postal area,
shows that this area has a concentration of large businesses rather than
small ones (Table 4), especially for companies producing film.14
Another set of data shows that micro companies do grow faster in
peripheral areas than in central ones (Table 5) and they grow faster than
bigger companies (comparing Tables 1, 2 and 5).
So, the data above suggest that the decentralization of the FTV industry in
London occurs mainly as a result of the decentralization of micro production
companies, and this will therefore be the focus of the rest of this article.
The evidence of growing importance of suburban locations

Considering the example of other industries (Gordon 2006) and the case
of the FTV industry in particular, with its still strong gravitation to Soho –
the area that provides the best environment for face-to-face communica-
tions – one would expect that outside Soho and the city centre in gen-
eral, micro-level FTV firms would be located in suburban ‘town centres’
of Outer London, for example Croydon, Ealing, Harrow, Wood Green,
Ilford etc., or in sub-centres of Inner London, such as Camden Town,
9211: Motion 9212: Motion

picture and picture and 9220: Radio
video video and television
1995–2005 production distribution activities FTV – ALL
Units
W1 15.1 4.3 11.2 13.1
Inner London 25.8 6.4 28.6 25.2
Outer London 34.1 8.7 33.0 31.6
London 27.5 7.0 29.9 26.8
Employees
W1 6.2 0.3 4.5 5.3
Inner London 9.7 0.4 11.5 9.5
Outer London 13.0 3.5 12.0 11.8
London 10.4 1.1 11.7 10.0
Table 5: Annual growth of micro businesses (1–4 employees) in FTV industry.

Islington, etc. These alternatives to city centre locations have high con-
centrations of other creative and service companies and good transport
connections, and may provide relevant services, compensate for the loss
of the customers in more central locations, or provide environments for
face-to-face interaction.
However, as emphasized elsewhere, Outer London ‘town centres’ have
reduced their attractiveness for service industries (Gordon 2006) in recent
years. The problems of stagnation of some Outer London ‘town centres’
have been related to the office stock available in these centres and change
in demand (Gordon 2006). The key problems included qualitative short-
comings in what outer centres had to offer, with a vicious circle of lower
demand, supply, choice and rents; and an ageing office stock in shabby
locales with a poor image (Marsh, Chippendale et al. 2003). It was sug-
gested that ‘when centres like Croydon, Sutton and Harrow enjoyed their
office development “heyday” in the 1960s and 1970s, London as a city had
a far more suburban culture. Now the business culture of London is very
urban’ (Marsh, Chippendale et al. 2003: 79). Other observers (Butler and
Robson 2003) point out that office suburbanization was in line with popu-
lation suburbanization between 1971 and 1981, when up to 40% of the
Inner London population ‘left’ for the suburbs. However, from the 1980s
professionals started to move back to Inner London, as in other inner
cities (e.g. Manchester, see Nathan and Urwin 2006). From this time
onwards, the phenomenon of gentrification has become prominent and
cosmopolitan ‘middle classes’, including media professionals, continued
to move into the desirable areas in Inner London (Barnsbury, Battersea,
Dalston, Brixton etc.) to be close to the places of work and socializing that,
one would expect, would reduce opportunities for media production in
more peripheral London. Many inner suburbs today are undergoing further
15. Similar indicators

Jobs density, were used for identifi-
employee cation of the cores of
per hectare Inner London Outer London London Functional Urban
Regions (FURS –
Units Employed Units Employed Units Employed Cheshire and
Gornostaeva 2002)
>750 34.1 64.9 n/d n/d 34.1 64.9 or differentiation
500–750 33.5 69.1 n/d n/d 33.5 69.1 between urban and
rural areas (Craig
250–500 44.2 78.6 n/d n/d 44.2 78.6 1987; Bromley 1994).
100–250 43.5 65.1 17.1 20.0 42.4 63.2
50–100 43.3 59.5 82.1 108.3 46.4 63.4
25–50 51.0 66.1 65.1 91.6 54.9 73.2
10–25 138.9 161.4 72.5 92.6 95.2 116.1
5–10 43.6 65.4 80.4 111.2 69.7 97.8
<5 n/d n/d 542.9 764.3 607.1 814.3
Table 6: Growth of the FTV industry (micro businesses with 1–4 employees) in
areas with different job densities, 1995–2002.
Source: Annual Business Inquiry, 1995, 2002 (frozen wards, 1991).
gentrification. What the data below suggests is that certain outer suburbs
have also become gentrified.
The data analysed above clearly shows the tendency of increasing concen-
trations of FTV micro businesses and the growth of their numbers in the last
decade outside of the ‘town centres’ of London’s periphery, and outside the
sub-centres of Inner London, but in the least expected suburban locations. This
contradicts the statements above, and questions what the expressions of urban
business culture are for FTV micro firms. FTV micro firms probably do not
appreciate the unattractive ‘suburban’ environments of the ‘town centres’, but
it does not stop them from retreating to what at first sight seems like an even
less appropriate business environment in the inner and outer suburbs them-
selves. The reasons for this phenomenon will be discussed in the next section.
In order to prove the point and to differentiate between the ‘centres’ and
the suburbs both in Inner and in Outer London, we used the indicator of
job density (GLA 2005).15 In this study the threshold of 50 jobs per
hectare was used to separate areas of a mainly residential character. Table 6
shows that areas with densities lower than 50 jobs per hectare are more
attractive for micro FTV businesses now than 10 years ago, in comparison
with the city’s major job locations (job densities higher than 100 employees
per hectare). In Outer London however, there is some growth of micro busi-
nesses in the areas with job densities of 50–100.
Maps 1 and 2 also demonstrate that micro FTV businesses are concen-
trated and grow faster in areas with densities lower than 50 jobs per hectare –
which include inner suburbs – than in areas with higher job densities.
These maps also show which particular suburban areas are most
attractive for FTV firms in peripheral parts of London. One group clearly
relates to the locations of FTV sound studios in Outer London and outside
the M25 boundary: micro firms are located close to a particular studio or
Broxbourne
Elstree Filmand TV Studios
Watford Hertsmere
^ Enfield Epping Forest
Three Rivers
Barnet
Harrow Waltham Forest

Haringey Redbridge
Brent Hackney
Camden Islington
Hillingdon 3 Mills Studios
Black Island Studios Newham
Ealing ^ W1 Tower Hamlets

^
Westminster City of
^ ^
Kensington and Chelsea
City Of London
Ealing Studios Hammersmith and Fulham

The London Studios
^
Southwark Greenwich
HounslowTwickenhamFilmStudios Lambeth
^
Richmond Upon Thames
Wandsworth
Lewisham
Bexley
^ Teddington Studios, PS PLC

Spelthorne Merton
^ LQ FTV micro companies (LQ>2)
Kingston upon Thames
Bromley
Runnymede
Croydon
Job Density >50
Elmbridge Sutton
0 1 2 4 6 8
Epsom and Ewell
Woking Mole Valley

Miles
F
Reigate and Banstead
Job Density 10-50
Tandridge Sevenoaks
Map 1: Job densities and location quotient (LQ) for micro FTV companies (number of employed), 2005
(Boundaries: 2003 CAS wards). Crown Copyright.
in between two major studios (especially typical of West London). Another

group indicates well established, affluent inner suburbs (located in Inner
London boroughs), with a long history of middle-class residency, including
media professionals (e.g. Hampstead, Highgate), or ‘gentrified inner sub-
urbs’ that attracted middle classes in the 1970s–1980s, e.g. Primrose Hill,
Kentish Town, Putney or Islington (Butler and Robson 2003). These were
in close proximity and partly related to the establishment of new indepen-
dent broadcasters of UK and foreign origin (MTV, TV-AM, etc.) outside of
Soho in the 1980s. However, there are also areas that do not have an
established image of ‘media villages’ and do not relate to any film or television
facilities.
Broxbourne
Watford Hertsmere
Three Rivers
Barnet

Haringey Redbridge
Brent Hackney
Camden Islington

^
Westminster City of
^ ^
City Of London

The London Studios
^
Southwark Greenwich
^
Wandsworth
Lewisham
Bexley
^ Teddington Studios, PS PLC

Spelthorne Merton
^ Growth FTV micro units
Bromley
Runnymede
Croydon Job Density >50
Elmbridge Sutton
0 1 2 4 6 8
Epsom and Ewell
Woking Mole Valley

Miles
F
Job Density 10-50
Tandridge Sevenoaks
Map 2: Job densities and the growth of a number of units in FTV industry,
1995–2002 (more than 60% annually) (Boundaries: 2003 CAS wards and 1991
frozen wards) Crown Copyright.
The suburban areas may contain both businesses working from offices 16. The Financial Analysis
and businesses working from home. Data (from the FAME16 database) Made Easy database
contains information
indicates that a high proportion of micro FTV firms are run from home: in on the trading address
2006 in Inner London 51.3%17 and in Outer London 54.5%18 of selected of the company and
firms’ trading addresses19 coincided with the home address of one of the the home addresses
of the firm’s directors.
company’s directors, which usually indicates working from home. In many We selected firms with
cases, firms consist of relatives: husband and wife, father and son, which number of directors
shows the family and small firm character of these FTV businesses. 4 or fewer;
unfortunately it is
The available data from Annual Business Inquiry allows us relate the areas not possible to rely
where media professionals live and where they work only indirectly, assuming, on information on
of course, that it may be not the same people who occupy each area. Map 3
Broxbourne
Watford Hertsmere
Three Rivers
Barnet

Haringey Redbridge
Brent Hackney
Camden Islington

^
Westminster City of
^ ^
City Of London

The London Studios
^
Southwark Greenwich
^
Wandsworth
Lewisham
Bexley
^ Teddington Studios, PS PLC LQ MEDIA Residents (>4.5)

Spelthorne Merton
^ LQ MEDIA Residents (>2.5)
Bromley
Runnymede
Croydon Job Density >50
Elmbridge Sutton
0 1 2 4 6 8
Epsom and Ewell
Woking Mole Valley

Miles
F
Job Density 10-50
Tandridge Sevenoaks
Map 3: Job densities and location quotient (LQ ) for media professionals’ residency, 2001 (Boundaries: 2003
CAS wards and 1991 frozen wards). Crown Copyright.
number of employees indicates areas of residency of media professionals. Comparisons between

in this data set, which
Maps 2 and 3 identify areas where we may infer that FTV businesses are run
is very irregular.
from home.
17. Total number of firms Comparison of Tables 7 and 8 also gives some indication that jobs in the
in 1993.
FTV industry in many cases may coincide with the areas where media
18. Total number of firms professionals live.
547.
As the above demonstrates, the significant suburban areas in London
19. There are three sets of where media professionals reside are also the areas where a growing
addresses for the firm:
registration address,
number of micro FTV businesses are concentrated, supporting the view
trading address and of the growing importance of a ‘cottage-based’ FTV industry. The next
home address of section will concentrate on particular cases of FTV firms run from suburban
listed (registered)
homes and explanations of why this location has been chosen.
directors. Trading
Share of media workers* living in the area address and registra-
Job density, employee tion address are not
always the same:
per hectare Inner London Outer London London some firms
>750 1.1 n/d 0.7 are registered with
organizations, so
500–750 1.3 n/d 0.8 several firms can have
the same address of
250–500 3.2 n/d 1.9 registration, which
100–250 11.7 1.2 7.5 actually belongs to the
‘third’ party.
50–100 18.3 4.7 12.8 Sometimes firms
have a registration
25–50 32.9 18.7 27.2 address of this kind
10–25 25.8 45.3 33.7 and no trading
address, which
5–10 4.6 21.7 11.5 probably means that
their communication
<5 1.0 8.3 4.0 happens through this
address, but they
Total 73976 50029 124005 operate from
somewhere else
(possibly from home),
Table 7: Residency of media workers in areas with different job densities. in this case numbers
Source: Census 2001. * Culture, Media and Sports Occupations code 34 in S039:209: 3. Associate above would be even
Professional and Technical Occupations. higher.
Jobs density,
employee
per hectare Inner London Outer London London
Units Employed Units Employed Units Employed
>750 20.7 27.3 15.1 20.6
500–750 7.8 9.2 5.7 6.9
250–500 6.8 7.6 5.0 5.7
100–250 11.0 11.2 0.8 0.7 8.2 8.6
50–100 15.1 13.5 4.8 5.3 12.3 11.5
25–50 23.1 19.5 24.6 25.9 23.5 21.1
10–25 13.0 9.8 48.1 47.4 22.5 19.0
5–10 2.2 1.8 16.1 14.9 6.0 5.0
<5 0.3 0.3 5.6 5.9 1.8 1.6
Total 4358 5967 1620 1925 5978 7892
Table 8: Concentrations of employed in FTV micro businesses (1–4 employees) in

areas with different job densities.
Source: Annual Business Inquiry, 2005.
Suburban FTV independent production companies: lifestyle

of rich or losers’ retreat?
Interviews with the managing directors of FTV production companies
located in the London suburbs provided some insights into their decisions
to run the business from home. Indeed, that decision allowed them to
economize on office rents; however, it seems to be a disadvantageous

choice from most other points of view. There are obviously two questions to
pose: why the location of the firm had to be peripheral rather than central,
and if so, why it was run from a suburban home and not from the separate
office in the denser town centres.
The accepted reason for peripheral locations, interviewees confirmed, is
the rising rents in the city centre:
This area is close to the City and to the West End but the rents are cheaper
here. Many media companies moved here because of that. Fewer companies
are now in Soho, they are all moving out, it’s too expensive to stay in there.
(Managing director, film for television, Hampstead, 2005)
The second reason is congestion and, recently, congestion charges:
I moved because it is difficult to get into West End, it is saturated, you get traf-
fic tickets all the time, parking is not possible and expensive.
(Managing director, commercials, film, Finchley area, 2005)
However, the congestion problem is hardly avoidable anywhere in the city if

it is accepted that being located in the periphery still requires regular visits
to the centre for face-to-face interactions of various kinds. Congestion can
be avoided only if relative autarchy is achieved at the peripheral location
and firms can replace their business counterparts from the city centre by
the local ones or, on the contrary, by those outside the city or the country.
Some kind of a business park might provide an alternative location; how-
ever, in reality, peripheral FTV firms still do keep production and social links
with the city centre.
Many areas in the inner suburbs (e.g. Hampstead) are not considered
to be very far away from Soho, where production companies maintain their
relationships with post-production companies or visit media clubs and
restaurants, and can be reached by public transport (e.g. Underground), by
taxis (if on production) or even by foot:
We are very close to Soho here, I can walk into Soho in just over an hour,
when the weather is nice I walk through Regent’s Park and go straight to
Soho.
(Managing Director, film, television, script writing, Hampstead, 2003)
Some interviewees did mention that the Internet and mobile phone are
conducive to decentralization, as contacts are maintained with known
members of the global network, rather than opportunities taken with
unknown members of the locality. However, it was also emphasized that
telecommunications can be used either at preliminary stages in the collec-
tion of information or when trust is already established and networks are
already created via previous intensive face-to-face interactions (Gornostaeva
2007). The role of telecommunications in relaxation of the tight attachment
of FTV firms to the city centre has been considered in detail elsewhere
(Gornostaeva and Pratt 2006).
The main reason why many companies chose the more peripheral loca-
tions is the long periods of development, especially for film companies:
Traditionally the movie business is in Soho. But production houses move out,
we spend a lot of time in development. It takes 3–5 years to develop the mate-
rial. So, we don’t need to be in the centre all the time. We don’t need ‘to show
dresses in the window’ [to be close to the consumer].
(Managing director, film, Finchley Park, 2003)
Some FTV firms have very specialized markets and work for a unique client,
which makes them less dependent on London’s media cluster and more
involved in international networks. For example, one of the interviewed
firms worked on documentaries on American film history and the restora-
tion of silent films:
Our main customer is in Atlanta. We spend a small amount of time and

money chasing customers, because we are known for what we do. We have
very few competitors because we are in such a small field. There is no com-
pany in the world of the same kind. But there is less and less demand for this
kind of programmes. TV is doomed in terms of arts programming. This
influenced us. We don’t need to be in Soho, and I am sure that we could not
afford [to rent there]. Most of my time is spent here, most of my work is done
here. There is no advantage in being there [in Soho]. Yes, of course, you can
walk to places, but you don’t spend much time in Soho only a few days every
few months [for post-production].
(Managing director, documentaries, Primrose Hill, 2004)
Reliance on international markets and the need to accumulate money from

several international sources also reduces the dependence of production
companies on the city centre. Moreover, the character of business, when
only one project at a time can be run by a firm consisting of two or three
people, makes it economically inappropriate to have an office. Running
business from home becomes an option which satisfies a lifestyle of a pro-
ducer and involves both work and socializing:
I moved office 3 times, in 1992 I started to do films [abroad], e.g. I’ve just been in
the Caribbean, doing a film for Channel 4, I started to realize that I am running an
office in Soho when I am there only 6 months in a year, and what was the point
of that? I made my office in my house. I have a big house here. People who want
to give me money don’t want to come to my office, e-mail is used and mobile
phones, finance comes from Germany and Spain, some money comes from
Ireland and America, they expect me to go to them, they don’t come to me, so,
our office is really for administration and accounts and creative meetings, with
writers and directors, talking to actors; I like to see them in my house, it’s more
comfortable for me, it’s more relaxing, they like it, people like Primrose Hill, they
immediately become slightly different people here. It is not so pressurized.
(Managing Director, film and television, Primrose Hill, 2003)
Interviewees made another important point. They confirmed that

established and successful micro business in London may choose
the location satisfying the requirements of the lifestyle of the manag-

ing director, rather than production needs of the firm: ‘People try to
work close to where they live, to good schooling, etc.’. Those busi-
nesses can gravitate to the high-quality personal services and local
amenities, rather than to the concentrations of customers, suppliers
and the nodes of ‘buzz’, suggested by cluster theory:
[I have chosen this location because] good schools are important and leisure
facilities such as a park, tennis court, good local doctors, shopping facilities,
etc. Bohemians are attracted to this area, 20 years ago it was cheap to buy a
house here, it is still a little bit shabby but still very attractive; it is not posh,
posh, posh, people are not dressed up here, they are dressed down.
(Managing Director, film and TV, Primrose Hill, 2006)
The majority of producers of this kind are also rich enough to sustain what
is mainly an unprofitable film business. As one of our interviewees put it ‘in
the feature film business producers in this country are independently
wealthy, they already have enough money not to worry how to buy food or
to pay rent’. Some accumulated enough money on previous jobs, e.g. in the
production of commercials, and later decided to devote their time to their
‘dream’ of making a feature film that would fully express their creative
potential.
In some cases, this kind of producer rents an office only when they have
secured finance for a particular production, so that their overheads for this
period can be covered by the film budget:
I live here and run my business from home, it seems pointless at the moment
to have an office and pay for an office, so when I am on a particular production,
I then find an office or use somebody else’s office for that period of time and
then bring things back here [to my house].
(Managing director, television, Hampstead, 2006)
There are also firms that keep two trading addresses – one at a suburban
home, another in the city centre, mainly by borrowing somebody else’s
address for collecting mail, or by using it for free, or renting it cheaply from
friends or former colleagues. However, many interviewees confirm that
once a network and reputation are established, the image and ‘prestige’ of
an address in Soho loses its importance and a more peripheral location,
which better suits their lifestyle, is possible:
At the initial stages to have a sort of fashionable name in my address was

important, I had to be in the space that anybody even in Japan had heard
about; Soho is known as a place where films come from. So, there was an ele-
ment to it. But after a while it changed. The reason why English companies
and I were in Soho was that we had to be in walking distance from the [adver-
tising] agencies. But I don’t deal with British agencies now, and 100% of my
job comes through the Internet and phone calls. Now it really doesn’t matter
for my client, the Japanese client in my case. So I moved my company, it is a
very small company, it is myself and my partner and an assistant working for
me on a permanent basis. I moved to this location, actually because my son
studies at the school across the road, so I found this location which is closest
to my son’s school.
(Managing Director, commercials, Japanese firm, Wandsworth, West London, 2004)
Some residential suburbs have clearly established an image of being ‘media

villages’ – the best example of this is Hampstead, which had a long history
as a place of residence for artists, producers and directors (Wedd et al.
2001), including for instance, Ridley Scott (Gladiator, etc.):
this street [here in Hampstead] is like a little Hollywood, I mean, apart from
myself we have here in the top flat an assistant to the person who did The Full
Monty, next door, there is a company making commercials and corporate
videos and things for television, above them there is another company for
feature films.
(Managing Director, film, television, script writing, Hampstead, 2003)
In addition, more recently other more distant suburban areas have

become locations where FTV production companies are run from the
homes of their managing directors. Those companies are even less
dependent on Soho, its cluster of clients, post-production houses and
other services and places of socialization. An example is an interviewed
firm run by a family (husband, wife and son) from the area around Pinner
(Harrow, North London):
It takes an hour and a half to go to the centre of London from where I live, it
is overcrowded there and I find it unsociable and difficult to work there, so I
operate my firm from home now. Here there are trees, etc. I moved away from
London twenty years ago. Well, I am shooting in Romania now, anyway, the
‘British’ film, using British tax payers’ money, made by a US company, with US
executives, under the control of US major, with less than six British crew.
However, here I am twenty minutes from Pinewood Studio, fifteen minutes
from Elstree Studio and twelve minutes from the Leavesden studios; they all
have production and post-production facilities. There are several production
companies in our area. Even distribution companies are now around, we have
one in Pinner, ten minutes away. We all see each other at the festivals and go
to the same [local] restaurant.
(Managing director, film, Northwood, North London, near Harrow, 2006)
From interviews with other participants, it is clear that there is some

attempt to use local services at peripheral locations, or even to recreate the
buzzing milieu in specific preferred restaurants or bars and clubs. However,
in the majority of cases, local post-production services may be cheaper, but
of lower quality, than those in Soho, and not suitable for established com-
panies. Local meeting places may have an established reputation among
local businesses and residents (e.g. Odette’s restaurant in Primrose Hill,
Camden), but a critical mass of such places is usually not sufficient to make
them comparable with Soho. That means that in a majority of cases, FTV
firms located in the suburbs are not able to replace completely the links and
networks developed in CBD areas, and they continue to visit Soho for pro-
duction and social purposes. Importantly, interviewees do not recognize
any damage to their networking activities by running business from a

suburban home:
If I meet people generally I can meet them anywhere, I can meet them in Soho,
or they can come to Hampstead. I don’t lose anything, contacts, or time …
(Managing director, television, Hampstead, 2006)
There is a quite different group of suburban-based FTV companies, which

contains industry ‘losers’ who had to leave their more successful locations
in the city centre because profits declined and their production was reori-
ented towards a lower level and more local clients, such as charities, small
music bands and public organizations. Interviews with these FTV produc-
ers supported the idea that cheaper rents may be identified as an important
factor for choosing more peripheral areas for the primary or subsequent
location. However, this only becomes a reason when the firm loses its bar-
gaining power, and therefore its ability to get contracts and to cover any
kind of overheads, including employing staff or earning a living for them-
selves:
In the last 5 years I have made products mainly for corporate and non-
commercial ventures, we also make video for charities, special interest
groups, and short stories for a local cable TV channel. I had four perma-
nent staff and an office in Covent Garden. We did environmental program-
ming. Later on we bought an office in this area just round corner. But we
have given it all up gradually, now we have an office in the house where we
live. We couldn’t afford the rent. We scaled down. The only overheads is I, I
can’t even afford to pay myself every month.
(Managing Director, television company, 2002)
It is not only the stagnating or marginal FTV businesses that are forced to
retreat into non-affluent suburbs and work for local clients and to work with
the help of the less expensive but lower quality services and facilities. It is
also the start-up firms, which are at the beginning of their career, with not
yet developed networks and less chances of obtaining a ‘deal’ that would
populate the less desirable suburbs of Inner and Outer London. For many
FTV businesses of this kind, the name ‘cottage economy’ has a very direct
sense, as not only is business run from the suburban home, but also that
home often has to be remortgaged in order to become an investment into
their first independent FTV production.
Conclusion
The statistical analysis and interview material presented in this article confirm
that a significant proportion of FTV firms are very small, do not have a dedi-
cated office, and are run from the home of the producer or the director, which
means that the residential areas of London’s inner and outer suburbs are
becoming more prominent places for attracting decentralized businesses.
The article suggests that the increasing numbers of FTV firms demon-
strating an ability to conduct their business at a distance from the city cen-
tre (the core of the cluster) cannot be explained entirely by the expanding
use of telecommunications or the increased mobility of employees.
Moreover, the increasing numbers of those not able to sustain a central

location are reacting not only to rising rents and diseconomies of conges-
tion and overcrowding.
Although all these factors do play an important role in the organization
of the FTV cluster in London, the article highlights first, the significance of
more ‘universal’ factors, which form the ecology of the industry, such as its
global (or international) nature, dependence on both private foreign
(mainly from the USA) and public local capital, the specifics of property
rights transfer, the particularities of the production chain, and the embed-
dedness in both international and local networks (Bathelt, Malmberg, et al.
2004). The combination of these forces has resulted in the trans-local orga-
nization of production (Gornostaeva and Pratt 2006, draft). On the ‘local’
side this is characterized by the dominance of micro businesses in the inde-
pendent FTV production sector, sporadic funding for free-standing projects,
difficulties in sustaining ‘fund-less’ periods, and therefore by various tech-
niques of economizing on overheads, including rents. This leads to a spe-
cific type of FTV production organization, referred to as ‘the cottage
economy’, with characteristic networking practices, which, following G.
Grabher, might be called ‘the FTV cottage ecology’.
Second, the article highlights the fact that despite the limitations
imposed by the trans-local model of organization on a variety of firms, there
is still plenty of room left for diversity among FTV producers. The decision by
some FTV production companies to decentralize, or not to establish an
office in the city centre in the first place, relates to their bargaining power,
size, character of established networks and niche occupied in the markets.
Our interviewees confirmed that there is ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ decentral-
ization, but sometimes it is difficult to draw the line between the two. The
‘positive’ decentralization relates to those firms whose ecologies are more
‘trans’ than ‘local’: they rely mostly on international counterparts, funding
and networks but at the same time are in charge of the necessary intensity of
local networking and operations. The directors of many micro FTV compa-
nies who run their businesses from their own home located in affluent sub-
urbs have a specific cosmopolitan lifestyle that is an amalgamation in time
and space of their work, socializing with colleagues and a private life. This
lifestyle is sustained by quite a high income – inherited and/or earned via
the media business itself.
‘Negative’ decentralization is typical of firms with low bargaining power,
relying on limited and mainly public funds, with a restricted range of choice
when they have to decide on their location. Their ecology is characterized by
heavy dependence on local networks and yet they have limited access to
them precisely because of their weak position. This is a group of marginal
firms and start-ups, which also run their business from suburban homes
but have to manipulate with insufficient income.
The fact confirmed in this paper, of a definite polarization not only between
those in the centre and those at the periphery, but also between those in rich
and in poor suburbs, indicates inequalities in working practices and lifestyles
typical of the ‘creative class’ (Florida 2002) and the need to consider the differ-
ent ecologies typical of its different groups (Gornostaeva, forthcoming).
There are other questions raised by the phenomenon of decentralization.
First, whether there is a danger that the increasing spatial scale of the FTV
20. The ‘lifestyle’ oriented cluster in London indicates the reduced forces of attraction to its core, and
concentrations of FTV
production in London
whether there is any reason to make a parallel with the – different in scale and
correspond with the reasoning but similar in appearance – ‘run away production’ which is seen by
similar phenomenon some as a threat to Hollywood itself (Scott 2005). The answer would require
in Hollywood, where
the Bay Area is an
the investigation of the competitive potentials of those who stayed in the
attractive location for centre and those who did not (which is beyond the remit of this article). What
skilled labour, and this article does emphasize, however, is the importance of the quality of life
forms a sort of
specialized outlier;
‘incentive’ in the geography of FTV production, as this factor alone can deter-
however it is not the mine the places where media professionals live and therefore, in many cases,
budding alternative where they work.20 Importantly, running a business from a comfortable Inner
to Hollywood (Scott
2005).
or Outer London suburban home privileged by close proximity to high-quality
services, such as schools, health surgeries, shops and parks, has become a
more prominent feature of contemporary urban business culture. However,
even considering all this evidence, it is likely that the dissolution of the Soho
media quarter is still a long way off, partly because the travelling distances
and related transaction costs are not so burdensome, so that necessary face-
to-face interactions still can be performed in the city centre.
The second question is whether the increasing role of London’s sub-
urbs as locations for FTV production requires new urban or cultural poli-
cies at the city or borough levels. The provision of free or subsidized
office/work space may be a policy intervention that public agencies have
pursued (Creative London 2006), but it can help only temporarily, and
only those firms which are capable of economic growth and can obtain,
in time, their own means of survival and are able to move on. If attention
were shifted from major regulatory decisions to local property-based solu-
tions, we would soon be dealing with a different kind of amalgamated
home–work phenomenon, where the workplace is used as a home. As one
of our interviewees confessed:
We have got these premises from the Council, we had to do a lot of improve-
ments here but it is very cheap. It is far away from the place where my partner
and I live, so we stay here during the week and come back home at weekends. I
know it’s illegal but it is convenient.
(Managing Director, commercials and film, industrial outskirts of Camden Town, 2004)
Acknowledgements
A part of this research was funded through ESRC Award Title: The Role of
Production Chains in the London Film and Television Industry Cluster, Award
Reference Number: RES-0002–30–653. The author expresses gratitude to the
anonymous referees and to N. Campbell and G. Evans, who made useful comments
on the draft of the article.
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Firm Competitiveness: The Media Cluster of Central London’, Working Paper
Series, WP 138, ESRC Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
Nachum, L. and Keeble, D. (2000), ‘Foreign and indigenous firms in the media
cluster of Central London’, Working Paper Series, WP 154, ESRC Centre for
Business Research, University of Cambridge.
Nachum, L. and Keeble, D. (2003), ‘Neo-Marshallian Clusters and Global
Networks – The Linkages of Media Firms in Central London’, Long Range
Planning, 36: 5, pp. 459–80.
Nathan, M. and Urwin, C. (2006), City People: City Centre Living in the UK, London:
Institute for Public Policy Research.
Owen-Smith, J. and Powell, W.W. (2004), ‘Knowledge Networks as Channels and

Conduits: The Effects of Spillovers in the Boston Biotechnology Community’,
Organization Science, 15, pp. 5–21.
Pratt, A.C. (2005), ‘“Imagination can be a damned curse in this country”: Material
Geographies of Film-Making and the Rural’, in R. Fish (ed.), Cinematic
Countrysides, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Pratt, A.C. and Gornostaeva, G. (forthcoming a) ‘Global Commodity Chains and
Clusters: a Case Study of the Film Industry in London’, Growth and Change.
Pratt, A.C. and Gornostaeva, G. (forthcoming b) ‘The Governance of Innovation in
the Film and Television Industry: A Case Study of London, UK’, in P. Jeffcutt and
A. Pratt (eds), Creativity and Innovation, London: Routledge.
Pratten, S. and Deakin, S. (2000), ‘Competitiveness Policy and Economic
Organization: The Case of the British Film Industry’, Screen, 41: 2, pp. 217–37.
Scott, A.J. (2000a), ‘The Cultural Economy of Paris’, International Journal of Urban
and Regional Research, 24: 3, pp. 567–82.
Scott, A.J. (2000b), ‘French Cinema – Economy, Policy and Place in the Making of a
Cultural-Products Industry’, Theory Culture and Society, 17: 1, pp. 1–38.
Scott, A.J. (2002), ‘A New Map of Hollywood: The Production and Distribution of
American Motion Pictures’, Regional Studies, 36, pp. 957–75.
Scott, A.J. (2004), ‘Hollywood and the World: The Geography of Motion-Picture
Distribution and Marketing’, Review of International Political Economy, 11, pp.
33–61.
Scott, A.J. (2005), On Hollywood: The Place, the Industry, Princeton and Oxford:
Princeton University Press.
Storper, M. and Venables, A.J. (2004), ‘Buzz: face-to-face contact and the urban
economy’, Journal of Economic Geography, 4: 4, pp. 351–70.
UK Film Council (2006), Statistical Yearbook 2005/2006, London: UKFC. Wedd, K.,
Peltz, L. and Ross, C. (2001), Creative Quarters: the art world in London:
1700–2000, London: Museum of London, Merrell.
Suggested citation
Gornostaeva, G. (2008), ‘The film and television industry in london’s suburbs:
lifestyle of the rich or losers’ retreat?’, Creative Industries Journal 1: 1, pp. 47–71,
doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.47/1
Contributor details
Dr Galina Gornostaeva is a Research Fellow at the Cities Institute, London
Metropolitan University. She has published a number of articles on the film and tele-
vision industry in London thanks to the recent ESRC grant. Her work relates to the
issues of ‘creative class’, cultural clusters and quarters. Contact: Dr G. Gornostaeva,
Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University, Ladbroke House, 626 Highbury
Grove, London N5 2AD.
E-mail: g.gornostaeva@londonmet.ac.uk
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CIJ 1.1_05_rep_Harper.qxd 1/5/08 4:48 PM Page 73
Report
Report. English language. doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.73/7
A summary of The Americans for the

Arts Economic Impact of America’s
Non-profit Arts and Culture Industry
Graeme Harper
Randy Cohen
On 6 June 2007, Americans for the Arts released its third national study of
the economic impact of arts organizations on local communities: Arts and
Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Non-profit Arts and Culture
Organizations and Their Audiences.
By permission, Creative Industries Journal is pleased to provide a sum-
mary of the report’s findings on the role played by the non-profit arts and
culture industry in the US economy. The Arts and Economic Prosperity III
focuses on the economic importance of the non-profit arts and culture
industry to communities, noting links to employment, government revenue
and the tourism industry.
The report includes sections devoted to the ‘Economic Impact of
America’s Nonprofit Arts and Culture Industry’, ‘Nonprofit Arts and Culture: A
Growth Industry’, ‘Audience Spending’, ‘Arts and Culture Tourists’ and ‘Arts
Volunteerism’. Summaries of these sections are included below.
Arts and Economic Prosperity III is the most comprehensive economic
impact study of the non-profit arts industry ever conducted, documenting
the economic impact of the non-profit arts and culture industry in 156 com-
munities and regions (116 cities and counties, 35 multi-county regions and
5 states). The diverse communities range in population (four thousand to
three million) and type (rural to urban). Researchers collected detailed
expenditure and attendance data from 6,080 non-profit arts and culture
organizations and 94,478 of their attendees to measure total industry
spending. The main findings are summarized below.
Economic impact of America’s non-profit arts and culture

industry
Nationally, in the USA the non-profit arts and culture industry was found to
generate $166.2bn in economic activity annually – a 24% increase in just
the past five years. This spending supports 5.7 million full-time jobs in the
United States – an increase of 850,000 jobs since the previous (2002)
study. The report notes that, because arts and culture organizations are

strongly rooted in their communities, these are jobs that necessarily remain
local and cannot be shipped overseas.
Non-profit arts and culture: a growth industry

The USA’s non-profit arts and culture industry has grown steadily since the
first analysis in 1992, expanding at a rate greater than that of inflation.
Between 2000 and 2005, spending by organizations and their audiences
grew 24%, from $134bn to $166.2bn. When adjusted for inflation, this rep-
resents a healthy 11% increase. Gross Domestic Product, by comparison,
grew at a slightly faster rate of 12.5% (adjusted for inflation). Spending by
non-profit arts and culture organizations grew 18.6% between 2000 and
2005, from $53.2bn to $63.1bn (a 4% increase when adjusted for inflation).
Event-related spending by audiences attending a non-profit arts and culture
event increased 28% during the same period, from $80.8bn to $103.1bn, or
15% when adjusted for inflation. Audience spending was not studied in the
1992 analysis.
Audience spending
The report notes that the US arts and culture industry, unlike many indus-
tries, exploits a significant amount of event-related spending by its audi-
ences. For example, a patron attending an arts event may pay to park the
car in a garage, purchase dinner at a restaurant, eat dessert after the show,
and return home to pay the babysitter. This generates related commerce for
local businesses such as restaurants, parking garages, hotels and retail
stores. Total event-related spending by non-profit arts and culture audiences
was an estimated $103.1bn in 2005. This spending supports 3.1 million
full-time jobs in the United States, provides $46.9bn in household income
and generates $16.4bn in government revenue. Nationally, the typical
attendee spends an average of $27.79 per person per event, in addition to
the cost of admission.
Arts and culture tourists spend more and stay longer

Travellers who include arts and culture events in their trips differ from other
US travellers in a number of ways. Arts and culture travellers spend more
($623 vs. $457), use a hotel, motel or bed-and-breakfast (62% vs. 55%),
spend $1,000 or more (19% vs. 12%), and travel longer (5.2 nights vs. 3.4
nights).
Arts volunteerism
Arts and Economic Prosperity III reveals a significant contribution to non-
profit arts and culture organizations as a result of volunteerism. The aver-
age city and county in the study had 5,174 arts volunteers who donated
191,499 hours to non-profit arts and culture organizations, a donation val-
ued at $3.4 million. The 6,080 responding organizations had an average of
125 volunteers each, who volunteered 45.3 hours each, for a total of 4,857
hours per organization. While these arts volunteers may not have an eco-
nomic impact as defined in this study, they clearly have an enormous
impact on their communities by helping arts and culture organizations
function as a viable industry.
74 Graeme Harper and Randy Cohen

Seventy-one per cent of the responding organizations received in-kind

support, averaging $47,906 each during the 2005 fiscal year. Corporations
were the largest providers of in-kind services.
Arts and economic prosperity III conclusions

Non-profit arts and culture organizations in the United States drive a $166 bil-
lion industry – a growth industry that supports 5.7 million full-time jobs and
generates nearly $30 billion in government revenue annually. Arts and culture
organizations – businesses in their own right – leverage significant event-
related spending by their audiences that pumps vital revenue into restaurants,
hotels, retail stores, parking garages, and other local businesses. This study
lays to rest a common misconception: that communities support arts and cul-
ture at the expense of local economic development. In fact, communities are
investing in an industry that supports jobs, generates government revenue,
and is the cornerstone of tourism.
Copies of the full report can be found on the Americans for the Arts web-
site at www.americansforthearts.org/EconomicImpact.
With sincere thanks to Randy Cohen, vice president of Policy and Research
at Americans for the Arts for permission to quote from Arts and Economic
Prosperity III.
Suggested citation
Harper, G. and Cohen R. (2008), ‘A summary of The Americans for the Arts Economic
Impact of America’s Non-profit Arts and Culture Industry’, Creative Industries Journal 1:
1, pp. 73–75, doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.73/1
A summary of The Americans for the Arts Economic Impact of America’s … 75

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CIJ 1.1_06_Con_Ensslin.qxd 1/5/08 4:50 PM Page 77
Conference Report
Conference Report. English language. doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.77/7
Women in Games 2007: new platforms,

new perspectives, new players:
University of Wales, Newport, School of
Art, Media and Design, 19–21 April 2007.
Conference report
Astrid Ensslin Bangor University
My first encounter with the lively ‘Women in Games’ community happened

at this year’s conference – an annual international forum for women (and
men, incidentally) in the gaming industry and academic games research,
first launched in 2004. The 2007 event, held at Newport, Wales, was subti-
tled ‘New Platforms, New Perspectives, New Players’ and attracted over 70
delegates from around the world. Reflecting the overall focus of the confer-
ence – game aesthetics, performance and play – the programme was
divided into five subject strands:
• ‘the performance of play’, that is, active player involvement in the constant
development of form
• ‘non-games’, involving research productions such as the University of
Cambridge’s RuneCast, Real Time Fine Art ‘Games’, 3-dimensional
painting, as well as story maps and other forms of interactive narrative
• ‘other players’, such as niche game worlds and gendered gaming in
school game playing clubs
• ‘situated players’ for example, female sexualization vs. empowerment,
ambient role-playing games and sense-making in mediated environments
• ‘the big game’ such as focusing on the gendered nature of videogame
play, exemplified by female players of The Sims, virtual pet games and the
sabotaged feminization of game play in SuperMetroid and Die Siedler.
The highly stimulating, thought-provoking and, not least, entertaining

programme was further spiced up with a distinguished selection of keynote
speakers, including Sharon Knight (vice-president and general manager
of Europe Online), Alice Taylor (vice-president of BBC Worldwide, Digital
Content), Karen Wilkins-Mickey (diversity staffing program manager,
Entertainment Services Division, Microsoft USA), Mary Flanagan (associate
professor and director of Tiltfactor Lab, Hunter College, NYU), and Raina
Lee (publisher and editor of 1-UP, ‘the first handmade art journal devoted

CIJ 1.1_06_Con_Ensslin.qxd 1/5/08 4:50 PM Page 78
1. www. to game culture and criticism’1). Their particular creative and industrial
creative hampshire.co.
uk/mark-eyles/wig/ backgrounds provided a generous amount of food for thought as well as
conf-2007/ potential for (academic) action, not least because their specific views on
speakers.html career, design and development issues enriched delegates’ scholarly and
(accessed 25 July
2007). scientific debates and provided straightforward answers to nagging ques-
tions such as the future of games as the entertainment/ narrative genre as
2. http://
womeningames.
well as current standards and practices in enterprise policy.
wordpress.com/tag/ At the time of writing, the conference homepage2 features – along with
conference/wig-2007 a host of Flickr photos taken during breaks, events and talks – a number of
(accessed 25 July
2007).
invited presentations, to some of which I would like to draw the academic
reader’s particular attention. Gender-conscious tutors, module developers
3. http://
womeningames.
and careers advisors alike may be interested in Blitz Games’ Kim Blake’s
wordpress.com/tag/ presentation on ‘Why would a woman want to work in games?’, which gives
conference encouraging insight into the sheer variety of employment opportunities for
(accessed 25 July
2007).
aspiring sciences and arts and design graduates. Inspirations as to how
future games syllabi and/or canons may be devised may be gained from
Aleks Krotoski’s talk on ‘The games we play’, which reports on a survey of the
world’s most popular games. Finally, although not available online at the
time of writing, I would like to draw particular attention to Alice Taylor’s
exhaustive report on the ‘BBC games in the UK’ survey and its social,
medial and political implications.
Further insight into personal impressions is given by the conference
blog,3 contributions to which range from enthusiastic to exhilarating.
Evidently, everybody who posted an entry had a fabulous time, and the WIG
community is now eagerly awaiting the announcement of next year’s host
by the organization’s Steering Committee.
Suggested citation
Ensslin, A. (2008), ‘Women in Games 2007: new platforms, new perspectives, new
players: University of Wales, Newport, School of Art, Media and Design, 19–21
April 2007. Conference report’, Creative Industries Journal 1: 1, pp. 77–78,
doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.77/1
E-mail: a.ensslin@bangor.ac.uk
78 Astrid Ensslin
CIJ 1.1_07_rev_Mould.qxd 1/22/08 4:06 PM Page 79
Book Reviews
Book Reviews. English language. doi: 10.1386/cij.1.1.79/5
The Creative Industries, John Hartley (ed.) (2005)

Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, ISBN: 1405101482
414 pp., paperback, £40.00
Reviewed by Oli Mould, Creative Industries Observatory,
University of the Arts, London
E-mail: o.mould@lcc.arts.ac.uk
This edited collection could not be a timelier addition to this burgeoning field,
bringing together works from some of the most influential authors in the field
of the creative industries. The book deals with six different aspects of the cre-
ative industries, each warranting a section of the book. These sections are
preceded by an insightful and succinct introductory chapter in which Hartley
deals with the problems of defining the creative industries and their role in
various realms such as consumption, production, policy and individuality.
Each of the six sections deals with a particular aspect and is sub-edited by a
specialist in that field. The first section, entitled ‘Creative world’, explores the
creative ecologies that contest the formal definitions of the creative indus-
tries. With contributions discussing new technologies and the Internet, this
section provides a useful (if incidental) account of some of the ways in which
the Internet and new technologies are affecting creativity. The creative spaces
described in this section are emergent, and thus many of the contributions
provide exploratory discussions of the amateur, the alternative and local com-
munities. The second section, ‘Creative identities’, with contributions from
Charles Leadbetter and Richard Florida, discusses the concept that creativity
is grounded in personal ideas, talent, experience and work. The chapters in
this section focus on how creativity and identity have meshed together (or
not) with commercial activities in the knowledge economy. The third section,
‘Creative practices’, focuses on the action and workings that are incorporated
in creativity in a number of disciplines such as education, art, and even the
reality TV programme Big Brother. This engages the section comprehensively
and critically with the definitional complexities of the creative industries and
creativity; moreover, with how the artists and individuals who populate the
creative industries are changing these definitions through their practices and
behaviour. In the fourth section, entitled ‘Creative cities’, contributions from,
among others, Michael Porter and Justin O’Connor, detail creative industry
processes in a number of key world cities such as London, Hong Kong and
Shanghai. and make use of creativity and the practices associated with it to
theorize the place and space of the city. The fifth section ‘Creative enter-
prises’, details descriptive accounts and taxonomies of creative enterprises,
as well as a discussion of policy. The section debates the challenges of the
conceptual shift of creativity from being embodied in cultural activity

to being incorporated into mainstream industry sectors. The final section,

‘Creative economy’, focuses on and critically evaluates the role the creative
industries play in the knowledge-based economy, suggesting that the litera-
tures and discourses of the two can be brought together. The section also
reflects upon the often-precarious position that creative personnel have in the
economic realm.
This book provides the reader with a functional reference resource for
the contested and complex definitions of the various aspects of the creative
industries. Many of the chapters provide detailed descriptions of the
debates and a robust, decisive conclusion to the argument. The many key
authors in the field making concise contributions strengthen this book’s
usefulness as a resource. However, in a few cases (specifically in the section
on ‘Creative cities’) the arguments lack a critical engagement with the lit-
erature, relying instead on works that have been contested in other recent
literature. For example, in the opening contribution of the ‘Creative cities’
section it is suggested that ‘within the literature on cities, much attention
has been focused on the dynamic between local and global forces’
(Tay, p. 220). The rest of the introduction is centred on the scalar concept
and how the creative city affects the dynamics between local and global
forces. However, some recent literature on world cities has questioned the
scalar embeddedness in the local and the global (Dicken et al. 2001; Amin
and Thrift 2002; Doel and Hubbard 2002; Smith 2003a, 2003b). Instead, it
focuses on the connections between cities and how the processes and
actions of actors within and between cities constitute the city – with the
global/local scales being a by-product. Despite this, the use of creative
industries in conjunction with world city literature has opened up new
avenues of exploration for new world city literatures. Other sections of the
book engage with this new, exploratory literature; for example Rifkin’s contri-
bution in the ‘Creative economies’ section explores the shifting nature of cul-
tural markets to networks of services, and critically engages with the
production and consumption of the film industry, arguing that ‘capitalism is
shedding its material origins and increasingly becoming a temporal affair’
(Rifkin, p. 373).
With a multidisciplinary approach, this book combine a sometimes
eclectic, but often informative approach with an inherently interdisciplinary
approach. The editor (and subeditors of each section) have brought
together and stylized the different contributions in such a way as to create a
readable and informative narrative of the multifarious aspects of the cre-
ative industries. This eclecticism, however, dilutes the critical engagement,
with many of the chapters referring to the global/local dualism, which, as
we have seen, has been critiqued in recent writings – perhaps not in rela-
tion to the creative industries, but in the academic literature of economics,
geography and policy theory, to which many of these authors contribute.
Despite this, the book provides a very concise and resourceful contribution
to the field of the creative industries. By the editor’s own admission, ‘the
tenor of this book, then, is an attempt at … a “politics of hope”. That is
how the idea of the creative industries feels at this stage in its development–
an impression that may need to be corrected in later editions’ (Hartley, p. 39).
It is important, then, to keep this in mind when reading this book, as
indeed the creative industries are still ‘finding their feet’ academically; yet,
80 Book Reviews
this books goes a long way to establishing the creative industries as an aca-
demic realm in their own right.
Amin, A. & Thrift, N. (2002), Cities: Re-imaging the Urban, Cambridge: Polity
Press.
Dicken, P., Kelly, P., Olds, K. & Yeung, H. (2001), ‘Chains and Networks,
Territories and Scales: Toward a Relational Framework for Analysing the
Global Economy’, Global Networks, 1:2, PP. 89–112.
Doel, M. & Hubbard, P. (2002), ‘Taking World Cities Literally: Marketing the City
in a Global Space of Flows’. City, 6:3, pp. 351–368.
Smith, R. (2003a) ‘World City Actor-Networks’, Progress in Human Geography,
27:1, pp. 25–44.
Smith, R. (2003b), ‘World City Topologies’, Progress in Human Geography, 27:5,
pp. 561–582.
Management and Creativity, Chris Bilton (2007)

Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 1405119969
256 pp., paperback, £16.99
Reviewed by Karenjit Clare, Department of Geography,
University of Cambridge
E-mail: kc331@cam.ac.uk
Management and Creativity by Chris Bilton is an insightful and practical

book in three ways. Firstly, it is a book that emphasizes that creativity is a
deliberately managed process. Secondly, it is a book about management
and how this process is inherently creative. Lastly, it argues that creativity
and business are not natural opponents but actually have more in common
than we may assume.
The book comprises eight chapters, which can divided into three parts,
‘management of creativity’, ‘creativity of management’ and the ‘politics of
creativity’. These chapters are preceded by an insightful introduction by
Lord David Puttnam, who emphasizes the importance of developing a bet-
ter understanding of the value of creative individuals in the twenty-first cen-
tury. Throughout, the text is illustrated with a number of figures and tables,
and each chapter concludes with a list of additional readings so that inter-
ested readers can follow up on particular points. In addition, scattered
throughout the book are a great number of valuable case studies ranging
from creativity in advertising to the branding of creativity in New Zealand.
These studies explore in greater detail some of the key points. Overall, this
book is insightful and is clearly written.
In the first chapter, Bilton defines creativity in the light of psychological
theory, as a multidimensional process, requiring a mixture of thinking
styles and a tolerance for contradiction. This chapter engages critically
with what creativity is and is not, for example, ‘creativity is not the simul-
taneous privileging and scapegoating of creative individuals as somehow
exempt from conventional rules of behaviour, from rationality, and from
Book Reviews 81
managerial control’. The second chapter extends this definition of creativity

into an examination of creative people/teams. It argues against the idea of
creativity as an individual skill and suggests that creativity is better
explored in terms of processes rather than seen as an individual trait. His
argument is that if we place too much emphasis on the idea-generation
aspect, then we risk ignoring value creation. Furthermore, if we focus exclu-
sively on the composition of the team, we ignore the organizational context
through which that team is supported and manipulated.
In the third chapter, Bilton places the creative team into a broader con-
text, examining creative organizations and creative systems. This section
considers the cultural geography of the creative industries, the strength of
weak ties in the creative industries, and the implications for management
and policy. However, various criticisms can be levelled at this section, pri-
marily because of the lack of depth of the discussion. For instance, I was
left wanting more discussion on the extent to which creative work is rooted
in communities and cultures. Rather than simply mentioning this fact, I
wanted to know examples of creative industries where this had been impor-
tant and why. Further, this section explores the critical importance of the
social networks in the creative industries which are critical to building up
one’s reputation; however, what is missing from the section is an under-
standing of how networks differ for men and for women. Surely this is of
importance for policy, particularly in light of work on the ‘glass ceiling’ and
limited mobility within the workplace. Another criticism I had of this section
was the simplistic use and analysis of social networks – it did not address
the common critique that network studies do not include a wide enough
range of network types. Nevertheless, many topics are broached to some
degree, and the interested reader can explore them further through the
additional readings.
In chapters 4, 5 and 6 the book’s attention shifts from the management
of creativity towards the creativity of management, focusing on how cre-
ativity is understood in management theory. Chapter 4 provides a critique
of the neoliberal management style, which equates creativity with a
removal of all constraints. Instead, Bilton argues that creative people and
processes actually flourish on constraints and boundaries, and this fits in
with his earlier arguments that managerial and creative processes are
complementary rather than opposed. Chapter 5 examines strategic plan-
ning and strategy formation. This chapter argues that creative approaches
to strategy require a new emphasis on organizational complexity. This
requires a move away from the idea that strategy is a done deal, and
toward devising a better system for strategy formation. Moving on, chap-
ter 6 compares the structure of the creative process to the management of
organizational change. In this chapter, Bilton argues that organizational
change depends upon a relationship between individual and collective
development, and on the meshing of individual initiatives into an ongoing
dynamic pattern. Above all, the creative process is complex and multidi-
mensional.
The penultimate chapter provides an interesting account on creativity in
marketing. The author states that theoretical developments in marketing
and cultural theory place the customer experience at the core of the value
chain. Hence, this chapter investigates some of the implications of a
82 Book Reviews
creative approach to marketing. The case study used is of arts marketing –

to portray that marketing and branding have become centred on the aes-
thetic experience of the customer, not just selling the products. The final
chapter examines the broader implications of the creative economy, and
this creative economy is presented as the basis of a new, knowledge-based
capitalism. The main argument of the book is then reiterated – and rightly
so – with the suggestion that management is a creative process and cre-
ativity is a managed process.
At times I found the book to be somewhat too simplistic: arguments
were occasionally generalized to the extent that finer points were ignored.
In other parts, lists of problems with possible solutions were given, with
only limited supportive discussion, given the multifaceted context of the
problems, of how such approaches could be practically implemented.
Perhaps the author could have provided additional evidence to back up
some of the arguments. I certainly felt that more attention could have been
given to important issues of place, space and gender. These, however, are
minor concerns.
In conclusion, this book is a useful addition to the field of creative
industries/ management. It is a book that can be read by students, practi-
tioners, managers and policy makers. The value of the book, though, lies in
its breadth. Certainly, the detail is not here to address adequately all concerns,
nor could it be; for anyone interested in the creative industries, creative
economy, creative management and the implication for policy, this will be a
valuable addition to the reference literature. Thus, in spite of some limita-
tions, I recommend it.
Book Reviews 83
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Creative Industries Journal | Volume One Number One

Volume One Number One

79–83 Book Reviews

intellect Journals | Art & Design

9 771751 069004 www.intellectbooks.com

CIJ_1.1_Cover.indd 1 1/23/08 3:39:40 PM

Volume One Number One

79–83 Book Reviews

intellect Journals | Art & Design

9 771751 069004 www.intellectbooks.com

CIJ_1.1_Cover.indd 1 1/23/08 3:39:40 PM

Creative Industries Journal Journal Editor

Creative Industries Journal Volume 1 Number 1 © 2008 Intellect Ltd

Welcome to the first issue of the Creative Industries Journal.

CIJ 1 (1) pp. 5–6 © Intellect Ltd 2008 5

the industry is becoming more and more ‘cottage-based’ in a very direct

Creative Industries Journal Volume 1 Number 1 © 2008 Intellect Ltd

Creative Industries Mapping: Where have

CIJ 1 (1) pp. 7–30 © Intellect Ltd 2008 7

• Employment: primarily the full time employment within specific industry

8 Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham

Service outputs, such as product design or web development services, how-

First Iteration: The DCMS ‘Template’

1. Creation > 2. Making > 3. Dissemination > 4. Exhibition/Reception >

Unfortunately the framework does not differentiate between the primary

10 Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham

Classification limitations affecting data availability

high number of designers embedded in other industries and poor statistical

Second Iteration: Industry and Occupation

12 Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham

Methodological limitations of the second iteration

14 Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham

Annual Economic Estimates 2006 report includes in the publishing seg-

Third Iteration: The ‘Creative Trident’ Approach

• Workers with a cultural profession working in a cultural sector (e.g. an artist

developed a methodology and suite of tools that could enable robust

Towards the Creative Trident

Australian Employment 2001 Employment within

Table 2: 2001 Australian employment using 22 tightly defined industry

An alternative approach is to count the number of people employed

Employment 2001 Total Creatives

Through analysis of a custom data extract of the Census of population

16 Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham

Australian Employment 2001 Employment within 28

Furthermore, by focussing on the specialist creative occupations it is

Employment within Employment within Total Embedded

The Employment Creative Trident

Australian Census Employment within Employment within Total Embedded

Business and Support 165,466 165,466

Total Creative Industry 299,916 137,017 436,933 35.7%

Without a framework such as the trident it would be easy to double

• The Creative Trident utilises combined occupation and industry matrices

The Trident is also an advance on the UK Economic Estimates

The Financial Creative Trident (Creative Economy)

18 Peter Higgs and Stuart Cunningham

Australian Creative Industries Other Industries Total

Creative $6,343 $6,467 $12,810

Other $8,013 $8,013

Total $14,356 $6,467 $20,823

Table 3: Annual Earnings generated from Employment in the Creative Trident.

costs to business of these personal earnings would be an estimated 30%

Total trident Total Trident Earnings

Music & Performing Arts 29,618 $964