‘This place gives me space’: place and creativity in the creative industries

This paper focuses on the relationship between place and individualised creativity in micro and small enterprises within the creative industries. The paper uses the findings from qualitative interviews with workers in the craft metalwork and digital design sectors of the creative industries in the UK to analyse how the perceived attributes of a location may provide inspiration in the creative process. Current spatial theory on the creative industries has emphasised both collective creativity and ways in which clusters of creative enterprises in particular places can promote creativity. This paper analyses the empirical evidence obtained in the interviews and argues that the links between place and creativity can be important and influential in the creative process and that current theory needs to be extended to take greater account of individual creativity and the ways in which the attributes of localities can be used as a catalyst for individual creativity.     

Fleshing out expertise: The making of creative industries experts in the United Kingdom

The place of expertise in modern systems of government continues to be of concern to critical social scientists. Recent years have seen something of a shift away from conceptions of expertise that tended to see it as distant, overly technical and aligned with the needs of the state and capital. Expertise is increasingly recognised as having a more complex relation with the subjects of government than just as a means for shoring up authority, offering them a space for engagement, critique and counter-expertise. This paper argues that focusing on particular experts and their changing roles in governmental assemblages can flesh out one-dimensional conceptions of expertise and provide insights into governmental change. Drawing on a variety of literature, it is argued that expertise can usefully be conceived as; first, a social relation based on one party having access to knowledge which gives them authority over another; second, as distributed across a governmental assemblage in a particular way, with some expert relations being positioned to have more influence, understood here as expert power, across the assemblage; and third, as a matter of strategic engagement on the part of experts located in particular epistemic communities seeking to gain expert power. The potential of this perspective is explored through an analysis of an emergent expert system for the creative industries in the UK where a small community of actors have realigned their practices and cast themselves as creative industries experts. This has allowed then to reshape the governmental assemblage forming around this economic sector in a direction favourable to their own ideas. It is concluded that efforts to convert expertise into greater expert power is a key dynamic transforming governmental assemblages.     

Risk and trust in the cultural industries

Preliminary claims have been made that working practices within cultural industries such as fashion, music, design and the night time economy may differ from Fordist or modernist arrangements. Cultural firms are often imagined to be more innovative, information-rich, dynamic, flexible, non-hierarchical and dependent on local clusters and networks than their Fordist counterparts (Lash and Urry, 1994). As their impact and significance increase, understanding how creative and cultural industries actually work is of high priority. This paper presents preliminary findings from an on-going ESRC funded study of cultural Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) within Manchester, England. Drawing on one element of the project, this paper considers the significance of risk and the importance of social trust for the cultural entrepreneur. Following a discussion of Beck’s development of risk as an analytical concept, and its intersection with Giddens’ notion of ‘active trust’, the paper examines how risk and trust are defined, experienced and negotiated by entrepreneurs in Manchester’s cultural industries. It is suggested that senses of risk are constitutive and often pivotal to the whole economic and social basis of cultural entrepreneurship – risk being central to choices made not only in business but in the lifeworld more generally. The paper then investigates the importance of trust for facilitating as well as countering or offsetting risk. Empirical evidence is presented to show how risk and trust co-relate and interact as constitutive elements within a wider set of shifting relationships between work, leisure and lifestyle in the ‘creative city’.     

Imag(in)ing Everyday Geographies: A case study of Andrew Buckles’ Why Wait? Project

This article introduces an interdisciplinary collaboration that brings together sympathetic trends in qualitative geographic visualization (from the perspective of one author who is a geographer) and contemporary generative artistic practices (from the perspective of the other author, who is an artist and theorist)—attempting to represent a diverse array of creative and multi-modal data through generative and participatory digital methods. We present how this convergence expands categories of meaning, allowing us to explore experiential/embodied as well as creative/imaginative engagements with everyday geographies distinct to a digital age. The article mediates on the idea of mapping the imagination and the ways we imagine quotidian spaces, as well as possibilities for new methods for the analysis and representation of spatial and emotional complexity. We particularly explore strategies of integrating multiple technologies and multiple-modes of representation for mapping and re-mapping complexities of social and creative living in order to help provide alternate ways to imagine, represent and engage different forms of embodied and imaginative geographies. This article presents a case study with the artist Andrew Buckles, in Seattle, Washington, correlating representational and participatory digital data including geospatial, temporal, audio, video as well as electroencephalography readings from brainwave sensors.     

Participation constrained: Generating buy-in and rationalizing carbon forestry labor through participatory mapping in Southern Mexico

In recent years diverse actors have hailed participatory practice as an effective means to empowering people in payment for ecosystem services (PES) work. In Chiapas, Mexico participation is a central component of the Scolel’ Te carbon forestry program, the cornerstone of which includes Plan Vivo participatory mapping. Plan Vivo mapping is used by the managing NGO, AMBIO, to build trust relations between participating farmers and program managers so as to ensure the successful production of carbon credits. However, I argue that it is also used to instill in farmers a series of behavioral and attitudinal transformations designed to align farmer land-use activities and attitudes with the program’s carbon credit production objectives. Yet, despite these ambitions, the ability of the mapping activity in Scolel’ Te to achieve its stated goals is challenged on the ground. In order to explain this discrepancy between the aspirations tied to the mapping activity and the mapping experience, I assess Plan Vivo mapping as a situated discourse and as a labor process. Taking the former perspective, I show how the managing NGO uses a paternalistic discourse to justify participatory mapping, one that presents farmers as misguided resource managers in need of external intervention. Then, using a labor process approach, I show how PVM acts to reorient farmer relationships to their land and to development organizations by intervening in farmer land-use practices and by establishing trust relations. It is, however, a process that consists of inequalities that stand to potentially limit the effectiveness of the activity.     

Remote sensing and mapping of Earth resources

Detailed knowledge of the natural resources of any nation is a pre-requisite for its economic development. In most developing countries, this knowledge is scarce or lacking. Acquiring the needed information by conventional means may require a large investment in time, personnel, and therefore, in cost. In the meantime, space-age technology provides the necessary tools to conduct surveys of natural resources in a timely manner. Such are the means to obtain the required data by digital sensors, radar imaging systems, and stereo cameras. These data can be utilized in mapping structures that may contain oil and gas deposits, recognizing high concentrations of economic minerals, discovering regions with fertile soils and good potential for groundwater, and monitoring cyclical climatic changes, particularly in arid lands. Such applications warrant greater use of remote sensing methods and techniques by the international scientific community, particularly for the development of natural resources in the Third World. This paper represents a general review of the available, and easily interpretable space-borne data that are useful in the mapping of such resources.     

(Re-)negotiating access: The politics of researching skills and knowledge for ‘sustainable communities’

The last decade has witnessed a surge of interest in ‘sustainable communities’ within the UK. This has stimulated a plethora of research aimed at acquiring a better understanding of what ‘sustainable communities’ might look like and how they can be achieved. However, this has not been accompanied by a reflection and interrogation of the actual processes, challenges and politics of doing ‘sustainable communities’ research. This paper addresses this gap by highlighting the importance of paying attention to the on-going process of negotiating access when carrying out sustainability research at the community level. We draw on a recent study of skills and knowledge for ‘sustainable communities’ in Stroud Gloucestershire, UK, to illustrate the importance of sensitivity to social relationships throughout and beyond the research trajectory within sustainability research. Our experience raises important questions about the politics of research practices when doing sustainability research ‘with’ communities and the challenges associated with participatory approaches as a means to demonstrate research impact. We argue that in developing a fuller understanding of why and how different types of community level initiatives can contribute to the ‘sustainable communities’ agenda, greater consideration needs to be given to how these community practices can be better supported through the process of doing academic research.     

当代玉雕创新浅窥

时代在变,人们的审美观念也在变.传统的中国艺术门类——玉雕,在新时代语境之下必然要做出改变以适应当代人变化了的生活方式与审美观念.作为当代玉雕行业中的一员,结合个人多年的创作经验与创作实践来分析探讨当代玉雕的创新问题.本文主要从玉雕创作的题材,艺术形式,创作与经营模式等几个方面进行论述,梳理当代玉雕创作的新变化,以期对当代玉雕从业人员在创新方向与方法上有所启发.     

Networking for Local Agenda 21 implementation: Learning from experiences with Udaltalde and Udalsarea in the Basque autonomous community

Local Agenda 21 (LA21) is widely regarded as a key tool for implementing sustainability policies since local authorities are closer to ordinary people and some local managers and politicians have the ability to adapt organisations to new managerial atmospheres and social demands. However, local governments tend to lack the right economic, human and knowledge resources. Consequently, in the search for local sustainable development, networking and collaborative approaches to LA21 can help local authorities save resources and share knowledge and best practices. Although both research and politicians have tended to focus on LA21, we believe Regional Agenda 21 (RA21) needs to be emphasised as a complementary tool. This paper examines successful innovative practices in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) over a 4-year period, with a view to shedding light on the theoretical literature and to aiding regional and local authorities. Although research on policy networks has produced useful results, we are still some way from a plausible, consensus-based theory of policy networks. Based on experience in the BAC, the present article offers an integrated approach to understanding the antecedents and consequences of a regional knowledge-driven network for LA21 promotion. Although LA21 implementation has been studied before, evidence about networking at regional level is scarce. Other regions in developing countries could use this approach to achieve successful policy networks.     

Illuminating the practice of Knowledge Exchange as a ‘pathway to impact’ within an Arts and Humanities Research Council ‘Creative Economy Knowledge Exchange’ project

This article is concerned with the practice of Knowledge Exchange (KE) within the creative economy. Drawing on material collected as part of an ethnographic study of a small creative business support agency – Cultural Enterprise Office – based in Glasgow, Scotland, the article argues for a nuanced consideration of the complexities of doing KE in the creative economy. The study in question was titled ‘Supporting Creative Business’ and was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under its Creative Economy Knowledge Exchange programme. This article describes the practice of KE, and the role that it might play as a ‘pathway to impact’. I explore the often-mundane activities that constitute KE ‘on the ground’, and argue for further attention to be paid to what I call ‘informal KE’. This article contributes directly to ongoing debates in geography about the effect that the impact agenda is having on academic practice. More specifically, the article examines the role of academics vis-à-vis consultants and other knowledge producers within the creative economy.     

地质约束条件下的地质体智能综合方法研究

地质体综合是地质图编制工作的重中之重,因其处理涉及内容多、业务逻辑复杂、重复工作量大,是影响编图工作推进的主要因素。为了能够实现地质体的高效综合,文章提出了一种以地质约束条件(专家知识)为核心、以制图综合为空间图形合并手段的新型地质体智能综合方法,设计并实现了围绕地质专家知识(如地质年代、地层名称等)规则映射开展的三种地质体综合方法(同属性合并、交互式选择合并、绘图合并)。使用北山地区地质图数据对地质体综合模块进行测试,经反复对比实验,证实了该方法不仅能够快速实现地质体空间图形的"一键式"合并,还可以自动完成地质知识的映射与赋值,综合结果符合地质规律。该方法为反映地质空间分布前提下对图件中地质体或其他面图元的精简提供了一种有效的自动化工具。     

一种基于机器学习算法的岩性填图方法

通过野外地质调查与机器学习方法的有机融合,提出了一种基于梯度提升决策树算法的岩性单元填图方法.研究以多龙矿集区为模型试验区,选择1:5万勘查地球化学数据为基础预测数据,以1:5万区域地质图为参考,进行基于梯度提升决策树算法的岩性预测填图模型试验.首先选择研究区内小范围空白区开展野外填图,建立原始数据集并初步构建岩性单元...     

The three faces of geological computer contouring

Three aspects of successful contouring with the computer are geologic interpretation, data, and the program or algorithm. All of these are important and must be considered jointly to combine good procedures with appropriate software, but interpretation is a critical requirement for mapping geologic variables. Several acceptable, though different, maps could be drawn with a given program and set of observations, so the map that best honors geologic concepts and interpretation is most desirable. Many computer-mapping projects are flawed because one of these three aspects is ignored.This paper points out how data handling and choice of an algorithm should be affected by geologic knowledge and interpretation, including: (a) data consisting of mixtures of populations should be handled with special methods, (b) the algorithm should allow calculation of values beyond the range of observed values, (c) mapping thickness of a unit that pinches out requires projection to negative values and special handling of zero-thickness data, and (d) mapping structure on two related horizons requires that the surfaces be dealt with jointly.     

Rethinking space: an outsider’s view of the spatial turn

Geographical concerns with space and place have escaped the confines of the discipline of geography. Many humanities scholars now invoke such conceptions as a means to integrate diverse sources of information and to understand how broad social processes play out unevenly in different locations. The social production of spatiality thus offers a rich opportunity to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogues between different schools of critical theory. Following a brief assessment of the spatial turn in history, history of science, and political philosophy, this paper explores its implications for literary and cultural studies. It invokes a detailed case study of late 18th century Lima, Peru to explicate the dynamics of colonialism, the construction of racial identities, and different power/knowledge configurations within a particular locale. Space in this example appears as both matter and meaning, i.e., as simultaneously tangible and intangible, as a set of social circumstances and physical landscapes and as a constellation of discourses that simultaneously reflected, constituted, and at times undermined, the hegemonic social order. The intent is to demonstrate how multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship can be facilitated by paying attention to the unique of circumstances that define places within given historical moments. As seen in this example from literary colonial studies, other disciplines, therefore, can both draw from and contribute to poststructuralist interpretations of space as a negotiated set of situated practices.     

中国活动构造研究

本文综述了最近五年来中国活动构造的进展,经过1:50000活动构造地质填图和综合研究,获得了各构造区活动构造的基本特征,其中包括几何学、滑动速率、古地震和大震重复间隔、同震位移等各项定量参数。根据这些定量参数,评价活动构造地震的危险性,同时,还简要地讨论了大陆内部现代构造活动的动力学问题。     

Construction of remains of small-scale mining activities as a possible innovative way how to prevent desertification

Initial mapping of secondary succession in places disturbed by mining of the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area in Mongolia shows a possible innovative direction taken by afforestation in order to prevent further expansion of the Gobi Desert in northern Mongolia. The study results from the knowledge of secondary succession of mined areas, which are classified as the remains and consequences of prospecting and mining work dated to the Soviet times. Ongoing succession on sites affected by mining is very slow. In quarry dumps and canavas, herb layer has not been recovered despite the fact that the prospecting and mining activities had finished more than 30 years ago. Herbs biodiversity is very poor in these areas. Conversely, representatives of the tree layer, especially Larix sibirica and Populus tremula, are found far from the continuous forest; they colonized sites located within the aridized steppe. We assume that the main factor of successful tree growth on the mining activities remains consists in the humidity condensation due to and caused by the specific shape of the canavas and dumps. Trees prosperity on these extreme habitats can be ensured particularly in the early stages of growth when the tree roots are unable to reach the groundwater table. Detail mapping of quantitative and qualitative parameters of trees shows that the dump is an ideal shape of self-watering condensation mound for forest growth and can prevent the desertification as well.     

Beyond public artopia: public art as perceived by its publics

Since the upsurge of public art in the 1980s, geographers have been critically analysing creative practices as drivers of urban development and regeneration. They have commonly framed perceptions of art in urban public space from the perspectives of its producers and planners. Yet, the fundamental purpose of public art is shaped by its publics, which comprise a multifaceted audience. Some scholars have held a brief for examining perceptions of public art through its publics, but let things go at that. This paper attempts to address this under-researched yet important field by presenting a survey of publics’ perceptions of selected public-artwork localities in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ghent. The publics’ perceptions were generally expressed in platitudes that were neither unreservedly positive nor unreservedly negative. But the distinct localities do show significant differences in publics’ perceived attractiveness of the public-artwork locality. These perceptions are further situated within publics’ cognitive, spatial, aesthetic, social and symbolic proximity to both the public artwork and its site. These empirical details provide insight into publics’ engagement with public art in particular places and thereby provide lessons for public-art-led urban planning. Moreover, this study instigates more solid qualitative research on this specific engagement.     

用于专题地质填图的地球物理技术——短周期密集台阵

以问题和需求为驱动的专题地质填图强调,针对某个主要地质体、沉积盆地、重要成矿带、地震带断裂系统等,采用现代化的技术手段开展针对性的专题调查和填图,以解决目标地质体结构、沉积盆地基底起伏、成矿地质体规模、断裂系统分布等重大问题.地球物理是专题填图不可缺少的手段之一,近10年发展起来的短周期密集台阵技术,因其布设灵活、应用...     

Narrativizing (and laughing) spatial identities together in Meänkieli-speaking minorities

This paper scrutinizes how the Meänkieli-speaking minority in The Torne Valley, northern Sweden, use humor in the process of narrativizing their shifting spatial identities, as well as in maintaining and contesting prevailing power relations. A great deal of the research focusing on the social and political nature of humor, and its geographical dimensions, has concerned the humor directed at ethnic and national minorities, with minority groups typically being approached as targets of laughter. However, less interest has been paid to how minorities use and experience humor in their everyday lives and environments. Humor is approached here as an integral part of how people make sense of culture and society in a creative manner and cope with and challenge subordinating power-relations and social inequality. In terms of methodology, laughing together operates as a (research) approach through which spatial identities of linguistic minorities can be renegotiated. The study is based on group discussions held with local culture workers and activists between September 2015 and February 2016 in Swedish Torne Valley. The paper produces new theoretical and empirical knowledge concerning how humor is used in a creative manner to make sense of, produce and contest socio-spatial relations.     

生态系统可持续管理的对策

简要介绍了千年生态系统评估(MA)项目对策工作组的报告《生态系统与人类福祉:政策响应》的核心内容.MA的评估结果显示,在过去的50年里,60%的生态系统服务已经出现下降或不可持续利用的状况,而且许多生态系统服务在未来50年内仍会急剧下降,这将严重威胁联合国千年发展目标的实现.但是,MA认为通过对当前的政策、制度和行为习惯进行重大调整,仍然可望在满足对生态系统服务不断增长的需求的同时,减缓和扭转生态系统的退化趋势.基于这一认识,MA的对策工作组通过分析过去和当前用于生态系统管理的各种对策的优点与缺点,指出了生态系统可持续管理的障碍;确定了制度与管理对策、经济与激励对策、社会与行为对策、技术对策以及知识与认知对策方面可望改善生态系统管理状况的一系列干预措施;并提出了设计生态系统可持续管理的决策的基本原则以及有助于制定生态系统管理决策的有效手段.