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This paper explores the rise of cultural economy as a key organising concept over the 2000s. While it has intellectual precursors in political economy, sociology and postmodernism, it has been work undertaken in the fields of cultural economic geography, creative industries, the culture of service industries and cultural policy where it has come to the forefront, particularly around whether we are now in a 'creative economy'. While work undertaken in cultural studies has contributed to these developments, the development of neo-liberalism as a meta-concept in critical theory constitutes a substantive barrier to more sustained engagement between cultural studies and economics, as it rests upon a caricature of economic discourse. The paper draws upon Michel Foucault's lectures on neo-liberalism to indicate that there are significant problems with the neo-Marxist account hat became hegemonic over the 2000s. The paper concludes by identifying areas such as the value of information, the value of networks, motivations for participation in online social networks, and the impact of business cycles on cultural sectors as areas of potentially fruitful inter-disciplinary engagement around the nature of cultural economy.

1. Introduction : cities, the cultural economy and urban studies -- 2. The cultural economy and globalizing cities -- 3. The political economy of culture : governance, agency and actors -- 4. The cultural economy and the urban labour market -- 5. The cultural economy, housing markets and gentrification -- 6. Space in the cultural economy of the city : history, theory and taxonomies -- 7. Cultural industry districts in the metropolis : case studies and illustrative sketches -- 8. Assessing the policy record in the cultural economy of the city -- 9. Conclusion : critical reflections on theory, prospects and practice.

This Reader brings together the exciting and innovative work that has appeared in the last 10 years in the growing field of cultural economy. Brings together exciting and innovative work from the last ten years in the emerging field of cultural economy. Contains a substantial introduction by the editors on the main strands and history of the cultural economy approach. Shows how the pursuit of prosperity always involves multiple and hybrid orderings that cannot be reduced to either the terms culture or economy. Shows that thinking about cultural economy is both a substantive task and a valuable

An increasingly important fraction of contemporary economic activity is devoted to the production of cultural outputs, i.e. goods and services with high levels of aesthetic or semiotic content. This kind of economic activity is especially, and increasingly, associated with a number of large cities scattered over the globe. A conceptual account of this phenomenon is provided on the basis of an exploration of the character of place‐specific forms of culture generation and the agglomerative tendencies of many kinds of cultural products industries. The empirical cases of Los Angeles and Paris are briefly discussed. The dynamics of production, distribution and location of major cultural products industries are also examined. The paper ends with a brief allusion to the modalities of spatial differentiation of culture in contemporary capitalism and to a prospective cultural politics.

This article examines the growth between 1990 to 2000 of the interactive media industry in the Dublin area. In this period it became a world leader in the development of electronic leading companies. The article assesses the role the state played in the development of this cluster.

Critical Methods in Political and Cultural Economy offers students and scholars the first methods book for the critical school of International Political Economy (IPE). What does it mean to 'do' critical research? How do we write about the evidence we present? This volume explores our shared critical ethic to demonstrate how methods are transformative and reimagines research strategies as both an embodied practice and a social process. By presenting methodologically informed ways of researching, enriched by real-life accounts from academics doing empirical research, the volume seeks to forge a new collaborative path that builds a critical ethic and modes of inquiry within International Political Economy. Substantive chapters advance the pluralism of the critical school of cultural political economy and seek to articulate its nascent research ethic. Short autobiographical vignettes articulate the professional journeys of contributors who 'do' critical political economy. There is practical advice on how to develop evidence from an iterative reflexive research strategy. Using this innovative format offers a guide to methods in critical political economy by engaging directly with the people doing research, not only as technical practice but also as lived experience. The combination of research and practice presented throughout the book offers an extensive and authoritative framework for evaluating how methods are part of critical research and will be essential reading for all students and scholars of IPE.--