Edited by

Rosalind Gill, Andy C. Pratt and Tarek E. Virani

CREATIVE HUBS IN QUESTION

PLACE, SPACE AND WORK IN THE

CREATIVE ECONOMY

Series Editors

Ursula Huws

Hertfordshire Business School

Hateld, UK

Rosalind Gill

Department of Sociology

City, University of London

London, UK

Dynamics of Virtual Work

Technological change has transformed where people work, when

and how. Digitisation of information has altered labour processes out

of all recognition whilst telecommunications have enabled jobs to

be relocated globally. ICTs have also enabled the creation of entirely

new types of ‘digital’ or ‘virtual’ labour, both paid and unpaid, shift-

ing the borderline between ‘play’ and ‘work’ and creating new types

of unpaid labour connected with the consumption and co-creation of

goods and services. is aects private life as well as transforming the

nature of work and people experience the impacts dierently depend-

ing on their gender, their age, where they live and what work they do.

Aspects of these changes have been studied separately by many dierent

academic experts however up till now a cohesive overarching analytical

framework has been lacking. Drawing on a major, high-prole COST

Action (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Dynamics

of Virtual Work, this series will bring together leading international

experts from a wide range of disciplines including political economy,

labour sociology, economic geography, communications studies, tech-

nology, gender studies, social psychology, organisation studies, indus-

trial relations and development studies to explore the transformation of

work and labour in the Internet Age. e series will allow researchers to

speak across disciplinary boundaries, national borders, theoretical and

political vocabularies, and dierent languages to understand and make

sense of contemporary transformations in work and social life more

broadly. e book series will build on and extend this, oering a new,

important and intellectually exciting intervention into debates about

work and labour, social theory, digital culture, gender, class, globalisa-

tion and economic, social and political change.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14954

Rosalind Gill · Andy C. Pratt

Tarek E. Virani

Editors

Creative Hubs

in Question

Place, Space and Work

in the Creative Economy

Editors

Rosalind Gill

City, University of London

London, UK

Andy C. Pratt

City, University of London

London, UK

Tarek E. Virani

Queen Mary University of London

London, UK

Dynamics of Virtual Work

ISBN 978-3-030-10652-2 ISBN 978-3-030-10653-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10653-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018965779

is work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether

the whole or part of the material is concerned, specically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse

of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microlms or in any other physical way, and

transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by

similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

e use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this

publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specic statement, that such names are exempt

from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

e publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this

book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the

authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein

or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. e publisher remains neutral with regard to

jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional aliations.

Cover image: © mauritius images GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo

is Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

e registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

is book is dedicated to our beloved colleague and friend Debbie

Dickinson, who passed away as it was going to press in March 2019.

Debbie’s warmth, generosity and commitment to music, the arts and

cultural life were an inspiration to many of the contributors

to this book, and to numerous others. We will miss her,

and cherish her memory.

vii

Contents

1 Introduction 1

Andy C. Pratt, Tarek E. Virani and Rosalind Gill

Part I Looking Inside the Cluster

2 Herding Cats: Co-work, Creativity and Precarity

in Inner Sydney 29

George Morgan and James Woodri

3 Curating Strangers 51

Janet Merkel

4 Creative Hubs, Cultural Work and Aective Economies:

Exploring ‘Unspeakable’ Experiences for Young Cultural

Workers 69

David Lee

viii Contents

5 Hubs vs Networks in the Creative Economy: Towards

a ‘Collaborative Individualism’ 89

Carolina Bandinelli and Alessandro Gandini

6 Community-Led Coworking Spaces: From Co-location

to Collaboration and Collectivization 111

Vasilis Avdikos and Eirini Iliopoulou

7 Hip Hub? Class, Race and Gender in Creative Hubs 131

Tarek E. Virani and Rosalind Gill

8 Creative Hubs: A Co-operative Space? 155

Marisol Sandoval and Jo Littler

Part II Looking Outside the Cluster

9 Istanbul’s Sounds and Its ‘Creative’ Hubs: Creative

Actors Articulating the City into Transnational

Networks rough Music 171

Ceren Mert

10 Nairobi’s iHub: Technology for Society 189

Øyvind Økland

11 Producing Values: Impact Hub Birmingham

as Co-working and Social Innovation Space 211

Paul Long and Annette Naudin

12 Punk Rock Entrepreneurship: All-Ages DIY Music

Venues and the Urban Economic Landscape 229

Michael Seman

13 inking rough the Creative Hub in Peripheral

Places: A Long-View of the Dartington Hall Experiment

in Rural Reconstruction rough Creativity 245

Nicola J. omas

Contents ix

14 From Making to Displaying: e Role of

Organizational Space in Showing Creative Coolness

at the Volkshotel 265

Boukje Cnossen

15 e City as a Creative Hub: e Case of the Fashion

Industry in Milan, Italy 281

Marianna d’Ovidio and Valentina Pacetti

16 Grassroots Creative Hubs: Urban Regeneration,

Recovered Industrial Factories and Cultural

Production in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro 299

Cecilia Dinardi

17 Creative Hubs and the Night-Time Economy:

Convergent or Divergent? 319

Andy C. Pratt and Tom Gill

18 Exploring the Relationship Between Creative Hubs

and Urban Policy in East London 341

Tarek E. Virani

19 Universities as Creative Hubs: Modes and Practices

in the UK Context 359

Daniel Ashton and Roberta Comunian

Index 381

Notes on Contributors

Daniel Ashton is Associate Professor of Cultural and Creative

Industries at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. His

research focuses on creative careers, and he is the co-editor of Cultural

Work and Higher Education. He is currently undertaking research with

arts and cultural organizations exploring cultural value.

Vasilis Avdikos is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economic

and Regional Development, Panteion University, Athens and a member

of the Regional Development Institute. He has published several papers

on urban and regional development issues and on creative and cultural

industries.

Carolina Bandinelli has conducted research on emerging forms of

subjectivities in neoliberal societies, with a focus on entrepreneurship

and self-branding in the creative industries. Currently, she is undertak-

ing a research project on the digital culture of love. She is a lecturer in

Media at the University of Lincoln.

Boukje Cnossen currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at

the Institute of Sociology and Cultural Organization at Leuphana

University of Lüneburg (Germany), where she investigates organizing