Introduction

Starting in October 2007 this project is a three year AHRC funded project based in the Department of Geography at Exeter University.

This research places value on understanding the cultural practices and experiences of creative making within a regional context by exploring the relationships between place, space and identity. To this end, this research addresses relational identity formation through the lens of the creative industries in South West Britain set within the context of recent governance and policy debates associated with 'new regionalism'. We will explore the poetics and politics of the place-based identity formation of creative makers across the media and non-media creative industries in the South West.

People Involved:
Principle Investigators: Dr David Harvey and Dr Nicola Thomas
RA: Dr Harriet Hawkins
PhD Student: Richard Wells

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Project Aims and Objectives

The aim of this project is to configure a new relational understanding of place that stresses the spatial connections and the relational identities that are practiced by makers within the creative industries, and the broader institutional context they are increasing cast in.

The three inter-related objectives are:

Objective 1.
To trace the biographies of creative making and makers in the South West:
We will:

• Uncover the 'social lives' that underpin the practices and outputs of the creative industries found in the South West.
  
• Interview a sample of 60 different sub-sector creative enterprises, working in a variety of creative categories, spread across the geographical territory of the South West.
  
• Address the interconnected biographies of both the creative maker and their outputs within a relational context.
  
• Trace the spatial connections that are embedded within the biographies of the maker and output, addressing the ways in which these connections forge space and place.

Objective 2.
To understand the relational nature of identities that are negotiated and contested through the practices of creative making in the South West:
We will:

• Identify six creative makers from the creative categories such as animation; film; crafts (such as wood and textile working); music; art; drama. These will act as in depth case studies.
  
• Undertake a detailed analysis of their everyday interactions, experiences and practices that inform their relational politics of identity, place and space.
  
• Carry out in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation, and collect life narratives and oral histories within these six case studies.
  
• Be sensitive to the acts of creative making, interactions with co-workers, support networks, relations between the creator and those living proximate to them, together with the social, economic, environmental and political elements of their everyday experience.

Objective 3.
To assess the construction of 'new regionalism' in the South West in relation to the creative industries:
We will:

• Carry out an analysis of the discourses of the new regional framework that encompasses regional institutions of 'arts governance' that provide the institutional setting of the region's creative industries.
  
• Perform a critical discourse analysis of the literature associated with these agencies.
  
• Carry out a series of institutional stakeholder interviews.
  
• Examine institutional interpretations of the creative industries.
  
• Assess their perspectives on the regional framework that is in place to support the creative industries.

By moving the focus away from the policy driven demands of the creative economy towards a focus on understanding the acts of creativity undertaken, we aim to understand how creative makers negotiate their place in the becoming of the region of SW Britain.

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Some preliminary thoughts

This research will contribute to new theoretical interventions that are seeking to 'unbind' regions, and develop a new cultural understanding of space, place and identity. While the theoretical challenges to consider the relational politics of space have been developed, the empirical research that addresses the practices that configure relational interchanges remains underdeveloped. This research would significantly fill this lacuna. The analysis of the practices of creative makers and linked institutional frameworks offers an alternative cultural perspective to understanding the politics and practices of 'new regionalism'.

The nurturing and celebration of creative talent has become a central tenet of the political agenda, and the urgency of supporting research into the creative arts has become correspondingly clear. It has become a pressing matter to understand the connections, experiences and development of the creative economy. Exploring the relational politics and poetics of identity through the lens of the creative arts helps to highlight a series of tensions that are inherent within notions of the region and of senses of place:

First, there are an abundance of institutions that have been established in order to support a regional creative industry (including connections to film, media, art, tourism, museums etc.). Their regional context has largely been taken for granted, driven by economic and political consideration, with the 'region' supposedly self-evident. In reality, however, they act to impose a regional framework that is imagined (Anderson, 1983). In other words, the developing framework of governance is both actively creating, yet also struggling to understand, the region.

Second, 'new regionalism' has been critiqued for attempting to construct an identity that is closed and exclusionary (Amin et al. 2003). While policy agendas are pursuing an ideal of social inclusion, pluralism and openness, many of the practices and performances of place-based identities are based around notions of exclusion. Indeed, within the creative industries, notions of 'difference' and practices that reflect 'insiderness' are often seen to accrue greater cogency together with increased economic and social value.

Within the context of the creative industries, we seek to understand the practices of those working within the sector; the histories of their work; the ways in which the networks are created and maintained; and the ways in which they connect within and beyond the South West. By understanding the relational identities and connections of those working in the South West, the research will contribute to a more inclusive awareness of the difference and diversity of people working within the creative industries. We will ensure that the biographical stories of individual makers, alongside larger creative enterprises will be presented, contributing to a new politics of place that is predicated on diversity rather than exclusion.

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Contact Information

For further information on the project or to be added to our mailing list please email h.hawkins@exeter.ac.uk