A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Highlights ► A new digital cluster is emerging in east London, merging advertising and software. ► Digital economic vitality contrasts with a downturn of arts and craft activities. ► Creative digital firms blend skills, internalising externalities of urban economies. ► ‘Noisy’ networks with weak ties mediate risk and market uncertainty. ► Local creative city policy has shifted from intervention to arms length support.
Abstract This paper presents an initial analysis of a creative digital cluster which emerged in east London in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Drawing on spatial analysis of sector and firm level data, the eastward trajectory of a new wave of digital creative activity, and its particular mix of co-located sectors, is placed within the wider context of the geography of London’s creative and digital economies. The particular dynamics of this cluster – its sector combinations, markets and firm organisation – are creating a localised spike of economic vitality. The relative strength of this new cluster is contrasted with the faltering position of longstanding local craft and arts based creative industries. Analysis of a sample of 261 firms suggests that the current vitality of this cluster emerges from risky experimentation across co-located sectors in which hitherto unrelated knowledges and activities are being combined. A core role for hybrid firms – creative digital agencies – is suggested. These firms show many of characteristics already identified for creative SMEs, including their tendency to agglomerate in and benefit from specialised clusters within urban economies. However, these firms also appear to have internalised the sector and skill diversity commonly identified as the primary positive externalities of urban economies. It is also noted that this self-organising creative digital cluster is producing spatially embedded ‘noisy’ networks with a multitude of weak ties. This cluster arrangement appears therefore to be a mechanism for mediating the high degrees of uncertainty and risk in London’s creative digital sector, currently exacerbated by the recessionary conditions of London’s post 2008 economy.
Highlights ► A new digital cluster is emerging in east London, merging advertising and software. ► Digital economic vitality contrasts with a downturn of arts and craft activities. ► Creative digital firms blend skills, internalising externalities of urban economies. ► ‘Noisy’ networks with weak ties mediate risk and market uncertainty. ► Local creative city policy has shifted from intervention to arms length support.
Abstract This paper presents an initial analysis of a creative digital cluster which emerged in east London in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Drawing on spatial analysis of sector and firm level data, the eastward trajectory of a new wave of digital creative activity, and its particular mix of co-located sectors, is placed within the wider context of the geography of London’s creative and digital economies. The particular dynamics of this cluster – its sector combinations, markets and firm organisation – are creating a localised spike of economic vitality. The relative strength of this new cluster is contrasted with the faltering position of longstanding local craft and arts based creative industries. Analysis of a sample of 261 firms suggests that the current vitality of this cluster emerges from risky experimentation across co-located sectors in which hitherto unrelated knowledges and activities are being combined. A core role for hybrid firms – creative digital agencies – is suggested. These firms show many of characteristics already identified for creative SMEs, including their tendency to agglomerate in and benefit from specialised clusters within urban economies. However, these firms also appear to have internalised the sector and skill diversity commonly identified as the primary positive externalities of urban economies. It is also noted that this self-organising creative digital cluster is producing spatially embedded ‘noisy’ networks with a multitude of weak ties. This cluster arrangement appears therefore to be a mechanism for mediating the high degrees of uncertainty and risk in London’s creative digital sector, currently exacerbated by the recessionary conditions of London’s post 2008 economy.
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