Brian Hracs

The goal of this report is to demonstrate the opportunity cities in Ontario have to attract, incubate and retain musical talent at a time when the structural and spatial landscape of the global music industry is in flux. This report argues that

As food production becomes increasingly integrated, globalized and competitive, small-scale food-related enterprises in many European countries are struggling to market and monetize their products. Although these struggles have been well documented, few studies have considered the ways in which food-related entrepreneurs in rural contexts are adapting to and overcoming these challenges. In particular, little is known about how they differentiate and add value to their products. This article focuses on the development and implementation of new and hybrid commercial strategies by food-related entrepreneurs in three rural communities in Denmark. These strategies add experiential elements to the longstanding practice of commodifying myths associated with rural settings and identities. Although harnessing culture and experiences to sell things is nothing new, we demonstrate that some Danish entrepreneurs are responding to market competition by tweaking and extending these concepts. In pa...

As food production becomes increasingly integrated, globalized and competitive, small-scale food-related enterprises in many European countries are struggling to market and monetize their products. Although these struggles have been well documented, few studies have considered the ways in which food-related entrepreneurs in rural contexts are adapting to and overcoming these challenges. In particular, little is known about how they differentiate and add value to their products. This paper focuses on the development and implementation of new and hybrid commercial strategies by food-related entrepreneurs in three rural communities in Denmark. These strategies add experiential elements to the long-standing practice of commodifying myths associated with rural settings and identities. Although harnessing culture and experiences to sell things is nothing new, we demonstrate that some Danish entrepreneurs are responding to market competition by tweaking and extending these concepts. Buildi...

This chapter draws on interviews with musicians in Toronto to develop a framework to explain their mobility. The findings suggest that musicians are initially attracted by expectations of the amenities and other socioeconomic conditions they will find in a specific location. Places that meet or exceed expectations are deemed authentic. The research provides a nuanced theoretical framework relating regional amenities, attractiveness, and stated mobility intentions to inform policy actions that regions can use to help attract and retain talented individuals.

This paper applies Ulrich Beck’s (1992) conceptualization of risk and reflexivity to entrepreneurial employment in the creative economy. Drawing on 65 interviews with musicians in Toronto this paper documents the ways in which digital technologies and independent music production fragments work, both temporally and spatially. In so doing, the findings presented nuance our understanding of employment risk. Although digital technologies have democratized the music industry and furnished musicians with unprecedented autonomy, the demands of independent music production constrain this newfound freedom. Using the literature on governmentality, this paper demonstrates that as neo-liberal regimes reconfigure independent musicians as entrepreneurial subjects, these workers are governed through their freedom. Ultimately, this paper argues that digital technologies, independent music production and entrepreneurial subjectivities intensify existing employment risk and introduce a range of new ...

During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the North American economy began to see evidence that after decades of prosperity (during the post-war boom) the industrial economy was heading for a collapse (Harvey, 1989; Hannigan, 2004). When the war torn European nations were largely rebuilt and the massive move to the suburbs slowed down, the U.S. economy experienced what Harvey called the ‘crisis of accumulation.’ The economy was overproducing in the face of decreasing foreign and domestic demand, encountering stiffening international competition and coping with rising wages. These factors left profit margins squeezed and started the escalating process of deindustrialization. In an effort to cut costs many manufactures ‘outsourced’ and subcontracted production to smaller firms and to international locations such as Mexico, where there were relaxed labor regulations and abundant workforces prepared to work for low wages. These trends have had a particularly devastating impact on industri...

The contemporary retail landscape is in flux, and there is a growing perception that shopping at bricks and mortar stores is more expensive and time-consuming than shopping online. For music, illegal downloading and streaming have restructured the retail landscape and put thousands of record shops out of business. Yet, some retailers remain attractive consumption spaces. Drawing on a qualitative case study of independent record shops in Stockholm, this article considers three value-creating strategies that sustain these physical retailers in the digital age: cultivating in-store consumer experiences, creating value through curation, and tapping into global markets by going online.

ABSTRACT As food production becomes increasingly integrated, globalized and competitive, small-scale food-related enterprises in many European countries are struggling to market and monetize their products. Although these struggles have been well documented, few studies have considered the ways in which food-related entrepreneurs in rural contexts are adapting to and overcoming these challenges. In particular, little is known about how they differentiate and add value to their products. This article focuses on the development and implementation of new and hybrid commercial strategies by food-related entrepreneurs in three rural communities in Denmark. These strategies add experiential elements to the longstanding practice of commodifying myths associated with rural settings and identities. Although harnessing culture and experiences to sell things is nothing new, we demonstrate that some Danish entrepreneurs are responding to market competition by tweaking and extending these concepts. In particular, it is argued that entrepreneurs use different experiences with varying levels of intensity and consumer engagement for different purposes. Whereas passive experiences such as storytelling are used to educate consumers about the specific qualities of products, more active and participatory experiences are sold as add-ons and standalone products. The findings contribute to our understanding of food-related entrepreneurship in rural contexts, consumption, value creation and the experience of economy more broadly.

Although economic geographers have paid significant attention to the competitive dynamics, organizational and employment structures of specific cultural industries, the existing research privileges large firms and established centres such as New York, London and Los Angeles. Moreover, despite the conceptual articulations of spillovers and “related variety” few attempts have been made to examine the collaborative linkages between two or more