This paper looks at the residential location of cultural workers in the smallest Canadian cities, with the primary goal of understanding the factors making some more successful than others in attracting them. The study examines employment in 13 cultural industries in 109 small Canadian urban areas using data drawn from the 2006 Canadian census. Six explanatory factors are put forward and entered into a regression model to explain the location of cultural workers in small places: size, location with respect to metropolitan areas, work structure, amenities, elderly populations and public-sector choices. The results suggest that, beyond industry-specific production processes, the location of cultural workers in small cities is also driven by residential and lifestyle preferences.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeyersW. B. (2002) Culture, services and regional development, The Service Industries Journal, 22, pp. 4–34.
2.
BourdieuP. (1971) Le marché des biens symboliques, L’année sociologique, 22, pp. 49–126.
3.
BryanJ.HillS.MundayM.RobertsA. (2000) Assessing the role of the arts and cultural industries in a local economy, Environment and Planning A, 32, pp. 1391–1408.
4.
CarrollG.MeyerJ. (1982) Capital cities in the American urban system: the impact of state expansion, The American Journal of Sociology, 88, pp. 565–578.
5.
CastellsM. (1996) The Network Society. London: Blackwell.
6.
ChristophersonS. (2002) Project work in context: regulatory change and the new geography of media, Environment and Planning A, 34, pp. 2003–2015.
7.
ClarkT. N. (2000) Old and new paradigms for urban research: globalization and the fiscal austerity and urban innovation project, Urban Affairs Review, 36(1), pp. 3–45.
8.
ClarkT. N.LloydR.WongK. K.JainP. (2002) Amenities drive urban growth, Journal of Urban Affairs, 24(5), pp. 493–515.
9.
CoishD. (2004) Census metropolitan areas as culture clusters: trends and conditions in census metropolitan areas. Analytical paper, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, ON.
10.
DahmsF. (1995) ‘Dying villages’, ‘counterurbanization’ and the urban field: a Canadian perspective, Journal of Rural Studies, 11, pp. 21–33.
11.
DahmsF. (1998) Settlement evolution in the arena society in the urban field, Journal of Rural Studies, 14, pp. 299–320.
12.
DahmsF.McCombJ. (1999) ‘Counterurbanization’, interaction and functional change in a rural amenity area: a Canadian example, Journal of Rural Studies, 15, pp. 129–146.
EvansG. (2001) Cultural Planning: An Urban Renaissance?New York: Routledge.
15.
EvansG.FoordJ. (2006) Small cities for a small country, in: BellD.JayneM. (Eds) Small Cities: Urban Experience beyond the Metropolis, pp. 151–167. New York: Routledge.
16.
EwoudouJ. (2005) Understanding culture consumption in Canada. Research paper, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, ON.
17.
FloridaR. (2002a) Bohemia and economic geography, Journal of Economic Geography, 2, pp. 55–71.
18.
FloridaR. (2002b) The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books.
19.
FloridaR. (2008) Who’s Your City? How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. New York: Basic Books.
20.
FreyW. H. (1993) The new urban revival in the United States, Urban Studies, 30, pp. 741–744.
21.
FriedmannJ. (1973) The urban field as human habitat, in: BourneL. S.SimmonsJ. W. (Eds) Systems of Cities, pp. 42–52. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
22.
GibsonC. (2002) Rural transformation and cultural industries: popular music on the New South Wales far north coast, Australian Geographical Studies, 40, pp. 337–356.
23.
GibsonC.ConnellJ. (2004) Cultural industry production in remote places: indigenous popular music in Australia, in: PowerD.ScottA. (Eds) Cultural Industries and the Production of Culture, pp. 243–258. New York: Routledge.
24.
GottliebP. (1994) Amenities as an economic development tool: is there enough evidence?, Economic Development Quarterly, 8, pp. 270–285.
25.
HallP. (1998) Cities in Civilization. New York: Pantheon.
26.
HallP. (2000) Creative cities and economic development, Urban Studies, 37, pp. 639–649.
27.
HeilburnJ. (1996) Growth, accessibility and the distribution of arts activity in the United States: 1980 to 1990, Journal of Cultural Economics, 20, pp. 283–296.
28.
HendersonJ. V. (1997) Medium sized cities, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 27, pp. 583–612.
29.
HesmondhalghD.PrattA. (2005) Cultural industries and cultural policy, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 11, pp. 1–13.
HuberM.WilliamsA.ShawG. (1992) Culture and economic policy: a survey of the role of local authorities. Working Paper No. 5, Tourism Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Exeter.
32.
HuttonT. (2008) The New Economy of the Inner City: Restructuring, Regeneration and Dislocation in the Twenty-first-century Metropolis. New York: Routledge.
33.
HuttonT. (2009) Trajectories of the new economy: regeneration and dislocation in the inner city, Urban Studies, 46, pp. 987–1001.
34.
KrugmanP. (1991) Geography and Trade. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
35.
LandryC. (2000) The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. London: Earthscan.
36.
LewisN. M.DonaldB. (2010) A new rubric for ‘creative city’ potential in Canada’s smaller cities, Urban Studies, 47, pp. 29–54.
37.
MarkusenA.KingD. (2003) The artistic dividend: the arts’ hidden contributions to regional development. Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.
38.
MarkusenA.SchrockG. (2006) The artistic dividend: urban artistic specialisation and economic development implications, Urban Studies, 43, pp. 1661–1686.
39.
MiddletonC.FreestoneP. (2008) The impact of culture-led regeneration on regional identity in north east England. Paper presented at the Regional Studies Association International Conference: The Dilemnas of Integration and Competition, Prague, May.
40.
NelsonR. (2005) A cultural hinterland? Searching for the creative class in the small Canadian city, in: Garrett-PettsW. F. (Ed.) The Small Cities Book: On the Cultural Future of Small Cities, pp. 85–109. Vancouver: New Stars Books.
41.
O’ConnorJ. (1999) The definition of ‘cultural industries’. Manchester Institute for Popular Culture, Manchester.
42.
van OortF.WeteringsA.VerlindeH. (2003) Residential amenities of knowledge workers and the location of ICT-firms in the Netherlands, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 94(4), pp. 516–523.
43.
PetrovA. (2007) A look beyond metropolis: exploring creative class in the Canadian periphery, Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 30(3), pp. 451–474.
44.
PolèseM.ChampagneE. (1999) Location matters: comparing the distribution of economic activity in the Mexican and Canadian urban systems, International Regional Science Review, 22(1), pp. 102–132.
45.
PolèseM.ShearmurR. (2004) Is distance really dead? Comparing industrial location patterns over time in Canada, International Regional Science Review, 27, pp. 431–457.
46.
PolèseM.ShearmurR. (2005) Économie urbaine et régionale: introduction à la Géographie économique, 2nd edn.Paris: Economica.
47.
PolèseM.Rubiera-MorollónF.ShearmurR. (2005) Observing regularities in location patterns: an analysis of the spatial distribution of economic activity in Spain. Working paper, INRS Urbanisation Culture et société (http://www1.ucs.inrs.ca/pdf/inedit2005_08.pdf).
48.
PowerD. (2002) ‘Cultural industries’ in Sweden: an assessment of their place in the Swedish economy, Economic Geography, 78, pp. 103–127.
49.
PrattA. (1997a) The cultural industries production system: a case study of employment change in Britain, 1984–91, Environment and Planning A, 29, pp. 1953–1974.
50.
PrattA. (1997b) The cultural industries sector: its definition and character from secondary sources on employment and trade, Britain 1984–91. Research Papers in Environmental and Spatial Analysis No. 41, Department of Geography, London School of Economics.
51.
PrattA. (2009) Urban regeneration: from the arts ‘feel good’ factor to the cultural economy: a case study of Hoxton, London, Urban Studies, 46, pp. 1041–1061.
52.
SassenS. (1994) Cities in a World Economy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge.
53.
ScottA. J. (1999) The US recorded music industry: on the relations between organization, location, and creativity in the cultural economy, Environment and Planning A, 31, pp. 1965–1984.
54.
ScottA. J. (2000) The Cultural Economy of Cities. London: Sage.
55.
ScottA. J. (2004) Cultural-products industries and urban economic development prospects for growth and market contestation in global context, Urban Affairs Review, 39, pp. 461–490.
56.
SeredaP. (2007) Culture employment in a North American context, 1981 to 2001. Research paper, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, ON.
57.
ShapiroD.AbercrombieN.LashS.LuryC. (1992) Flexible specialisation in the culture industries, in: ErnsteH.MeierV. (Eds) Regional Development and Contemporary Industrial Response: Extending Flexible Specialisation, pp. 179–194. London: Belhaven.
Statistics Canada (2005) The time it takes to get to work and back. General Social Survey on Time Use: Cycle 19, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, ON.
60.
StorperM.ChristophersonS. (1987) Flexible specialization and regional industrial agglomeration: the case of the U.S. motion picture industry, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 77, pp. 104–117.
61.
WaittG. (2006) Creative small cities: cityscapes, power and the arts, in: BellD.JayneM. (Eds) Small Cities: Urban Experiences beyond the Metropolis, pp. 169–183. New York: Routledge.
62.
WaittG.GibsonC. (2009) Creative small cities: rethinking the creative economy in place, Urban Studies, 46, pp. 1223–1246.
63.
WentingR. (2008) Spinoff dynamics and the spatial formation of the fashion design industry, 1858–2005, Journal of Economic Geography, 8, pp. 593–614.
64.
WilkinsonP. F.MurrayA. L. (1991) Centre and periphery: the impacts of the leisure industry on a small town (Collingwood, Ontario), Society and Leisure, 14, pp. 235–260.
65.
WojanT. (2006) The emergence of rural artistic havens: a first look. Paper presented to the Annual Meetings of the Southern Regional Science Association, St Augustine, Florida.
66.
ZukinS. (1995) The Cultures of Cities. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
