The Blackwell Cultural Economy Reader (Blackwell Readers in Geography)

This Reader brings together the exciting and innovative work that has appeared in the last 10 years in the growing field of cultural economy. Brings together exciting and innovative work from the last ten years in the emerging field of cultural economy. Contains a substantial introduction by the editors on the main strands and history of the cultural economy approach. Shows how the pursuit of prosperity always involves multiple and hybrid orderings that cannot be reduced to either the terms culture or economy. Shows that thinking about cultural economy is both a substantive task and a valuable contribution to knowledge. Material is organised around different links in the value chain. Contents......Page 7 Acknowledgments......Page 9 Introduction......Page 12 Part I Production......Page 33 1 A Mixed Economy of Fashion Design......Page 35 2 Net-Working for a Living:Irish Software Developers in the Global Workplace......Page 47 3 Instrumentalizing the Truth of Practice......Page 72 4 The Economy of Qualities......Page 90 Part II Finance and Money......Page 113 5 Inside the Economy of Appearances......Page 115 6 Physics and Finance:S-Terms and Modern Finance as a Topic for Science Studies......Page 133 7 Traders ’Engagement with Markets:A Postsocial Relationship......Page 153 Part III Regulation......Page 175 8 Varieties of Protectors......Page 177 9 The Agony of Mammon......Page 196 10 Governing by Numbers:Why Calculative Practices Matter......Page 211 Part IV Commodity Chains......Page 223 11 African/Asian/Uptown/Downtown......Page 225 12 Retailers,Knowledges and Changing Commodity Networks: The Case of the Cut Flower Trade......Page 242 13 Culinary Networks and Cultural Connections: A Conventions Perspective......Page 263 Part V Consumption......Page 281 14 Making Love in Supermarkets......Page 283 15 Window Shopping at Home:Classifieds,Catalogues and New Consumer Skills......Page 298 16 What ’s in a Price?An Ethnography of Tribal Art at Auction......Page 321 17 It ’s Showtime:On the Workplace Geographies of Display in a Restaurant in Southeast England......Page 339 Part VI Economy of Passions......Page 359 18 Feeling Management:From Private to Commercial Uses......Page 361 19 Negotiating the Bar:Sex,Money and the Uneasy Politics of Third Space......Page 384 20 A Joint ’s a Joint......Page 400 21 Marking Time with Nike:The Illusion of the Durable......Page 416 Index......Page 436 Bringing together the most exciting and innovative work of the last ten years in the emerging field of cultural economy, "The Blackwell Cultural Economy Reader" shows how this hybrid area of study is now posing a significant challenge to notions of the economic and what counts as economic action. The pursuit of prosperity has always been a cultural performance. However, since the nineteenth century, with the rise of a separate profession of economics, such performance has either been neglected or actively denigrated. With the help of a substantial introduction from the editors, this Reader shows that the pursuit of prosperity is the pursuit of many goals at once - from meeting material needs and making profit to seeking symbolic satisfaction and fleeting pleasures. It goes beyond just adding 'culture' to 'economy'. Organized around categories such as production, finance and money, economic regulation, commodity chains, consumption, and passions, this volume introduces developments at the cutting edge of a new and vibrant field

This Reader brings together the exciting and innovative work that has appeared in the last 10 years in the growing field of cultural economy.

• Brings together exciting and innovative work from the last ten years in the emerging field of cultural economy.
• Contains a substantial introduction by the editors on the main strands and history of the cultural economy approach.
• Shows how the pursuit of prosperity always involves multiple and hybrid orderings that cannot be reduced to either the terms culture or economy.
• Shows that thinking about cultural economy is both a substantive task and a valuable contribution to knowledge.
• Material is organised around different links in the value chain.

Annotation This Reader brings together the exciting and innovative work that has appeared in the last 10 years in the growing field of cultural economy. Brings together exciting and innovative work from the last ten years in the emerging field of cultural economy. Contains a substantial introduction by the editors on the main strands and history of the cultural economy approach. Shows how the pursuit of prosperity always involves multiple and hybrid orderings that cannot be reduced to either the terms culture or economy. Shows that thinking about cultural economy is both a substantive task and a valuable contribution to knowledge. Material is organised around different links in the value chain. "This reader shows that the pursuit of prosperity is the pursuit of many goals at once - from meeting material needs and making profit to seeking symbolic satisfation and fleeting pleasures."--Book cover For most of the interviewees, being on the dole was a taken-for-granted part of the experience of being a fashion designer, not unlike the periods actors spend 'resting' between jobs.