Scott / CULTURAL-PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES REVIEW / March 2004 10.1177/1078087403261256 URBAN AFFAIRS

ARTICLE

CULTURAL-PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES AND URBAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Prospects for Growth and Market Contestation in Global Context
University of California, Los Angeles

ALLEN J. SCOTT

The article begins with a brief definition of the cultural economy. A first generation of local economic development policy approaches based on place marketing and associated initiatives is described. The possibilities of a more powerful second-generation approach are then sketched out with special emphasis on localized complexes of cultural-products industries. An extensive review and classification of these complexes is laid out, and their inward and outward relations to global markets are considered. On this basis, a critical discussion of local economic policy options focused on cultural-products industries is offered. Contrasting examples of development initiatives in major global cities, in selected old manufacturing towns, and in the Multimedia Super Corridor of Malaysia are briefly presented. It is suggested that the growth and spread of localized production agglomerations based on cultural-products industries are leading not to cultural uniformity but to greatly increased diversity at the global level.

Keywords: agglomeration; cultural economy; globalization; industrial districts; local economic development; place marketing

Over the past decade or so, the industrial profile of many countries has tilted perceptibly in the direction of a new creative or cultural economy. In some countries, indeed, the cultural economy is now one of the major frontiers of expansion of output and employment. This turn of events is actually one facet of the wider resurgence of a so-called new economy generally in
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This research was supported by the National Science