Professor Andy Pratt gave a keynote paper at the Regional Studies Association international winter conference in London on 23 November. The theme was Territorial Development Strategies in the Age of Austerity.
The conference had as one of its themes the creative economy. Andy gave a paper entitled ‘A world turned upside down: the creative economy, cities and the new austerity’, which examined the relationship between the cultural economy and the ‘rest’ of the economy. In particular it looked at state funding of the arts in the UK and its impact on cities and regions. This was a timely intervention given the debate this week initiated by Danny Boyle and Nicholas Hytner about the failings of government in this respect.
Some details of the paper are available here: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/cmci/newsrecords/cultureausterity.aspx
A full picture can be gained by reading the paper, which was simultaneously published today as:
Pratt, A C. 2012. “A world turned upside down: the creative economy, cities and the new austerity.” Pp. 13-19 in Smart, Creative, Sustainable, Inclusive: Territorial Development Strategies in the Age of Austerity edited by A. Beauclair and E. Mitchell. Brighton: Regional Studies Association.
A free download is available here: http://www.andycpratt.info/andy_c_pratt/Research_Writing__Downloads_files/A%20world%20turned%20upside%20down.pdf
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