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Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Geography. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-127). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ59198.

Under the transformation from “rural China” to “urban China”, cities in this country are confronting with the increasingly complicated problems of urban decline, not just physical decay as well as functional deterioration. The approach prevalently adopted, however, is of tearing down the old and starting the new from scratch, which relies on immediate measures of physical construction but neglects the objectives of social inclusion and heritage protection. For Chinese cities, it is necessary to reconsider the issue on urban regeneration from a more holistic and multidimensional perspective. Since the late 1990s, a new concept—creative industries—has attracted interest over the world. In recent years, many big cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have clearly seen a rapid growth of this new industrial sector; a variety of creative industrial clusters (CICs) have emerged in these cities, showing wide potentials for promoting urban regeneration. The recent rise of creative industries and CICs may provide us a new perspective to rethink the issue on urban regeneration in Chinese cities. This study tries to explore the relationships between creative industries, CICs and urban regeneration in Shanghai. Through the exploration, it expects to find an effective approach to promote comprehensive urban regeneration in Chinese cities under the transformation context. As “creative industries” is a relatively fresh concept and the boom of creative industries and clusters just happened in China in recent years, there is a big lack of research related to creative industries in the Chinese context. The research that links creative industries with urban regeneration is much less. This study is an effort to fill this research gap. Around an analytical framework developed from the understanding of three key concepts—creative industries, CICs and urban regeneration, this study conducts two-level analyses. Firstly, it discusses some key issues on urban regeneration, creative industries and clusters respectively at the municipal level. Secondly, it carries out the case study of M50—a CIC in Shanghai—at the local level, based on questionnaire survey and deep interviews. Through the two-level analyses on Shanghai, this study suggests that the policy makers in Chinese cities should recognize the complexity of urban decline problems and view the issue of urban regeneration from a more comprehensive, holistic and multidimensional perspective. Considering the significant implications of the creative industries and CICs for urban regeneration, this study also suggests that the policy makers should adopt the creative industries and CICs as an important strategy to promote urban regeneration, and produce an integrated and systematic plan specifically on CICs that is oriented to urban regeneration and incorporated in the city’s master plan. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Cultural policy theory operates on a division between producers and the public. Dualisms, such as producer/consumer – or, in more nuanced circles, the triadic relationship of consumer/producer/owner – have had a structuring effect on the way in which we envision cultural policy theories. At its core, the producer/consumer dualism implies subjectivities – that is to say that it defines positions in relationships between socio-political actors/actresses. At the governmental level, such clear-cut subject positions are perceptible beyond theories, entering into the actual practice of policy-making to the point where certain policies structure the notion of the public (or consumers), and the producers and/or owners. Copyright law, for instance, represents a good example of such an ideational construct. As a form of cultural policy, copyright law seeks to define the rights of producers with regards to their productions. Consequently, this thesis aims at exploring the forms of agency that develop and challenge both the practice and theoretical constructs of cultural policy. Two aspects command us to question anew these boundaries, one based on contemporary social and technical transformations (the rise of the digital age), and one based on cultural practice (in this case, those of fans and fandoms).Borrowing from theories of cultural studies and Foucauldian approaches to discourse analysis, this thesis explored the emerging discourses surrounding fans and their use of copyrighted material via the internet. Putting emphasis on three fandoms that have had marked histories of fan activism and fan production via the use of copyrighted material – Star Trek, Firefly, and Harry Potter – this paper investigated fans’ use of copyrighted material in developing fan cultures and as a vehicle for their discursive practices. These cases illustrate how fans have challenged the established repertoires of subjects in cultural policy (making and theory), and how their form of agency represents an interesting case of resistance to the rise of the cultural industries conception of cultural policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. John K. Mayo, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept. of Communication. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 14, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains v, 193 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Philosophy)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2006. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Cultural policy theory operates on a division between producers and the public. Dualisms, such as producer/consumer – or, in more nuanced circles, the triadic relationship of consumer/producer/owner – have had a structuring effect on the way in which we envision cultural policy theories. At its core, the producer/consumer dualism implies subjectivities – that is to say that it defines positions in relationships between socio-political actors/actresses. At the governmental level, such clear-cut subject positions are perceptible beyond theories, entering into the actual practice of policy-making to the point where certain policies structure the notion of the public (or consumers), and the producers and/or owners. Copyright law, for instance, represents a good example of such an ideational construct. As a form of cultural policy, copyright law seeks to define the rights of producers with regards to their productions. Consequently, this thesis aims at exploring the forms of agency that develop and challenge both the practice and theoretical constructs of cultural policy. Two aspects command us to question anew these boundaries, one based on contemporary social and technical transformations (the rise of the digital age), and one based on cultural practice (in this case, those of fans and fandoms).Borrowing from theories of cultural studies and Foucauldian approaches to discourse analysis, this thesis explored the emerging discourses surrounding fans and their use of copyrighted material via the internet. Putting emphasis on three fandoms that have had marked histories of fan activism and fan production via the use of copyrighted material – Star Trek, Firefly, and Harry Potter – this paper investigated fans’ use of copyrighted material in developing fan cultures and as a vehicle for their discursive practices. These cases illustrate how fans have challenged the established repertoires of subjects in cultural policy (making and theory), and how their form of agency represents an interesting case of resistance to the rise of the cultural industries conception of cultural policy.

Cultural policy research typically emphasises national and local policies in its studies, while studies of subnational and regional policies tend to be less common. Between the levels of country and city, however, there is a vast array of cultural policy-types that is often cast aside or underrepresented in the literature – this, despite the fact that a number of prominent subnational governments of national minorities have been extremely active in developing their own cultural policies and institutions. Unlike their national or local counterparts, however, these subnational governments often contend with an additional layer of complexity when developing cultural policies, as their history and their population differ from that of their country’s cultural majority – which often leads to a different understanding and appreciation of their cultural identity and sense of nationalism. It is with this complexity and difference in mind that this thesis examines the cultural policies developed and implemented by subnational governments expressing a different national identity from that of their country – in particular, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom nation of Scotland, and the Spanish region of Catalonia – with the purpose of exploring the ways in which cultural policies are used to shape and influence a sense of cultural identity. Drawing on the economies of worth framework elaborated by Boltanski and Thévenot and the theory of governmentality developed by Foucault, this thesis developed a type analysis of cultural policy for national minorities as a means of exploring not only the ways in which their policies differ from that of their majority counterparts, but to offer a unique understanding of their culture and cultural/social predicament. Through its type analysis, this thesis found that the cultural policies of national minorities exhibited a unique trend in terms of: their application of the cultural industries as vehicles for the development and growth of their cultural/national identities; their support of culture and art as drivers of economic development and social cohesion; and their appraisal of artists and cultural producers as symbolic and literal ambassadors of cultural identity both nationally and internationally. More specifically, far from simply introducing policies that endeavour to preserve and protect cultural traditions and heritages as it has long been suspected, national minorities are developing policies that emphasise the creative aspects of culture and seek to grow their cultures identities through the production and dissemination of new works or forms of culture and art. In other words, the cultural policies of national minorities exhibit a discursive temporality: there is an acute awareness and appreciations of the culture of the past, juxtaposed by approaches to culture that seek to ensure the culture continues (and evolves) beyond the present.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Government and Public Administration