The main ambition of this qualitative research study was to gain more knowledge about creative industries in the rural area. As research area we chose the rural village Gaspoltshofen in Upper Austria. To reach our target, a two-step strategy was adopted. The first step consisted in an elicitation of the creative workers and their activities. Secondly, eleven creative workers and key personalities were interviewed. Although the study was focusing on one village, we were able to generate general theses about creative industries, which claim universal validity for villages of similar size: Creative workers operate in structures like those described as the future of working environment: Traditional lifelong employment is replaced by working in a variety of fields, which brings along a need for permanent further education. Creative workers mainly are self-employed. They work in the same place they live, and consequently are more flexible concerning working hours. In these new, flexible structures networks are of high significance. Creative workers are existentially dependent on networking. Not only that they often get their jobs through it, they also socialise new customers and colleagues relations. In addition they enjoy financial protection through a social-familiar safety-net in times of crisis. Through the new way of working the geographical independency increases which allows free choice of residence. As a consequence creative industries also exist in the rural area. Nevertheless they are still dependent on urban structures, especially concerning formal institutions of further education like universities or colleges. To establish creative industries in a small village, it is essential that they are located in an adequate distance from a city. If the distance is too small, the establishment of creative structures will be taken over by the city, whereby the neighbouring villages won't see a necessity to initiate anything on their own. Already existing creative industries infrastructure positively effects the establishment and extension of further creative businesses. Due to the small size of villages single persons have a big influence on the establishment of initiatives, both concerning their coming off and the formation of opinion about it. Especially for the continuance of a creative industries organisation a long-lasting commitment and takeover of responsibility of single persons is important. Concerning new initiatives there is often a polarisation of the population due to the sympathy or antipathy regarding the initiators. All creative workers identify themselves with - or are at least concerned about - the village. An important issue here is "to show the village a thing or two", which illustrates the creative workers' strong relation to their residence. (author's abstract) / Series: Schriftenreihe / Forschungsbereich Wirtschaft und Kultur
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VIENNA/oai:epub.wu-wien.ac.at:epub-wu-01_a77 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Eidenberger, Judith, Haider, Sandra, Oberhumer, Astrid, Rozinski, Jutta |
| Publisher | Forschungsbereich Wirtschaft und Kultur, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business |
| Source Sets | Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Paper, NonPeerReviewed |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Relation | http://epub.wu.ac.at/924/ |
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