Katherine Jones
Print version
katherine.1.jones@kcl.ac.ukResearch
Urban Entrepreneurialism, Place Marketing and the Politics of Local Economic Development in the UK and Norway
My PhD research aims to explore urban entrepreneurialism in the UK and Norway by examining the production of place-images in city reinvention campaigns and the ways in which such images are consumed by, and influence the business decisions of, mobile investors. Two decades ago David Harvey (1989) coined the phrase urban entrepreneurialism to describe and explain changes in the governance of western cities. For Harvey, city authorities were increasingly acting like entrepreneurs by marketing their cities as products to be consumed and used by global investors.
These ideas have generated a collection of research on place-marketing, the shifting dynamics of urban politics, and the contested nature of urban image-making. However, what has been lacking is a systematic academic assessment of the relationships between the production and consumption of place-marketing and urban entrepreneurial strategies. Little is known about the ways in which mobile investors view such marketing or the extent to which it influences their investment decisions. There are also relatively few studies of the ways in which urban entrepreneurialism takes on diverse forms in different cities over time, the knowledge and information sources that place-marketing agents use in developing their campaigns, and ways in which approaches are adapted and changed over time in response to new opportunities and circumstances.
This project, therefore, is concerned with: understanding the decision-making processes in and through which place-marketing strategies are constructed and developed; examining the geographical imaginations that underpin the creation of place-marketing imagery; establishing what aspects of city-marketing are particularly (un)successful in attracting investment; exploring how the investment and business-making decisions of mobile firms are shaped by such campaigns.
The case studies for my research are Liverpool and Stavanger. Both cities have used their joint designation as European Capitals of Culture 2008 as a spring-board for place-marketing and regeneration campaigns. Despite their shared title, Liverpool and Stavanger possess extensively different social, economic and political contexts. Liverpool has suffered significantly from de-industrialisation and has some of the highest levels of deprivation in the UK. Conversely, Stavanger has experienced vast economic prosperity due to the emergence and expansion of the oil industry in Norway over the last fifty years. By using a comparative approach my PhD explores how these different contexts shape urban entrepreneurialism and influence the production and consumption of place imagery.
My PhD research aims to explore urban entrepreneurialism in the UK and Norway by examining the production of place-images in city reinvention campaigns and the ways in which such images are consumed by, and influence the business decisions of, mobile investors. Two decades ago David Harvey (1989) coined the phrase urban entrepreneurialism to describe and explain changes in the governance of western cities. For Harvey, city authorities were increasingly acting like entrepreneurs by marketing their cities as products to be consumed and used by global investors.
These ideas have generated a collection of research on place-marketing, the shifting dynamics of urban politics, and the contested nature of urban image-making. However, what has been lacking is a systematic academic assessment of the relationships between the production and consumption of place-marketing and urban entrepreneurial strategies. Little is known about the ways in which mobile investors view such marketing or the extent to which it influences their investment decisions. There are also relatively few studies of the ways in which urban entrepreneurialism takes on diverse forms in different cities over time, the knowledge and information sources that place-marketing agents use in developing their campaigns, and ways in which approaches are adapted and changed over time in response to new opportunities and circumstances.
This project, therefore, is concerned with: understanding the decision-making processes in and through which place-marketing strategies are constructed and developed; examining the geographical imaginations that underpin the creation of place-marketing imagery; establishing what aspects of city-marketing are particularly (un)successful in attracting investment; exploring how the investment and business-making decisions of mobile firms are shaped by such campaigns.
The case studies for my research are Liverpool and Stavanger. Both cities have used their joint designation as European Capitals of Culture 2008 as a spring-board for place-marketing and regeneration campaigns. Despite their shared title, Liverpool and Stavanger possess extensively different social, economic and political contexts. Liverpool has suffered significantly from de-industrialisation and has some of the highest levels of deprivation in the UK. Conversely, Stavanger has experienced vast economic prosperity due to the emergence and expansion of the oil industry in Norway over the last fifty years. By using a comparative approach my PhD explores how these different contexts shape urban entrepreneurialism and influence the production and consumption of place imagery.
Supervisors
Funding
KCL Graduate School Studentship
Biography
I graduated in sociology from the University of Liverpool in 2008 and went on to gain an MSc in Cities, Culture and Social Change from the department of geography at King’s College London in 2009. My masters dissertation analysed the economic development strategies of the London Borough of Southwark and explored how Southwark’s governance arrangements operated in, and responded to, the global financial downturn.
Within the department I am the joint co-ordinator of the Cities Group Seminar Programme. During the summer of 2010 I will conduct a piece of research alongside my PhD (funded by a KCL Partnership Visit Grant) exploring the politics of the West Kowloon Cultural District development in Hong Kong.
Within the department I am the joint co-ordinator of the Cities Group Seminar Programme. During the summer of 2010 I will conduct a piece of research alongside my PhD (funded by a KCL Partnership Visit Grant) exploring the politics of the West Kowloon Cultural District development in Hong Kong.
