[csaa-forum] MINOR CULTURE PANEL PROPOSAL: Pop-Up Economies

[Timothy Laurie]

POP-UP ECONOMIES: PLACEMAKING, URBAN SOCIALITY AND THE POLITICS AND CULTURES OF TRANSITORY PUBLIC SPACES


Panel Convener: Professor Susan Luckman (University of South Australia)


Abstract

For several decades now, creativity-led urban regeneration and social inclusion strategies have become established mainstays of governmental policy. Originally focused on attracting and keeping the desirable knowledge workers seen as essential to economic growth in the new economy, this wave of interest now
embraces the arts and creativity as drivers of urban economies. The need to innovate, and renovate, in this way has been felt especially strongly in cities, regions and suburbs hit hard by the move of manufacturing to offshore locations where labour is cheaper. Cities such as Detroit, Manchester and here in Australia, Newcastle and Adelaide, have embraced the festivalisation of public space and the nurturing of creative micro-enterprise as the 'shock troops' of urban renewal. More recently, the figure of the 'pop-up' event or venue has entered into this space. Fitting in well alongside renewed interest in localised economies around food (farmers
markets) and the handmade (maker's fairs), the 'pop-up' has emerged as a specific cultural phenomenon. Somehow differentiating the stylised retro gourmet burger caravan from a local kebab demountable, the idea of the 'pop-up' is resonant with markers of cultural value which this panel wishes to explore.

What is at stake here? Why is the idea of a 'pop-up' as a transitory, and hence ephemeral, site for (cultural) consumption so appealing to participants and policy-makers? And importantly, is it culturally, economically or politically sustainable?


Call for Papers

We invite proposals for 15-minute papers on ‘Pop-Up Economies’. Please submit 250 word abstracts to  susan.luckman at unisa.edu.au by 1st June 2015. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance no later than 1st July.