https://thesis.eur.nl/col/7016/ List of Publications en https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49344/ Tue, 11 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>P. Kehoe</div> This thesis examines how the globally recognised Aran sweater, something of a national symbol of Ireland, acted as a vehicle for Irishness to be communicated to the world from 1950 from 1980. The Aran sweater originated on the remote Aran Islands off of Ireland’s west coast, and, since its entry into the global marketplace, has come to occupy prominent space both in the realms of high-fashion and modern art museums, as well as in the more down-to-earth settings of knitting magazines and tourist shops. During this period, the reputation of the Aran sweater as a locally-produced, heritage garment has grappled with the varying demands and expectations of global markets, which, in order to be exploited fully, have seen different interpretations of Irishness being communicated to consumers. As such, the case of the Aran sweater has implications for how we can understand the intersection between fashion, which is in a constant state of flux, and the nation, which is notionally more static and enduring. This thesis adds to the growing body of literature on the Aran sweater, but in a more academically rigorous way than has been done before. Using Storytelling Theory, and Discourse Analysis, advertisements and publications from various fashion and photography archives and websites are examined, to reveal how Irishness was being marketed to consumers. It begins with a contextualising chapter, to establish the cultural significance of the West of Ireland, as well as the invented tradition and storytelling origins behind the sweater. From there it moves into three chapters spread across the 1950s, 60s and 70s, which have been divided by significant turning points in the developmental arc of Aran sweater marketing. It asks how early advertisements of the 1950s portrayed Irishness; how this was then affected by the mass-appeal the sweater gained in the 1960s; and lastly whether overexposure impacted the garments cachet by the 1970s. In examining advertisements from this time, one finds that the image of Ireland expressed in Aran sweater advertising was far from static – rather it developed over time. However, elements of storytelling were present throughout, and, while this may be a testament to its power as a marketing tool, it does call into question the Aran sweater’s status as an iconic symbol of Ireland, fixed in time and place. As such this thesis concludes that it may be more useful to define the Aran sweater as symbolic of the changing nature of Irishness, rather than Irishness in any monolithic sense. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49351/ Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>S. Abdelgwad</div> This master thesis aims at analyzing innovation district in two cities that are internationally known to be the innovation hubs of their respective regions. The analysis of these two case studies shows that innovation districts in both cities are city-led initiatives that are aimed at promoting the knowledge economy and innovation as tools to move from the industrial or oil economy. However, each innovation district is very unique and has several economic and social dynamics that are specific to its context and to its social and economic goals. The analysis of this unique social and economic dynamic is the main focus of this thesis. In order to analyze different layers of innovation districts and how those layers make every district unique, the theories of the French philosopher Henry Lefebvre and Graeme Evans will be used. What makes Evans and Lefebvre very relevant to this study is that their analysis of space creation (innovation district for this thesis) is not confined to a structural analysis of bureaucracy and formal steps to create an innovation district. Instead, they are more concerned with the dynamic process involving every possible stakeholder who would contribute to making the district, its activities and its experience unique. Indeed, there are several other angles through which innovation districts could be analyzed and studied. There are theories on urban regeneration, revitalization of industrial areas, clusterisation and agglomeration are some examples. However, the choice of Lefebvre to analyze the district was made because it represents the dynamic nature of innovation district, the internal as well as the external economic and social interactions within and outside the district. After analyzing the districts separately, Urban Policy Mobility framework will be used to analyze both districts combined. The thesis concludes that even though innovation districts can achieve the same economic goal of creating a knowledge economy, they still can be very different because of social, economic or cultural background of the city. It is not a goal of the thesis to measure the success or failure or each district, neither to generalize any assumptions about innovation districts as an approach to promote the knowledge economy. Instead, the goal is to look deeper into the innovation district to understand other economic and social dynamics beyond the usual quantitative measures of success and failure. Additionally, this study is not a comparative analysis. By definition, a comparative analysis would be to see how innovation districts would work in two similar cases. This study is a two case studies from different regions of the world, trying to shed the light on a region that has a lot of work in the field on innovation economy, but very little research. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49350/ Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>L. Sträuli</div> Over the last centuries, the port city of Rotterdam was fundamentally shaped by diverse migration patterns. The aim of this study was to analyse to what extent the socio-demographic developments towards superdiversity are reflected in public urban places. To this end, the migration waves and population dynamics in Rotterdam since the 1990s were examined. On the basis of existing literature and detailed analysis of statistical data, the study found that Rotterdam recorded a diversification of its population and evolved into a superdiverse city in which a new majority-minority situation is prevalent. These developments entail challenging implications such as socio-spatial segregation, gentrification and political polarisation. To outline the historical and social implications within the urban space, a specific form of public space was chosen, namely the street markets. These have been part of Rotterdam’s cityscape and the food supply of the urban population for over seven hundred years. This study understood street markets as multidimensional phenomena which reflect the urban diversity as tripartite: the vendors, visitors and products. Based on a documentary analysis of newspaper articles and reports, as well as a qualitative participant observations and semi-structured interviews, four street markets in Rotterdam were analysed. The study found that while the four neighbourhoods, in which the respective markets take place, have developed towards superdiversity, the markets themselves exhibit very different developments and characteristics. The two largest and traditional markets on the Binnenrotte and Afrikaanderplein recorded an increased diversification in its customers, but little changes of products or vendors. The two more recent and smaller ecological markets, taking place weekly on the Eendrachtsplein and the Noordplein, represent the changing consumer demands of an urban population with the financial means as well as the need for ecological and locally produced products. These developments were subsequently linked to the concepts of gentrification and glocalisation. The tripartite diversity turned out to be insufficient for this study, as it ignored the complexity of influencing factors, such as the market organisation which prevented changes on the market through its strict regulations. Furthermore, street markets were found to be places that reflect tradition and continuance in a rapidly changing and supersdiverse urban environment. This was illustrated by the prevalence of long-established and multi-generation family businesses, which reflect the epitome of traditional entrepreneurship. The study relied on theories of sociology and urbanism to highlight that street markets are places of social activities, where everyday urbanism and everyday multiculturalism can be recognised and analysed. In summary, this paper made a valuable contribution to previous research on the emerging concept of superdiversity by critically questioning its application on the historical and societal developments in the city of Rotterdam. Influenced by the increasing mobility of goods, services and people, not only the populations and cityscapes in Western Europe have changed, but also the behaviours, consumer needs and activities that people undertake. In superdiverse cities, like Rotterdam, and their everyday places, like the street markets, the opposite influences of global developments and local identities and traditions can become apparent. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49348/ Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>K. Stepanova</div> The nature of work has changed gradually with the development of technological progress and spread of industrialization in the 18th and the 19th centuries. Furthermore, globalization processes and particularly the development of Information and Communication Technologies in the 20th century influenced the types of work people were doing even more: new professions appeared, work tasks were no longer bound to one location, and the speed of change gained momentum. The changing nature of work called for new types of places to accommodate it. The thesis is concerned with studying one of the places that accommodates it – a coworking space. The research is inspired by the gap in the academic literature about spatial characteristics in coworking spaces. The argument is presented, that while ‘soft’ features such as communication, networking, knowledge exchange, etc. were studied elaborately, ‘hard’ features such as the role of furniture or the different facilities offered in a coworking space, represent an under-researched field. In order to cover that gap and gain deeper insights into the studied phenomenon a three months long ethnographic research was conducted in one of the coworking spaces in Rotterdam. An inductive approach for the reasoning was applied. The methodology included several qualitative methods such as observations, behavioral mapping and interviews. The theoretical framework for the analysis was inspired by the earlier studies about work environments from the field of environmental psychology. Several concepts developed by the leading environmental psychologists appeared particularly helpful: behavior setting, proxemics, sociopetal and sociofugal spaces, approach and avoidance behaviors, high-load and low-load environments. The case study reported in the thesis first looked at the daily professional activities of the users of the coworking space, and then evaluated how well the facilities offered in this coworking space served the needs of the tenants. The typical daily activities of the users were found to be: highly concentrative activities (reading, writing), regular desk/laptop work (writing emails, researching), and ‘loud’ communication (phone calls, meetings). The analysis discovered that the tenants were satisfied with the offered general working area, where non-approach behavior was encouraged. However, the tenants lacked more secluded areas to make phone calls without disturbing others, and also some areas for relaxation, where they could fulfill their needs for socialization. The thesis also contributes to understanding of the history of coworking spaces and argues that it should be incorporated into the history of all work environments. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49346/ Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>M. Kovacevic</div> The general aim of this research is to examine how cultural policy is being used by cities as a means of enhancing urban economic growth and addressing social problems. This is done by comparing the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) programme in three cities: Glasgow (1990), Rotterdam (2001), and Liverpool (2008). Established in 1985, the ECoC has come to epitomize culture-led urban regeneration strategies, evolving from a purely cultural initiative to an event that is being embraced by cities as a socio-economic panacea. In this regard, a discrepancy seems to exist between the overhyped narrative surrounding the ECoC and the unconvincing evidence in support of the claims about the regenerative effects of culture. Examining whether culture can truly be economically and socially transformative is therefore the main concern of this thesis. Applying an original analytical framework based on Franco Bianchini’s strategic policy dilemmas, the research comprises of two parts, one comparing the aims and approaches (Chapter 3), and the other analysing the outcomes of the three ECoC programmes (Chapter 4). Placing the cities on the policy dilemma spectrum is the first step in understanding the link between the different approaches to the ECoC and their results, which are examined in Chapter 4. Here, the economic and social outcomes of the events are compared, identifying the different mechanisms and channels through which the cultural input is translated into economic and social outputs, stressing the difference between short-term benefits and long-lasting legacies. Based on this, a conclusion is drawn regarding the effectiveness of the Glasgow, Rotterdam, and Liverpool models of ECoC in producing widespread and sustainable economic and social impacts. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49413/ Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>Y. Sharma</div> “I didn’t expect anything from the Dutch government, neither money, nor housing nothing just my freedom but I didn’t have it...” UNDERSTANDING THE MOTIVATIONS & BARRIERS TO REFUGEE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A REFUGEE PERSPECTIVE APPROACH https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49332/ Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>M. Trueblood</div> Over the last century, the United States has enforced its economic and ideological desires throughout the world, but perhaps no other country has been as deeply and diversely impacted by these as Puerto Rico. In order to understand the socioeconomic effects of this volatile relationship, this paper examines the history and workforce of Fort Buchanan, a U.S. Army base in the San Juan metropolitan region. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis presents the qualitative and quantitative effects of the base within the historical context of the United States’ imperial and military occupation of the island. The case study of Fort Buchanan demonstrates how exchanges between the two countries are characterized by dynamic flows, persistent tensions and negotiations, and variability across time, space, and politics. While the United States’ changing volitions and consistent subjugation have limited the options for growth and prosperity in Puerto Rico, the thesis argues that both parties can use the dynamism inherent in this relationship to their benefit. Even without sovereignty, Puerto Ricans have ensured their continued existence and ability to negotiate with the United States by adapting to and accommodating its changing imperial and military desires. This is shown to be especially true concerning the opportunities for employment and economic development that result from U.S. military presence on the island, which are difficult to find otherwise. Given the depth of socioeconomic impacts that result from these transnational exchanges and an uncertain future ahead, the thesis concludes by arguing that the cultural and qualitative aspects of this relationship merit further study. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49412/ Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>L. Barrese Ponce</div> The urban contemporary economy, led by innovation growth, is grounded on a shift from a manufacturing based to knowledge-intensive and service-based industries. The now globalised process of production highlights the growing role of knowledgeable human capital as a primary driver of growth, where Creative Industries (CI) are often considered as avenues of development of this new economy. This CI discourse was developed as a political-economic project focusing on the economic contribution of the CI associated with the development of official statistics of added-value (creative GDP) and job creation. However, in recent years, some academics have started to question CI’s benefits as only being one side of the coin. Problems such as gentrification, exacerbation of inequality, dislocation, labour precariousness, ownership and wealth concentration, are being more and more associated with CI’s impacts; backlashes that oppose of that claims made during its original political conception. Creative Labour (CL) studies -a subdiscipline of cultural studies- have grown as one of the most critical approaches to the CI. Precariousness, social inequality, gender and race discrimination, informality and individualisation are some of the ‘troubles’ that creative workers face according to these line of theories. Interestingly, both arguments have built their argumentations taking the same Western examples. On the one hand, the policy alleges that CI are sectors that contribute to social and economic development, and on the other hand, the critics from the academia led by CL studies that questioned this same capacity of development and the CL’s undesirable social impacts, both argumentations have historically centred their assumptions in case studies notoriously produced in Euro- and North American creative-hubs. These two opposing positions have taken a universalist approach assuming the status of general truth, despite being generated from regionally limited empirical evidence. Through a combination of a theoretical review, and a qualitative and a quantitative approach to the case study in Buenos Aires, this thesis hopes to contribute to the de-Westernisation of the CL studies, as well as to the deconstruction of the CI rhetoric by focusing on the creative labour in the city of Buenos Aires. This empirical study may suggest that the global theories may actually have different socio-economic impacts in different local contexts. CI are neither critical, nor can be disregarded, for social and economic change; and a call to a more nuanced perspective is much needed both in policy and academia to understand the specific contexts in the creative sectors. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49347/ Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>L. Sage</div> Creative city networks (CCNs) have become an increasingly widespread phenomenon since the early 1990s. Despite the fact that approximately eleven per cent of all city networks which operate on a global scale are thematically based on the cultural and creative industries, CCNs comprise a considerably under-researched topic. Through a comparative approach to two key CCNs – namely, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) and Culture 21 – this thesis seeks to examine the local outcomes and uses of the two CCNs, and how these relate to their respective governance strategies. The network governance paradigm of top-down (UCCN) and bottom-up (Culture 21) is employed as a starting point from which to consider CCNs’ modus operandi and corresponding local impact. Through extensive secondary data analysis and eighteen semi-structured qualitative interviews, five urban case studies are used in this thesis. These are: Barcelona and Galway, as members of both CCNs; Berlin and Glasgow, as UCCN members; and Swansea, a member of Culture 21. A number of results are yielded by this study. First, it is shown that CCNs are used by member cities in myriad ways, many of which generate public value for a city’s cultural sector. For example, cities may harness CCN membership to boost the visibility and legitimacy of a particular cultural industry, to provide an international platform for local creative talent, or to enhance inter-urban networking. By outlining such uses, this thesis disproves the widespread notion that CCNs’ main value lies in their potential for city branding. A second key finding of this research is that a correlation exists between the governance strategies of CCNs and their local outcomes. It is shown that UCCN’s top-down approach to network governance creates less patent benefits for the grassroots cultural scene of member cities, while the bottom-up approach of Culture 21 is more successful in reaching grassroots level, generating more sustainable and tangible outcomes for cultural stakeholders in member cities. However, another notable research result is the importance of intermediary structures in determining cities’ use of CCN membership and whether any trickle-down effect occurs. Ultimately, this thesis highlights the relevance of CCNs in today’s global system of cities, and aims to generate some discourse on this under-researched subject. It is recommended that further in-depth study of CCNs, their governance, geography and local outcomes be conducted. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/49411/ Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>C.H. Tu</div> As an international creative industry from a country which is not dominating in culture and language, Japanese Manga and Anime are undoubtedly successful around the world. This study supposed that there is a strategy of the industry, therefore, the research target is to find out how Japanese Manga and Anime industry internationalize from the historical perspective. This research explores the history of this industry since post-war to the current time. The conceptual Framework applied to study the process of internationalization is the Uppsala model. The research method is mainly qualitative research, plenty of primary sources from newspapers, government reports, and document from related associations will be reviewed. The business model, talent training system, and the industrial cluster of the industry will also be looked into. At the same time, the influences of government policy and the fans (creative consumers) will be analyzed. According to the Uppsala model, it is found that the premise of the internationalization of this industry is that it has achieved success in the domestic market at first. Also, the reason why the Japanese Manga and Anime industry began to fully develop internationalization is inextricably linked to the market decline caused by the weak domestic economy. The background of Japan's bubble economy and the "Cool Japan" policy proposed by the Abe government after the millennium also helped the promotion of this industry. On the other hand, when Manga and Anime were accepted by around the world, these fan groups also emerged at the same time. These creative consumers not only became readers and audiences but also spontaneously organized fan groups to produce doujinshi (the fans artwork, fan-fiction, and derivatives) and fansubbing. However, these unauthorized re-creation actions are actually an infringement of copyright. Whether the well-known reputation really brings the corresponding benefits and returns to the creators and producers seems to be a question worth to be explored. From this perspective, the question can be asked whether the internationalization of Japanese Manga and Anime was really so successful? To conclude, the process of internationalization of the industry is constructed by not only the promotion of policies and the formation of a global communication network but also coordinated with the "fans group." As a relatively open market, the internationalization of the industry is not dominated by the government in the beginning. However, the promotion led by government policy has indeed brought some help to the internationalization of the industry, especially the funds for branding and authorized creation marketing. In the case of the Japanese Manga and Anime industry, the internationalization experience seems to be successful, but it also sacrifices the guarantee of copyright. However, it does bring out the possibility of different cultural globalization. At the same time, in the era of globalization, it is not just the government and multinational corporations that support cultural diffusion. The general public, as a creative participant, also has the possibility as an actor to fight against capital, promote cultural exchanges, and become a producer of culture. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54487/ Tue, 13 Aug 2019 00:00:01 GMT <div>Trueblood, Molly</div> Over the last century, the United States has enforced its economic and ideological desires throughout the world, but perhaps no other country has been as deeply and diversely impacted by these as Puerto Rico. In order to understand the socioeconomic effects of this volatile relationship, this paper examines the history and workforce of Fort Buchanan, a U.S. Army base in the San Juan metropolitan region. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis presents the qualitative and quantitative effects of the base within the historical context of the United States’ imperial and military occupation of the island. The case study of Fort Buchanan demonstrates how exchanges between the two countries are characterized by dynamic flows, persistent tensions and negotiations, and variability across time, space, and politics. While the United States’ changing volitions and consistent subjugation have limited the options for growth and prosperity in Puerto Rico, the thesis argues that both parties can use the dynamism inherent in this relationship to their benefit. Even without sovereignty, Puerto Ricans have ensured their continued existence and ability to negotiate with the United States by adapting to and accommodating its changing imperial and military desires. This is shown to be especially true concerning the opportunities for employment and economic development that result from U.S. military presence on the island, which are difficult to find otherwise. Given the depth of socioeconomic impacts that result from these transnational exchanges and an uncertain future ahead, the thesis concludes by arguing that the cultural and qualitative aspects of this relationship merit further study. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54087/ Fri, 17 Jul 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Chen, Szu-Yu</div> Dutch delftware and English delftware underwent a similar development process: they were invented in the seventeenth century; they decreased in popularity in the seventeenth century. However, hardly any research has focused on the development of delftware in the nineteenth century. Therefore, the thesis specifically pays attention on Dutch and English delftware and their respective development in the context of nineteenth-century Europe. By focusing on aspects of blue and white delftware in the late nineteenth century and how people collected it in England and the Netherlands, I will offer an analysis of what was the role of delftware in the daily lives of the upper and middle-class and discuss what it meant for them to collect the delftware. The primary sources of this thesis are books, newspapers, magazines, catalogues, diaries and advertisements from nineteenth-century England and the Netherlands. Through a combination of a theoretical review and a comparative analysis of English delftware with the Willow Pattern and Dutch delftware, this thesis hopes to contribute to the field of delftware studies. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54471/ Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Parra Giraldo, Isabel</div> Products, services, people, countries, and cities all think themselves in brand terms. The branding of cities has been commonly thought as an image-building strategy and often attacked along with city marketing for boostering gentrification, social inequality and exclusion. A relatively high number of authors argue that city branding leads to socially divisive outcomes by excessively benefiting specific target groups. In contrast, an equivalent number of publications regarding city brands stress the potential they have to create a common identity and define a new shared sense of belonging able to bond residents to the city. City branding has often followed the trends and methods of business brands. Over the years, business brands have changed evolved and adapted. From first being considered a name and a logo, it is now commonly accepted that brands evoke emotions, generate identity, and create communities. Brand communities are socially constructed entities formed by deep emotional bonds, that share culture, rituals, traditions and codes of behaviour. City branding can learn from business branding the methods to create a community. In this way city branding contributes to the social cohesion of cities. City brands have the power to inspire and create cohesion when they are defined in participatory processes and guide the decisions of the development and governance of the city. This conclusion is based on theoretical insights and empirical data from Amsterdam, Barcelona and Rotterdam. The city branding of Rotterdam was treated as a case study. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54468/ Thu, 23 Jul 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Maglevanaia, Daria</div> Fashion photography started its’ emergence in the mid 19th century and sooner turned into one of the most important parts in garment production and advertising. However, during all the time fashion photography as a professional field is a way of trying to find a balance between commercial and “artsy” (editorial) work. The career trajectories of fashion photographers is a complex structure, where each subsequent interaction with the fashion industry depends not only on skills but also on the symbolic positions and trust. Belonging to the symbolic economy as a creative industry, this field builds its laws of constructing status, as well as rewards for the work. Based on previous studies, there are two pathways of career development for fashion photographers. On the one hand, they can grow their symbolic capital and recognition through low- or unpaid collaborations with legitimate actors (magazines and brands) and publish editorial work in independent magazines. After a while, they can be noticed by specific commercial clients who not only have budgets but also recognition in the field. In the other hand, those, who tend to focus on commercial (and financially rewarding) work from the beginning can face a short-term existence in the fashion world despite the immediate monetary profit without obtaining any status positions. This research explores the trajectories of fashion photographers career paths looking into their collaboration with other agents of the fashion world, taking into account processes of obtaining different forms of capital and conversion of then into each other and exchange of them into symbolic one. This research paper is focused on a mixed-method approach, using semi-structured interviews with fashion photographers as well as quantitative analysis of the longitudinal data, collected from archival and recruitment website ”models.com”. It includes information about the cover and editorial photoshoots in fashion and lifestyle magazines and campaigns for clothing and accessory brands from 1985 to 2019. Based on this, we can see the role of social networks in career development in the field of fashion photography as well as obstacles on a professional pathway. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54477/ Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Rodchenkov, Hlib</div> London Fashion Week Men’s is a lens for the analysis of the menswear fashion industry in the UK since the fashion week is both a response to the changes that occurred in the industry before its establishment, but also an accelerator of internal dynamics of these changes. This study focuses on the participants of the fashion week, designers, brands and labels, those who create the content of the event and bring the audience in. The dynamics of their participation, their background and path through the platform are the aspects that define the image of the fashion week and evaluate its sustainability as a business model. At the same time, this thesis is an attempt to tell the history of the menswear fashion week in London and analyze the process of institutionalization of the menswear fashion industry in the UK. Hence, the key research question is aimed to identify the impact of the menswear fashion week in the development of the menswear fashion industry in the UK. This research is inspired by a knowledge gap on menswear fashion weeks in academia, but also by the evolving role of the menswear in market shares of the fashion industry. The novelty of this thesis is rooted in the analysis of the data that is introduced in this study. The core of the analysis is placed within the schedules of the fashion week, the British Fashion Council press portal and news about menswear and various brands and labels in the UK. The impact of the fashion week can be traced within different aspects, but this study shows how London Fashion Week Men’s actually became a platform for the development of the designers, revitalizing the heritage of the menswear capital and promoting the growth of British menswear brands. The structure of the thesis includes an introduction, a chapter on the history of menswear in London and construction of the discourse of the menswear fashion capital, a chapter on the history of the fashion week itself, two chapters focused on the data about the fashion week and its participants, that are analyzed in two samples, conclusions with a final discussion. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54090/ Tue, 25 Aug 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Demattos Guimarães, Alice</div> Grounded in the 21st century globalized-urbanized-reality, this research aimed to investigate why and how the social circus represents an example of resignifying the cultural-creative economy/industries (CCIs) into the right to the ordinary cities in Latin America. This region has the highest rates of urbanization and social inequality in the world. Globally, ‘categories of cities’ (at issue mainly the ‘global city’ and the ‘creative city’) have been created seeking to improve and renew urban life conditions. Those projects and the one of its instruments, the cultural-creative economy and CCIs, have negatively impacting the making of post-colonial societies, particularly in uneven pathways, when under the neoliberalism model. City labels have limited the scope of imagining alternative-possible urban futures. Moreover moving the CCIs discourse way from the ‘neoliberal policy prescription’, ‘stretching’ it to a de-westernized understanding of social rights, a view of ordinary cities is the most suitable to the social circus take place as a socio-cultural tool creatively transforming the socioeconomic and spatial segregated Latin American urban reality. Ordinary cities are diverse and account with the cities own capacity to foster creativity, which is can be found in any street, i.e.: someone juggling at the traffic light. Historically, the circus have arrived in the (ordinary) city; and, as a performance art, it is part of the cultural-creative sector. When liked to social interventions, suppressing the lack of opportunities to youngsters in place of socioeconomic exclusion, this art represents a CCIs in broad meaning of the (social) right to the (ordinary) city. With a postcolonial effort and the exercise of ‘Epistemologies from the South’, literature on both urban studies and cultural-creative was reviewed and analyzed to comprehend the ordinary cities as a stage performing CCIs towards social inclusion. The main actor - the social circus - was empirically studied through a combination of methods: analysis of secondary data, mapping, different interviews, oral history, and photographs. Within a qualitative approach, this master’s thesis have sought to deep the comprehension of those practices role for its diverse actors: students, collaborators, and the urban territory, in a search to draw all the nuances of the social circus in Latin America in the 21st century. The practices were acknowledged as a space of dreams. In the uneven region, the magical reality of the circus permits ‘dreaming with the eyes open’, bringing alternatives perspectives to conquer the right to a more equal urban life in a more inclusive city, in which the youngster gain protagonism, using culture and creativity to obtain social emancipation. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54480/ Wed, 26 Aug 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Sirijindaphan, Sirada</div> "The role of the Creative Business Incubator in the Creative Economy: the case of Thailand Creative & Design Center Between 2018 to 2019" https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54483/ Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Stefanova, Joyce</div> Since the 1980s the discipline of entrepreneurial studies has started to include more and more perspectives from minority groups among others. Forty years onwards, the scholarly fields that have emerged, namely migrant entrepreneurial studies and female entrepreneurial studies, are rich in gathered data, created theories, and adopted approaches; yet there still exists knowledge gaps. One such gap is linked with the lack of research with a focus on female migrants coming from developing countries and initiating new business ventures in developed countries. Such studies are an important asset to academia because they shine a light on the complexity of the entrepreneurial process and entrepreneurial behaviour in general, and illustrate that both phenomena are in a state of constant flux due to the stronger impact of globalisation nowadays. The current master’s study addresses this knowledge gap by focusing on the lived experiences of 10 female entrepreneurs of Bulgarian origin in London who have initiated their own business venture. It explores their motives to start a business in the English capital and not in their own country, i.e. Bulgaria. Meanwhile, the study also explores if they actually fit in the entrepreneurial framework as created by prominent scholars such as Schumpeter, Ajzer, and Shapero and if not, why their experiences should nonetheless be included in the field of entrepreneurial studies. The study starts with a historical overview of the Bulgarian diaspora in the UK and in London in particular and includes a partial mapping of the businesses of Bulgarian women in London today. Considering the complexity of the research questions, the study adopts an ethnographic methodology and includes 10 in-depth interviews and participant observations. The central finding from the study is that entrepreneurial behaviour can also be considered as a lived experience, which is not solely about aiming at higher incomes or improving economic development, but is much more about self-expression, self-confidence, and independence. The study tries to understand why the interviewees were not able to feel like this in their home country and presents an alternative view towards their experience as migrants and business-owners in their host country. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54084/ Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Beočanin, Jelena</div> HipHopHuis in Rotterdam is explored not merely as a local adaptation of hip-hop, but as a place to negotiate identities and power dynamics of a superdiverse population. This thesis investigates and challenges the concept of superdiversity by studying it as lived experience, and as urban reality and historically built narrative and image of the city. In the interplay between the two, I question whether superdiversity in migration and demography of the population also means cultural and social superdiversity. Because of its global popularity, contested artistic expressions and daring social commentary, hip-hop emerged as a space to rethink the reach of superdiversity, with spatial relations as one way to do so. The other way is that of daily interactions captured through ethnography. HipHopHuis is then a contact space through which people interact, extend their biographies and gain opportunities. Finally, the thesis concludes that HipHopHuis’ identity and belonging negotiation depends on the question if superdiversity equals not only cultural diversity but an understanding of cultural differences. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/54081/ Fri, 28 Aug 2020 00:00:01 GMT <div>Afanaseva, Maria</div> This thesis explores the topic of heritage and luxury branding in the fashion industry and identifies the codes that are used by fashion brands to communicate their vision and values, attract the right type of audience and develop business. The research combines data from 109 academic articles, 18 published books, 4 business industry reports, more than 80 podcast episodes and 8 exclusive interviews with the founders of the creative agencies specializing in luxury and heritage brands. The thesis consists of four chapters, covering the theoretical foundations, existing conceptual models, historiographic overview of the subject and the business perspective. As a result, the research provides an extensive overview of the existing theories related to heritage and luxury branding, demarcates the codes used in heritage and luxury spheres, offers an integrated model of heritage and luxury branding codes based on the previous academic findings and analyzes examples from field trips completed by the author. Ultimately, this thesis can be considered as a guide to the topic of heritage and luxury branding and can be helpful for both researchers and practitioners as it aims to solve business problems through academic perspective and shows the codes that can be used by emerging premium fashion brands to elevate their brand image and position themselves among the established heritage and luxury brands.