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In this paper, we chart the development of creative cities from urban clusters through to 'characteristic towns', the latter typology reflecting a government desire to build distinctive cultural brands. We illustrate how this recent development iteration has played out in Hangzhou and its relationship to Internet+, a policy blueprint introduced by the Chinese government in March 2015 which underpins ambitions to make China an innovative nation. The term 'entrepreneurial solutionism' describes a proclivity to see digital technology as a solution to China's social and economic problems, and a way to enhance the realisation of the 'Chinese Dream' of national rejuvenation. Central to the Internet + blueprint is the slogan 'mass entrepreneurship, mass innovation', suggesting elements of the kind of Silicon Valley style neoliberalism, often celebrated in start-up cultures. While it has become fashionable to append the term neoliberalism to China's developments, we argue that China's reversion to hard authoritarianism under Xi Jinping renders this description problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the Global Production Networks (GPN) analytical lens, this paper shows how politico-economic developments in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia are instrumental in developing Hong Kong as a premier filmmaking centre, and how Hong Kong-based filmmakers have to weave new cross-scalar production networks and target new markets so as to remain competitive. The broader objective of the paper is to contribute to extant debates on urban-based, cluster-driven policies by showing how cities, in developing their industrial capacities, need not necessarily be in competition with other places at different geographical scales. Rather, as the empirical materials evince, cities should collaborate to compete. Apart from the presentation of available historical and statistical materials, the discussion is informed by twenty-seven in-depth interviews with Hong Kong-based film workers, government agency executives and film industrial association heads, as well as an interview with a Singapore-based film producer with ongoing production linkages with Hong Kong-based film production companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the two decades since 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organization, the commercialization of the Chinese media has become a significant force. With the increasing demand for original content and a possible “cultural trade deficit” in media content, there has been much discussion about agglomeration and clustering. Beijing, as the national media centre of China, has witnessed the process of media agglomeration while facing the problem of cultural export during the commercialization of the media. Michael Curtin's idea of media capital, which sees it as absorbing media resources and personnel and exporting media products transnationally, provides a dynamic perspective on understanding media agglomeration and dispersion under different political social and cultural circumstances. Hence, the question of whether Beijing will transform into a transnational media capital is worth studying in order to observe and comprehend China's media industry in transition. Drawing on Michael Curtin's three media capital trajectories, this paper interprets tensions and challenges generated in the process of media industry agglomeration and growth in Beijing. Emphasis is placed on the third trajectory, socio-cultural variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyse citizens' sustainability attitudes towards food production in the EU, Brazil, and China (n = 2885), using pork as an exemplary production system. The objective is to map citizens' attitudes towards sustainable characteristics of pig production systems, and investigate whether these attitudes coincide with people's general attitudes towards sustainability, on one hand, and their consumption of specific pork products, on the other. A conjoint experiment was designed to evaluate citizens' preferences towards pig production systems with varying sustainability levels. Conjoint analysis results were then used for a subsequent cluster analysis in order to identify international citizen clusters across the three continents. Respondents' sociodemographic profile, attitudes towards sustainability issues, and consumption frequency of various pork products are used to profile resulting segments. Results for the three continents point out that general sustainability attitudes relate to citizens' attitudes towards pig farming only for specific small-sized social groups. However, what the large majority of respondents think in their role as citizens related to pig production did not appear to influence their pork consumption choices significantly. The main implication of this finding is that while critical attitudes only weakly influence purchasing behaviour, they may, however, still be expressed in the public debate and influence policy formation at national and global levels. This study therefore provides valuable insights to policymakers and practitioners for improvements in an integrated management of food chains to meet consumer sustainability-related expectations better. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study traces the transformation of Qiaotou city from a button distribution centre to a composite and advanced button manufacturing cluster accounting for 65% of world button production in 2006. It argues that button sales originated in entrepreneurial initiative that expanded through market-based armslength transactions as hundreds of stalls mushroomed in Qiaotou. The transformation of Qiaotou from the late 1990s into a composite cluster including designing, new material and product development took place when the local government took advantage of the rapid manufacturing growth to stimulate collaborative links between government, the firms and universities to support the appropriation of research synergies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work has provided evidence that the establishment of new industry clusters cannot be jump-started through policy initiatives alone. This evidence does not imply, however, that the genesis of a new cluster cannot be planned at all. Especially in the context of a developing economy, it seems useful to reinvestigate the relation among economic development, the strategies of multinational firms, and state intervention in this respect. Drawing from the case of the automobile industry and its supplier system in Shanghai in which German finns play an important role, we provide empirical evidence of the evolution of a new cluster that is supported by the state in various forms and characterized by a focal, hierarchically structured production system. We use a multidimensional approach to clusters, which leads to a more nuanced understanding of the evolution and growth of a cluster than that provided by earlier accounts. This approach allows us to distinguish the development of the Shanghai automobile industry cluster along its vertical, horizontal, external, institutional, and power dimensions. We provide evidence that another dimension-"culture"-plays an important role, especially in its relation to issues of power and institutions. The role of this dimension is demonstrated in the case of German firms, which tap into the Chinese innovation system. This system is characterized by particular business relations, institutions, norms, and various social practices that are new to German firms. We demonstrate how this difference creates problems in establishing local production and supplier relations and how these problems can be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]