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Camden Town in London is a mature cultural quarter with a contradictory mix of affluent middle class and homeless; Starbucks and street markets; counter-cultural groups and tourists; participants in the night time economy and shopkeepers; media corporations and the “creative underclass.” There is a tension between the various stakeholders with their different powers. The patterns of cultural production and consumption in the area are complicated and have deep historical roots. The creative underclass has contributed to the Camden Town scene, which is gradually transforming from a liminal city fringe to a gentrified part of London's center. This paper provides insights into the process of this transformation. Decision making related to urban renewal also contributed to the complexity of the place and its contested nature, added to the existing tensions, and accelerated the transgression of the place from “authentic” to “spectacular.”

The sustainability of creative producers-businesses and individuals-depends in part on the state of the urban environment, especially the one of the street. Relationships with the street differ among creative producers with different power positions and levels of embeddedness in street life. Thus an approach to the sustainability of the creative city needs to move beyond the simplistic ideals of “mixed use” and “vitality” to an understanding of the complexity and continuity inherent in the production of creative spaces with respect to the multiple transactions of both the strong and weak stakeholders involved-the “wolves” and “lambs.” The example used in this article, which draws on evidence from interviews with producers, is the film and television industry in Camden Town, London, in relation to the “experience” economy.

There is growing evidence of the decentralization of the film and television (FTV) industry in London. The article demonstrates that this decentralization is happening in a counter-intuitive manner: first, it is more widespread in micro production companies, which are most vulnerable to the loss of face-to-face connectivity; second, it occurs not in 'town centres' characterized by better services and connections, but in the residential suburbs. The article suggests that the industry is becoming more and more 'cottage-based' in a very direct sense -- oriented to projects run from the homes of producers. This happens in both 'positive' and 'negative' ways: the former is typical for affluent 'home-based' producers; the latter, for industry's 'losers' and start-ups. The suburban concentrations of FTV production are being explained not only by the specifics of industry organization and the diseconomies of high rents and overcrowding but also by the requirements of particular lifestyles, as well as by simple business failure.

The state of many British town and city centres in the evening and at night is a cause for concern. In the early 1990s, a vision was introduced for Jane Jacobs’ inspired mixed-use centres with the encouragement of a cafe culture The central quarters of many towns and cities enjoyed a brief period of ‘renaissance’, only to find that this was being rapidly undermined by a proliferation of bars, pubs and nightclubs fuelled by the British practice of youthful binge drinking. This article reports the findings of a postal survey and other secondary evidence that reveals the conflicts and tensions that lie at the heart of problems associated with British town centres during the hours of darkness. The dilemma for the local government lies in how to achieve a measure of urban sustainability in their central quarters that balances the benefits of increased economic activity with the negative externalities produced by an increase in alcohol-based night life. It is suggested that this dilemma of sustainability is not unique to England, but may be seen as a problem with an international dimension.

The film and television (FTV) industry is especially sensitive to the exchange of tacit knowledge on products, finance, technologies and markets. Whether the exchanges are negotiations along the production chain or across networks they are a necessary part of the FTV firms’ activities and are deeply embedded in their everyday life, employment and entertainment strategies and budgets. The internationalisation of FTV firms’ activities changes the essence of face-to-face communications and increases the importance of ‘network proximity’. This paper discusses the types and places of face-to-face interactions in the FTV industry, challenging the notion of ‘buzz’. The study is based on interviews with London FTV producers.

Background The aim of this paper is twofold. To begin with, we add to the understanding of how the UK’s fashion industry field operates and how particularities of interactions in this field influence the entrepreneurial performance of new entrants. This builds on previous knowledge concerned with the obstacles to the creation of sustainable production chains. Secondly, we aim to explore the hypothesis that, in the UK, independent fashion design businesses are not growing as effectively as they might be, because they are locked-in in the design-driven, retail-led, London-based networks strongly dominated by links with designers’ former colleges, intermediaries and other institutions to the exclusion of potentially more productive relationships based outside the core of the field, whether elsewhere in the UK or internationally. Methods In order to understand how the fashion field works, we reviewed existing literature, used data from a previous study of one of the authors, and conducted primary research using case-study techniques directed specifically towards the aims of this paper. Results Independent apparel designers in London are located at the periphery of the fashion industry field. Independent designers are torn between fashion as 'art' and fashion as 'rag trade' (McRobbie, 1998), and are located in a field where art and creativity carry greater symbolic and cultural value than commerce. This gap is emblematic of the British and London fashion industry as it is currently constituted, and is perpetuated by institutions such as the fashion schools and industry institutions. Conclusion This performance of small / new fashion designer businesses is hindered by their location at the periphery of the fashion industry field, as well as an ideological position that favours design as art over design as commerce. This position is perpetuated by institutions such as the fashion schools and industry institutions which do not emphasise the craft 'know-how' and production aspects of the fashion design process. Our study confirms the paradox that despite their reputation for innovativeness many of the businesses within the London fashion system seems not able to profit from it.

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The suburbanisation does not exist as such in the USSR with the meaning one has of the phenomena in Western cities. Though one may notice some limited transfers of industrial activities demanding a lot of space or polluting ones, even research centres, towards the suburban areas or satellite-towns. But these déconcentrations correspond to an administrative planification logics. Moreover the Muscovites hesitate before going and living in these employment centres, because they are afraid of loosing the privileges linked with the authorisation to live in Moscow (the propiska) and because of insufficient communications with the capital. The growth rate of the Muscovite population remains higher than this of the remainder of the oblast. To the contrary developing of datchas for second residences is very high in the Moscow oblast, especially in the vicinity of a railway station. The abolishment of the «propiska» system might transform the datchas nearer to Moscow into main residences., La suburbanisation n'existe pas en URSS au sens des phénomènes décrits dans les villes occidentales. Cependant on observe certains transferts limités d'activités industrielles exigeantes en espace ou polluantes, voire même de centres de recherches, vers les zones suburbaines ou des villes-satellites. Mais ces déconcentrations répondent à une logique de planification administrative. En outre, les Moscovites hésitent à aller habiter dans ces centres d'emploi, de crainte de perdre les privilèges liés à l'autorisation d'habiter Moscou (la propiska) et du fait des communications insuffisantes avec la capitale. Le taux de croissance de la population moscovite reste supérieur à celui du reste de l'oblast. Par contre le développement de datchas de seconde résidence est très important dans l'oblast de Moscou, en particulier aux alentours des stations de chemin de fer. L'abolition du système de propiska pourrait transformer les datchas les plus proches de Moscou en résidences principales., Gornostayeva Galina A. Suburbanization Problems in the USSR : the Case of Moscow . In: Espace, populations, sociétés, 1991-2. Les franges périurbaines Peri-urban fringes. pp. 349-357.

London's development pattern graphically illustrates the importance and problems of urban definition. The pattern we observe is radically different depending on whether one examines the data for administrative definitions of London or London defined on functional boundaries. Even the answer to such an apparently simple question as to whether London was growing or declining varies according to the definition of London taken; the ambiguity as to whether London was decentralising, re-centralising or declining is equally striking. Even functional definitions of London and EU cities produce different pictures of the relative patterns of development, depending on whether those functional boundaries are fixed to reflect spatial patterns of employment and commuting at a given date or are updated lo current patterns. For reasons we can identify, this makes much more difference to results in some cities than it does in others. Updating the functional boundaries of London, for example, makes much more difference to ils measured size than is the case with Paris. London and Londoners are historically adapted lo long dislance commuting and strongly contrasting patterns of residential segregation compared to Continental European cities (especially Paris).These have been re-inforced by land use planning which generates a strong force for London's growth to leapfrog across the South East of England spawning satellite centres as it goes. Despite these measurement problems. however, the evidence allows one to conclude that there has been a sharp change in trends in London both absolutely and relative to other major EU cities. Recently population has been growing and recentralising and London's economic Performance improving.