Mapping cultural creativity v2
April 13, 2009 by CMC
Some comments have pointed out that CMC’s Chicago: Music City report (drafted by the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center) uses variations on the mapping methodology discussed in our post here (and in the NYTimes piece) it references). That is correct. If you’ve had a chance to read that document, you see that identifying and quantifying “scenes” is fundamental to the study and its underlying findings. We certainly have seen the value in this kind of analysis as we’ve used the economic impact study to effectively make the case to officials here in Chicago that Chicago music is a significant economic force. We don’t mean to suggest that these techniques are anything but innovative, important and helpful to music advocates.
Our point was that as music community advocates, it’s our job to give voice to those of identified scenes, but also those who are not always part of these scenes–and, ideally, to help generate community-driven development on the ground that helps create new scenes. These research tools are but a (significant) part of that effort, of course.
CMC encourages more research like Professor Currid and others are now undertaking. In Chicago we’ve got one of the nation’s leading cultural research institutions at the U of C’s Cultural Policy Center leading in just this kind of work. We look forward to seeing what they produce.
Keep the comments coming.
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