Employment and socio-spatial relations in Australia's cultural economy

This paper examines the signifcance and contribution of Australian creative industry activities in light of recent debates on the emergence of the cultural economy of cities. First, census employment data and business location counts are used to illustrate patterns of metropolitan primacy and concentration in the cultural industries both across states and in Sydney. Second, the specifcities of the locations of cultural production, and the links between cultural industry activities and wider urban-regional change are explored in more detail. A set of observations of urban-regional change is used to demonstrate how the notion of "cultural economy" should include complex interactions between the material activities of consumers and producers, and the discursive worlds of image makers and place marketers. Urban renewal, housing market pressures and intra-regional migration all mediate Australian experiences of the "cultural economy". Such interactions, in addition to key quantitative data on employment and business activity, suggest important policy considerations.