Economic Geography Research Group

Learning in doing: the social anthropology of innovation in a large UK organisation

Simon Turner

In the face of increasingly dynamic market environments, firms are being urged to develop learning and innovation capabilities if they wish to secure competitive advantage and long-term growth. A bank of work written from numerous theoretical perspectives has converged on the view that knowledge underpins the formation of such capabilities.

While much of this literature emphasises the importance of cognitive knowledge, a new approach grounded in techniques from social anthropology suggests that learning is a non-cognitive practice, drawing on embodied exploration, everyday sociality, and a communitarian infrastructure of human and non-human actants. This thesis aims to consolidate the current literature on ‘possessed’ knowledge by clarifying the relationship between cognition and learning, and to advance understanding of innovation practices within firms by examining the role of non-cognitive mechanisms in the development of organisational capabilities. Drawing on a nine-month period of ethnographic research, this thesis describes the on-the-ground processes of learning and innovation within the marketing department of a large UK organisation. This evidence is used to investigate critically the theoretical claims regarding the role of both cognitive and non-cognitive forms of knowledge. Based on the empirical findings, three interrelated arguments are proposed: the design and governance of strategic learning devices involve non-cognitive practices; informal mechanisms of learning underpin the formation of new capabilities; and communitarian theories of learning overemphasise the social construction of knowledge, while neglecting the agency of the materiality of context.

Developing moral identities: articulating ethics in family consumption

Sarah Marie Hall

This MA dissertation brings together literature on moral geographies and geographies of consumption, in order to further understand how morals and ethics are developed within consumption choices. Alongside this, the dissertation takes a unique step to explaining ethical consumption as an everyday practice within the family; gathering inspiration from families and household?s literature, this study considers that ethics in consumption are most likely to be developed within the family, and the home, as the site at which our personalities and identities develop, as well as our patterns and habits of consumption. In taking this approach, this dissertation hopes to shed light on an otherwise neglected aspect of current geographical discourse: the ethics of consumption, as a social and economic household-based practice.

An ethnographic approach was felt to be the most appropriate design with which to investigate questions regarding ethics and consumption in the home, where research before have failed to engage with this matter as an everyday practice. The methodology also needed to account for the negotiations and complex relationships that are fundamental in every family, and to be sensitive to this. An ethnographic study, involving interviews, group interviews and participant observation, was carried out with four families and one youth group centre in the Liverpool district, over a two month period.

Using this approach, this research seeks to engage critically with recent studies regarding ethical consumption (and ethical production), arguing that ethical consumption has been reduced to set of specific buying practices (or particular products; such as Fairtrade, local and organic goods etc.) that are thought to be emblematic of what it is to be an ?ethical consumer?. Similarly, ethical consumption has only previously been researched in terms of shopping habits and market projections, and not as an everyday grounded practice. This further separates ethical consumption from its counterpart, ethical production, whereby ethical consumers are rarely considered to be part of an ethical economy, but more as a symptom.

Evidence from the research is provided to show that ethics and moral conducts are constantly being developed and negotiated, in the form of consumption practices within family relations. The dissertation closes with the argument that the contemporary use of the term ?ethical consumer? is dated, discriminatory and dismissive of the ethical considerations made in all family consumption practices, rather than adhering to a prescriptive shopping list. Instead, it is suggested that we need to embrace the multiplicity of family routines, and the fact that ethics are expressed in a series of ways according to what is ?right? and beneficial to the family, all its members, and the given situation.

The Internet gift economy: a study of socio-technological change in the US film industry

Andrew Currah

In this thesis, I critically examine the impact of a 'disruptive' technology on a mature and concentrated industry; that is, an assemblage of technologies, which, through their social development and application, have facilitated a new mode of economic reproduction, thereby changing the kinds of products that are sold and in turn, the way firms generate revenues. Specifically, I construct an economic geography of this 'sociotechnological' disruption; and therefore assess where it came from, how it evolved, and how it is being incorporated into the economic geography of the industry. In doing so, I focus on the response of key individuals and firms in the industry. My analysis rests on two general assumptions: first, I contend that behaviour must be understood in relation to incentives; and second, I also contend that behaviour and incentives are shaped and rationalized by the broader geographic and organizational context in which decision-making takes place. Using these pointers, my aim in this thesis is to construct an active, contextually sensitive and agent-specific account of a technological disruption.

I approach these issues through the lens of a specific case study, based on an extended period of fieldwork in Los Angeles: the development of the Internet gift economy in the context of the US film industry. Although specific in its focus, this geographically bounded case study sheds light on a broader theoretical picture, concerning the changing shape of the 'media and entertainment industries' in a digital and networked economic environment. The Internet lies at the heart of a rapidly evolving sociotechnological architecture, which is bringing about profound changes to the production, distribution and consumption of information-based commodities, such as books, music, film and television programming. Specifically, the Internet represents a type of 'gift economy' in which substantively new forms of collaboration, participation and sharing are beginning to blossom. Crucially, the Internet gift economy facilitates a new mode of economic reproduction, built around file sharing in a peer-to-peer architecture, which has considerable benefits both for copyright owners and consumers in the media and entertainment industries.

The thesis addresses three research questions, which evaluate the response of three groups in the US film industry: consumers, producers and innovators. The first concerns the socio-cultural origins and nature of the technological disruption: to what extent has the Internet gift economy refigured consumer behaviour, and thereby destabilized the economic reproduction of the US film industry, namely its leading oligopolistic producers, the studios? The second concerns the oligopolistic response to the disruption: in what way has the studio oligopoly responded to the Internet gift economy, and to what extent has its behaviour been limited by the prevailing organizational and institutional structure of the film industry? And finally, the third question concerns the commercial development of the disruption: namely, what is the relative role of the film industry's lead producers and other innovators in the exploration and commercial exploitation of this new market; and in what ways does the development of the Internet gift economy affect the competitive structure of the industry?

Throughout the thesis, I develop a central argument, which rests on two points: first, that file sharing in the Internet gift economy can be given a legal and flexible structure; and second, that in this form file sharing has the potential to strengthen the economic reproduction of the media and entertainment industries, including the dominant oligopoly. However, I argue that the Internet gift economy has elicited very different responses from producers and innovators in the film industry, because of differences in incentives and the context in which decision-making takes place. I contend that the studios are institutionally unable to explore the commercial potential of the Internet gift economy; but that they will ultimately be essential to the longterm exploitation of this new outlet for films. Going forward, I suggest that the studio oligopoly will retain its dominant position in the industry, but will also face heightened levels of competition in niche markets as a direct result of the Internet gift economy, which facilitates the accurate matching of supply and demand and therefore enables consumers to access a much wider array of relevant, engaging and otherwise invisible creative work.

Regional paths to the knowledge economy: can all regions be knowledge based?

Pedro Marques

In the last decades the knowledge economy concept has moved to the forefront of scientific and policy debates. However many questions have been raised about how much is 'new' in the 'new economy'. From the point of view of economic geography some issues have also been raised: can the structures of a few relatively successful regions, that have been widely studied, be replicated everywhere? If innovation and learning are seen as a source of empowerment for firms and workers alike, how can we explain increasing territorial and social inequalities? Departing from a critique of the knowledge economy thesis and of the concepts that it derived in economic geography, this research builds on the concept of Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) to question if all regions can become successful RIS. It does so by looking at two case studies: the North East, UK and Centro region, Portugal. Two main conclusions are reached: that such concepts must move away from inward looking perspectives and link the prospects of regions with their national and international contexts; and that to build innovative and relatively successful regions one-size-fits-all models must be abandoned.