Welcome to The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch

M/C Journal: ‘Cities’

Posted: November 5th, 2021 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on M/C Journal: ‘Cities’

Over the past 20 years, interest in the ways in which cities might be re-imagined and place-branded through specific creative and cultural identities and activities has increased exponentially (Landry; Andersson; Evans; Grodach), with urban policy-makers in particular seeking to find ways to leverage these identities to drive a range of urban development, economic, heritage, and tourism initiatives (Richards; Baker; Martinez; Ballico and Watson). In turn, significant attention has been given to the vital contribution creative workers make to the creative, cultural, and economic fabric of cities, with policies aimed at attracting these workers becoming a central tenet of many creative city strategies (Florida). To this end, urban development strategies prefaced on the enactment of a range of ‘creative’ and ‘cultural’ frameworks are commonplace in cities across the world. Examples of this include the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, which encompasses creative sectors as diverse as Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music (Ballico and Carter), as well as other sector-specific frameworks such as the global music cities movement (Baker; Ballico and Watson). Considering the emergence, circulation, and adoption of these policy frameworks, as well as more broadly the ways in which creative and cultural identities can be leveraged through place activation strategies, we invite contributions that provide, although are not limited to:

  • Critical evaluations of city-specific impacts of creative and cultural cities frameworks and their capacity to support urban regeneration and social and economic development, including the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, other international or national frameworks such as City of Culture awards, as well as localised initiatives.
  • Critical appraisals of city-specific cultural policies and regulatory frameworks which might support and/or inhibit particular forms of creative and cultural initiatives and activities., both in the short and long term.
  • Critical accounts of the reimaging of cities through specific cultural sectors or particular creative and artistic works or artists, in particular in ways which engage place activation and/or creative documentation strategies.
  • Consideration of the ways in which creative, cultural, and music city policy frameworks might be re-worked, re-imagined, or re-invigorated in order to provide more equitable forms of urban, social, and economic development in cities post the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are particularly interested in receiving submissions from scholars working outside of, or otherwise researching cities outside of, the global west, and submissions on cities that are under-represented in the extant literature. Providing accounts of a geographically diverse range of cities is a priority of this issue.

Prospective contributors should email an abstract of 100-250 words and a brief biography to the issue editors. Abstracts should include the article title and should describe your research question, approach, and argument. Biographies should be about three sentences (maximum 75 words) and should include your institutional affiliation and research interests. Articles should be 3000 words (plus bibliography). All articles will be double-blind refereed and must adhere to MLA style (6th edition). It is our intention to invite selected authors to extend these papers at a later date for the purposes of producing an edited volume.

Details

  • Article deadline: 15 Apr. 2022
  • Release date: 15 June 2022
  • Editors: Christina Ballico and Allan Watson

Please submit articles through this Website. Send any enquiries to [email protected].