There has been a growing interest in connecting production and consumption through the study of commodity chains. We identify three distinct approaches to the chain and review debates concerning the merits of a ‘vertical’ rather than a ‘horizontal’ approach. Drawing upon the example of the home furnishings commodity chain, the article highlights the importance of including horizontal factors such as gender and place alongside vertical chains. We consider geographical contingencies which underpin commodity chain dynamics, the role of space in mediating relationships across the chain and the spatialities of different products.

Creative industries are increasingly associated with employment, tourism and the attraction and retention of talent in economic development discourse. However, there is a need to foreground the interests involved in promoting the creative city and the political implications of such policies. This paper analyses new industry formation in Liberty Village—a cultural industry precinct in inner-city Toronto, Canada. The focus is on the place-making strategies at work in constructing Liberty Village. In particular, the paper explores a series of displacements associated with creative districts, focusing on three scales in particular—the level of the city, the neighbourhood and the precinct itself. An examination of these displacements foregrounds the contested nature of the creative city script.

The rise of the new`creative' imperative Recent interest in the role of creativity in economic development has sparked a host of conceptual and empirical studies seeking to document the rise of a creative economy, and its socioeconomic and spatial manifestations (for example,

BackgroundOfficial reports on modal risk have not chosen appropriate numerators and denominators to enable like-for-like comparisons. We report age- and sex-specific deaths and injury rates from equivalent incidents in England by travel mode, distance travelled and time spent travelling.MethodsHospital admissions and deaths in England 2007–2009 were obtained for relevant ICD-10 external codes for pedestrians, cyclists, and car/van drivers, by age-group and sex. Distance travelled by age-group, sex and mode in England (National Travel Survey 2007–2009 data) was converted to time spent travelling using mean trip speeds. Fatality rates were compared with age-specific Netherlands data.ResultsAll-age fatalities per million hours’ use (f/mhu) varied over the same factor-of-three range for both sexes (0.15–0.45 f/mhu by mode for men, 0.09–0.31 f/mhu for women). Risks were similar for men aged 21–49 y for all three modes and for female pedestrians and drivers aged 21–69 y. Most at risk were: males 17–20 y (1.3 f/mhu (95% CI 1.2–1.4)) for driving; males 70+ (2.2 f/mhu(1.6–3.0)) for cycling; and females 70+ (0.95 f/mhu (0.86–1.1)) for pedestrians. In general, fatality rates were substantially higher among males than females. Risks per hour for male drivers <30 y were similar or higher than for male cyclists; for males aged 17–20 y, the risk was higher for drivers (33/Bn km (30–36), 1.3 f/mhu (1.2–1.4)) than cyclists (20/Bn km (10–37), 0.24 f/mhu (0.12–0.45)) whether using distance or time. Similar age patterns occurred for cyclists and drivers in the Netherlands. Age-sex patterns for injuries resulting in hospital admission were similar for cyclists and pedestrians but lower for drivers.ConclusionsWhen all relevant ICD-10 codes are used, fatalities by time spent travelling vary within similar ranges for walking, cycling and driving. Risks for drivers were highest in youth and fell with age, while for pedestrians and cyclists, risks increased with age. For the young, especially males, cycling is safer than driving.

Richard Florida’s creative class theory has recently been adopted by many municipal governments as a key urban economic development policy. This trend, as others have noted, has significant implications for social justice in the creative city, particularly by continuing and even deepening class inequality. This paper shares in the spirit of these class‐based critiques, but goes beyond them to argue that gender and racial equality is also at stake in the creative city. We point in particular to three particular geographies of the creative city – (1) the conceptual spaces of the creative class idea, (2) the workplaces of the cultural and creative industries and (3) the amenity and public landscapes of the creative city – as sites where class, gender and racial inequalities are maintained and exacerbated as a result of creativity‐led urban economic development policies.

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As part of a broader process of inter‐urban competition, city governments have increasingly sought to ‘position’ themselves as centres of creativity. In these branding initiatives, culture is viewed as a tool of urban regeneration and economic development. Our paper examines the case of Commerce Design Montréal, an annual design competition run by the City of Montréal, which aims to brand Montréal as a centre of design. Commerce Design Montréal is an example of a ‘fast’ policy initiated by the state, but carried out by business owners and citizens. As such, it represents a downloading of the responsibility for economic development to the private or individual scale and adopts only a partial view of the varied actors and uses that are implicated in the design process. The paper considers the opportunities and challenges that this model presents for promoting design as a form of urban regeneration in a neo‐liberal context.

In this paper we examine the changing nature of aesthetic labour in creative industries. Drawing on a case study of independent musicians in Toronto, we argue that the spatiality and temporality of aesthetic labour has shifted as a result of technological change in the music industry and the decline of record labels. In particular, we demonstrate that aesthetic labour in the music industry has become more time-intensive and takes place across a growing range of spaces, including the stage, the home and online. This paper contributes to existing studies in geography that consider the spatial dynamics and precarious conditions of creative labour.