The links between creativity, self-expression and leisure practices are underexplored within leisure literature. Despite research that documents the centrality of leisure as a worked-at process of self actualisation and self identity (Stebbins, 2004, for example), the practice of leisure is still predominately viewed as one of consumption rather than production and of passivity rather than creativity. This paper, supported by empirical evidence through qualitative research into the lives of users of the leisure spaces of the 'provincial bohemia' of the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne, argues that there is a strong component of creativity in this group's leisure activity. This component, we argue, has, in recent years, become more important for 'aesthetic-reflexive' social actors in particular, as acts of selfauthored and individual-expressive creativity have become more central to economic production, and to social identity. The rise in creative leisure is strongly linked to the valorisation of the romantic-artistic ethic of inalienable creative self-expression and the rejection of mass and putatively passive forms of leisure consumption common within previous Fordist modes of economic production and social ordering.
Research has pointed to the importance of artists in the early stages of gentrification; however, few studies have examined specifically the meaning of gentrification and place-change from the perspective of artists themselves, and few studies have investigated the role of ‘creative city’ policies as unintended drivers of gentrification processes. This study generates insights into artists’ own views of gentrification processes within the gentrifying bohemia of the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England. We stress that gentrification in this area cannot solely be understood as a process of displacement, but is also clearly linked to the growth of modes of regulation and commercialisation within social space. Increasing regulation, brought about by greater local state focus on ‘creative districts’, has impacted the Valley. Alongside this, projects of property development as well as a general growth in the popularity of the Valley as a nightlife consumption district and area of production for commercially-orientated creative class workers have challenged artists’ values of the area as a ‘secret garden’ where romantically inflected values of self-expression, autonomy, spontaneity and non-instrumental artist cooperation can be found.
a b s t r a c tWhile much recent research has been focused on aspects of creative tourism, relatively little has paid attention to the views of creative residents. In this paper we argue that romantically informed modes of travel are important to working artists. The findings, generated through qualitative research, suggest that many working artists adopt anti-tourist perspectives informed by romanticism and based upon temporal, spatial and behavioural touristic distinctions. The desire to 'not be a tourist' however becomes challenged by a desire for an integrated and inspirational engagement with the elsewhere developed from their educational experiences. This is demonstrated as a core aspect of the identities of working artists as creative residents in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
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