ABSTRACT
A number of social-science disciplines have undergone variants of “a cultural turn” since the 1980s, both in terms of opening dialogues with post-structural, feminist, literary and ecological literatures and in terms of conceptualizing the social and cultural construction of economic practices (Thrift and Olds, 1996; Crang, 1997; Peet, 1997). Part of the impetus for this shift is the growing significance and visibility of cultural outputs and employment in contemporary capitalist economies. Although much recent research on so-called “cultural industries” has considered developments in services, media, fashion, entertainment and music, this chapter focuses on recent developments in jewelry production in the U.K.’s second city, Birmingham.
