ABSTRACT

What happens when economies 'heat up'? This book looks at the 1990s, years of intense economic experimentation, when buzz words such as 'network society', 'the experience economy', 'creative cities' and 'glocalization' were everywhere. A fascinating perspective on 'The New Economy' emerges as the authors explore the worlds of coolhunters, biotech brokers, career coaches, software entrepreneurs and event managers and tackle such questions as: - how is magic used in the quest for newness and change? - what happens when cultural techniques such as branding and styling colonize new arenas? - what turns out to be just a flash-in-the-pan and what has a lasting impact? This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand how economies operate in periods of rapid transformation.

chapter 1|18 pages

Introduction

The Mandrake Mode

chapter 2|18 pages

Meditation, Magic and Spiritual Regeneration

Spas and the Mass Production of Serenity

chapter 3|9 pages

Trick or Treatment

Brokers in Biotech

chapter 4|9 pages

Possessed by Enterprise

Values and Value-creation in Mandrake Management

chapter 5|15 pages

Catwalking and Coolhunting

The Production of Newness

chapter 6|13 pages

Transformers

Hip Hotels and the Cultural Economics of Aura-production

chapter 7|9 pages

Spectral Events

Attempts at Pattern Recognition

chapter 8|8 pages

It's in the Mix

Configuring Industrial Cool

chapter 9|12 pages

A Land of Milk and Money

The Dairy Counter in an Economy of Added Values

chapter 10|13 pages

Flexible, Adaptable, Employable

Ethics for a New Labour Market

chapter |6 pages

Making Sense: An Afterword