ABSTRACT
Introduction The important role played by spatially concentrated forms of cultural production is constantly proclaimed and assumed – not only by policy makers in their quest to develop new spaces of economic development, but also by artists, journalists and other cultural entrepreneurs active within their respective cultural scenes and milieus. The aim of this chapter is to relativize some of these claims by focusing on the mutual intertwinement of (spatially concentrated) creative clusters and (spatially distributed) creative networks and, by doing so, to problematize some of the core assumptions of cluster approaches. The empirical focus will be on what is usually called electronic music or club cultures, since this particular form of contemporary music production allows for a rich illustration of the ways in which clusters and networks are intertwined. The main argument will be that electronic music clusters and networks co-constitute each other at all times. Clusters, in other words, are dependent on networks for their emergence and development, but networks also rely on clusters for their own reproduction and transformation. It is this intertwinement that enables non-economic impulses to shape the very formation and characteristics of particular spaces of music production.
