Creativity and Space. Labour and the Restructuring of the German Advertising Industry

Abstract

Joachim Thiel Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. 194 pp. Price: $89.95/£45.00 A book about the German advertising industry. What is it that makes the German advertising industry more interesting than, say, hair dressing in France or tax consultancy in Mexico? Here is why this book is potentially of interest to economic geographers and regional and urban economists: 1 Or, as Marshall has put it, 'Employers are apt to resort to any place where they are likely to find a good choice of workers with the special skill which they require; while men seeking employment naturally go to places where there are many employers who need such skill as theirs and where therefore it is likely to find a good market'. Marshall (1890 book IV, Chapter X). However, this book is not about Berlin, the surprising winner of spatial restructuring, but about Hamburg, another, but much less surprising, winner of spatial restructuring. The annual growth of advertising employment in Hamburg—6%—was not as large as in Berlin, but Hamburg started from a higher level and still gained: among all German cities with over 500,000 inhabitants, Hamburg's share of employees in the advertising industry rose from 21.5% in 1980 to 26.1% in 2001 (p.68). 'Restructuring' (as the book is advertised in its subtitle) might be a too strong and catchy term for this increase by five percentage points. Does it make sense to devote a book-length study to explain it? The answer is yes if we learn something which we could also use for studying other regions (such as Berlin) and other creative industries. To some degree, this is indeed the case.