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Building on Lees' call for 'engaged dialogue' between academics and non-academics (practitioners and activists) through collaborative writing and publishing, this commentary considers the approaches and relations that can enhance such efforts. I draw on my experiences as a managing editor of an online magazine, Progressive City: Radical Alternatives – a magazine that seeks to transcend the academic-practice divide – and the lessons they offer (opportunities and challenges) for realising more inclusive forms of engagement in the realm of publishing.

AbstractThis article examines the evolution of New York City from a low‐end, high‐volume apparel manufacturing hub to an international fashion capital. Drawing on evolutionary economic theories of path‐dependence, it argues that New York City's initial specialization in ready‐to‐wear apparel has shaped its subsequent development as a mass‐market oriented industry. At the same time, however, it shows how key institutional actors were able to alter the industry's course of development at critical historical junctures by nurturing and promoting their own local design talent. As such, the article's investigation into New York's ascendance as an international fashion center challenges the dominant interpretation of path‐dependence in regional development theory and practice. It contends that industries are not held captive to past choices and illustrates how an industry's origins can shape but not over‐determine its economic development trajectory.L'article examine l'évolution de la ville de New York, laquelle est passée d'un centre de manufacture industrielle de vêtements bas de gamme à une capitale internationale de la mode. En se basant sur les théories économiques évolutionnaires de path‐dependence, il affirme que la spécialisation initiale de New York dans le prêt‐à‐porter a modelé son évolution ultérieure vers une industrie de masse. Parallèlement, il montre toutefois comment des acteurs institutionnels clés ont modifié le cap de l'expansion industrielle à des moments historiques cruciaux en encourageant leurs talents de création locaux. Ce faisant, l'étude de la suprématie new‐yorkaise en tant que centre international de la mode défie l'interprétation dominante de la 'dépendance de sentier' dans la théorie et la pratique du développement régional. En effet, elle soutient que les secteurs d'activité ne sont pas prisonniers des choix passés, et illustre comment les origines d'une industrie peuvent influencer sa trajectoire d'expansion économique sans la déterminer irrésistiblement.

In an era of workfare, characterized by the rise of 'work first' policies, new actors are emerging in the field of labour market integration. This paper explores the role of one labour market intermediary- Petites-Mains. Petites-Mains is a Work Integration Social Enterprise (WISE), which emerged to promote the social and economic inclusion of immigrant women in Montreal. We discuss the challenges the organization confronts in balancing its hybrid economic/social mandate and countering the negative effects of the market. While WISEs in Quebec have their origins in community or religious associations and their emergence can be traced to the decline of the welfare state, over time they have become increasingly dependent on state funding (especially support from the provincial government). The increasingly neoliberal orientation of provincial governments threatens the social mandates of the WISEs. These changes are affecting the potential of WISEs to assist marginalized immigrant women. We discuss some of the ways WISEs respond to the challenges they confront, leveraging networks at a variety of scales, and in doing so, we challenge conventional accounts of the role of civil society organizations.

The Cirque du Soleil, based in Montreal, is known internationally for its innovative form of circus production. Although a transnational company recruiting talent from around the world, it is argued that the Cirque's ability to innovate is underpinned by its historical and geographical situatedness in Montreal. Drawing on evolutionary economics, the paper examines the place-specific and path-dependent trajectory which has informed the emergence of the Cirque, focusing on how a series of latent synergies—including a vibrant tradition of street performance in Quebec, the lack of established circus conventions, and the strength of related cultural sectors in Montreal—gave rise to the Cirque. In addition, the paper explores the purposive role of the state in actualising some of these latent synergies.

Recent studies on the economic significance of creativity have emphasized the role that quality of life plays in attracting talent to cities. In these studies, quality of life is seen in terms of its role in enhancing consumption. In this paper we build on a corpus of literature that considers how quality of life attributes can enhance creative production. On the basis of a study of fashion and graphic designers in Montréal, we consider the role played by material factors, such as loft-style buildings, low-cost rents, mixed-use zoning, and public space, in nurturing and supporting creativity in one of Montréal's off-beat neighborhoods. We argue that these conditions cultivate creative production by enabling a set of artistic practices and diverse encounters.

Cultural industries have assumed an increased importance to urban economic development. However, little attention has been paid to accommodating the complex set of activities—both cultural and economic—implicated in cultural production. A recognition of this complexity, however, has significant implications for policy. This paper considers the design sector in Montréal, a sector which has attained international visibility in recent years. We analyze the role played by four public and nonprofit institutions in regulating this sector and illuminate their mechanisms for reconciling commercial and aesthetic imperatives. An examination of such initiatives lends insight into the opportunities and the challenges within policy circles for accommodating a conceptualization of cultural industries that recognizes their irreducibly hybrid nature.

Utilizing newly assembled data on per capita metropolitan investments from the Census of Governments ‐ Finance Statistics, this paper assesses the effects of local (i.e., non‐state and non‐federal) government investments in public capital on metropolitan factor productivity. Differences in productivity across metropolitan areas are modeled as a Hicks‐neutral production function shifter, and the analysis covers 261 metropolitan areas of the United States for the period 1977 to 1992. These findings indicate that there is no significant relationship between levels of public capital investments and the levels of metropolitan productivity for the periods 1977, 1982, 1987, and 1992; however, a positive and significant relationship is found between the growth rate of local government investments in public capital and the growth rate of metropolitan productivity for the fifteen‐year period.

Cover -- Half-title -- Series information -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of contributors -- Chapter 1 Introduction: Exploring Markets -- A Place of Exchange -- Views from Somewhere? -- Shadow Plays -- The Book Ahead -- Part I Finding Markets -- Chapter 2 Thinking socially and spatially about markets -- Markets: from classical to neoclassical orthodoxy -- The rise of marginalism and neoclassical economics -- The power of abstraction -- Markets: a multidisciplinary heterodoxy -- Heterodox economics -- Economic sociology -- Capitalist markets in (socio-)space -- An emergent "sociality" within the orthodoxy? -- Conclusion: the implications of socio-spatial thinking about markets -- Chapter 3 Where are markets? -- Misplaced markets -- Radiant markets -- Mapping markets -- Conclusion: placing markets -- Chapter 4 Geographies of marketization: performation struggles, incomplete commodification and the "problem of labour" -- Framing market places: market models and institutionally diverse markets -- Framing commodities: qualculation and incomplete commodification -- Framing market subjects: quasi-subjects and the problem of labour -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5 Persistent problems in the Polanyian critique of the market -- Why it is important to avoid the conventional view of markets -- Replacing the idea of spontaneous disorder -- Analysing the construction of markets -- Unpacking market liberal initiatives -- Conclusion -- Part II Constructing Markets -- Chapter 6 What are markets for and who makes them? Class, state-building and territorial management in the constitution of mark -- Introduction -- What is wrong with barter? -- War, money and the need for liquidity -- Two city-building kings: Charlemagne (747-814) and Alfred (849-899) -- Who needs markets? -- 1066 and after that: states and markets.

In a context of government cutbacks, non-profit labour-market intermediaries are assuming a more significant role in efforts to combat precarious employment. Yet such organizations are still subject to state funding regimes, regulations, oversight and neoliberal logics. As such, some scholars argue that they constitute "shadow state" spaces. In this paper, we move beyond the 'shadow' concept, casting light on the ways that different state-non-profit relations shape non-profits' agency to define and realize their respective mandates. Building on a relational perspective, we hold that links between non-profits and the state are not linear. We complement this perspective with an institutional-relational approach to consider how a non-profit's distinct institutional configuration (i.e., regulations, funders, and partners) enables or forecloses agency vis-à-vis the state apparatus. Through an examination of two non-profit labour market intermediaries that serve immigrant workers in Montreal/Tio'tia:ke, our analysis lends insight into institutional elements that can enlarge a non-profit organization's space to maneuver.