The Sociospatial Dynamics of Creativity and Production in Tanzanian Industry

Urban Furniture Manufacturers in a Liberalizing Economy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4139632
AutoresJames T Murphy (0000-0002-0502-5771, Clark University, autor correspondente)
Ano2006
Volume38
Fascículo10
Páginas1863-1882
Data de publicação2006-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/a37383
OpenAlexW2020798188
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências citadas47

The author examines the design, production, and marketing activities of furniture makers in Mwanza, Tanzania and assesses the degree to which innovative and creative competencies and capabilities are emerging within this industry. A conceptual framework from evolutionary economics is applied, and emphasis is placed on situating the social and spatial characteristics of production, innovation, and knowledge creation within the selection environment or context created by Tanzania's economic liberalization process. Specifically, the cognitive, innovative, and organizational competencies and capabilities of furniture makers are detailed and their emergence is explained in relation to the markets, institutions, and spatial structures concomitant with neoliberal reform. The findings demonstrate how liberalization has, in effect, selected for less creative, smaller scale, and largely informal manufacturers while discouraging the development of more innovative, larger scale, and/or formal firms. In a broad sense, the results of the study raise questions about whether or not structural adjustment policies are contributing to the development of viable, globally oriented, and indigenously owned manufacturing firms in African cities like Mwanza

Business · Context (archaeology) · Creativity · Economic geography · Economic system · Economics · Entrepreneurship · Industrial organization · Liberalization · Market economy · Political science · Production (economics) · Scale (ratio) · Tanzania · Cultural Industries and Urban Development