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| ON MECHANISM OF PLACE MAKING IN THE VIEW OF ‘HISTORICAL LAYERS’ THEORY: A CASE OF DONGGAOCUN TOWN IN BEIJING |
| DAI Jun-cheng1,2, ZHOU Shang-yi2 |
1. Cultural Economics Research Institute, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China;
2. School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China |
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Abstract This paper tries to find the dynamic of place making by an investigation of Donggaocun Town in Pinggu District, Beijing. It is well known by violin factories cluster. This research takes concepts of structuralist dynamics and actors interaction. It also uses ‘historical layers’ of Doreen Massey. Interview is the way to collect information of the industrial space succession in this town. The violin craftsmanship in this town has diffused in varied ways during the three stages of this violin industrial cluster. They are skill formation, passing skill to workers and.getting into the education of local schools. At the same time, Donggaocun Town has transformed the image of their town from ‘Town of Violin’ to ‘China Music Valley’. The conclusions are as following. Firstly, the historical layers show the process of capital accumulation there. Profit-driven power of capital is the structuralist driving factor, which influences violin cluster's boom and evacuating. Donggaocun Town locates at the expanding area of Pinggu District. The expectation of potential land value growth is another dynamic of the investment to industrial land. Secondly, the local government and musicians play important roles to link the economy to the local culture. They make the violin craftsmanship become an element of the place this place and create a local knowledge innovation system. Officials and teachers play as ‘actors’ defined by Michel Callon and Bruno Latour in their Actor-Network Theory, who preserve the traditional skills.If the local tacit knowledge transfers to others and other places, the knowledge innovation system could still support the region upgrading to the "Chinese Music Valley". Moreover, the paper argues that dynamic of place making plays between the structure and actors. Both of them would control the space production and reproduction during the process of place making.
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Received: 06 August 2014
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2015, Vol. 30 
