Page 44 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

CLUSTER

Another reason for the re-assessment of class relates to post-
modernity. The reconfiguration of markets, globalisation, and the shift
from material production to the trading of information, have all
played a part in the reconceptualisation of class. Within the new
economy it may no longer make sense to speak of owners and
workers. Referring to ‘information-rich’ and ‘information-poor’ may
be more relevant when considering new power arrangements; here it
is not class division but the digitaldivide that is of significance,
although newhierarchies of opportunity often map fairly directly onto
existing ones.
Frowhas attempted to reconsider the usefulness of contemporary
class identity and analysis. He argues that class should no longer be
understood as dependent on economic structures; rather, it should be
understood as relational among the economic, political and ideological
spheres (1995: 104). This position recognises the place other
subjectivities have in the construction of identity, and displaces the
grand, modernist narrative of class. Identities based on gender, nation,
ethnicity and sexuality form part of the petit-narratives that inform the
subjectivity of groups of individuals. Contemporary analysis of this
kind avoids essentialist claims, recognising not only the differences
between classes, but also within them.
See also: Cultural capital, Hegemony, Ideology

Further reading: Edgell (1993); Milner (1999); Pakulski and Waters (1996)

CLUSTER

Districts with a concentration of a single or closely related industries.
If the resources you require are close at hand, and if there are others
doing similar work in your local area who can assist you, then your
work will be easier and more productive. If you are surrounded by
people attempting to outdo you – competing for sales or attention –
you are likely to work harder. The economist Alfred Marshall wrote of
‘industrial districts’ in 1890: cutlery production in Sheffield, cotton in
Manchester and coal in Newcastle (Marshall, 1961). These are clusters.
When there is such a critical mass of related industries, educational
institutions, government agencies and community associations located
in the same place, innovation and productivity are stimulated. The
result is greater prosperity. As Michael Porter points out, competitive
advantages in a global economy lie increasingly in local things –
knowledge, relationships and motivation (Porter, 1999).

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