A new map of Hollywood and the world

Allen Scott

ERSA conference papers from European Regional Science Association

Abstract: In this paper, I offer a reinterpretation of the economic geography of the so-called new Hollywood. The argument proceeds in six main stages. First, I briefly examine the debate on industrial organization in Hollywood that has gone on in the literature since the mid-1980s, and I conclude that the debate has become unnecessarily polarized. Second, I attempt to show how an approach that invokes both flexible specialization and systems-house forms of production is necessary to any reasonably complete analysis of the organization of production in the new Hollywood. Third, and on this basis, I argue that the Hollywood production system is deeply bifurcated into two segments comprising (a) the majors and their cohorts of allied firms on the one hand, and (b) the mass of independent production companies on the other. Fourth, I reaffirm the continuing tremendous agglomerative attraction of Hollywood as a locale for motion-picture production, but I also describe in analytical and empirical terms how selected kinds of activities seek out satellite production locations in other parts of the world. Fifth, I show how the majors continue to extend their global reach by means of their ever more aggressive marketing and distribution divisions, and I discuss how that this state of affairs depends on and amplifies the competitive advantages of Hollywood. Sixth and finally, I reflect upon some of the challenges that Hollywood must face up to as new cultural-products agglomerations arise all over the globe, offering potential challenges to its hegemony. Key words: motion-picture industry; cultural economy; Hollywood; agglomeration; regional development; globalization

Date: 2002-08
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