Fanning the flame - a process-relational view on creative hub practices for rural development

Hill, Inge; Wishart, Maria and Merrell, Ian (2025). Fanning the flame - a process-relational view on creative hub practices for rural development. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development (early access).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2025.2475888

Abstract

While there is growing evidence of the possible socio-economic contributions of creative hubs, how these contributions are achieved is underresearched. The research question ‘how can creative hubs become entrepreneurial anchor organisations for rural development’ is answered through making visible the internal workings of a UK rural creative hub. Applying the conceptual lens of entrepreneurial placemaking, the research investigates the interplay of agency, places and contexts, drawing on socio-materiality to demonstrate how entrepreneurial activities are enacted in rural creative hubs and contribute to rural development. Our research applied ethnographic methods to capture entrepreneurial practices from the perspective of studio holders in a rural creative hub, Artistheaven. We identify four subsets of entrepreneurial practices – event making, exhibiting, shelving, crafting – that constitute ‘rural creative hub-bing’, the label for the complex set of practices realizing the becoming of the creative hub. The study extends the entrepreneurial placemaking literature by making visible the ways in which agents draw on socio-materiality to enact temporary entrepreneurial places in rural settings, thus, contributing to the rural entrepreneurship literature. Policy implications discuss the relevance of creative hub management and pro-active local and regional government action for rural development. The article contributes to rural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship-as-practice conversations.

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