A New Approach to Media Cluster Research: Bringing the Human Factor back into Scope

This paper is part of a collaborative project being undertaken by the three leading universities of Brussels, VUB, ULB and USL-B supported by Innnoviris. The project called Media Clusters Brussels - MCB - started in October 2014 with the goal to analyze the development of a Media Park around the two public broadcasters at the site of Reyers in Brussels being host of a media cluster in the capital city. Not only policymakers but also many authors recognized in the last decade that the media industry is characterized from a geographical point of view by a heavy concentration to a limited number of large cities, where media clusters have emerged (Karlsson & Picard, 2011). The common assumption about media clusters is that locating inside a regional agglomeration of related actors brings advantages for these firms. Especially, the interrelations and interactions between the actors on a social level matter for the shape and efficiency of the agglomerations (Picard, 2008). However, even though the importance of the actors and their interrelations has been a common assumption, many authors solely focus on the macro-economical aspects of the clusters. Within this paper, we propose to realize a socio-economical analysis of media clusters to make informed decisions in the development and so, bring the social (human) factor back into scope. Therefore, this article focuses on the development of a novel valuable framework, the so-called 7P framework with a multilevel and interdisciplinary approach, which includes three aspects, which have been identified as emerging success-factors of media clusters: partnerships, (media) professionals and positive spillovers.

Frei Otto et René Sarger: entre idéaux d’architecte et vérité d’ingénieur

À travers leurs premiers écrits des années 50 et 60, Frei Otto, architecte et ingénieur allemand (1925-2015), et René Sarger (1917-1988), architecte français, n’expriment pas seulement une passion partagée des toitures suspendues. Partant du même souci d’une forme structurale « juste », leurs convictions radicales révèlent aussi les premiers questionnements des nouveaux rôles de l’ingénieur et de l’architecte de l’époque, mais aussi des idéaux opposés concernant leur position comme concepteurs et auteurs du monde bâti, ainsi que l’importance sociétale de leurs disciplines.