Magic, Culture and the New Economy

What happens when economies 'heat up'? This book looks at the 1990s, years of intense economic experimentation, when buzz words such as 'network society', 'the experience economy', 'creative cities' and 'glocalization' were everywhere. A fascinating perspective on 'The New Economy' emerges as the authors explore the worlds of coolhunters, biotech brokers, career coaches, software entrepreneurs and event managers and tackle such questions as: - how is magic used in the quest for newness and change? - what happens when cultural techniques such as branding and styling colonize new arenas? - what turns out to be just a flash-in-the-pan and what has a lasting impact? This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand how economies operate in periods of rapid transformation.

* Foreword* Introduction: The Mandrake ModeOrvar Lofgren and Robert Willim* Meditation, Magic and Spiritual Regeneration: Spas and the Mass Production of SerenityTom O'Dell* Trick or Treatment: Brokers in BiotechLynn Akesson* Possessed by Enterprise: Values and Value-creation in Mandrake ManagementKaren Lisa Goldschmidt Salamon* Catwalking and Coolhunting: The Production of NewnessOrvar Lofgren* Transformers: Hip Hotels and Cultural Economics of Aura-productionMaria Christersdotter* Spectral Events: Attempts at Pattern RecognitionPer-Markku Ristilammi* It's in the Mix: Configuring Industrial CoolRobert Willim* A Land of Milk and Money: The Dairy Counter in an Economy of Added ValuesHakan Jonsson* Flexible, Adaptable, Employable: Ethics for a New Labour MarketKarin Salomonsson* Making Sense: An AfterwordNigel Thrift

Orvar Lofgren is Professor, Department of European Ethnology, University of Lund, Sweden.Robert Willim is Researcher at the Department of European Ethnology, University of Lund, Sweden.