Placeness and Organisational Socialisation: Influences of Place for Employees of Creative and Cultural Micro-Enterprises
In what way does geographic location, at the neighbourhood level, influences the work commitment of a specific set of workers: independent creative professionals or salaried entrepreneurs in creative, cultural micro-enterprises? Referring to recent literature on relational geography, we examine “placeness” in the context of workers in the “Quartier des Olivettes”, one of Nantes Metropole’s creative clusters. Thirty-two individual interviews reveal two series of placeness properties (identity, familiarity, vitality and everydayness; centrality, connectivity and serendipity) which support organisational socialisation. The place/quarter emerges as a third-organisation reducing incertitude and instability.