Musical Cluster and Territory in the Making

A musical cluster in north-eastern Paris has federated about twenty businesses since 2008. First focused on World Music, the project gradually lost its legibility. It had been designed for the Goutte d’Or neighbourhood but had not been able to be set up there.On the basis of these territorial opportunities and resistances, this article characterizes the stakes inherent in the territory of action in which the cluster was to for define and run its project : to align the musical entrepreneurs’ economic development project and the plan to build a new symbolic territory. The power relations between local partners, especially institutional and financial, proved to be decisive in the definition of the common goals that make this kind of undertaking acceptable to all. In view of the demands for recognition and legibility, the cultural cluster was confronted by a range of local and supra-local dynamics. These dynamics constantly forced it not only to reshape its project and its modes of action, but also to build a plot around its activity that was consistent with the prevalent frameworks of reference – frameworks which, through this process, it contributed to legitimizing.