The project ecology of advertising: Tasks, talents and teams

In economic geographic analysis, the 'firm' usually is assumed, at least implicitly, as a coherent and unitary economic actor. More recently, however, the integrity of the firm as the basic analytical unit has been undercut by organizational practices which are built instead around 'projects'. By taking up this theoretical challenge, this paper ventures an empirical investigation in which the project features as the central unit of economic action. However, rather than assuming a substitution of the firm by temporary projects, the paper seeks to explore interdependencies between projects and firms as well as other more traditional 'permanent forms' of organization. Against the empirical background of the London advertising industry, the paper delves into the interrelation between projects on the one hand and, on the other, the agencies, personal ties, localities and corporate networks which provide essential sources for project-based organizing. By consecutively embedding projects into these different organizational and social layers, the paper unfolds a space of collaborative practices for which the term project ecology will be proposed.