Creative spaces through the lens of scene. Analysis of the spatial embedding of an artistic community in the M50 district in Shanghai[Les territoires créatifs au prisme de la scène. Analyse de l’encastrement territorial d’une communauté artistique dans le quartier M50 à Shanghai]

The article proposes to use the concept of scene to analyze artistic, cultural and creative spaces. For this purpose, four angles of observation of cultural scenes will be defined, and as many ideals-types – lived scene, experienced scene, built scene, publicized scene – allowing to characterize the spaces in which is embedded a network of artistic and cultural players that spills over the city and shapes its atmosphere and image, namely a scene. To illustrate this use of the concept of scene, the case of the M50 artistic district in Shanghai is analyzed through field investigations carried out using various methodological tools (semi-structured interviews, in situ observation, study of official documents and web discourse analysis). Through the lens of scene, the M50 reveals several issues at stake in the spatial embedding of artistic communities: a spatial agglomeration in specific geographical configurations, the development of network dynamics inside the art worlds, the production of specific urban atmospheres that benefit the different users of the city, the build of an institutional narrative and image of an "artistic space", and finally the mediatization of this artistic space that increases its exposure and notoriety in the art and tourism worlds. In this way, the concept of scene provides a transversal analysis of creative spaces, opening perspectives for future research.