4. Urban Knowledge Work: The Cases of London and Milan

This chapter gives evidence of the reputational dynamics of social capital and value as these emerge from the study of networks of freelancers in the ‘creative cities’ of London and Milan, dwelling upon what is knowledge work today in these cities and how it is intermediated by digital technologies and social media. The chapter illustrates the network cultures of the urban knowledge economy; the reader meets a variety of knowledge professionals who spend their professional lives constructing networks and engaging in social relations. This gives evidence of the strategic and managerial capitalisation of one’s reputation theorised in the previous section, as it occurs via performative practices of sociality that take place in multiple networked environments.