Dr. Justin O'Connor has conducted research and consultancy in the field of contemporary urban culture, cultural economy and cultural policy. His research interest in Asia concerns 'soft infrastructure' in design (and redesign) of creative clusters in China. In this project (currently under review by the ARC) the partners include Arup (Sydney), CELAP (Shanghai), CUC (Beijing) and the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology. His research on cultural entrepreneurs in Manchester led to the establishment of UK's first dedicated local economic development agency for the creative industries.