Creative Cities

Abstract

Although creativity has always been associated with successful cities throughout history, the contemporary role of creative workers in stimulating urban growth and employment has been the subject of intense recent discussions, with the cultural creative sector viewed as an increasing part of the new urban economy. But the wider concept of what creativity constitutes, how it is measured, and how it relates to urban growth and life, is less clear. Richard Florida has gone further than his predecessors in stressing the role of creativity as a major urban growth factor, proposing that talent in the so-called creative class, combined with technology and tolerance, should be seen as the new 3T’s for future economic success, not material resources. So he proposed that if cities attract talent the high technology companies will follow. Despite the plaudits that this approach has met in policy circles and the value of the idea in stimulating support for the arts, culture, and regeneration, there are many flaws. For example, researchers have pointed to flaws in the methodology used to support the ideas and increasingly argue that there is no proven causality between the presence of the creative class and urban success, while the adoption of these strategies has significantly contributed to government-sponsored gentrification that has led to the greater marginalization of disadvantaged groups within some cities.

The creative city, if there is such a thing, is surely an arena for contentious politics over the character of the city and for whom it works.

(Markusen 2006, p. 1937).