Creative sector: a newly emerging opportunity for local development or a challenge to local...

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Creative sector: a newly emerging opportunity for local development or a challenge to local

governance

Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz and Krzysztof Stachowiak

Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial ManagementAdam Mickiewicz University, Poland

[email protected]; [email protected]

AbstractThe role of so-called creative sector in contemporary urban and regional transformations has been steadily growing. Debate on the creative sector has largely focused on metropolitan regions. Our paper raises questions: (i) Is the creative sector a real newly emerging chance for local development? (ii) What are the conditions for starting or stimulating the development of creative sector in core regions and peripheries? (iii) What are the challenges facing local governance in promoting and supporting development? The paper draws on the results of the international research project ACRE (Accommodating Creative Knowledge: Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the Enlarged Union) carried out under the Sixth EU Framework Programme during 2006-2010 and fieldwork. The paper consists of three main parts. The first presents the theoretical background. In the second, an outline of ACRE project and some of its outcomes are discussed. The third part addresses governance issues and analyses policies and strategies supporting the development of the creative sector in different geographical areas.

Theoretical BackgroundThe creative sector generally consists of the activities in which a significant part of value added is immaterial in nature and symbolic values of products (such as brand or design) are equally important as their utility values (Lash and Urry 1994). According to Törnqvist (1983), creativity in geographical literature appears as an essential factor of regional and local development and in his 'creative milieu', where he sees three kinds of resources: (i) a large body of information readily transferable within an area; (ii) a body of knowledge based not only on accumulation of data, but also on accumulation of knowledge over time; and (iii) expertise in specified types of activity. The combination of these three types of resources is a condition for an emergence of a fourth - creativity i.e. an ability to create new forms and values whether material (e.g. products) or immaterial (e.g. symbolic values, ideas). In the 1980s the 'creative milieu' concept found widespread application, especially in Swedish geographical studies.

The discussion about the role of creativity in local development as well as about the factors determining the growth of a creative sector owes its present animation primarily to the works by Florida (2002; 2005b; 2005a). In his opinion, human creativity is the most significant source of socio-economic development (including the establishment of new firms and the creation of new jobs). The development produces a new socio-economic stratification in which an increasingly important position is occupied by the so-called creative class. Locational preferences of the creative class, whether residential or working, display a distinct tendency

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towards spatial concentration. Clusters of creative class can be found in some specific types of area called creative regions and their formation is facilitated by factors described as 3Ts: Technology, Talent, and Tolerance. In those regions creative people (such as scientists, artists, architects, designers, experts and analysts, computer programmers) stimulate one another's ventures, while the outside environment with its openness, diversity, multi-culturalism, tolerance and talent promotion, enhances their work by creating conditions for avant-garde, unconventional patterns of behaviour and daring visions of development and planning conceptions. They are areas highly advanced technologically, featuring a high quality of life and attracting talent. Usually such areas are metropolitan regions. In our paper we shall rather focus on peripheral regions.

Though Florida's theory has attracted some sharp criticism (Hall 2004; Glaeser 2005; Peck 2005), it has proved a source of inspiration for a host of interesting geographical, regional and local studies (Stryjakiewicz 2010). It seems that many theory-related reservations notwithstanding a discussion about the role of creative class in regional and local development or of factors determining the formation of a creative city/region gives geographical studies new impulses and makes researchers look for new topics. One of the best summations of the value of Florida’s concept has been made by Boschma and Fritsch (2007). Florida places emphasis on the socio-cultural underpinnings of regional development. 'People's climate' provides a conducive environment for regional growth. This stands in contrast to conventional beliefs that refer to qualities of places in terms of 'business climate' such as low taxes or good infrastructure. The essence of Florida's proposition is that places with a good 'people's climate' retain and attract creative people who, in turn, induce new economic activities such as start-ups and high-tech firms. Therefore, the creative class is not attracted to places with high growth per se. On the contrary, regional growth is expected to be more of an outcome of the presence of creative people, or in the terminology of Florida, jobs will follow people instead of people following jobs.Florida's theory seems to coincide with newly emerging concepts of regional and local development which propound a combination of location factors of firms, quality of life, attraction and behaviour patterns of creative class, and competitiveness (McCann and Sheppard 2003; Stryjakiewicz 2010). In general, one can say that cost-related location factors (such as transport costs, labour costs, taxes, etc.) are losing their importance of physical capital. This affects regional and local policies, which have to take into consideration both a changing relationship between the processes of socio-economic development and spatial mobility as well as a growing role of so-called soft location factors attracting the creative class to specified places. Hence, improving the quality of local space or moulding of creative spaces is becoming a more and more important task for regional and local policies and governance systems.

Outline of ACRE Project and Some of its ResultsThe ACRE project was implemented during 2006-2010 under Priority 7 "Citizens and governance in a knowledge-based society" within the EU Sixth Framework Programme. It involved a consortium of 13 partners across different parts of Europe: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Birmingham, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Leipzig, Milan, Munich, Poznań, Riga, Sofia, and Toulouse. As can be seen, the list of metropolitan regions did not include obvious success stories like London or Paris. The aim was to find if and how ordinary, lower-ranking European cities could be competitive in the field of creative knowledge and to identify the factors that

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would promote or prevent success in this respect. The scope of the notion of ‘creative sector’ employed in the project is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Classification of creative sector by ACRE project

Source: The ACRE project.

The project's central question was: What conditions stimulate the emergence and development of creative regions in the extended European Union? In particular, the focus was on the role of so-called 'soft' factors in this process (cultural heritage, ethnic diversity, a tolerant atmosphere, the attractiveness of the residential environment and public space, a feeling of security, etc.).

To answer the above questions, a wide-ranging empirical research was instituted which rested on questionnaire surveys and interviews and embraced the following target groups: higher school graduates, workers and managers employed in the creative knowledge sector, and transnational migrants that had arrived to work in this sector. The project assumptions foresaw 200 questionnaires in each of 13 participating regions. The sample respondents ranged from 196 (Birmingham) to 251 (Riga). A total of 2,751 questionnaires were returned. The results of the research that provided the basis of the present article have been published in 13 reports (ACRE reports 5.1–5.13, http://acre.socsci.uva.nl/results/reports.html). The research was carried out in all the 13 metropolitan regions according to the same methodology, so as to make the results comparable. Those regions included Amsterdam, Barcelona, Birmingham, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Leipzig, Milan, Munich, Poznan, Riga, Sofia, and Touluse. They represent various types of metropolitan areas, located in the “old” and "new" EU states, with and without the status of capital city, following a variety of development paths, and the creative sector present for longer or shorter time. Apart from interregional comparisons, the project also foresaw a detailed analysis of processes taking place within the individual regions (in terms of dynamics of change on the labour market or a change in the core-suburbia relations). For this reason, the results are of great significance for devising development strategies of the creative sector in the regions.

The results of the research carried out under the ACRE project show the factors underlying the development of the creative sector in European metropolitan regions to be different from those in the US and much more complicated than Florida assumed. Consequently, there emerges an alternative (or rather complementary) view on policies supporting this development. Apart

Creative sector: a newly emerging opportunity for local development or a challenge ...


from the focus on Florida’s 3 Ts, the ACRE team proposes 3 Ps, which include: Pathways of earlier development, Place-specific features and Personal networks, a crucial factor attracting creative class to particular cities/regions. More detailed conclusions following from the research and their implications for policy can be formulated as follows (Stryjakiewicz 2010).

The emergence of creative cities/regions can be of an evolutionary, steered or mixed • nature.Creative activities have a tendency towards spatial concentration in metropolitan areas • both at the inter- and intra-regional scale (urban planners speak of 'creative spaces' or 'creative districts'; these are districts with interesting architecture, readily accessible public space, rich in cultural/entertainment facilities and recreation grounds, location sites of so-called cultural industries like film-making, publishing, radio and TV, etc). The spatial dimension of the behaviour and the distribution of the creative class are connected, among other things, with the processes of suburbanisation and urban renewal. Some firms of the creative sector are happy to locate in the revitalised areas of the inner city, while others prefer attractive sites in the suburban zone.There is no single 'model' of the location and development of the creative sector. The factors • attracting the creative class to the metropolitan regions are largely connected with areas of a specific culture. In those where family and friendship ties are traditionally strong (e.g. regions situated in Italy, Spain or Poland), personal factors come to the fore. Also, the creative class in those regions typically displays lower mobility. Florida's hypotheses emphasising the role of soft factors and the mobility of the creative class in the development of the creative sector are borne out primarily in those regions where tradition plays a less important role and where society has been open and multi-cultural for centuries (Amsterdam as best example).In most metropolitan regions the factors of a personal nature are predominant (except • Munich, Amsterdam, Leipzig, and Toulouse). In particular, these factors prevail in post-socialist cities (Riga, Poznań). Hard location factors play the strongest role in the German cities of Munich and Leipzig. Soft factors are of some importance, but they should not be overestimated. Their role is most readily visible in Amsterdam and Barcelona (but they still come second to hard factors).The preferences of the creative-sector workers as to a place to live and work depend on • the kind of activity they are engaged in. Pratt (2008) rightly observes that the notion of the creative class embraces a very wide spectrum of activity: from artists (bohemians) and computer programmers (so-called super-creative core) to legal advisers (creative experts). Florida's hypotheses find the strongest support in the case of cultural industries (e.g. pattern designing, video, film-making, artistic activity, entertainment) and to a lesser extent, in knowledge-intensive industries (e.g. designing of computer software, consulting). Thus, one might agree with Pratt (2008) that from the point of view of preference specificity and spatial behaviour, the notion of the creative class should be associated primarily with the cultural industries. A fuller determination of the contribution of those types of activity to the development of metropolitan regions requires further studies. To carry them out in a comparative and dynamic approach, it is necessary to make the terminology, classification and statistics of the creative sector more precise, and on the other hand, to work out more clear-cut criteria of delimitation of metropolitan regions.Negating the traditional (hard) factors of location seems somewhat premature (in relation • to the post-socialist metropolitan regions of East-Central Europe). While some soft factors

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were listed in our research sample as significant, e.g. a rich leisure and entertainment offer, cultural diversity, or an attractive natural environment, they still came second to the hard factors, especially employment opportunities. Soft factors seem to be more relevant for emerging creative and knowledge-based industries than for mature ones.

Three types of 'success regions' can be distinguished in terms of the development of - the creative sector: (i) culture-oriented (Barcelona, Milan), (ii) those oriented towards information-communications technology and highly specialised business services (Munich, Helsinki); and (iii) those showing a balance between the two (Amsterdam, Dublin).

The specific features of metropolitan regions in the post-communist states of East-Central • Europe include their late entry onto the development path of the creative sector, its relative over-representation in capital cities, and inadequate supporting policy, especially at the central level. In development strategies, emphasis is put on hard factors (understandably enough, considering the long years of neglect, e.g. in infrastructure), while factors associated with the development of social and human capital remain in the background (interest in the latter focuses primarily on a quantitative increase in the number of students and the organisation of vocational training). There is also a paucity of concrete initiatives in the field of public-private partnership (PPP), which is a crucial factor of development of the creative sector in the advanced Western economies.The building of creative regions and cities relies very much on policies supporting this type • of development (at EU, national, regional and local levels). There are many examples of 'good practice' in Western Europe, such as Amsterdam (where the whole metropolitan area is treated as a 'creative development company' and an organisation called the Creative Cities Amsterdam Area was established) and Helsinki (where special institutional arrangements have been implemented, such as a 'Prosperous Metropolis' strategy or 'Alto University' – a strategic alliance of three higher schools of technology, art and design, and economics). Policies supporting the development of the creative sector also start to be implemented in some post-communist countries of East-Central Europe (such as the concept of a Design Centre or scholarships for young talents in Poznań). However, it is too early yet to assess their results.The weakness of the policies supporting the development of the creative sector in the post-

communist countries of East-Central Europe induced the ACRE project researchers to work out a European Policy Brief (authored by Olga van der Wusten-Gritsai, Zoltan Kovacs and Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz) and send it to the European Commission. It offers recommendations for a policy supporting this sector that seem to be relevant for peripheries in general. Here are some:

Since a top-down approach and the centralisation of decisions tend to prevail, bottom-up • approaches should be supported.Historical pathways and personal networks should be preserved as important pre-• conditions.It is necessary to strengthen the institutional structure, in particular at the local and • regional levels.Strong universities well integrated with the local life seem a potential competitive advantage.• Tolerance, openness and diversity are not key factors of the development of the creative • sector in the peripheries.A well-functioning state is a crucial factor in implementing targeted, ‘tailored’ policies.•



Policies and governance structures supporting creative industries – evidence from core and periphery regionsPolicies supporting the creative sector differ significantly and therefore two examples of such policies are presented in this chapter: one from a core region (Amsterdam) and one from a periphery (Leipzig). The Amsterdam case shows local stimulation by the national government, but also indicates the importance of bottom-up initiatives. The Leipzig example is a picture of the co-existence of different governance structures in the creative sector.

Figure 2: Levels of government, governmental institutions and city-regional collaboration involved in policies supporting the creative sector in Amsterdam

Source: Bontje and Pethe (2010:19).

As shown in Figure 2, the Dutch government provides a national policy framework, the Ministry of Economic Affairs being generally the leader, but collaborating closely with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and occasionally with other ministries. In addition to the direct involvement of those ministries, a National Innovation Platform was established in 2003 in which representatives of the central government, innovative firms and higher education institutions discuss possible measures to stimulate creativity and innovation in the Dutch economy. At the regional level, the provinces of Noord-Holland and Flevoland are involved, since Amsterdam and its metropolitan region lie within their boundaries. However, the provinces' tasks and responsibilities in an economic policy are limited, and in practice this is mainly a national and a local matter. The creative sector is given support at different spatial levels. At the local level the main role is played by municipalities, while at the regional level several semi-governmental and non-governmental organisations are involved, besides the regional authorities. The local-

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level support of the creative sector is coordinated by a collective body established due to the collaboration of 36 municipalities of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. The city of Amsterdam takes the lead in this, as in other regional development initiatives. The collaboration is mainly based on voluntary agreements, since the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is not a formalised city-regional body (Bontje and Pethe 2010).

The bottom-up initiatives merit attention because they play almost as important a role as general economic development and competitiveness agendas. The frequent conferences of the 36 municipalities and relevant regional actors within the metropolitan region of Amsterdam have led to more specific programmes targeting the creative sector. Those are the Creative Metropolis programme and the Regional Innovation Strategy. The Creative Metropolis programme started with identifying a ‘creative axis’ in the Amsterdam area. Its main aim was to strengthen the creative industries in Amsterdam and three surrounding cities, Haarlem, Hilversum and Zaanstad. Among prioritised actions proposed in this programme was the founding of a Creative Development Company; this eventually resulted in the establishment of the Creative Cities Amsterdam Area in 2007. The Regional Innovation Strategy partly overlaps with the Creative Metropolis programme, since it includes ICT and creative industries as one of the clusters targeted (Bontje and Pethe 2010).

An example of different governance structures co-existing in the creative sector can be found in Leipzig, Germany. The development of the creative industries in Leipzig metropolitan region relies on different policy approaches. Lange et al (2010) distinguish three policy modes: hierarchical governance, co-governance, and self-governance (Figure 3). These forms are not only connected with institutions, but also with initiatives of creative and knowledge-intensive branches.

Figure 3: Types of governance of creative industries in Leipzig, Germany

Hierarchical Governance:

Creative industries: – local level with focus on media industry (cluster building, research on media)

Knowledge-intensive: – federal level (settlement of extra-university-research centres); state level (strategy for stimulation of innovation): local level (cluster building)

Co-Governance:

Fairs (book, design) –SMILE (academic and business –players)

Public-Private-Partnerships (e.g. art –sector)

Both branches or not branch- –related

Self-Governance:

Mainly in the field of creative –industries in the focus on art, music theatre, design

Art sector with international –scope (Spinnerei, Academy of Visual Arts etc)

Source: Lange et al (2010: 43).



The form of hierarchical governance is dominated by the federal state of Saxony and the city of Leipzig. Its main example is the cluster strategy of the Department for Economy of the City of Leipzig, which has identified five successful clusters. The most readily recognizable is the Media & Creative Industries cluster. The city's Department of Culture also plays a decisive role in hierarchical governance in the field of creative industries.

Co-governance is defined as a situation when organisations, even if hierarchical or self-governed, engage in co-operation or financing structures with other partners in order to fulfil certain aims and pursue certain policies. The most vivid example for non-branch-specific co-governance in Leipzig is SMILE (Self-Management Initiative Leipzig) – a co-operation initiative involving the University of Leipzig, the Leipzig Graduate School of Management, and the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences). The main purpose of SMILE is to enable students, graduates, and employees of Leipzig universities and extra-university research institutes to establish networks and gain knowledge for successful start-up businesses in different branches (Lange et al 2010:42).

An example of successful self-governance in the creative industries in Leipzig, in turn, is the model of so-called warden houses. It is a tool developed to fight the deterioration of the city. Its main idea is to preserve houses through use. Warden houses enable creative people to have a house for little money, which they can shape following their needs and ideas. At the same time they have to pay running costs, keep the house in good repair, and make good any damage. Seen as especially valuable potential wardens are social, cultural and commercial users important in the given city quarter (Lange et al 2010:42).

ConclusionsIn the recent years, local units have faced the emergence of new factors of development, which include the creative sector. In this context they are challenged to change and adapt the existing model of governance. The need for specific governance rescaling essentially concerns four aspects:

inter-communal governance covering an entire metropolitan area, especially concerning • the integration of public transport, spatial planning, and municipal and social services (such co-operation can be observed in the case of Amsterdam);cross-sector governance, which embraces local co-operation with the business sector, local • and global enterprises, including the development of urban infrastructure, marketing, business development and investment activities, the engagement of private entities in public investment (the Creative Metropolis programme in Amsterdam might serve as an example);society governance, which embraces more intense interaction among numerous local • organisations emerging rapidly in urban areas and educational institutions, and concerning such topics as housing (the example of warden houses in Leipzig), education, health, culture, sport and recreation; and

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knowledge of governance, covering co-operation with the scientific community to support • management and socio-economic planning by academic experts (this aspect might be illustrated by the SMILE programme in Leipzig).

In addition, several open questions arise, chief of which might be formulated as follows:Are population diversity and significant cultural heritage crucial pre-conditions for the (i) development of creativity?Does the growth of the creative sectors and creative regions undermine social cohesion, or (ii) does it offer marginalised social groups and peripheral areas a new chance to participate in economic and social progress?Musterd and Murie (2010:336) point out that “any strategies and policy approaches must

be tailored in an individual way to fit each city – and this perspective also holds for each of the other urban regions”. In this context we might add that tailored policies for the creative sector are required for both, core regions and peripheries, and they must fit the region's specificity. Policy-makers must select the most appropriate forms of intervention based on the local context and the local demand.

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Boschma, RA and Fritsch, M (2007), Creative class and regional growth in Europe. In: Jakubowska, P, Kukliński, A and Żuber, P (eds), Warsaw Conference: The Future of European Regions Ministry of Regional Development, Warsaw: 79-89.

Florida, R (2002), The Rise of the Creative Class: and how it's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books.

Florida, R (2005a), Cities and the Creative Class. New York: Routledge.Florida, R (2005b), The flight of the creative class: the new global competition for talent. New

York: Harper.Glaeser, E L (2005), Review of Richard Florida’s the rise of the creative class, Regional Science

and Urban Economics, 35 (5): 593-596.Hall, P (2004), Creativity, culture, knowledge and the city, Built Environment, 30 (3): 256-258.Lange, B, Ehrlich, K and Burdack, J (2010), Policies and Strategies in Leipzig for Creative-and

Knowledge-Intensive Industries: How to Enhance the City’s Competitiveness, ACRE report 106. Amsterdam: AMIDSt

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Regional Studies, 37 (6/7): 649-663.Musterd, S, Bontje, M, Chapain, C, Kovács, Z and Murie, A (2007), Accommodating Creative

Knowledge: A Literature Review from a European Perspective, ACRE report 1, Amsterdam: AMIDSt.

Musterd, S and Murie, A, eds. (2010), Making Competitive Cities. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.



Peck, J (2005), Struggling with the creative class, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29 (4): 740-770.

Pratt, AC (2008), Creative cities: the cultural industries and the creative class, Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography, 90 (2): 107-117.

Stryjakiewicz, T (2010), Location factors of the creative and knowledge-intensive industries in European metropolitan regions, Geografický Časopis, 62(1): 3-19.

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