Cultural Activities: Source of Competitiveness and Prosperity in Urban Regions

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the potential of cultural activities to contribute to regional economic development has been increasingly recognised. This paper provides an analysis of the importance of the cultural sector for the economic prosperity of an urban region using the example of the city of Karlsruhe in Germany. It argues that the evaluation of the role of this sector involves the assessment of its direct contribution to regional performance and its impact on the competitiveness of other economic activities located there. The paper contains an empirical part where an effort is made to measure these effects. Finally, the role played by cultural initiatives in the regional development of the urban area of Karlsruhe is discussed.

"Cultural Industries" in Sweden: An Assessment of Their Place in the Swedish Economy

“…While much of interest has been written about the links between, for instance, cultural activity and economic redevelopment (Bassett 1993;Bianchini and Parkinson 1993;Centre for Local Economic Studies 1988;Dziembowska-Kowalska and Funck 1999;Frith 1991;Kearns and Philo 1993;Kong 2000b;Kunzmann 1997;Landry and Bianchini 1995;O'Connor 1998;Watson 1991;Williams 1997;Wynne 1992), relatively little rigorous research has been conducted that treats in detail cultural industries as an integrated industrial sector, system, or cluster. Underlying this article is the belief in the use of an approach influenced by modern economic geography that stresses that cultural industries can be usefully analyzed in terms of industrial functioning and transformation and conceptualized as an industrial system or cluster (i.e., a system of interrelated actors existing, interacting, and developing within a specific socioinstitutional environment).…”

The Distribution of Artistic Human Capital – A Typology Building Approach

“…Much of the attention has centred on the location decisions of firms, resulting in industry concentrations (Porter, 1998;Dziembowska-Kowalska & Funck, 1999;Ketels & Memedovic, 2008;Delgado et al, 2010), together with their implications for regional economic growth. Much of the attention has centred on the location decisions of firms, resulting in industry concentrations (Porter, 1998;Dziembowska-Kowalska & Funck, 1999;Ketels & Memedovic, 2008;Delgado et al, 2010), together with their implications for regional economic growth.…”

“…The study of where creativity is "located" has been an area of significant research interest across a range of disciplines, including economics. Much of the attention has centred on the location decisions of firms, resulting in industry concentrations (Porter, 1998;Dziembowska-Kowalska & Funck, 1999;Ketels & Memedovic, 2008;Delgado et al, 2010), together with their implications for regional economic growth. An alternative approach focuses on the residential location of creative human capital.…”

Violent Hypocrisy

“…Leisure in particular has emerged as a key sector within post-industrial urban economies (Worpole, 1991: 138). De-industrialization and the decline of the traditional employment base resulted in local government administrators acknowledging that the 'leisure sector' could play a major part in the twinned processes of urban regeneration and civic renewal (Bassett, 1993(Bassett, , 1996Bianchini, 1993;Dziembowska-Kowalska and Funck, 1999).…”