Cultural districts

Abstract

The development of cultural districts has become a standard practice in policy-making worldwide at different scales -local, regional and national (Braun and Lavanga 2007). Government bodies have used cultural district policies to regenerate and rebrand urban areas, sometimes focusing on increasing cultural consumption, as in the case of museum districts, other times fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, as in the case of cultural production districts.In parallel with the development of cultural districts, academic literature on this topic has skyrocketed. In an article by Lazzeretti et al. (2013), the authors review over 1586 academic articles on cluster or industrial districts published in the period between 1989 and 2010. The number of articles published per year has grown from just a few to over 200. Similarly, the number of journals publishing cluster-related articles has also increased exponentially. The authors discovered a long-tail distribution, with a few journals dominating the debate, mostly in economic geography, and a long list of journals representing a variety of disciplines. The analysis identifies three main features behind the power and rise of cluster research: multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and global dimension. Among the top-cited scholars, two in particular have dedicated their analysis to deepening our understanding of cultural districts and clusters: Ann Markusen, professor emerita of urban and regional planning and public policy at the University of Minnesota, and Allen J. Scott, professor emeritus of economic geography at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Markusen engaged with the role of proximity for artists' communities and arts institutions, and the role of public policy, while Scott focused on the emergence and development of cultural-production districts, such as the movie industry in Los Angeles. Both have been fervent critics and opponents of Richard Florida's creative-class theory which has preached a single locational behaviour for a very large group of occupations, a formula for successful creative cities (for example, investment in talent, technology and tolerance) and thus a copy-and-paste recipe for cities worldwide (Florida 2002).In the ground-breaking Cities in Civilization, Peter Hall discusses the role of cultural and artistic creativity in the development of cities such as ancient Athens, Renaissance Florence or Paris between 1870 and 1910(Hall 1998. Certain features seem repeating themselves: (1) rapid economic and social transformation, that is, they were trading places and the global cities of their time, (2) wealth, that is, financial centres, (3) high culture, which meant presence of elite, and (4) in-migration, increasing intercultural urban population. They were cities in transition, troubled cities, uncomfortable and unstable. However, Hall concludes that 'time and chance happens to cities too' (Hall 2000, p. 648) and that there is no formula for success. In the past few decades, testing district and cluster theories in the cultura...

The entrepreneurial ecosystem of cultural and creative industries in Porto: A sub‐ecosystem approach

“…While there is abundant literature covering the antecedents and outcomes of a creative urban ecology, as well as on the development of cultural and creative agglomerations (Jacobs, 1969; Caulfield, 1994; Hall, 2000; Lavanga, 2020; Lorenzen & Frederiksen, 2008; Markusen, 2014; Santagata, 2002; Scott, 2006), using an EE approach to examine creative entrepreneurship and its (urban) context is an unexplored domain. Jeffcutt’s (2004) study of Northern Ireland comes close, but lacks an explicit focus on entrepreneurship.…”

“…The spatial and temporal organisation of CCIs has been widely studied through the lenses of clustering theories (e.g., Lavanga, 2020; Lorenzen & Frederiksen, 2008; Santagata, 2002; Scott, 2006) and urban regeneration and gentrification studies (Cameron & Coaffee, 2005; Caulfield, 1994; Lavanga, 2013; Ley, 1996; Zukin, 1987). Research about their development has repeatedly highlighted the importance of cities to creative entrepreneurs (e.g., Florida, 2002; Hall, 2000; Pratt, 2010).…”

Creative entrepreneurship and urban space: Exploring the location preferences of creative professionals in Αthens during the economic recession

“…''creative clusters'' (Evans, 2009). Most commonly, these clusters are located in the inner city, encompassing historic, socio-cultural entertainment, museum, multi-media and design, and music and theatre quarters (Evans, 2009;Comunian 2011;Comunian et al, 2010;Lavanga, 2013;Lavanga, 2020;Stern and Seifert, 2010). There are, however, differences between the characteristics and locational choices of creative firms and entrepreneurs in diverse regions and cities across the globe.…”

“…Indeed, many local governments encourage the development of stimulating cultural districts or clusters by, and for, such individuals (e.g., Braun and Lavanga, 2007;Lavanga, 2020). In the context of the new knowledge-based economy, the question of where creativity is ''localised'' has become a pressing research topic, concomitant with the considerable attention devoted by policymakers to both the location choices of firms and spatial clustering processes (e.g., Ketels and Memedovic, 2008).…”