Role of Creative Industries in the Post-Socialist Urban Transformation

Abstract

AbstrAct. Over the past two decades the cities in Central and Eastern Europe have witnessed a wide-ranging transformation in many aspects. The introduction of a market-oriented economy after half a century of socialism has brought about deep social, economic, cultural and political changes. The first stage of the changes, the 1990s, involved the patching up of structural holes left by the previous system. The post-socialist city had to face challenges of the future while carrying the ballast of the past. Rapid progress in catching up with the West transformed the city a great deal. Later on, the advent of the 21st century brought a new wave of development processes based, among other things, on creativity and innovation. Hence our contribution aims to explore the role of creativity and creative industries in the post-socialist urban transformation. The article consists of three basic parts. In the first we present the concept of a 'creative post-socialist city' and define the position of creative industries in it. We also indicate some similarities to and differences from the West European approaches to this issue. In the second part, examples from Central and Eastern Europe are used in an attempt to elucidate the concept of a 'creative post-socialist city' by identifying some basic features of creative actions /processes as well as a creative environment, both exogenous and endogenous. The former is embedded in different local networks, both formal (institutionalised) and informal, whereas the structure of the latter is strongly path-dependent. In the third part we critically discuss the role of local policies on the development of creative industries, pointing out some of their shortcomings and drawing up recommendations for future policy measures.

The The impact of territorial policies on the distribution of the creative economy: tracking spatial patterns of innovation in Slovenia

“…The creative economy as an alternative pathway for industrial decline was first introduced into practice in metropolitan regions of the Global North. Since then, it has gradually spread out to other highly urbanized areas of the Global South and places in transition such as post-socialist European countries (Chapain, C. et al 2013;Stryjakiewicz, T. et al 2014;Schlesinger, P. 2016). Numerous studies tried to explain structural conditions and suggested policies to attract, retain and release creative potentials (Landry, C. 2000;Florida, R. 2002;Boschma, R.A. and Fritsch, M. 2009;Musterd, S. and Murie, A.…”

“…The latter is especially true for post-socialist European countries that have recently undergone significant changes in terms of economic, social and spatial restructuring. At the beginning of the 1990s, many postsocialist cities were almost complete deserts in terms of innovation (Stryjakiewicz, T. et al 2014). Nowadays, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) still performs among the worst on the European Innovation Scoreboard, although regional 'pockets of excellence' can be identified in some Moderate Innovator countries (Member States where performance is between 50 per cent and 90 per cent of the EU average) such as Prague in the Czech Republic or the Bratislava region in Slovakia (Hollanders, H. and Es-Sadki, N. 2017).…”

Az UNESCO filmes városok összehasonlító elemzése

“…Lengyelországban a rendszerváltozást követően a mozikban vetített filmeknek csupán 18%-a volt lengyel, sőt ez az arány 1995-re 10%-ra csökkent. Ez a gyártott filmek minőségével, a filmes infrastruktúra elmaradottságával, valamint a filmgyártás és terjesztés piacgazdasági feltételeivel és megnövekedett költségeivel magyarázható (StryjaKiewicZ, t. et al 2014). Ugyanakkor a filmiskolákban és egyetemeken tapasztalható humántőke-felhalmozás, a filmgyártásban érintett stakeholderek közötti kapcsolattartás és az innovációra való képesség regionális versenyelőnnyel vértezte fel ezeket a városokat.…”

The rise of film production locations and specialised film services in European semi-peripheries

“…2009;Stryjakiewicz, T. and Męczyński, M. 2010;Rumpel, P. et al 2010;Slach, O. et al 2013;Musterd, S. and Kovács, Z. 2013;Stryjakiewicz, T. et al 2013Stryjakiewicz, T. et al , 2014Chapain, C. and Stryjakiewicz, T. 2017). Our paper tries to build on that research output and extend the existing knowledge by exploring how core-periphery relations matter for globalising creative industries.…”