‘The creative city is about people, not economics’. Discussion in the light of the actual ...

8/7/2019 The creative city is about people, not economics. Discussion in the light of the actual experiences of creative cities.

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Guillermo Olivares 1

The creative cityis about people,not economics.

Discussion in thelight of the actual

experiences ofcreative cities.


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1. Introduction

In this essay, the author will discuss

whether the idea of idea of creative city is

focused on people rather than economy. In the

first part I will introduce the subject giving a

context based upon the basic literature and some

basic working definitions. In a second part I will

show arguments supporting the idea that creative

city is basically a concept focused mainly on

people and in a third part I will expose counter

arguments based on literature but also on

empirical information trying to show that besides

the original intentions, this concept has become


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mostly focused on economy than people. Finally,

I will contrast the ideas offered in the previous

chapters discussing all the elements involved and

attempting to answer the question that heads this

essay.

2. Context

Since some urban planners and scholars

started using the term creative city (Landry and

Bianchini, 1995; Landry, 2000), many papers and

books have been written in order to explain the

outreach of such concept and in a broader sense

all those ideas related, such as creative economy,

creative class, cultural industry, creative city and

so on, which since those years have started been

used interchangeably in different contexts,


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making them a sort of fuzzy concepts that are

sheltered by the notions of cultural policy or

cultural and creative industries (Pratt 2008,

2009c).

Recently during an interview published on the

website creativecities.org.uk1, Landry insisted on

these ideas focusing his interest on people,

stating that "a creative city is a place that

provides the conditions where people to plan,

think and act with imagination" (British Council,

2009). So in a first stage we can argue that this

concept intend to express the idea in which the

Creative City is a place where people can

develop their lives as a whole, not only

1 Creativecities.org.uk is an online supported by theBritish Council and aimed to commit the audience to

discuss on the future and perspectives of cities in East Asia


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ultimately what raises productivity and thus

living standards.

So one can express that since their original

statement these ideas had their focus on people

and their ability to solve problems in an original

way.

In this text was expressed the idea of creative city

(Landry, 2000), however there are also many

other fashionable concepts in this field, which

tend to name a specific phenomenon or subject in

knowledge economy. Landrys Creative City is

an aspirational concept, which was coined to

promote the value of creative industries in urban

development, but as long as the time went by

tended to be broadened in order to express the

need to create a culture of innovation in cities,


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which not only included those people involved in

creative economy, but in all fields of urban life

(Landry, 2000: Landry 2008). Whereas Richard

Florida (2002) also contributed with concept of

Creative Class, which is considered the new

leading force in the knowledge-based economy,

as highly qualified and skilled workers devoted

to create knowledge and meanings. The

globalisation that the World have faced during

the last decade have been a fuel to another

phenomenon, the so called Global Cities (Sassen,

2001) which is understood as part of a new world

type of organization have tended to concentrate

large amounts of services, including among the

those related to the creative industries. Only a

few cities around the globe can aspire to be part


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of this select group, which is the leading edge in

the knowledge economy, because of the

concentration of business, wealth and, to a great

extent, creativity.

3. Creative City and people

When writings and books on creative

cities or the linked subjects were published, these

concepts became rapidly popular, because they

as quoted before were closely related to the

ability of people to solve problems in a creative

way. Nevertheless, the ideas stated by Richard

Florida in his book "The rise of the creative

class" were which to a great extent gave a

tremendous boost to the fashion on creativity

applied to the city by a creative class and


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consequently to the culture-based economy.

Those people living in large cities with very

attractive jobs and high salaries were the perfect

utopia for urban planners and policy makers in

different places around the world. Those ideas

were shown as the future for the regeneration of

cities after the collapse of the industrial and

manufacturing economy in most of the developed

economies. The city received a new status or

even a new role in the creation of wealth,

contradicting all those theories based on new

technologies that predicted the death of cities as

we know them (Kolko, 1999; Cairncross, 1997).

As Landry clearly expressed, his ideas were a

reaction to the changes that dramatically were

taking place in a progressively post industrial


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Europe in several fields of life such as economy,

society and culture. In addition, European cities

required to be restructured and thought based

both on theirraison detre and their function

(Landry, 2000). In this very sense some years

after he insisted on the importance of people in

this process stating that, for instance, creating

new goods or services intended to improve the

probabilities to generate wealth, but at the same

time he explained the value of people working on

social issues who might work on the

development of creative solutions for these

problems (Landry, 2005). In all these

approaches, culture, and by extension creativity,

is part of its essence because the same Landry

expresses his beliefs that it is the sum total of


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original solutions a group of human beings invent

to adapt to their [...] environment and

circumstances" (Landry, 2005: 234). Even more,

the urban planner Joe Berridge (2006) argues

that "creativity is infectious", which is an

important clue he gave us about why the most of

the theories on new economy, urban planning or

whatever label we may think on rely on creativity

and culture in cities to develop their solutions.

However as Landry and other authors (1996)

have claimed regeneration is not an end in itself:

it is about people and the quality of the lives they

will be able to lead.

In addition, from the cultural perspective, almost

all books and literature on creative cities perform

a keen defence on culture as a core value for the


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development of cities, societies and economies.

Basically because as Landry (2005) said culture

is associated with a high quality of life", but also

because it is hard to find any coherent argument

tending to probe why culture could not be

helpful, even in a minimum proportion, for both

urban and social matters. As we can currently

see it can be considered a sort of axiom that

culture and all processes involved on its

development such as creativity became a basic

component for development of cities.

Nevertheless, this very same trend on making

cities more and more creative started a new race

among them which is expressed in the

competitive efforts to attract new inward

investment, which is a natural corollary of


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capitalist space/economy" (Paddison, 1993: 339).

In this sense it is important to recognise that, at

the same time, that cities are involved in a hard

struggle with one another in order to obtain

security for their communities, they also act in a

complementary way with other urban

communities to provide them mutually with

specific goods (Scott, 2006). As we know

creativity is, in general, a resource we can find

anywhere on earth, so in many different places

people are developing their strategies to convert

their cities in world-level creative cities. In this

sense, Berridge attempts to give his own point of

view on what is really important in this struggle

for being the creative city of the 21st century

when he states that it will be the creative city,


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the city government, that most imaginatively,

efficiently and beautifully provides needed

services and infrastructure" (Berridge, 2006).

This point of view is supported by Landry (2005)

who considers that to face all complex processes

related to the construction of a city at a global

level is required a great dose of different kinds of

creativity. As we have said above in all these

processes the creative industries are the key for

urban regeneration, which will allow a

neighbourhood to give one or several steps

forward to become a desired location

(Oudenampsen, 2006). So a people-based

approach on creative city might build a highly

sustainable development, specifically if focused

in the arts, which should be aimed to improve the


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quality of life of locals. The arts have an

important contribution to make in this approach

because they are strongly related with quality of

life as we said previously, facilitating from a safe

urban environment to economic growth (Landry

et al, 1996).

4. From an economic point of view

The figures on CCI in Britain seem to

support the previous statements on their

importance for social, but also economic

development, which can be seen when Pool in

her report quoted the secretary of State for

Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Smith, who in

2000 claimed that our creative industries are a

success story. They generate over 60bn of


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revenue a year, contribute over 4% to gross

domestic product and are growing at 5% per

annum, twice the national average (Pool, 2000).

However, many of the achievements shown look

amazing if seen from a strict economic point of

view, but what happen on the peoples side? It is

seems appropriate to consider that perhaps many

"utopian claims [] are being made for the

creative economy" (Oudenampsen, 2006).

Actually, in the same line of thought, the creative

city as conceived by Landry is, in some cases, far

from actual experiences developed in different

places in the world. One can also add that the

utopian view of the city development as seen in

Richard Floridas books, as the place where

imported peoples creativity flourishes boosting


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economy based on consumption is at least

arguable. It is possible for some lite in certain

cities to be involved in the creative class as stated

by Richard Florida (2002), but other segments of

society barely live the story in that way. For

instance, Charles Landry states that London as

the second city in relevance in the creative

economy just behind New York, but in contrast,

he recognises that "London has the most unequal

distribution of wealth of any city in the UK, 13 of

the 20 most deprived district in the UK, 64% of

the most deprived housing estates, the highest

level of homelessness and 40% of urban crime"

(Landry, 2005). The very same Richard Florida

claimed that the increasing level of inequality is a

potential problem for these strategies tending to


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develop cities through the intensive use of

creativity (Florida, 2002). In addition, Allen

Scott express that cities and clusters associated to

this new economy are [also] associated with

large underbellies of sweatshop factories

employing masses of low wage, low-skill

workers, very often immigrants from different

parts of the world periphery (Allen, 2006). In

that sense, Sassen (2001) argues that this very

efforts to make cities as creative as possible by

making the number of high level professionals or

services to raise, makes to observe a trend

towards a growing degree of spatial and

socioeconomic inequality evident in these cities

(Sassen, 2001). In addition, Oakley (2009)

contribute to this idea stressing that not only


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economic inequalities are possible to be seen in

urban spaces, but also racial discrimination. One

can add to this line of arguments that a key

feature of the new economy which is the flexible

labour market with part-time, temporary and

freelance jobs tend to offer a precarious

perspective on employment in general.

Nevertheless, the flexibility, but, at the same

time, precariousness in the labour market is not

only applicable to the service class as defined by

Florida (2002), but also to the creative class. In a

sense, the human core of this new economy is

also under threat of low wages and

unemployment, contradicting to a certain extent

the ideas argued by that author. The increasing

number of complains expressed by many


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university graduates2

which are seeking work

experience or internship as compulsory academic

credit showed that the statistical figures on

success of CCI do not reach everyone. The

volume of unpaid internships3

and even proper

job positions - but unfortunately with no salary

involved - actually are showing that people to

certain extent are subsiding the creative economy

and the idea of creative city. Thus, in this sense,

it seem clear that a new approach is apparently

2In order to express their bad feelings on

internships in the UK, there are some websites which aredevoted to gather information and personal experiences, in

a way to show, the disappointment and the nuisance. Oneof these websites are www.internsanonymous.co.uk or

http://unfairinternships.wordpress.com/ or

http://www.rightsforinterns.org.uk/.3

National media have reported about this subject,emphasising that many internships are actual jobs, but

taken by people graduated recently on a voluntary basis,

which can be understood as unpaid positions.


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actual outcomes are in a sense contradictory as

we can read on the report by the Centre of

Housing Rights and Evictions (2007) that

explained that the last 20 Olympic Games that

took place on Earth reached the amount of 20

million people displaced from their homes. So,

the struggle to become a world city in the global

context - in a sea of labels - can be interpreted as

the desire and/or the willing to become the most

creative place on earth and, in contrast, act

without considering that their actions can affect

negatively the life of million of people.

Another issue not less important at the

moment to asses if these ideas has become more

committed to economics than people is the time

spent at work, because as contrasted by the Dutch


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author Merjin Oudenampsen the ideas on creative

city and economy were supposed to mean an

increase in the number of hours to be spent with

friends and family in leisure activities due to the

improvement of labour conditions, however

according to his writing "since the 60's the total

amount of working hours has grown steeply"

(Oudenampsen, 2006). In addition, another

important topic to consider at the moment to

review the actual situation on CCI at cities is the

wages level in the cultural sector, because as we

showed above the labour market has become

progressively flexible, but what about the

salaries? In this sense, in 2000, Kate Pool, from

the Society of Authors, tried to answer the same

question and analysed a survey made among the


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members of this entity in Britain and, by that

time, she confirmed, for instance, that three

quarters of members earned less than half the

national average wage; two thirds earned less

than half the national average wage and half

earned less than an employee on the national

minimum wage (Pool, 2000). To be clearer on

this figures, Poole, among others she gave, stated

that 46% of the authors surveyed earned less than

5,000 a year. So at the same time that the

Secretary of Culture, Chris Smith proudly

showed the positive figures on the creative sector

in the British economy, some members of the so

called creative class lived under the line of

poverty according to the British standards4.

4According to the UK government, the primary


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These figures support the complains made by the

cultural world in general which in a report

written in 2009 added that, among other things

one of the main problems is the use and re-use

of creators works without adequate payment or

recognition, and sometimes without any

payment (Bently, 2009). So based in the cases

showed in the paragraph above, one can claim

that some actual experiences on creative cities

have not been positive neither for the service

class nor the same creative class, which to a

certain extent means a contradictory outcome

threshold used to measure poverty is the household income

below 60% of the median income net disposable, which in

the period 2007/2006 was 115 a week for a single adult

household which at the same time means that an writerwith an annual salary of 5,000, just makes about 96 a

week.


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after implementing those policies based upon the

creative city theories in which people are the key

resource and target of them.

From a very negative perspective, one can

agreed that culture has been set again in a minor

or even a decorative role in the new context. As

Deborah Leslie argues culture has been

effectively reduced to a means of marketing the

city. From the point of view of cultural

producers, cities exploit art and culture to

enhance the citys image without investing in its

long term viability (Leslie, 2005) which is

completely contradictory with the notion of a city

as a whole environment where culture and

creativity are the heart of the development.


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Paraphrasing Oudenampsen one can

express that in the beginning on these concepts

the equation was to make the economy more

cultural, however along the years this process has

became in the subjection of culture under

economy (Oudenampsen, 2006), not only as part

of the equation culture and commerce, but also

including negative externalities formerly

considered consequences of other activities such

as social exclusion. As Landry expressed that

some people interested in the city renewal was

aware of the value of the human potential of a

community, but in some other cases it looks like

cities are just looking in other places for the

inward investment and creative people, which

means that those local people who are not


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economically productive is progressively

displaced and excluded in their own city. He

compares this process to a facelift, in which the

urban renewal removes the useless social tissue

in order to improve its appearance. So in this

way, the creative city became a concept with high

levels of segregation (Oudenampsen, 2006).

5. Contrasting ideas

Firstly, nowadays is hard to find good

arguments to contrast the extended idea that

culture and creativity are essential ingredients to

achieve a fast and sustainable knowledge-based

development. As Landry argues "policy makers

even outside the cultural field are recognising the

centrality of culture as a driving force for


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development" (Landry, 2005: 239). So it can be

considered common sense the idea that creativity

of people is the engine which allows urban

regeneration based on culture and creative

economy. Landry claims that culture is also a

way to foster the interest of companies in places

that offer a vibrant cultural life for their

employees (Landry, 2000). However, all these

positive perceptions about cities and their

amazing ways of life might be a marketing

approach intended to accentuate the positive and

maybe deliberately overlook the disbenefits

(Paddison, 1993: 243). When one analyses the

problems emerged in creative industries it can be

said that is the natural emergence of the

"contradictions inherent in the fusion between


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creativity and industry (Oudenampsen, 2006).

Using the arguments written by Short regarding

the distribution of benefits and costs of the

Olympic cities this can be applied to a certain

extent to a certain notion of creative cities,

because when there are costs involved those are

borne locally, while most of the benefits accrue

to local lite and a global media market (Short,

2008).

Trying to give and answer to the question

stated in the beginning of this essay, it can be

said that seen from its original point of view, this

concept is mainly focused on people, who are the

basic resource for urban regeneration, and also

are the main benefited with the outcome as we

can see in many examples in different points of


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the globe (Landry et al, 1996). However, some

actual experiences have not been successful from

this point of view because has been focused just

on the economic perspective, which have been

successful in terms of macro economic indexes

or in making them more interesting for foreign

investor (Short and Kim,1998) , but not at a local

level. As argued before, the idea of culture as part

of a process of urban regeneration is broadly

accepted by many authors as well as the value

that offer the cultural and creative industries to

the economic life in different parts of the world,

however as expressed by Pratt (2008) there is a

key difference among the experiences which is

the definition of a consumption-based culture

facing a production-based one.


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Another approach to analyse this question

is whether or not the local communities

intervened in the decision making, which allowed

them to take part in a process which affect their

environment and to a great extent their lives, at

the same time, that involves the planning of their

cities and, consequently, the regeneration (Pratt

2009a). Those processes which have included the

voice of local communities tend to be more

focused on people and their quality of life; while

those with no local participation tend to be more

focused on economy and outstanding macro

economic figures. So one can affirms that in

general it will depend on which approach cities

have followed (bottom up or top down) to answer

the question on a individual basis. Thus in this


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sense, as Pratt (2009a) argues when he claimed

that policy makers tends to implement policies

regardless local identity, inclusion of local

communities in the decision making and so on.

That is what he calls Xerox policy. Moreover, in

this same line of thought, when policy makers

starts working towards investment and attraction

of the so called creative class, there is a trend to

forget or neglect those policies tending to support

local communities such as childcare, public

transport, which have as a consequence that the

non creative class are marginalised twice once

because their consumption preferences, and

secondly because the effect of an influx of the

creative class may well raise land and housing


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prices and drive out the provision of more basic

services (Oakley, 2009; Massey, 2007).

Finally, it is necessary to recognise that

these concepts have been helpful to introduce

these ideas about culture-based urban

regeneration, however it is also required to be

careful to analyse every single actual

experiences, because as said before every one of

them have been conceived from a singular

approach (bottom-up v. top-down; consumption

v. production, and so on) which is, at the end, a

bet, a specific emphasis or even an implicit

selection between people and economy.


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