Creative Clusters: diversifying local economic base and opportunities to young people
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09 October 2017Open up a discussion on re-thinking local economic bases at the light of the creative economy: that was the aim of Creative Clusters project's first thematic workshop entitled "Creative clusters: diversifying local economic base & opportunities to young people”. Over 40 professionals including policy makers, local officers, experts, creative entrepreneurs attended the intense one-day conference and fruitful debate on October 29-30, 2009 in Ploiesti, in Romania.
The objective of Creative Clusters project is to promote the exchange of experiences and best practices and the proposal of policy recommendations and action plans related to creative clusters in low density urban areas. The starting assumption of this URBACT project is that creativity can act as a driving force for economic development of small urban centres and not only of big cities. Thus, the main value-added that the work of the Creative Clusters network can produce is to transfer the "creative city model" (too much focused on big and middle-sized metropolis) to low density urban areas. In other words, to transfer a range of so far considered urban attributes (accessibility, cultural life, technological facilities, competitive clusters, global networking, etc.) to middle-sized and small towns. This is relevant at European Union level because the project is exploring the capacity of the creative issue to impulse a sort of leapfrog in terms of social and economic development for small and midsize towns as well as an excellent opportunity to re-think rural development.
During the event, interactive thematic workshops focussed on creativity and the activation of new growth potentials in mature industries, re-thinking tourism in the framework of creative local strategies, fostering new emergent productive realities, comprehensive perspectives in Eastern Europe. Crucial questions were posed regarding the on-going project learning process on local creative clusters:
- How to deal with culture and creative activities in a functional way for local economic development?
- Is there a specific agenda for mid-sized towns on this question?
- Threats and opportunities for mid-sized towns.
- Are creative activities really relevant for Job creation in our cities?
- What is the role to play by local governments in such long-term strategies?
The meeting was the first in a series of five thematic workshops covering key sub-themes which are articulating the URBACT project on creative clusters at network level. The second thematic workshop on "Creative education: incubating future talent" will be held next May 6-7 in Reggio Emilia, a world-class benchmark in the field of creative methods in school.
Read more:
- . Full report by Miguel Rivas, Creative Clusters' Lead expert – pdf
- Creative Clusters – URBACT website
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