"Wu focuses on how urban policies and the clustering of creative industries has influenced urban outcomes. The set of creative industries include those with output protectable under some form of intellectual property law. More specifically, this subsector encompasses software, multimedia, video games, industrial design, fashion, publishing, and research and development. The cities that form the basis for the empirical investigations are those where policy-induced transitions have been most evident, including Boston; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle; Austin; Washington, D.C.; Dublin (Ireland); Hong Kong (China); and Bangalore (India). The key research questions are: What types of cities are creative? What locational factors are essential? What are the common urban policy initiatives used by creative cities? The author explores the importance of the external environment for innovation and places it in the larger context of national innovation systems. Based on a study of development in Boston and San Diego, he isolates the factors and policies that have contributed to the local clustering of particular creative industries. In both cities, universities have played a major role in catalyzing the local economy by generating cutting-edge research findings, proactively collaborating with industries, and supplying the needed human capital. In addition, these two cities benefited from the existence of anchor firms and active industry associations that promoted fruitful university-industry links. Many cities in East Asia are aspiring to become the creative hubs of the region. But their investments tend to be heavily biased toward infrastructure provision. Although this is necessary, the heavy emphasis on hardware can lead to underinvestment in developing the talents and skills needed for the emergence of creative industries in these cities. This paper--a product of the Development Research Group--was prepared for the East Asia Prospect Study"--World Bank web site.

The author focuses on how urban policies and the clustering of creative industries has influenced urban outcomes. The set of creative industries include those with output protectable under some form of intellectual property law. More specifically, this sub-sector encompasses software, multimedia, video games, industrial design, fashion, publishing, and research and development. The cities that form the basis for the empirical investigations are those where policy-induced transitions have been most evident, including Boston; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle; Austin; Washington, D.C.; Dublin (Ireland); Hong Kong (China); and Bangalore (India). The key research questions are: 1) What types of cities are creative? 2) What locational factors are essential? 3) What are the common urban policy initiatives used by creative cities? The author explores the importance of the external environment for innovation and places it in the larger context of national innovation systems. Based on a study of development in Boston and San Diego, he isolates the factors and policies that have contributed to the local clustering of particular creative industries. In both cities, universities have played a major role in catalyzing the local economy by generating cutting-edge research findings, proactively collaborating with industries, and supplying the needed human capital. In addition, these two cities benefited from the existence of anchor firms and active industry associations that promoted fruitful university-industry links. Many cities in East Asia are aspiring to become the creative hubs of the region. But their investments tend to be heavily biased toward infrastructure provision. Although this is necessary, the heavy emphasis on hardware can lead to underinvestment in developing the talents and skills needed for the emergence of creative industries in these cities.

The so-called ‘creative industries’ are increasingly being presented as an important tool of urban regeneration and economic development. Until now, research on the clustering of such activities has been limited to economics, geography and urban policy. This book is the first to gather together emerging research in urban design and spatial planning that explores what characteristics of the built form of cities support the distinctive activity patterns of various creative industries, and how and why they cluster together at a range of local scales. The book offers detailed case studies and comparative analyses of creative city neighbourhoods on five continents. Contributions examine urban forms, building types, and other qualities of place that attract and retain creative workers and foster creative production, outlining a range of methodologies for studying them. Taken altogether, Creative Milieux offers new insights for urban design practice, and for its role in wider urban policy. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Urban Design.

The concept of creative industries has developed considerable academic and policy momentum in the 21st century. There has been a connection identified between the rise of creative industries and the urbanisation of the world’s population, particularly in relation to the significance of cities as sites of cultural production and consumption. Much of the work on creative industries and cities, however, has drawn upon 'imagined geographies' about the relationship between creativity and place. This collection draws together contributions that critically appraise recent urban cultural policy discourses, as well as reflecting on the role of culture and creative industries in the future development of cities. This book is based on a special issue of The Information Society: An International Journal.

Justin O’Connor and Lily Kong The cultural and creative industries have become increasingly prominent in many policy agendas in recent years. Not only have governments identified the growing consumer potential for cultural/creative industry products in the home market, they have also seen the creative industry agenda as central to the growth of external m- kets. This agenda stresses creativity, innovation, small business growth, and access to global markets – all central to a wider agenda of moving from cheap manufacture towards high value-added products and services. The increasing importance of cultural and creative industries in national and city policy agendas is evident in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Australia, and New Zealand, and in more nascent ways in cities such as Chongqing and Wuhan. Much of the thinking in these cities/ countries has derived from the European and North American policy landscape. Policy debate in Europe and North America has been marked by ambiguities and tensions around the connections between cultural and economic policy which the creative industry agenda posits. These become more marked because the key dr- ers of the creative economy are the larger metropolitan areas, so that cultural and economic policy also then intersect with urban planning, policy and governance.

Creative clusters are considered to be only viable in big cities. However, creativity can act as a driving force for the development of low density areas, combating the exodus to large metropolis. On one hand, creative people are attracted to low density environments characterized by the presence of endogenous assets, such as natural and historical-cultural amenities and by a healthy quality of life. On the other, creative businesses in the areas of design, crafts, arts, etc are the result of an active entrepreneurial spirit of these talented people who want to live, work, learn and play in these creative communities. Places with a higher concentration of creative occupations tend to have more creative activities and to develop dynamic creative clusters. Furthermore, creative industries provide innovative inputs and knowledge spillovers to traditional sectors of small economies. Thus, the creative issue could contribute 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 rethink rural development. Local public policies have a role to fulfill, promoting strategies oriented to: attraction of the creative class; enhancement of creative entrepreneurship; promotion of creative industries; creation of artistic and cultural infrastructures (museums, galleries, schools, incubators); launching of events, fairs and exhibitions; promotion of creative urban regeneration, etc. But, the presence and role of creative clusters and talents in low density zones need to be more widely acknowledged in order to pursue innovation policies aimed at developing small economies. The objective of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between low density areas and the development of creative industries and the attraction of talented people. The research approach will be based on a case study methodology centered on the analysis of three European examples of creative small urban environments (Óbidos, PT; Barnsley, UK; Hódmez√myvásárhely, HU). A conceptual model and a set of analysis dimensions will be defined as the theoretical background of this benchmarking exercise. The aim of this investigation is to distil best practices and policy recommendations for the development of creative low density communities.