The EU-funded project aims to assess the impact of the emerging ‘creative class’ and the rise of the ‘creative industries’ on the competitiveness of EU metropolitan regions. Referring to Richard Florida’s assumption of a new highly mobile “creative class” which operates on a transnational scale, the research project evaluates the role of location factors anew. While the traditional ‘hard’ location factors that firms use will remain important for international competitiveness, new ‘soft’ location factors that are mainly related to attracting the required ‘talent pool’ will deserve increasing attention.
The central research question the project will address is: what are the conditions for creating or stimulating ‘creative knowledge regions’ in the context of the extended European Union? In 13 research sites recent socio-economic development trends and strategies in these metropolitan regions will be compared to get more insight in the extent to which creativity, innovation and knowledge are indeed the keys to a successful long-term economic development. The metropolitan regions in the ACRE project are: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Birmingham, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Leipzig, Milan, Munich, Poznan, Riga, Sofia and Toulouse.
The project focuses on several dimensions in order to understand the (potential) effectiveness of regional competitiveness policies that focus on a creativity- and knowledge-based metropolitan economy. It also addresses the role of path dependency: do traditions in certain economic branches and certain local and regional historic spatial structures contribute to a more favourable point of departure when trying to develop a ‘creative knowledge region’? Furthermore, it will be analysed to which extent policies for competitive ‘creative knowledge regions’ not only aim at attracting certain types of economic activities, but also at providing ‘soft location factors’ like an attractive residential environment, public space, and ‘meeting places’ for the ‘talent pool’ needed for these economic activities. Especially relevant for the situation of Leipzig is the role of trans-national migration of skilled labour forces. It will be analysed to what extent trans-national migrants are attracted by ‘soft’ location factors like an attractive residential environment, a diverse population and a tolerant atmosphere in the metropolitan regions they migrate to? How important are such factors when weighted against job or career opportunities and costs of living? To what extent are migrants to ‘creative knowledge cities’ different from migrants to ‘global’ or ‘world cities’ in their reasons to migrate?
The comparative approach of this EU-project will provide more insight in the extent to which creativity, innovation, and knowledge are indeed the keys to a successful long-term economic development. Based on comparative analysis the project has the potential to evaluate recent socio-economic development trends and recent economic development strategies in 13 metropolitan regions across Europe. With the results of this study the EU might seriously consider strengthening the profile of metropolitan regions within the EU area as regards creative knowledge branches and activities in the face of increasing competition with other growth regions in the world. The most important topic to consider is which metropolitan regions might develop as ‘creative knowledge regions’, and which regions might not. This will depend on current positions in global and European networks and on historic development paths. In this research projects European experts with complementary disciplinary backgrounds from places with clearly different pathways concerning the creative knowledge economy will be brought together. This will help to significantly improve our understanding of the conditions that shape the emergence of a creative knowledge economy and of its importance for enhanced competitiveness.
Researchers:
Joachim Burdack, Günter Herfert, Bastian Lange
Publication:
Lange, Bastian / Burdack, Joachim / Herfert, Günter / Thalmann, Ronny / Manz, Katja (2007): Creative Leipzig? Pathways to creative and Knowlwdge-based regions. Amsterdam (= ACRE Report 2.6).
Cooperation:
University of Amsterdam (Lead Partner) and 11 partners in Europe
Duration:
10/2006–09/2010
Project sponsoring:
EU
Further informations:
 Joachim Burdack
Tel.: +49 (0)341-255-6511
Bastian Lange
Tel.: +49 (0)341-255-6569
 ACRE
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