Preconditions of Creative Cities and Regions Juha Kostiainen Vice President, Business Development; Adjunct Professor (Tampere University) Finlandia Hall, 29 th September 2006 1 PUBLIC
Increasing Interest In Creative Cities Globalization Knowledge-based economy Innovations and competition are sources of growth World-first-innovations are created in major cities (Therrien 2005) Creativity as a postmodern value itself 2 PUBLIC
The Flowing World (Sotarauta & Kostiainen 2002) Cambridge Stockholm Helsinki Milan Boston Capital Technology Information Culture Experts Companies Tourists Students 3 PUBLIC
Cities in the Core of Network Society Prosperity is generated in city regions where high level technological compentecies, tolerance and versatile creatity exist mutually Cities and city regions are competing Skilled and creative people (experts) Knowledge-intensive businesses Visibility and space in the minds of skilled people and access to field of selection 4 PUBLIC
Creativity, Innovation and Cities Many approaches: learning regions, regional innovation systems, innovative milieus, creative cities, etc. Different focus - creative individuals, social capital, networks, unoffical interaction, systemic relationships with different kind of innovative actors Creativity is an individual process and innovation is a social one (Brennan & Dooley 2005) Both are needed: creative people and innovative environment 5 PUBLIC
Appreciated by Creative People Quality of living environment housing alternatives, high level services, culture, open and tolerant atmosphrere, authenticity (local character), etc. Creative problem-solving environment Many alternative career opportunities (many companies in the focus cluster) Possibilities to work in challenging and interesting tasks and learn Jobs for spouse also 6 PUBLIC
Educating Creativity Focus from teacher and teaching towards pupil and learning School culture, which is based on trust appreciate everybody as human beings encourage participation and dialogue support freedom and responsibility Prepared learning environment, which enable activity, interactional learning, spontaneous meetings, and independent work 7 PUBLIC
Characteristics of Innovative Milieu Connected to certain geographical area In innovative milieus interaction is based on reciprocity, proximity, shared culture and trust Milieus are open to the world - continuous search for new knowledge and information Milieus generate synergy and collective learning Co-operation is networklike by nature and networks emerge from milieu 8 PUBLIC
Characteristics of Innovative Micro Environment Presence of versatile creativity (artistic, technological, scientific, financial, managerial) Interesting meeting places (restaurants, boutiques, pedestrian areas etc.) a social space for changing of ideas (Zukin 1995) Good internal and external accessibility Recognizable identity and unique built environment, architecture History and stories 9 PUBLIC
Meaning of Physical Proximity Common cultural background (cf. multiculturalism) Common language and shared values Above factors build confidence and promote unofficial networks Weak ties (Granovetter 1973, Florida 2002) Transferring of tacit knowledge enabled by face-to-face interaction Tacit knowledge is insightful, experiences-based, intuitive and non-abstract knowledge which is in the core of the innovation process (Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995) 10 PUBLIC
Local Buzz and Global Pipelines (Bathelt et al. 2002) 11 PUBLIC
Buzz (Bathelt et al. 2002) Buzz refers to the information and communication ecology created by face-to-face contacts, co-presence and co-location of people and firms within the same industry and place or region Participating in the buzz does not require particular investments. This sort of information and communication is more or less automatically received by those who are located within the region and who participate in the cluster s various social and economic spheres 12 PUBLIC
Enabling Regional Innovation Policy (adapt. to Tödtling & Trippl 2005 ) From company-oriented policy to system-based innovation policy; innovative milieus compete globally Wide interpretation of innovations; organizational, financial, educational and commercial dimensions must also be recognized The role of administration is to encourage, spur, create social capital and intermediary structures, no business interventions (e.g. etampere, Forum Virium Helsinki) 13 PUBLIC
Better recipies, not just more cooking (Paul Romer) 14 PUBLIC