On ‘creative cities’ governance models: a comparative approach

Abstract

The implementation of ‘creative cities’ projects all over the world in recent years has been characterised by a great diversity of institutional frameworks and governance mechanisms.

 Departing from the contemporary debates on ‘creative industries’ and ‘creative cities’, this article aims to discuss this diversity of regulatory mechanisms and forms of governance. Some tentative typologies of case studies and governance mechanisms are drawn in order to improve the understanding of those dynamics, to build up knowledge on suitable ‘creative cities’ governance models, and to develop ideas to support a strategy for public intervention in the Portuguese case.

Keywords:

• creative cities
• creativity
• cultural activities
• governance
• urban

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ricardo Ferreira for his contributions to the thoughts and reflection that made this article possible and for his collaboration with the creative industries and creative cities governance models working group in Dinâmia.

Notes

1. This text is a revised version of a text published as a working paper in the Dinâmia Working Paper Series (WP no. 2006/54, Lisboa: Dinâmia/ISCTE), and presented at the XVIth RESER International Conference ‘Services governance and public policies’, Lisbon, September 2006.

2. Advertising; architecture; arts, antiques and crafts; design; digital entertainment; film and video; music; performing arts; publishing; software and computing; and television and radio.

3. Suggestively entitled Creating growth – how the UK can develop world class creative business.

4. Dr Tan Chin Nam, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore.Available at: http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/culture/Cultural_Industries/presentations/Session%20Three%20-%20Stuart%20Cunningham%20-%20Policy%20Instruments.pdf

5. Cited in Marcus (2005), p. 4.

6. British Council, available at http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-creative-economy-2.htm.

7. Creative Clusters, available at http://www.creativecluster.co.uk.

8. Despite its broader scope, the Portuguese Technological Plan Cabinet (linked to the application of the Lisbon Strategy) presents some of the same across the board features as its British counterpart, though in an embryonic way.

9. See the website for the Premsela Foundation, available at http://www.premsela.org. Accessed July 2006.

10. See the website for the Cultural Industries Development Agency, available at http://www.cida.org.uk. Accessed July 2006.

11. See Babo & Costa (2006). For more information on the Portuguese cultural and creative industries see Magalhães (2004), Costa (2005), Matews (2005) and Santos (1998; 2005).