A Kraft-index – kreatív városok – fenntartható vidék (The KRAFT Index: Creative Cities – Sustainable Regions)

A KRAFT-index: Kreatív városok – fenntartható vidék egy komplex mutatórendszer, amely a fejlődési tendenciát, hálózatosodást, a fontosabb szereplők együttműködési készségét és kapacitását, kreativitási potenciálját, valamint a szereplők szinergiáiból fakadó belső energiákat és lehetőségeiket jelzi. A város- és vidékfejlesztés sikerének zálogaként előtérbe állítja és méri az ún. „puha” tényezőket, úgymint a kreativitást, innovációs képességet, új tudás létrehozását, tudástranszfert, együttműködési készséget, bizalmat, kollektív kompetenciákat. A társadalmi, gazdasági és tudományos kapcsolatok és hálózatok sűrűsége, minősége és dinamizmusa a sikeres fejlődés és fejlesztés kulcsai: ezek ma már fontosabb tényezők, mint a fizikai távolság, az adminisztratív jogi határok vagy az ún. „kemény” indikátorok. Az index értékeli egy térség lehetőségeit arra, hogy az ott élők, dolgozók, alkotók és letelepedni kívánók életminőségét, a vállalatok minőségi munkaerő iránti igényét és a fenntarthatósági szempontokat egyaránt figyelembe véve fejlessze gazdaságát és versenyképességét. Három tulajdonságcsoportot mér: 1. kreativitiási és innovációs potenciál, az új tudás létrehozásának képessége, 2. társadalmi és kapcsolati tőke, hálózati potenciál és „összekapcsoltság”, valamint 3. fenntarthatósági potenciál. _____ The KRAFT Index: Creative Cities – Sustainable Regions is a complex indicator system to measure development tendencies, ‘networkedness’, cooperation inclination and capacity, creativity potential and possibilities arising from the synergies among actors. It highlights and gauges ‘soft’ factors, such as creativity, innovation capacity, knowledge production, knowledge transfer, willingness for cooperation, trust, and collective competences and perceives effective regional cooperation among economic and social actors as the measure of successful urban and rural development. The density, quality and dynamism of social, economic and academic networks are more important factors than physical distance, administrative legal barriers or ‘hard’ indicators. The index evaluates the potential of a region to develop its economy and competitiveness by considering the quality of life of its inhabitants, workers, producers and immigrants, the quality workforce requirements of companies and sustainability. It measures three groups of qualities: 1. creativity and innovation potential, the ability of knowledge production; 2. social and connection capital, network potential and connectedness; and 3. sustainability potential.

Building a creative city brand through an international mega-event : Case: Helsinki World Design Capital 2012

In order to grow, cities are increasingly competing for attention, jobs, investments, visitors, residents and significant events. Cities need to come up with creative solutions to keep up with the competition; they ought to become creative cities. Attracting talented and diverse inhabitants is a key factor in developing a creative city, which on is characterized by openness, tolerance, vibrancy and diversity. Along the need for renewed city images city brand building has become popular. Helsinki is the World Design Capital 2012 (WDC 2012) and this mega-event presents a meaningful opportunity for the city to broadcast itself globally. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how Helsinki brands itself as a creative city through an international mega-event. The sub-aims are to: 1) Map the factors behind the creative city and their relation to the city of Helsinki, 2) Describe the city branding process, 3) Evaluate the role of the Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 mega-event in Helsinki’s creative city brand building. First, the theory discusses the concept of the creative city that has gained growing attention during the past decade. Then, the city branding process is described and the benefits of hosting a mega-event are presented. Finally, co-branding a city and a mega-event in order to generate maximum benefit from the mega-event, is reviewed. This is a qualitative research for which data was collected through three face-to-face interviews, the World Design Capital 2012 bid, Helsinki’s economic development strategy, a consulting firm’s research report on the case city and web-pages. The research reveals that Helsinki has shown interest in the creative city discussion. The terminology around the concept is however approached carefully. Helsinki fits many of the creative city characteristics and recognizes its flaws for which improvement strategies have been planned. Bottlenecks keeping the city from promoting a more open mind were mainly revealed in its organizational structures. Helsinki has no official brand strategy; nonetheless pressure to develop one is present. The World Design Capital 2012 mega-event is seen as a meaningful stepping board to strengthen Helsinki’s identity and image, and start thinking about a city brand. The brand strategies of the mega-event support the values and virtues of the city itself, which enables benefits of co-branding introduces in the theory part. Helsinki has no official brand and doesn’t call itself a creative city, however this study shows signs of the city taking steps towards building a creative city brand with the help of the Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 mega-event.

Óbidos, literary village: innovation in the creative industries?

The village of Óbidos was recognized in 2015 as a creative city in the area of literature, becoming a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. The attribution of the title depends on the fulfillment of a number of criteria the regions have to integrate. In addition to Óbidos, UNESCO attributed the same title in the same year to other European cities, including Barcelona, Nottingham, Ljubljana, Tartu and Lviv. This article intends to co nduct a case study to the cultural and artistic offer, as well as the cultural and literary legacy that different cities provide to be able to inquire the innovation of the proposals. The study aims to assess how much Óbidos, compared to other cities with the same title, is creative. Knowing that the concept of creative city (Landry and Bianchini, 1995) results from the emergence of new technologies and a new type of economy based on creativity and innovation and that creativity implies removing economic or social value of the creative work or talent, the study aims to determine to what extent the processes generated gave rise to new ideas (creativity) and what processes led to its implementation (innovation). Being innovation in the creative industries asso ciated with product, process, positioning, paradigmatic and social innovation (Storsul and Krumsvik, 2013), it is concluded that, in Óbidos, the entrepreneurship initiatives are more focused on tourists who occasionally visit the village and the business o pportunities that are generated there. New innovative and creative spaces were created, promoting literature and adding value and quality to urban space. This urban intervention resulted in the attraction of individuals who streamlined new habits of being and acting in the village

Cidades criativas e desenvolvimento regional : o caso de Vitória-ES

O presente trabalho pretende dedicar-se a discussão dos elementos que compõem a economia criativa, para tanto, utiliza diferentes conceitos de criatividade, indústrias criativas e cidades criativas. O termo economia criativa surgiu em 2001 com o livro de John Howkins, mas a idéia básica foi apresentada no estudo Creative Nation realizado pelo governo australiano em 1994. A partir de então, diversos países têm adotado o conceito como instrumento de fomento ao desenvolvimento econômico e social. Assim, a associação da economia criativa a uma economia voltada ao desenvolvimento está ligada, portanto, ao reconhecimento de que a criatividade humana pode ser um ativo econômico (REIS, 2012). Diferentes países e regiões podem utilizar essa abordagem com o objetivo de alcançar efeitos positivos sobre o emprego e como ferramenta para a promoção da inclusão social. A discussão é recente no Brasil, um dos estudos pioneiros foi desenvolvido pela Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FIRJAN), intitulado “A Cadeia da Indústria Criativa no Brasil”. A partir desse trabalho e do banco de dados da Secretaria de Turismo, Trabalho e Renda – SETGER da prefeitura de Vitória foi possível desenvolver um estudo espacial dos empreendimentos criativos para Vitória -ES. Concluiu-se, então, que a desconcentração dos empreendimentos criativos nas diferentes regiões do município deve ser um dos objetivos buscados para que a cidade se transforme em um espaço mais colaborativo e coeso.

Lisboa cidade criativa: preparação de uma candidatura à Rede de Cidades Criativas da UNESCO

Trabalho de projeto apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Gestão Estratégica das Relações Públicas.

Transient Spaces: unsettling boundaries and norms at the cultural event Noc Noc, Guimarães, Portugal

Cities are increasingly expected to be creative, inventive and to exhibit intense expressivity. In the past decades many cities have experienced growing pressure to produce and stage cultural events of different sorts and to develop new strategies that optimize competitive advantages, in order to promote themselves and to boost and sell their image. Often these actions have relied on heavy public investment and major private corporation sponsoring, but it is not always clear or measured how successful and reproductive these investments have been. In the context of strained public finances and profound economic crisis of European peripheral countries, events that emerge from local communities and have low budgets, which manage to create significant fluxes of visitors and visibility, assume an increased interest. In order to reflect and sketch possible answers, we look to an emerging body of literature concerning creative cities, and we focus on the organisation of a particular cultural event and its impact and assimilation into a medium size Portuguese city. This paper looks at the two editions (2011 and 2012) of one of such events – Noc Noc – organized by a local association in the city of Guimarães, Portugal. Inspired by similar events, Noc Noc is based on creating transient spaces of culture which are explored by artists and audiences, by transforming numerous homes into ephemeral convivial and playful social ‘public’ environments. The event is based on a number of cultural venues/homes scattered around the old and newer city, which allows for an informal urban exploration and an autonomous rambling and getting lost along streets. This strategy not only disrupts the cleavages between public and private space permitting for various transgressions, but it also disorders normative urban experiences and unsettles the dominant role of the city council as the culture patron of the large majority of events. Guimarães, an UNESCO World Heritage City was the European Capital of Culture in 2012, with a public investment of roughly 73 million euro. By interviewing a sample of people who have hosted these transitory art performances and exhibitions, sometimes doubling as artists, the events’ organizers and by experience both editions of the event, this paper illustrates how urban citizens’ engagement and motivations in a low budget cultural event can strengthen community ties. Furthermore, it also questions the advantages of large scale high budget events, and how this event may be seen as unconscious counter movement against a commodification of cultural events and everyday urban experience at large, engaging with the concepts of staging and authenticity.

Créer ou produire un jeu vidéo? Étude ethnographique d’un milieu de production vidéoludique montréalais

Le jeu vidéo est un produit qui ne cesse de gagner en popularité alors que les expériences ludiques tendent de plus en plus à se diversifier. Les recherches académiques sur l’objet vidéoludique se sont multipliées dans les dernières années afin de comprendre les particularités du nouveau média, surtout en ce qui concerne l’analyse du produit lui-même et sa réception, mais laissant peu de place à sa créa-tion et sa production. Montréal est un lieu idéal pour étudier le médium : en peu de temps, l’industrie du jeu vidéo est devenue l’un des fleurons industriels québécois. La présente étude s’est intéressée aux développeurs de Montréal, ville où se situe la plus grande partie des studios au Québec, afin de connaître leur perception du produit vidéoludique et de l’industrie. Au travers d’une perspective phénoménologique, un séjour ethno-graphique a été effectué dans un studio de production vidéoludique où plusieurs développeurs ont été observés et interviewés. Ce travail s’inscrit dans une anthropologie du travail et rend compte de la com-plexité qui émerge lorsqu’un travail essentiellement créatif vient se heurter à des motifs de production strictes. Plus encore, il rend compte d’un paradigme opposant directement la création et la production dans un milieu qui se présente comme une avenue prometteuse pour une jeunesse désirant vivre d’un travail créatif. Cette condition est attribuable à la nature du jeu vidéo lui-même qui se situe, selon Kline, Dyer-Witheford et De Peuter (2003), à mi-chemin entre la culture, la technologie et les visées commerciales (marketing). Les développeurs se trouvent donc entre deux eaux : d’un côté ils sont influencés par la culture du jeu, relevant de leurs pratiques, leurs préférences et des commu-nautés de développeurs et, de l’autre côté, par l’industrie qui dicte les façons de faire et viennent selon eux minimiser leur potentiel créatif.

Knowledge, networks of cities and growth in regional urban systems

The objective of this paper is to measure the impact of different kinds of knowledge and external economies on urban growth in an intraregional context. The main hypothesis is that knowledge leads to growth, and that this knowledge is related to the existence of agglomeration and network externalities in cities. We develop a three-tage methodology: first, we measure the amount and growth of knowledge in cities using the OCDE (2003) classification and employment data; second, we identify the spatial structure of the area of analysis (networks of cities); third, we combine the Glaeser - Henderson - De Lucio models with spatial econometric specifications in order to contrast the existence of spatially static (agglomeration) and spatially dynamic (network) external economies in an urban growth model. Results suggest that higher growth rates are associated to higher levels of technology and knowledge. The growth of the different kinds of knowledge is related to local and spatial factors (agglomeration and network externalities) and each knowledge intensity shows a particular response to these factors. These results have implications for policy design, since we can forecast and intervene on local knowledge development paths.

Olympic cities and communication

Article published in Greek in the special issue "The Olympic Games: the mega sports and media event" of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens journal Communication Issues (2004, no.1), discussing the need for establishing a communication model for city-games relations.

Immigration and Firm Growth: Evidence from Spanish cities

This article analyses the effect of immigration flows on the growth and efficiency of manufacturing firms in Spanish cities. To date, most studies have tended to focus on the effect immigrants have on labour markets at an aggregate level. Here, however, we undertake an exhaustive analysis at the firm level and report conclusive empirical findings. Ten years ago, Spain began to register massive immigration flows, concentrated above all on its most dynamic and advanced regions. Here, therefore, rather than focusing on the impact this has had on Spain’s labour market (changes to the skill structure of the workforce, increase in labour supply, the displacement of native workers, etc.), we examine the arrival of immigrants in terms of the changes this has meant to the structure of the country’s cities and their amenities. Thus, we argue that the impact of immigration on firm performance should not only be considered in terms of the labour market, but also in terms of how a city’s amenities can affect the performance of firms. Employing a panel data methodology, we show that the increasing pressure brought to bear by immigrants has a positive effect on the evolution of labour productivity and wages and a negative effect on the job evolution of these manufacturing firms. In addition, both small and new firms are more sensitive to the pressures of such immigrant inflows, while foreign market oriented firms report higher productivity levels and a less marked impact of immigration than their counterparts. In this paper, we also present a set of instruments to correct the endogeneity bias, which confirms the effect of local immigration flows on the performance of manufacturing firms.

Price level convergence, purchasing power parity and multiple structural breaks: an application to US cities

This article provides a fresh methodological and empirical approach for assessing price level convergence and its relation to purchasing power parity (PPP) using annual price data for seventeen US cities. We suggest a new procedure that can handle a wide range of PPP concepts in the presence of multiple structural breaks using all possible pairs of real exchange rates. To deal with cross-sectional dependence, we use both cross-sectional demeaned data and a parametric bootstrap approach. In general, we find more evidence for stationarity when the parity restriction is not imposed, while imposing parity restriction provides leads toward the rejection of the panel stationar- ity. Our results can be embedded on the view of the Balassa-Samuelson approach, but where the slope of the time trend is allowed to change in the long-run. The median half-life point estimate are found to be lower than the consensus view regardless of the parity restriction.