REFLECTIONS ON THE CREATIVE CITY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO AMSTERDAM

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REFLECTIONS ON THE CREATIVE CITYWITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO AMSTERDAM

• Allen J. Scott,
• University of California,
• Los Angeles

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• CAPITALISM AND URBANIZATION
• 1. The factory system the classical factory town
• 2. Fordist mass production the large industrial
  metropolis
• 3. Post-fordism, the new economy,
  cognitive-cultural capitalism the creative city.

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• FEATURES OF COGNITIVE-CULTURAL CAPITALISM
• 1. Digital technologies
• 2. High levels of scientific/technical labor
• 3. Human intermediation of services
• 4. Symbolic outputs
• DESTANDARDIZATION OF PRODUCTION
• HTI, services, neo-artisanal industries,
  cultural-products industries etc.

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• Managerial discourse flexibility, fast
  capitalism, human capital, empathy, creativity,
  adaptability, etc.
• Urban policy discourse consumer city (Glaeser),
  entertainment machine (Clark), creative city
  (Florida, Landry).
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------
• Elements of authenticity in each discourse but
  deeply flawed

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• At the outset, lets look at the driving forces
  behind urban agglomeration and growth
• 1. Networks of specialized but complementary
  producers
• 2. Local labor markets skills, socialization
• 3. The creative field learning and innovation,
  i.e. creativity is always mobilized in concrete
  ways (textiles industry, car industry, film
  industry)

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• Increasing returns to scale
• Agglomeration economies
• Competitive advantages
• Monopoly powers of place (product differentiation
  and branding)
• Clustering is a locational strategy by means of
  which producers transform latent benefits into
  concrete agglomeration economies

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(Data and maps courtesy of Karen Pfeffer and Els
Eldhuizen, AMIDST)
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• Basic lack of large-scale strategic audit
• cf.
• (A) British Cultural Industries Mapping
• Document
• (B) Baseline Study on Hong Kongs
• Creative Industries Cultural
• Very useful start made by Kloosterman and
  Musterd/Deurloo

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• A new equilibrium between work and leisure in the
  city
• 1. Upgraded urban milieu (LA Fashion District)
• 2. Interpenetration of production space and
  social space of the city
• 3. Proliferation of cultural facilities.
• 4. Iconic architecture and recycling of the built
  environment Bilbao Guggenheim, Westergasfabriek,

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• A new equilibrium between work and leisure in the
  city
• 1. Upgraded urban milieu (LA Fashion District)
• 2. Interpenetration of production space and
  social space of the city
• 3. Proliferation of cultural facilities.
• 4. Iconic architecture and recycling of the built
  environment Bilbao Guggenheim, Westergasfabriek,
  Docklands in London.

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• The Florida formula
• 1. Entice creative class by means of
  appropriate amenities.
• 2. Sit back and watch your city grow.
• --------------------------------------------------
  ------
• Anti-Florida
• 1. The complex production machinery of the city
• 2. The spiral cumulative causation in city growth
• 3. The impossibility of sustainable growth in the
  absence of jobs
• 4. The privileged role of productive activity in
  the spiral of interdependencies

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• The example of Silicon Valley
• 1. Fruit growing
• 2. Initial planting of high-technology seed.
• 3. Disintegration, spin off.
• 4. In-migration of semiconductor engineers (NOT
  undifferentiated creative class)
• 5. Growth of market and defense spending
• 6. Cumulative causation

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• THE POLICY PROBLEM
• Bottom up
• Harvest external economies (networks, labor
  markets, innovation)
• Sustain milieu
• Institution-building in the interests of regional
  coordination, marketing, distribution
• (Club of Amsterdam Amsterdam Creativity
  Exchange Amsterdam Fashion Week Amsterdam
  Fashion Institute Film and Television Academy)

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• BUT The dark side of the dialectic
• Sweatshops
• Underclass
• Immigrant, often undocumented, labor
• Social segmentation

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• Beyond the creative class toward solidarity,
  sociability, political community
• Beyond the creative city toward the convivial
  city