ABSTRACT
The previous decade and a half has seen a growing focus on the role of creativity in foster-
ing economic development, with the emergence of concepts such as creative industries,
creative economy and the creative class (Chapain, Clifton, & Comunian, 2013). The
underlying assumption is that these industries-and the firms and individuals that
comprise them-are highly innovative and are thus the new motor of economic growth.
Consequently, they are placed by many policy-makers across Europe at the heart of
their national innovation and economic development agendas (Comunian, Chapain, &
Clifton, 2014), within a broader adoption of a neo-liberal (Sager, 2011) policy-making
orthodoxy. Context matters in the successful nurturing of creativity and its translation
into sustainable economic outcomes (Clifton, Cooke, & Hansen, 2013; Huggins &
Clifton, 2011); however, this very success can have the effect of countering the social
cohesion and diversity that is said to underpin creativity and the locational choices of crea-
tive people. Such potential complications are typically disregarded in simplistic adoptions
of this neo-liberal development agenda (Boland, 2014; Nagle, 2009).
