ABSTRACT
There is an on-going debate about the creative class, creative industries and creative
regions. These notions are indivisibly connected to Richard Florida’s work. Florida
(and followers) highlight amenities, openness and tolerance as the key factors behind
the geographic mobility and regional agglomeration of creative people (Florida, 2002a,
2002b; Florida et al., 2008; Florida & Mellander, 2010). The notion “amenities” is
ambiguously used in the literature and comprises the climatic, cultural, recreational as
well as aesthetic aspects of a regional environment (Storper & Manville, 2006). Their
role is of particular interest to us because recently they have been used to explain increas-
ing urban economic and population growth (Glaeser et al., 2001; Clark et al., 2002). This
stimulated investments in amenities, which then became a fashionable policy tool that
attracted talented and creative people.
