ABSTRACT
The debate on the relationship between cities and innovation, which started from Jane Jacobs’ seminal work (1969), has then focused on the effects of diversity versus specialization in localized knowledge spillovers (Feldman and Audretsch 1999). An intensification has recently taken place thanks to the literature on creative economy. The concepts of creative city, creative clusters (Chapain et al. 2010) and cultural-creative industries (Lazzeretti 2013) have come to the fore and have developed alongside that of creative class (Florida 2002). Moreover, the notion of creative city has expanded to involve not only large metropolitan areas, but also suburbs, small towns and rural areas (Andersson, Andersson and Mellander 2011).
