ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the emphasis on the development of cultural quarters may serve to isolate artistic and creative practices, fracturing attempts to integrate creative and technological ecosystems at the heart of the creative city ethos. It investigates how the evolution from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) to STEAM thinking that is currently informing international education policy offers potential to establish long-term. Lawton's pivotal study persuasively argues that Richard Florida's work, while forming the backbone of Dublin's economic and urban 'fast policy', has been characterized by a lack of underlying strategy or coherence. In the last decade the creative city thesis has come to monopolize policymaking discourse about the economic, cultural and social make-up of cities, acting as shorthand for urban innovation defined by a culture of creativity. For many, the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) in December 2009 offered the potential to wrest back public space from private enterprise.
