ABSTRACT
Creativity and culture now occupy prominent places on the urban policy and re-profiling agendas of cities in developed and developing nations around the world. In Europe, North America and Australia, in particular, strategies focused in part on fostering cultural activity and the (often called) creative industries have emerged to be amongst the most important local policy initiatives of recent years while the notion of the ‘creative city’ has become something of a city imaging cliché. Indeed, the proliferation of blueprints for locally focused cultural planning/creative city approaches to city building and urban branding has been quite remarkable. The urban cultural development priorities of the European Union and UNESCO also highlight the importance that is being placed on fostering local creative and cultural activity in order to revive cities and urban economies, achieve social inclusion, and brand places as ‘different’. Initiatives can range from the so-called ‘Europeanisation’ of the inner city via the establishment of cultural, education or entertainment precincts through to the high profile ‘cultural capitals’ schemes of a number of national and supra-national bodies, including UNESCO and the European Union. In addition, Richard Florida's well known treatises on the value of cultural infrastructure and the ‘creative class’ to building successful cities and urban economies have been highly influential, including being positioned by some as an approach that can help address the urban consequences of the global financial crisis.
