ABSTRACT
What is the creative city? A relatively recent collection by Power and Scott (2004) explored this territory under the rubric of cultural industries and the production of culture. While we are delighted that books of this quality and range are becoming available for study and research, we aim to be clearer about one thing in particular. Most treatments in this burgeoning field tend to use the terms ‘cultural’ and ‘creative’ interchangeably. As articulated with great precision for the case of Vancouver by Smith and Warfield (2007), they wish, appropriately, to distinguish cultural economy and creative industries. This is because – as shown in a book focusing upon Creative Regions (Cooke and Schwartz 2007) – the two have almost totally distinctive modes of production, institutional bases and aesthetic content. Thus it can be a little alarming to see, as yet, inadequate recognition of these important differences.
