ABSTRACT
This chapter explores media parks – as one specific creative cluster type – as a policy tool of economic development, and the reimagining, recasting and redeveloping of old industrial locales as part of strategic development policies. The chapter uses two case studies from different national contexts, MediaCityUK, located in Salford, UK, and MediaPark Cologne, Germany, which provide for varying provisions for local policymaking capacities. The cases can illustrate the interaction between internal and external factors in shaping and utilising media parks in metropolitan areas. Differences in local circumstances, capacities and capabilities become evident in the efforts to use visible agglomerations of the media industry as vehicles of urban regeneration and economic (re-)positioning, brand re-enforcement and the complete rebranding of localities. This chapter finds that media parks are built on the dual nature of creative clusters combining a conventional physical presence in the urban fabric, while also functioning as nodes in a relational interactive network of interests. The chapter may be of particular interest to those interested in the use of media parks as a tool in urban development strategies.
