The spatial dimension of creativity: evidence from the metropolitan region of Rome

Abstract

The difficulty to ‘place’ economic activities stemming from culture and creativity in a fairly comprehensive and intelligible context has prevented researchers and policy makers from coming to shared conclusions on definition criteria. The terminology-related confusion reached the peak at the end of the nineties when ‘creative industries’ superseded ‘cultural industries’, which had been until then a widely-agreed term for cultural policies at the national and the international level. In the light of the intense academic debate developed around the cultural/creative industries, the first paper analyses tensions and debates around the diverging definitions, as well as some peculiar characteristics of these industries and their multiple relationships with the urban context. The effects of application of different classification schemes in the mapping of the sector’s boundaries are discussed, to illustrate the difficulties culture faces while competing with other sectors for funding within national and international economic policy frameworks.Creative industries in the Metropolitan region of Rome are geographically concentrated. The purpose of the second paper is to empirically test the hypothesis that this geographic concentration arises from the benefits of the innovative urban milieu, which is characteristic of specific metropolitan areas. A spatial regression model is estimated using data on the creative industries in the Metropolitan region of Rome by census blocks. We estimate the number of creative firms by census block unit with a spatially lagged dependent variable. The empirical results show that the estimated coefficient of the spatially lagged dependent variable is significantly positive, indicating that the number of creative firms in a census block is influenced by the number of creative firms in neighbouring census blocks. This enables us to explore the conditions that account for the concentration of creative industries. The purpose of the third paper is to analyse the detailed location patterns of creative industries in the Metropolitan region of Rome. The spatial distribution of economic activities is studied by utilising spatially referenced point data as input to a statistical model based on Ripley’s K-function. Pairwise differences between K-functions of observed point patterns are computed and compared with simulated confidence bands. A null hypothesis of random labelling is tested upon three conditions: by analysing the spatial distribution of different creative sectors with respect to the rest of creative activities; by comparing pairs of creative subcategories for the purpose of identifying those revealing mutual attraction; by comparing, for each creative subcategory, localization patterns of creative firms with respect to the localization of respective service functions. The empirical analysis showed that the core creative sectors have the tendency to cluster in space at small distances (up to 20 – 40 kilometres) while the respective service sectors are dispersed internally and disposed around the core. In particular this holds true for the pattern displayed by Architecture, Antiquities, Publishing, Music and performing arts, Video, Film and photography, Radio and television. Pairwise point pattern analysis revealed the existence of urban clusters characterised by the co-existence of different creative activities.