Creative small cities: Cityscapes, power and the arts

Abstract

World cities are often heralded as cultural centres, foci of creativity and the arts (Hall 1998; Florida 2002). Metropolitan centres such as Paris, London, Sydney and Washington, DC, appear to dominate geographies of creativity and ‘cultural industries’.1 This lead is often attributed to their concentration of cultural infrastructure, large audiences, the operation of agglomeration economics and the desire of many people working in the arts to live in the ‘buzz’ of cosmopolitan suburbs (Scott 2000; Gibson et al. 2002). Florida’s (2002) work has been influential amongst economic policy makers and moves to harness the creativity of cities. As Gibson and Klocker (2004) note, his ideas have resonated particularly strongly amongst Australian decision makers.2 This thinking would suggest that, when compared to the creative nexus operating through the agglomeration of film, music, writing and painting in world cities, small cities lacking clusters of creativity are always ‘less’ (Gibson and Klocker 2005). Yet, as Rodger’s (2005) study of small cities in non-metropolitan Victoria, Australia, illustrates, creativity is not an innate attribute of people living in large Western cities. Smallness itself would not appear to work against the creativity of people. Indeed, smallness itself may by regarded by creative workers, creative businesses and decision makers as being appealing, particularly in the context of sustainable futures. If so, why have recent regional and city policy makers interested in boosting economic indicators through cultural industries almost consistently ignored how cultural production operates in small cities?