Local Integration Ontological Model of Creative Class Migrants for Creative Cities

Korawan Sangkakorn,Nopasit Chakpitak,Pitipong Yodmongkol

doi:10.5539/ies.v8n12p157

Abstract

An innovative creative class drives creative cities, urban areas in which diverse cultures are integrated into social and economic functions. The creative city of Chiang Mai, Thailand is renowned for its vibrant Lan Na culture and traditions, and draws new migrants from other areas in Thailand seeking to become part of the creative class. This study aims to classify a local integration model for the migrant creative class, and to suggest a set of indicators that could be used to measure the level of successful integration of a migrant creative class when building creative cities. This study selected twelve creative class sample cases who are well known in Chiang Mai and separated the sample into three groups; educator, researcher, and innovator. The study’s agenda consisted of open-ended questions with a semi-structured format for the in-depth interview, and follows a local integration ontology model.The study found that the local integration model consisted of four key domains: means and work, social connection, facilities, and foundations domains. Significant factors are included in each domain, and all four domains are important for the local integration of the creative class in creative cities. Annotation Ontology was used for determining the critical factors for success for migrants in creative cities: namely job, training, social bridge, and language and cultural knowledge.This study presents a new model, the Lan Na Local Integration Metric, which can be applied to understand the successful integration of migrants into the Lan Na region of Chiang Mai.

Highlights

Urbanization is a multi-faceted and complicated process of social and economic changes in which a society converts from a mainly rural to a largely urban civilization (Yeates & Garner, 1976)
The creative class sample cases in this study were successful in their work to the point where they were recognized by other local people for their achievements
This study found that the use of local integration ontology is beneficial in classifying important integration factors for the migrant creative class

Summary

Introduction

Urbanization is a multi-faceted and complicated process of social and economic changes in which a society converts from a mainly rural to a largely urban civilization (Yeates & Garner, 1976). In observing current trends of urbanization around the globe, in 2014 North America is the most urbanized region, with 82% of its population residing in urban areas. It is followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (80%), Europe (73%), Asia (40%) and Africa (40%). In the Southeast Asian country of Thailand, the country’s urban area grew from about 2,400 square kilometers to 2,700 between 2000 and 2010, demonstrating an average annual growth rate of 1.4%. Chiang Mai, a city nearly 700 kilometers north of Bangkok, is one of the ten biggest cities in Thailand and one of the densest urban areas with 5,000 people per square kilometer

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