Abstract
Abstract As culture and the arts gain importance within the agendas of cities, the operation of urban creative clusters is manifested as an effective planning tool for rundown neighbourhoods. Artists and cultural businesses (galleries, theatres, design offices, fashion designers, etc.) form a unique and distinctive sector among other sectors of the economy; their effect on the development and image of a particular neighbourhood can be very important. As part of wider urban processes, city marketing and city branding techniques are often used in order to promote the change in these neighbourhoods and, ideally, prevent negative social effects. The main goal of this paper is to present the experience and implications of the - mostly accidental - formation of a creative cluster in Athens (in the areas surrounding the Athenian part of Piraeus Street) and to critically evaluate the potential role of branding, drawing on the experience of similar efforts in other European cities.
Highlights
As part of wider urban strategies, place marketing and city branding techniques are used in order to promote change in a city or a specific neighbourhood and, ideally, to prevent problems and ensure citizen participation (Kavaratzis & Ashworth 2005, Braun 2011)
The main goal of this paper is to present the experience and implications of the – mostly accidental – formation of a creative cluster in Athens and to critically evaluate the potential role of branding, drawing on the experience of similar efforts in other European cities
It is clear that Athens is not a representative case study as the notion of a creative cluster has not developed here in the same way as in other European cities
Summary
As part of wider urban strategies, place marketing and city branding techniques are used in order to promote change in a city or a specific neighbourhood and, ideally, to prevent problems and ensure citizen participation (Kavaratzis & Ashworth 2005, Braun 2011). Mommaas (2004: 507) conceptualises cultural or creative clusters in his article, where he comments on this variety of features saying, “Projects may restrict themselves to stand-alone buildings or larger building complexes, or they may include entire quarters or networks of locations” He describes the synergies that are developed within leisure and tourism activity. Chapain & Comunian (2010) comment on the different forms creative clusters can take, referring to cases of single buildings where a cluster of creative industries is found, and to the difficulty in defining clusters where the boundaries are not clear; instead, they propose a methodology that combines the creative cluster with the notion of the knowledge-pool model They provide an extensive list of references for particular case studies of urban creative clusters.
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