First international Workshop Beyond creative cities: people, places, innovation
Online event 1 st and 2nd April 2021
For registration and information, please send an email to Julien Van Simaeys from the university of Angers : julien.vansimaeys@univ-angers.fr
To read the programme in details, please check the SCAENA website.
In addition to to the scientific communication sessions, the organization committee has scheduled on friday afernoon a keynote session with three guests of choice :
- Patrick Cohendet, Professor at the department of International business at HEC Montréal
- Will Straw, Professor of Urban Media Studies at Mc Gill University
- Sharon Zukin, Professor emerita of sociology at Brooklyn College
The workshop « Beyond Creative Cities » is organized by the SCAENA (supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche) research program. It was initially planned for 8th to 10th of October 2020, as part of the « Nantes, European Capital of Innovation » event organized by Nantes, which has been awarded European Capital of Innovation for 2019 notably for its capacity to involve citizens in coshaping the city. This workshop aims to address the questions of innovation models, the relationship between artistic activities and digital technologies, the territorial innovation and the making of the city.
The idea of creative city first emerged in the late 1980s/early 1990s combining three initial ingredients : mapping the cultural industries, promoting an innovative design of local public policies and fostering a cultural urban renaissance around strong public investments in art and cultural amenities. Throughout the 2000s, the buzz that surrounded the creative class and industries contributed to a real storytelling and the application of the creative city agenda. If the debates around the creative city were mainly focused on issues of attractiveness, place branding and the clustering of creative activities, they neglected the pioneering postulates which were at the origin of the formulation of what was to become one of the most important urban models of the late twentieth century : the link between creative abilities of people, place-making and the production of innovations and novelties.
Thirty years later, the picture is still confused. As Graeme Evans reminds us, «The creative city imaginary is an evolutionary concept, reflecting post-industrial and cultural ‘turns’, resulting in a hybrid of assemblages and definitions; assemblage in terms of both sociospatial theory, notably in geography, and in the visual art practice of creative construction through ‘found objects’, where the creative city is seen to draw on a city’s cultural assets, ‘offer’ and ‘creative essence’. The latter is often manifested in creative industries and strengths in innovation and design, and in the more experiential buzz and scene associated with contemporary attractive cities. » (Evans, 2017 : 311)
The main objective of the workshop is to challenge the creative city idea in the light of the 21st century issues :
1. Beyond creative classes: a cooperative society based on maker ethos
2. Beyond creative clusters: some new paths of innovation?
3. Beyond creative cities: urban innovation regimes ? Overall, this first international workshop questions the future of creative cities: what were they ? what will they become ?
For registration and information, please contact Julien Van Simaeys from the university of Angers : julien.vansimaeys@univ-angers.fr
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