THE CREATIVE CITIES CONCEPT FROM ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

Text topic: Creative Sector - Outlines of a New Model of Development

Text author: Дејан Молнар

The concentration of economic activity in space, especially in cities, is specifically expressed in the process of globalization. Although there were expectations that the process of liberalization and the lowering costs of trade will contribute to a greater dispersion of production and people, in practice the opposite have happened. The number of large, populous, urban centers is increasing and the number of people in them, too. A possible reason why the production, wealth and people concentrate in cities is the evolution of business philosophy that occurred parallel to the process of globalization. The economy of knowledge and ideas replaced the traditional concepts. So-called creative era in which we live today has been created. Cities are becoming creative centers and places in which economic growth is created, mostly due to a number of creative people (members of the creative class) who have chosen to live and work in the modern urban environment. Creative cities are those that manage to attract and retain talent. A key factor in the above process is the (non)existence of tolerance. Creative people (talent) are a highly mobile factor, meaning they are very „sensitive“ to attractive terms and incentives of living and work provided by the environment. Creative cities are those that manage to secure all three growth assumptions („3T“ – technology, tolerance and talent). Successful cities differ from unsuccessful ones in that they are able to create adequate conditions for living and work for those who belong to the creative class. How cities can attract members of the creative class? Why some cities are more successful in that than the others? What members of the creative class are „looking for“ in the cities (places) in which they live and work? Those are some of the questions that we will try to answer in this paper.