What seems to be clear is that any strategy linking, for example, these new types of industries with the future economic development of a city has to address first of all the issue of social and urban context in which it is operating, as well as supply side questions such as adequate business support, specific forms of training and new forms of education. The right combination of ingredients needed in order to capture a niche varies from location to location, but I believe there is one element that is preponderant in determining the success of a city: the ability to encourage a true ‘culture of creativity’ among its people and institutions. And this is because those cities that have succeeded have understood the implications of the ‘paradigmatic’ shifts we are currently undergoing. They have grasped the need for an urgent, sustained and strategically focused response to their problems.
To become a truly creative capital, London will, for instance, have first of all to invest in harnessing its own people’s talent by fostering a culture of openness, of cultural expression, of risk-taking. City decison makers will need both to find innovative ways of creating social cohesion, identity and citizen services as well as establishing the conditions for enterprise of all sorts to flourish - whether private, voluntary or public.
The public sector will need to rethink how it helps manage the city; it will need to be administered differently, find new forms of accountability to the various stakeholders that drive urban development, establish more sophisticated and effective partnerships to harness resources, skills, talents and potential.
There is a challenge for the private sector too. It needs to have greater understanding of the dynamics that make communities work and how social cohesion and the quality of life in cities are increasingly becoming sources of business competitiveness.
Venture capitalists will need to respond to new kinds of needs, demands and help launch new ranges of services and products. The voluntary sector equally has a role to play as a source of innovation and nurturer of talent. As can the universities by providing ladders of opportunity through incubator units or links with business to tap into their expertise. Though nobody can claim to have the right answer to the problems discussed above, the listing by Franco Bianchini and Charles Landry in their seminal work on creative cities of a set of key requirements for the nurture of a ‘creative city’ could be taken as a good beginning. These have been tested out in practice in only a few cases, (Bianchini and Ghilardi 1997) but the results have so far been quite encouraging and, although more research needs to be done in general on how cities can learn to be creative, one feels that city managements and policy makers now have ‘a leg to stand on’. The key requirements are:
New forms of communication - different actors in the city must learn to talk to each other in different ways, breaking down barriers between departments and insitutions, creating an open system which enables those with different skills and disciplines to talk and listen to each other. New ways of describing things - the traditional language of geography is very often inadequate as a way of defining aspects of urban experience such as the quality of public and social life, the liveability of a town centre, the cultural vibrancy, the atmosphere of a town and other ‘softer’ resources cities might have.
New ways of monitoring - new forms of local research and monitoring are needed to define local aspirations, needs, trends and actual and potential problems. But, as well as this, different forms of monitoring need to be put in place in order to allow cities to share and learn from their experience and their sucesses, or failures.
New forms of research and development - city governments should encourage experimental and pilot projects. Failure should be viewed in a constructive way as part of a learning experience.
Removal of obstacles - institutions and structures which prevent or deter creative thinking should be put under scrutiny and, if necessary, dismantled.
Sense of direction - underlying all the above must be a strategy which inspires confidence and gives encouragement, while giving the city enough space to develop in an organic way.

References

* Bianchini, F. and Ghilardi, L. (1997) Culture and Neighbourhoods: A Comparative Report, Vol 2. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing
* Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, London: Routledge
Castells, M. (ed.) (1985) High Technology, Space and Society, London: Sage
* Castells, M. and Hall, P. (1994) Technopoles of the World: The Making of 21th Century Industrial Complexes, London: Routledge
* Hall, P. (1995) ‘The roots of urban innovation: culture, technology and urban order’, Urban Futures 19
Hall, P. (1996) ‘Cities of people and cities of bits’, Demos Quarterly 9
* Handy, C. (1994) The Empty Raincoat: Making Sense of the Future , London: Hutchinson
Landry, C. and Bianchini, F. (1995) The Creative City , London: Demos
* Lash, S. and Urry, J. (1994) Economies of Signs and Space, London: Sage
Phillips, T. (1995) London: Countdown to the Millennium, Part 1, London Weekend Television
* Rifkin, J. (1995) The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
* Saxenian, A. (1994) Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Lia Ghilardi is director of Noema Research and Planning.
Noema Research is a consultancy specializing in cultural
planning and strategic thinking about cities and their future economic development. She teaches at the De Montfort University, Leicester and is consultant of European Community - DG XVI for regional development projects.
Noema Research
29 Arlingford Road - London SW2 2SR
Ph. +44 181 6712617
E-mail praxis@dircon.co.uk

This paper was firstly presented at the Third Internationl Conference On Creative Thinking
Malta: July 1997