Good stories overwrite creativity: the three eras of city competition
Abstract
Today cities in national and global competition focus on creativity. Although the creative city concept was invented by Gunnar Törnqvist in 1983, today the dominant concept is creative class articulated by Richard Florida in 2004. Cities are engaged to strengthen their social and cultural environment in the direction indicated in the works by Törnqvist, Peter Hall, Charles Landry, and Florida, and take effort to embed their fame as creative cities to their city branding. This let them communicate a creative image and develop an emotional bond to this image among larger social groups of tourists, employees and beyond. Consequently, their position in competition is improving. The emergence of creativity basically changed the characteristics of city competition since the turn of the millennia, cities – stakeholders in particular – focused on investment and infrastructure development beforehand. As the concept of the creative city already stabilized itself in worldwide city development and branding a new turn might come, and the market of good stories is emerging in city communication which can dim or even overwrite the importance of creativity. While good stories were always part of marketing, and contributed to city planning since the 1980s, their growing importance in city branding can reach a hypothetical point where a new market level develops, and a narrative turn occurs. In such cases, cities themselves carry good stories and the represented virtual reality creates a new market, where creativity will be only one among other stories. In this study we sketch up the three eras of branding in city competition, focusing on the emerging and fading role of creativity.
Keyword : city branding, city competition, creative city, creative class, good stories, spirit of the place
How to Cite
Koudela, P. (2024). Good stories overwrite creativity: the three eras of city competition. Creativity Studies, 17(2), 395–406. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2024.16671
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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Lever, W. F., & Turok, I. (1999). Competitive cities: Introduction to the review. Urban Studies, 36(5–6), 791–793. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098993213
Mager, Ch., & Matthey, L. (2015). Tales of the city: Storytelling as a contemporary tool of urban planning and design. Articulo: Journal of Urban Research, 7. https://doi.org/10.4000/articulo.2779
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Molotch, H. (1976). The city as a growth machine: Toward a political economy of place. American Journal of Sociology, 82(2), 309–332. https://doi.org/10.1086/226311
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Secchi, B. (1984). Il racconto urbanistico: La politica della casa e del territorio. Einaudi.
Selby, M. (2004). Understanding urban tourism: Image, culture, experience. I.B. Tauris.
Swyngedouw, E. (1997). Neither global nor local: “Glocalization” and the politics of scale. In K. R. Cox (Ed.), Spaces of globalization: Reasserting the power of the local (pp. 137–166). The Guilford Press.
Tiebout, Ch. M. (1956). A pure theory of local expenditures. Journal of Political Economy, 64(5), 416–424. https://doi.org/10.1086/257839
Törnqvist, G. (1983). Creativity and the renewal of regional life. Creativity and Context: A Seminar Report, 50, 91–112.
Whitt, J. A. (1987). Mozart in the metropolis: The arts coalition and the urban growth machine. Urban Affairs Review, 23(1), 15–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/004208168702300103
Ameel, L. (2020). Routledge research in planning and urban design. The narrative turn in urban planning: Plotting the Helsinki waterfront. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003094173
Anholt, S. (2010). Places: Identity, image and reputation. Palgrave Macmillan.
Beauregard, R. A. (2005). From place to site: Negotiating narrative complexity. In C. J. Burns & A. Kahn (Eds.), Site matters: Design concepts, histories, and strategies (pp. 39–58). Routledge.
Begg, I. (1999). Cities and competitiveness. Urban Studies, 36(5–6), 795–809. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098993222
Bonakdar, A., & Audirac, I. (2020). City branding and the link to urban planning: Theories, practices, and challenges. Journal of Planning Literature, 35(2), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885412219878879
Braun, E., Eshuis, J., & Klijn, E.-H. (2014). The effectiveness of place brand communication. Cities, 41(A), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2014.05.007
Brenner, N. (1999). Globalisation as reterritorialisation: The re-scaling of urban governance in the European Union. Urban Studies, 36(3), 431–451. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098993466
Carrera Portugal, A. (2019). The role of city rankings in local public policy design: Urban competitiveness and economic press. Global Media and China, 4(2), 162–178. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059436419853892
Castells, M., & Hall, P. (1994). Technopoles of the world: The making of 21st Century industrial complexes. Routledge.
Denters, B., & Rose, L. E. (Eds.) (2005). Comparing local governance: Trends and developments. Red Globe Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-21242-8
Donner, M., & Fort, F. (2018). Stakeholder value-based place brand building. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 27(7), 807–818. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-10-2017-1652
Fainstein, S. S. (1990). The changing world economy and urban restructuring. In D. R. Judd (Ed.), Urban Affairs Annual Reviews. Leadership and urban regeneration: Cities in North America and Europe (pp. 31–51). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Florida, R. (2004). Cities and the creative class. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203997673
Gertler, M. S. (2004). Creative cities: What are they for, how do they work, and how do we build them? (Background Paper F|48). https://oaresource.library.carleton.ca/cprn/31348_en.pdf
Giffinger, R., Haindlmaier, G., & Kramar, H. (2010). The role of rankings in growing city competition. Urban Research and Practice, 3(3), 299–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2010.524420
Grant, J. L. (Ed.). (2014). Seeking talent for creative cities: The social dynamics of innovation. University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442667938
Green, A., Grace, D., & Perkins, H. (2016). City branding research and practice: An integrative review. Journal of Brand Management, 23, 252–272. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2016.8
Hall, P. (1966). World University Library. The world cities. McGraw-Hill.
Hall, P. (1995). Towards a general urban theory. In J. Brotchtie, M. Batty, E. Blakeley, P. Hall, & P. Newton (Eds.), Cities in competition: Productive and sustainable cities for the 21st Century (pp. 1–33). Longman.
Hambleton, R., & Gross, J. S. (Eds.). (2007). Governing cities in a global era: Urban innovation, competition, and democratic reform. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230608795
Harvey, D. (1989). From managerialism to entrepreneurialism: The transformation in urban governance in late capitalism. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 71, 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.1989.11879583
Jarratt, D., Phelan, Ch., Wain, J., & Dale, S. (2019). Developing a sense of place toolkit: Identifying destination uniqueness. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 19(4), 408–421. https://doi.org/10.1177/1467358418768678
Jensen, O. B. (2007). Culture stories: Understanding cultural urban branding. Planning Theory, 6(3), 211–236. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095207082032
Jensen, O. B., & Richardson, T. (2003). Making European space: Mobility, power and territorial identity. Routledge.
Jensen, R. (2001). The dream society: How the coming shift from information to imagination will transform your business. McGraw-Hill.
Jensen, R. (1999). The fifth society – and its successful businesses. Foresight, 1(3), 213–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636689910802142
Jensen, R., & Aaltonen, M. (2013). The Renaissance society: How the shift from dream society to the age of individual control will change the way you do business. McGraw-Hill.
Kavaratzis, M. (2004). From city marketing to city branding: Towards a theoretical framework for developing city brands. Place Branding, 1, 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.pb.5990005
Keskin, H., Akgun, A. E., Zehir, C., & Ayar, H. (2016). Tales of cities: City branding through storytelling. Journal of Global Strategic Management, 10(1), 31–41. https://doi.org/10.20460/JGSM.20161022384
Koudela, P. (2021). Dzsentrifikáció Szöul belvárosában – Cshonggjecshon. Földrajzi Közlemények, 145(1), 32–49. https://doi.org/10.32643/fk.145.1.3
Kresl, P. (1995). The determinants of urban competitiveness: A survey. In P. K. Kresl & G. Gappert (Eds.), Urban affairs annual review: North American cities and the global economy: Challenges and opportunities (Vol. 44, pp. 45–68). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Krugman, P. (1996a). Making sense of the competitiveness debate. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 12(3), 17–25. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/12.3.17
Krugman, P. (1996b). Urban concentration: The role of increasing returns and transport costs. International Regional Science Review, 19(1–2), 5–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/016001769601900202
Landry, Ch. (2008). The creative city: A toolkit for urban innovators. Earthscan.
Lang, R., & Danielsen, K. (2005). Review roundtable: Cities and the creative class. Journal of the American Planning Association, 71(2), 203–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360508976693
Lecompte, A. F., Trelohan, M., Gentric, M., & Aquilina, M. (2017). Putting sense of place at the centre of place brand development. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(5–6), 400–420.
Lever, W. F., & Turok, I. (1999). Competitive cities: Introduction to the review. Urban Studies, 36(5–6), 791–793. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098993213
Mager, Ch., & Matthey, L. (2015). Tales of the city: Storytelling as a contemporary tool of urban planning and design. Articulo: Journal of Urban Research, 7. https://doi.org/10.4000/articulo.2779
Markusen, A. (2006). Urban development and the politics of a creative class: Evidence from a study of artists. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 38(10), 1921–1940. https://doi.org/10.1068/a38179
Molotch, H. (1976). The city as a growth machine: Toward a political economy of place. American Journal of Sociology, 82(2), 309–332. https://doi.org/10.1086/226311
Natanson, A. D. (2021). Economic impacts of sanctuary and ICE policies inclusive and exclusive institutions. https://appliedecon.oregonstate.edu/sites/agscid7/files/applied-economics/economic_impacts_of_sanctuary_and_ice_policies.pdf
Oatley, N. (Ed.). (1998). Cities, economic competition and urban policy. Paul Chapman Publications.
Peterson, P. E. (1981). City limits. The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226922645.001.0001
Porter, M. E. (1996). Competitive advantage, agglomeration economies, and regional policy. International Regional Science Review, 19(1–2), 85–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/016001769601900208
Rodrigues, C., & Schmidt, H. J. (2021). How the creative class co-creates a city’s brand identity: A qualitative study. Journal of Creating Value, 7(1), 19–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/23949643211010594
Rogerson, R. J. (1999). Quality of life and city competitiveness. Urban Studies, 36(5–6), 969–985. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098993303
Sassen, S. (2001). The global city: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400847488
Savitch, H. V., & Kantor, P. (2002). Cities in the international marketplace: The political economy of urban development in North America and Western Europe. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691186504
Secchi, B. (1984). Il racconto urbanistico: La politica della casa e del territorio. Einaudi.
Selby, M. (2004). Understanding urban tourism: Image, culture, experience. I.B. Tauris.
Swyngedouw, E. (1997). Neither global nor local: “Glocalization” and the politics of scale. In K. R. Cox (Ed.), Spaces of globalization: Reasserting the power of the local (pp. 137–166). The Guilford Press.
Tiebout, Ch. M. (1956). A pure theory of local expenditures. Journal of Political Economy, 64(5), 416–424. https://doi.org/10.1086/257839
Törnqvist, G. (1983). Creativity and the renewal of regional life. Creativity and Context: A Seminar Report, 50, 91–112.
Whitt, J. A. (1987). Mozart in the metropolis: The arts coalition and the urban growth machine. Urban Affairs Review, 23(1), 15–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/004208168702300103