An introduction to Berlin’s creative economy (original) (raw)

The terms of “creativity”, “creative class”, “creative industries”, “creative clusters” and “creative city” are all different notions used to describe and analyze the shift that has been performed on the economic bases of many urban regions, which are investing more and more in knowledge-based activities and culture. The creativity issue has been widely discussed in the academic circles in an interdisciplinary way, as it perfectly connects social, economic and spatial aspects. In practice, there are cities that are broadly perceived as creative, cities that struggle to become creative, raising questions whether creativity can be constructed, and others that their creativity, if any, is questioned. Berlin is certainly part of the first category, being today considered one of the most creative cities. In this paper, basic theoretical aspects of the creative economy model are being presented and construct a methodology which is then being tested in the analysis of the case of study, Berlin. At first, Berlin’s rich history is being narrated in order to provide the context in which the city formed its creativity. After that, the today’s city is being decomposed in its people, clusters and industries so as to provide an insight of its core of and attitude towards creative economy. At the end, some issues raised are briefly discussed.