Abstract
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Regional economic policy-makers are increasingly interested in the contribution
of creativity to the economic performance of regions and, more generally, in its
power to transform the images and identities of places. This has constituted a
‘cultural turn’, of sorts, away from an emphasis on macro-scale projects and
employment schemes, towards an interest in the creative industries, entrepreneurial
culture and innovation. This paper discusses how recent discourses of the
role of ‘creativity’ in regions have drawn upon, and contributed to, particular
forms of neoliberalisation. Its focus is the recent application of a statistical
measure — Richard Florida’s (2002) ‘creativity index’ — to quantify spatial
variations in creativity between Australia’s regions. Our critique is not of the
creativity index per se, but of its role in subsuming creativity within a neoliberal
regional economic development discourse. In this discourse, creativity is linked
to the primacy of global markets, and is a factor in place competition, attracting
footloose capital and ‘creative class’ migrants to struggling regions. Creativity
is positioned as a central determinant of regional ‘success’ and forms a remedy
for those places, and subjects, that currently ‘lack’ innovation. Our paper critiques
these interpretations, and concludes by suggesting that neoliberal discourses
ignore the varied ways in which ‘alternative creativities’ might underpin
other articulations of the future of Australia’s regions.