Project Description

Creativity and innovation are now main issues in the literature dedicated to urban change and policy, according to which cities that want to attract talented people and flourish economically need to generate a favourable "atmosphere". However, these approaches are often criticized for promoting a limited vision of human progress. They tend to rely almost exclusively on market economy principles, neglecting other dimensions of urban development. Social innovation is then presented as a useful concept, since it aims to integrate social objectives in the "creative cities" agenda.

This project aims to bring out these issues in Porto Metropolitan Area, an agglomeration that over the last two decades experienced considerable transformations in different domains of urban creativeness. Research programme includes the mapping of spatial distribution of the so-called creative and knowledge-intensive activities in Porto Metropolitan Area, as well as their workers residential preferences. It also aims to analyse innovation in urban policy experiences, and to debate how some of these experiences may represent an opportunity for the diffusion of creative and socially innovative solutions across the region.

Research Team

• Prof. Isabel Breda Vázquez
• Carlos Oliveira
• Renato Dias
• Rita Guimarães

Financial Support

• FCT (PTDC/AUR/68407/2006)

Stage of Progress

• FCT project concluded in 2010

Publications

Scientific Papers

• Breda-Vázquez, I; Oliveira, C. (2012) "Creativity and social innovation: what can urban policies learn from sectoral experiences?", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36(3) , pp 522-538

Papers in Proceedings of Scientific Meetings

• Breda-Vázquez, I; Oliveira, C.; Guimarães, R.; Gomes, F.; Dias, R. (2009) "Creativity, urban resurgence and urban policies: exploring policy implications of creativity spatial patterns", in CITTA 2nd Annual Conference on Planning Research 15 May, Porto, Portugal , pp 417-437