Creative milieu

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In creative environments (also innovative milieu ) is, one in the economic geography widespread network approach that attempts to explain the importance of local enterprise networks for the generation of knowledge and innovation.

The most important basis for the economic success of a region is therefore personal relationships between the various actors from business and politics. These serve the creative exchange of ideas and the establishment of common models and goals for an economic region.

Creative milieus and industrial districts

The approach is closely related to industrial districts and other network approaches such as clusters . The debate about creative milieus arose from the growing importance of regional production networks and industrial districts. This approach emerged in the 1980s parallel to the discussions about the industrial districts of Italy. As in the industrial district concept, companies are not viewed in isolation, but also in the context of local conditions and the local socio-institutional structures. With regard to the theoretical development of economic geographic location models, this is a merit of these two approaches, as the traditional location models (e.g. with Alfred Weber and Johann Heinrich von Thünen) were basically based on one-company companies. Although both concepts have a similar starting point overall, they were largely developed independently of one another.

The three dimensions of the creative milieu

According to Bathelt and Glückler (2012), creative milieus are made up of the following three characteristics:

  1. Localized production system
    This term describes that creative milieus are made up of a spatial cluster of companies, suppliers, customers and service providers. These actors are intertwined in a variety of ways. In doing so, they are linked by interlinking goods, labor market, technology and information. This is the localized form of a value chain with transaction cost advantages (caused by spatial proximity).
  2. Socio-institutional embedding
    Cross-company networks in creative milieus not only consist of the interdependencies mentioned in point 1, but they are also connected to one another in other ways. They are embedded ( embeddedness ) in formal and informal institutions. The term institution describes the existence of formal and informal regulations and standards. Formal institutions are, for example, training centers and research institutions. Informal, on the other hand, describe things like trust, habits and a common local culture.
  3. Innovation and learning processes
    Over time, a common knowledge base arises in localized production systems. This results from the numerous formal and informal communication and information flows within the corresponding region (e.g. through personal meetings). Since this collective knowledge is largely only available locally, it creates competitive advantages.

See also

swell

  • Elmar Kulke. Economic geography. Paderborn 2006 ISBN 3-8252-2434-1
  • Harald Bathelt, Johannes Glückler. Economic geography. Economic relationships in a spatial perspective. Stuttgart 2012 ISBN 978-3-8252-8492-3