Enabling and Inhibiting the Creative Economy: The Role of the Local and Regional Dimensions in England

Chapain C. and Comunian R. Enabling and inhibiting the creative economy: the role of the local and regional dimensions in England, Regional Studies. Integrating findings from two separate research projects in Birmingham and Newcastle-Gateshead in England, this paper explores factors that enable or inhibit the development of creative and cultural industries in English regions outside London. The findings question current creative and cultural industries policies and their understanding of the local and regional dimensions as being limited to the idea of geographical clusters. Instead, the paper calls for a wider approach that also takes into account the importance of the regional infrastructure and the 'knowledge pool' necessary to the development of creative and cultural industries, but also personal and operational connections of the creative and cultural industries within and outside their region.