Creative Hubs and the Cultural Divide: Exploring European Creative Collaborations

Abstract The economies generated within the creative and cultural sectors are playing an increasing role in international competition between territories. Collaborations and synergies between territories can create the right conditions for the overall growth of cultural economies and make the them more attractive and better performing. Building collaborative cultural policies is challenging due to the parties’ differing attitudes, priorities, and resources. In this contribution, we have focused on the funds made available by the Framework Program of the European Commission dedicated to developing cultural and creative sectors. The analysis highlights the characteristics of a network of collaborations between partners of different cities. Our results show non-trivial features linked to the cultural-creative dimensions of cities. Findings unveil complex cultural-creative collaboration dynamics. Results show that effective collaborative policies require carefully balancing diverse attitudes. JEL classification numbers: L82, R58, Z11 Keywords: Creativity, cities network, enabling environment.