Making a Metropolis Through Knowledge and Creativity? French Metropolitan Areas According to Urban Planners

Abstract

In international debates on the economics of innovation and creativity, the popularized concept of ‘creative cities’ (Landry 2000) or the ‘creative class’ (Florida 2002a) has focused attention on urban environments. In this light, by examining artists from Montreal, Canada’s number two region, Pilati and Tremblay (2007, p. 478) argue that the creative potential attributed to a city has become a critical factor in its metropolitan positioning. As for Melbourne in Australia, T. Yigitcanlar et al. (2008) demonstrates that urban policy design geared towards the knowledge economy dates back to the 1970s. However, the 1990s was a turning point, firmly placing culture, sciences, tech and innovation at the core of urban, social and economic strategies. More recently, Ingallina (2019) has shown that the semantic shift towards the concept of a knowledge city has little to do with adding scattered initiatives, but rather implies a strategy metropolitan political and economic actors adopt. This researcher cites Paris, London, Rome, Venise or Milan as examples where urban or metropolitan governments strengthen their policies of excellence, hyper-connectivity and international exchanges all while trying to promote a spirit of togetherness and a more fair and sustainable socio-spatial organization.