Creativity in urban context: how networks and public places influence the functioning of cultural districts

The aim of this paper is to delve into the creative processes that take place within a cultural cluster, i.e. a geographical agglomeration of differently sized autonomous individuals and organizations operating in cultural clusters. In particular, we focus our attention on how cultural cluster perceive the attributes of the locality where they live as a source of stimuli and ideas, eventually supporting the generation of creative outcomes. In doing so, a particular focus will be on the collaboration networks and the places where a cluster’s members meet to share ideas and to talk about their projects, which represent important contextual conditions that enable sharing of information and complex tacit knowledge, all pre-requisites of creative processes. Findings derive from two exploratory studies conducted on the cultural scene of Reggio Emilia, a medium-sized town in Northern Italy and combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies.