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The 'Cultural Turn' In Australian Regional Economic Development Discourse: Neoliberalising Creativity?, Chris Gibson, Natascha Klocker

Chris Gibson

Regional economic policy-makers are increasingly interested in the contribution of creativity to the economic performance of regions and, more generally, in its power to transform the images and identities of places. This has constituted a 'cultural turn', of sorts, away from an emphasis on macro-scale projects and employment schemes, towards an interest in the creative industries, entrepreneurial culture and innovation. This paper discusses how recent discourses of the role of 'creativity' in regions have drawn upon, and contributed to, particular forms of neoliberalisation. Its focus is the recent application of a statistical measure - Richard Florida's (2002) 'creativity index' - …