According to Sir Peter Hall’s Cities in Civilization (1998) creative cities have always existed. Cities have always been places that can trigger creativity among its residing communities. As a metaphor, however, the creative city first started to gain momentum in the 1990s. Today, many policy makers and scholars all over the world talk about creative cities. In 1995, DEMOS researchers Charles Landry and Franco Bianchini published a series of papers under the heading of the creative city. By that time the creative city had started to appear in the titles of international conferences as well. Renowned international news magazines like The Economist (15 April 2000) also began to participate in the evolving debate about creative cities. And in September 2002 Newsweek International devoted some articles to the issue of ‘how to build a creative city’.

In that same year, the debates about creativity and urban development were boosted by the release of Richard Florida’s The rise of the creative class. The book about the arrival of a new economic class of creative people immediately became an international best-seller, triggering an international debate about the importance of attracting talented creative workers.

Today, innumerable cities all over the world feel they should at least explore what it means to be a creative city. This blog’s category tries to show - and comment on - different aspects of the international debates.