White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 2Chapter 2The Italian model of creativity and international positioning2.1. Italy’s position inEurope and in the worldPossessing distinctive features bothmarks out differences and assigns anindependent position. In the case ofnational states, the position a countryachieves in a given field turns out to bepolitically significant because it willattract alliances and contribute to asubjective sense of identity.In the field of creativity, the model ofcreativity for social quality positionsItaly on the international scenealongside those countries who valuethe use of culture and creativity inimproving the quality of individual andcollective life.By contrast, in Italy the concept ofcreativity as a phenomenon totallydriven by the impetus of technologicalinnovations is weaker.Since Italy is one of the majorindustrialised nations, we must have apositive view of the component oftechnological creativity – certainly alsoa feature of the country but which onlypartially identifies its content.The two models – creativity forinnovation and creativity for socialquality – are also an example of theNorth-South geographical divide of thecreative issue which features on theinternational agenda. In fact, whereasthe model of creativity for innovation andits insistence on technological aspectsis typical of North European andNorth American countries, the modelof creativity for social quality and itsreference to culture, territory, society,cultural districts and creative citiesseems to interpret better the trend ofcreative processes in Mediterranean,African, Latin American and Asiancountries. In this division of the worldaccording to models of creativity, Italyhas an interesting bridging positionbetween those who aspire to move thecutting edge of technologicalinnovation towards even greatersuccess and those who want theprogress of creativity to be constantlyinformed by ethics, the aesthetic andsocial quality of collective life.Lastly, both models acknowledge thepotential of the creative economy togenerate economic development,income, exports and jobs.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 41