White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 33.3 Cities as places ofattraction, consumptionand socialityThe consumption of cultural goodsand activities in cities – trends andfeaturesBecause of their high concentration ofpeople in a relatively small space, citieshave always been important places fortrading and consumption processes.But these aspects have often beenneglected by the academic literature,especially in economics, which hasusually dealt more with the advantagesthat urban agglomerations brought forcertain production activities (Glaeser,Kolko and Saiz, 2001).Only in recent years have someeconomists acknowledged theimportance and the influence ofconsumer activities on urban dynamicsand the processes of regionaldevelopment. This discovery hasmainly been due to the extraordinarygrowth in specific consumptionprocesses which have little to do withtraditional goods and products but arerelated to intangible services andgoods and to cultural and creativeactivities.The growth in consumption linked tocreative, recreational and culturalactivities has been most oftenmonitored and studied in cities such asLondon, New York and Toronto. Thesame trend is also found in Italy,however, where the consumption ofmany recreational and culturalactivities has constantly grown overthe last 15 years.In addition to constant growth, another interesting feature of theconsumption of cultural, creative andrecreational activities is itsconcentration in the cities, andespecially the large or medium to largecities. Typically studied and analysed ina number of countries, this feature hasemerged in a very similar way also inItaly.By referring to SIAE figures on theconsumption of performing arts inItalian cities, divided according toprovincial capitals (which are usuallymedium to large cities and includeregional capitals, like Rome, Milan,Naples, etc.) and all the other townsand villages, we can analyse how theconsumption of performing arts isdistributed between these two types ofcities and towns. The survey shows thelevel of concentration of performancesin provincial capitals to be very high(for example, 64% of classical musicconcerts take place in provincialcapitals and only 36% percent in theremaining towns). But the figures areeven more significant in terms of thenumber of consumers and especially interms of money spent by audiences. Inthe same example of classical music:with 64% of all concerts in theprovincial capitals, we find 80% ofconcert-goers nationwide and as muchas 87% of the overall nationalspending on concerts.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 76