EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Medium-Sized Cities and the Dynamics of Creative Services

Medium-Sized Cities and the Dynamics of Creative Services

Introduction

Why analyse medium-sized cities and “creative” activities? In France, during 20-30 years, regional policies have primarily considered cities through their size and their attractiveness: first, the largest ones, then the medium-sized ones and finally the smallest ones. What is being argued concerns the relationship between services and size of urban areas. More precisely, the analysis concerns the behaviour of some high skilled services located in other levels of the urban hierarchy than those of large cities.

Description

This paper examines the development of “creative” services (research, information, art etc.), located in medium-sized areas. Insofar as urban dynamics lead to extend the advanced services outside metropolises, particular attention is given to issues concerning the definition of “medium-sized cities”, and their significance regarding urban systems; the approach in terms of creativity and metropolization clarifies the incidence of their economic contexts and their structuring role within spatial frameworks. The findings presented in this paper are based on the experiment of French cities. They precise the meanings and the limits of the urban size effect, which can play in favour of medium-sized areas growth, and to their detriment as well.

Conclusions

This paper presents some performances of medium-sized areas regarding “upper metropolitan functions”. The approach is at a stage of identification of the main trends, it is only descriptive and comparative.

The paper has described the “upper metropolitan functions” regarding French mediumsized urban areas and the results show both progresses and failures. Art, producer services, research etc. require high skilled jobs mainly concentrated in large metro areas, but that seem to agglomerate in medium-sized cities too. Conclusions about the concentration of UMF (upper metropolitan functions) in large metro areas and the decentralization of day-to-day services in medium-sized cities correspond to an admitted spatial pattern. Scales are different, but through spatial proximity, networks, various forms of relationships, we have emphasized the existence of “creative” niches at medium-size levels.

Finally, two methods are offered to medium-sized urban areas:

To follow deliberately metropolitan functions in urban spaces and urban sets, which remain “under” or not metropolized in the primary sense of the term “metropolitan”. Examples exist for Germany, for the United States, they seem difficult to apply to France, except for singular services, may be in the form of “creative niches”.
To preserve and reinforce technological quality, and a good image of traditional functions in areas that have a low level of centrality. One will be based on the imitation, the adjustment in activities related to day-to-day services and producer services. Education, applied research, and counselling services more generally will be also retained. One will seek to reach the metropolitan standards for basic services on traditional markets of employment.

Contact info

Groupement de Recherches Economique et Sociale
Bordeaux
France
http://beagle.u-bordeaux4.fr/portailgres/
Sylvette Puissant, tel. +33 5 56 84 85 62

Publication date

/03/2008

Researcher

Claude Lacour and Sylvette Puissant

Download the full article "Medium-Sized Cities and the Dynamics of Creative Services" (PDF, Eng, 450 kB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment > Urban economy

Keywords

Specific sectors