The creative city approach: origins, construction and prospects in a scenario of transition

The change of the century saw the emergence of a series of discourses that conceptualised different aspects related with culture as key elements in the future of urban realities. The fact that these notions have become encompassed within the celebrated label of “the creative city” leads us to think that they form a self-evident model, fully assimilated and of general value. However, the review of the process through which a reasonably cohesive and accepted framework was constructed unveils the complex nature of the creative city. This article introduces the idea of the creative city as an “approach”, in the sense of an epistemological and methodological focus that is distinguishable, yet neither rigid nor closed. An understanding of this type is useful for assessing the validity and the imbalances of the creative city in the midst of an epoch of problematic transition, in which culture and the city are alternatively defined as spaces of conflict or spaces of hope.