It is our aim, with this paper, to contribute to the analysis of
the importance of the cultural activities cluster in the
structure and in the competitiveness of the economy of cities.
Firstly a frame of the question is made, putting in evidence the
importance of cultural goods in the economic activity and linking
its increasing weight to some structural mutations occuring in
contemporary societies (in what concerns dematerialization of
economy and flexibilization of production systems, consumption
practices, lifestyles,...) focussing specially its role on the
improvement of consumption and production and on employment
creation. The development of these activities is mainly
associated to urban spaces (especially metropolitan) and to the
economy of cities.
This analysis is complemented, in a second step, by a short
empiric approach to the question, based, mainly, on the
portuguese case, but inserting and comparing it with other
realities. Starting from the weak statistics available to our
country, we try to identify the main trends in the evolution of
the cluster in our national space.
From this analysis two parallel lines of investigation are
opened, which are developed in the context of wider investigation
works: on one hand, the role of the cultural activities cluster
in the development of the economy of towns and in the promotion
of territorial competitiveness; on the other hand, the importance
of these activities in the inner structure of the urban space,
mainly the metropolitan.
In the first case we study the dynamics observed through the
several aglomerative tendencies that regulate the location of
these activities, detaching particularly the effects of the
environment ("milieu") and the possibilities and the
potencial of the exploitation of local specificities as a way of
competitive implantation in an increasing globalized economy.
In the second case the territorial impacts of cultural practices
and of the dynamics of production, distribution and location of
the activities are more directly analysed, with a major attention
to the internal organization of the metropolitqan territory. It's
detached the (re)centralization of certain activities and social
groups with a fundamental role in the cultural consumption and
production, as well as their association to urban regeneration
processes. The importance of the popular culture is particularly
noticed, subverting the traditional cultural hierarchies,
fomented by confluence and juxtaposition in the city of a
diversity of activities and practices linked to the proliferation
and fragmentation of patterns of cultural production and
consumption.
Pedro Costa - Universidade Atlântica