Creativity and Socio-Economic Development: Space for the Interests of Publics

First paragraph: This paper, similarly to previous analysis, suggests links between the development of economies and the stimulation of people's creativity. Both inter- and intra- country variations in development (Henderson et al, 2001) are, for example, associated with such links. Over recent years these arguments have often been framed in terms of achieving regional 'competitiveness' in a global market economy (Bristow, 2005), for example through innovation in industries in general (Florida, 2002a) and through the success of creative (or cultural) industries in particular (Caves, 2000). Differently form existing approaches, nonetheless, we place the links between economic development and creativity in the context defined by the governance of economies: the unfolding of creativity, we suggest, is related to the space that is given to people to take part in those decision-making processes which may have a substantive impact on their lives.