Innovation places: Theoretical and methodological remarks for analysing metropolitan creativity and innovations

Abstract

Metropolises are currently regarded as nodes in a global network of flows, becoming the driving forces for territorial development, characterised by high potential of creativity and the innovations generated as a result. A contemporary challenge is to find adequate concepts for analysing and understanding metropolitan innovativeness. The objective of the article is to provide the necessary features by which a new approach to studying metropolitan inventiveness can be adopted. The formulation of this model was inspired by the independently functioning concepts of metropolisation, innovativeness, and the concepts of place. By considering these three perspectives together and their specific methods of analysis, it is possible to describe and explain the process of generating innovations in contemporary metropolises. This article is divided into three main sections illustrating how the concepts of innovation environments, networks, and districts combined with the dynamic concept of place, all relate to innovation place. The analysis presented serves as the basis for the model of an innovation place, it being essential to future initiatives in this sphere of study. The article concludes with methodological remarks indicating the potential use for “in-novation space” model.