Creative hubs: an anomaly in cultural policy?

Abstract

Creative Hubs are mostly both bottom-up initiatives by artists and other creatives, and the object of policy makers, who see in the creative hubs an opportunity for urban regeneration and an impulse to the local economy. The tension between these two forces in the largest cities in the Netherlands has been analysed in this article. How does local policy deal with the norms, values, and rules at hub sites? In order to answer this question, we used the Reconstructed Policy Theory (RPT) to attribute the goals described in policy documents to underlying values. We conclude that after more than two decades, Creative Hub Policy still is in a nascent state, in the sense that local governments still struggle to define what a creative hub exactly is. Our analysis also shows that Hub Policy, while creating space for artists, is based on other than artistic values: mainly economic and social.