Cultural, creative, and complex

A computational foundation of culture-driven urban governance

The study stems from the realisation that culture and creative production play an important, but still unvalued role in urban development. This research argues that the main reason behind this failure is the idea that only a few important drivers explain urban development through a direct and clearly legible systemic impact. In contrast, cities are complex socio-environmental systems whose functioning depends on the simultaneous interaction of many different factors. This paper analyses a database of 144 European cities in 30 European countries (EU-27 plus UK, Norway and Switzerland), described using 58 variables. This analysis relies on innovative machine learning (ML) techniques and Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) representation to map structural interdependencies between cultural and non-cultural sectors in cities with a strong cultural policy orientation. This toolbox offers considerable potential for precision cultural policies and data-driven urban governance strategies of the future.