Creative Regions Summer School – Birmingham, 12th-16th July 2010

 

The Creative Regions Summer School is an exciting week of intense learning for postgraduate students, practitioners and policy makers interested in engaging with the current debates and research surrounding the role of the creative economy in local and regional development.

The Creative Regions Summer School has developed from the collaboration between the School Geography of the University of Southampton, the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies of the University of Birmingham and the Cardiff School of Management of the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. It addresses topical issues and uses case study materials that have emerged from the research activities that the three Universities have been carrying on in this field in the UK and internationally. The Creative Regions Summer School will rotate each summer between the cities of Southampton, Cardiff and Birmingham.

 In 2010 the summer school will be hosted by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham

 

 

The programme and activities have been designed to introduce postgraduate students, practitioners and policy makers to the current academic knowledge and research in the field of creativity and local and regional economic development. It includes a general introduction to the knowledge-base developed in this field, practical approaches to data analysis and interrogation as well as case studies of local, national and international relevance.

Key themes that will be explored during the Summer School are as follows:

• Understanding creative people, creative work and creative skills
• Mapping and analysing the creative economy
• Innovation and entrepreneurship in the creative industries 
• Creative clusters and networks
• Urban regeneration and the creative economy
• Creative class and regional economic development
• Policy perspectives: international, national, regional and local

The Creative Regions Summer School will take place between the 12th and 16th of July 2010.

 

 

The Creative Regions Summer School will be based on a mix of lectures, presentations, workshops and site visits. These will be delivered by both academics and practitioners.

For the year 2010, the academic team will be composed of staff from our three universities, notably: Dr Caroline Chapain, Dr Roberta Comunian, Dr Nick Clifton, Prof. Peter Sunley, Dr Lauren Andres, Dr Julie Brown and Prof. Austin Barber.

They will be complemented by contributions from representatives of  other regional and national organisations. More specifically, the 2010 Summer School will include case studies from Birmingham and the West Midlands as well as visits to cultural and creative facilities. These  local and regional examples will be discussed in the light of other UK and European contexts.