The Creative Regions Summer School is promoted and organised by Dr Roberta Comunian from the School Geography of the University of Southampton, Dr Caroline Chapain from the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies of the University of Birmingham and Nick Clifton from the Cardiff School of Management of the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.

 

For the first edition of the Summer School, Dr Caroline Chapain and CURS - Centre for Urban and Regional Studies of the University of Birmingham will be hosting the Summer School that School will rotate each summer between the cities of Southampton, Cardiff and Birmingham.

Dr. Roberta Comunian is lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Southampton. She holds a European Doctorate title in Network Economy and Knowledge Management. She is interested in: relationship between public and private investments in the arts, art and cultural regeneration projects, cultural and creative industries, creativity and competitiveness. She has been visiting researcher at University of Newcastle investigating the relationship between creative industries, cultural policy and public supported art institutions. She has recently undertaken research on knowledge transfer and creative industries within an AHRC Impact Fellowship award at the University of Leeds. Further information.

 

Dr. Caroline Chapain has been a Research Fellow from the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham since 2005. Previously, she studied and worked in Canada. From 2002 to 2005, she worked as a research advisor on public finance, economic development, and cultural issues for the Montreal Metropolitan Planning Organization in Canada. Since 2005, she has been looking at the way creative industries emerge, operate and develop at the local and regional levels in UK. She is part of ACRE, a FP6 project which aims to assess the impact of the emerging ‘creative class’ and the rise of the ‘creative industries’ on the competitiveness of EU metropolitan regions. She is currently co-editing a special issue of Built Environment on Cultural, Creative and Knowledge cities. Further information.

 

Dr Nick Clifton joined CLEC (Creative Leadership and Enterprise Centre) at Cardiff School of Management, UWIC in 2009. Prior to this he was Senior Research Associate  at Cardiff University. Nick’s main research interests lie in the fields of regional economics (with particular reference to Wales), innovation and creativity, small business and entrepreneurship, networks and business strategy.  He has published a number of working papers, articles and conference papers on these subjects.  He has recently been working on Technology, Talent and Tolerance in European Cities: a comparative analysis. Funded by: Economic & Social Research Council, UK. This project is designed to examine important aspects of the locational preferences of knowledge-based industries, through the role human capital, creative capital and diversity plays in technology-based development within the UK compared to European cities.Further information