Examining the dynamics of the interaction between the development of creative industries and urban spatial structure by agent-based modelling: A case study of Nanjing, China

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Scotland), 2018-04, Vol.55 (5), p.1013-1032
• Main Authors: Liu, Helin, Silva, Elisabete
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agent-based models; Case studies; Clustering; Creative industries; Creativity; Economic analysis; Economic conditions; Infrastructure; Innovations; Investments; Knowledge economy; Labor market; Land use; Networks; Proximity; Spatial analysis; Spatial distribution; Transformation; Urban areas; Urban development; Urban planning; Urban regeneration; Workers
• ISSN: 0042-0980; 1360-063X
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098016686493

Much of the focus of research on creative industries’ influence upon urban land use has been around the investment in specific regeneration projects or flagship developments rather than addressing the nature and location of the infrastructure, networks and agents engaged. In other words, the complexity of the institutional/temporal and spatial interaction among the involved elements is overlooked or not well understood. This paper presents an agent-based model named CID-USST (Creative Industries Development-Urban Spatial Structure Transformation) that examines the dynamics of the interaction between the development of creative industries and urban spatial structure by outputting a set of adaptive scenarios through time and space. It reveals that the spatial distribution of both the creative firms and the creative workers evolves in a repeating up-and-down pattern even when the exogenous urban economic condition is set to be steady. Moreover, the analysis also points to the policy implication that more open job/rent market information will lead to more rapid geographical clustering of the creative firms and the creative workers, which possibly may reduce the time cost in their spatial evolvement, and perhaps accelerate innovation if we accept that geographical proximity can enhance knowledge and information spill-over. 创意产业对城市土地利用有何影响？这方面的研宄大多集中于特定改造项目或旗舰开发项目的 投资，而非讨论所涉基础设施、网络和能动者的性质和位置问题。换言之，相关因素之间的机 构/时空互动复杂性被忽视或未得到很好的理解。本文提出了一个名为CID-USST (创意产业发 展-城市空间结构转型）的能动者模型，该模型通过输出一组在时空中自适应的场景，来检验创 意产业发展与城市空间结构之间的相互作用机制。这说明，即使外部的城市经济条件稳定下来， 创意企业和创意工作者的空间分布也呈现出反复起起伏伏的格局。此外，分析还指向了政策意 义，即更多的公开就业岗位/租赁市场信息将导致创意公司和创意工作者的地理集聚更加迅速， 这可能会减少其空间演变的时间成本，并且如果我们认同地理邻近可以增强知识和信息的溢出， 就可能加速创新。