The creativity of people have been measured in human capital studies most commonly with tertiary degrees. However, some argue that creative people like Bill Gates or Steven Jobs wouldn't count in this kind of approach. They say creative occupations indicate the best regional development. I believe something lacks from the narrowing to professionals. First of all, entrepreneurs may miss from occupation classifications. Second, some may have an occupation not considered creative, but can be highly creative in free time. Third, not only persons are creative. Also organizations, firms and the likes may be as creative. All this considered, I believe creativity correlated to regional development can be found best in social media.
We did some regression analyses with the traditional occupation indicators. We compared how well analyzing Twitter activity related to creativity added value to the analysis. Compared to 34,1 % explanation power of creative occupations, even 59,1 % of GDP per capita could be explained with Twitter activity related to creativity. When predicting regional development with both, occupational indicators as well as Twitter indicators, the explanation raised even 73,2 %. From these figures, it is evident that creativity is related to innovative economic growth. Also potential growth is predicted in third article of my PhD thesis, which is currently almost in the half way. Already now it could be said that examining creativity in social media is more fruitful predicting innovative growth than former methods of analysing the level of education or occupational divisions.
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Below is the permanent link to recently published article in Cities journal. It is also the first article of my PhD thesis. Three more to go, I guess. Well, it's a start :) The picture above is from the construction phase of 18 store twin towers in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki, opened now as Clarion Hotel. Every tenth of the new high rises in Finland is built in Jätkäsaari district, an inner city extension of Helsinki. It has an enormous innovative potential, according to our study below:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.01.005 Kiuru, Juho & Inkinen, Tommi (2017). Predicting innovative growth and demand with proximate human capital: A case study of the Helsinki metropolitan area. Cities. Volume 64, April 2017, Pages 9–17. Juho Kiuru a, , , Tommi Inkinen b, a University of Helsinki, Department of Geosciences and Geography, Division of Urban Geography and Regional Studies, P.O. Box 64, (Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2a), FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland b University of Turku, Centre for Maritime Studies, Brahea-Centre, FI-20014 University of Turku, Finland The first article of my PhD thesis was published in Cities journal. You can find it from this link for 50 days, until March 26, 2017.
Juho Kiuru a, Tommi Inkinen b, a University of Helsinki, Department of Geosciences and Geography, Division of Urban Geography and Regional Studies, P.O. Box 64, (Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2a), FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland b University of Turku, Centre for Maritime Studies, Brahea-Centre, FI-20014 University of Turku, Finland Highlights • Provides a postal code level visual analysis between human capital and innovation. • Provides a classification of high achieving and potential innovation areas. • Incorporates tolerance variable into empirical innovation studies. • Provides six regression models explaining the relationship between innovation and human capital. • Shows the significance of absolute variables in comparison to relative ones. Abstract Human capital is an essential driver for the growth of national and regional innovation systems. In this study, we can show that also intra-metropolitan innovation clusters locate in, or in proximity to, neighbourhoods with a high level of human capital. Our interpretation of human capital involves an educated, talented, creative and tolerant workforce. Indicators from earlier literature are complemented by identified new propositions. In addition, by using both relative and absolute measures, we conclude that innovations emerge the best in dense and mixed urban structure. After identifying the geography of human capital and innovativeness, we predict also potential growth areas, which could help urban planning of the HMA. The modelling methods used in this study can be implemented and applied in urban studies of other city regions. Keywords
Recently the importance of urban density and agglomeration advantages have seen a remarkable revival in the field of economic geography and urban planning. For example, Emil Malazia et al (2015), have found a correlation between urban density and economic growth in census track areas of Washington, D.C. Also the importance of dense mixed land use is commonly understood as an enabler of healthy and efficient communities (e.g. Musakwa and Niekerk (2013) ,Song and Rodríguez (2005). In our study, we have predicted which areas in Helsinki Metropolitan Region could benefit from more dense and mixed urban structure. Our analysis recognized two zip code areas with huge housing demand: Ruoholahti and Pitäjänmäki in western Helsinki. The areas with second highest housing demand were in Center of the Helsinki, Munkkiniemi, Itä-Pasila, Kaartinkaupunki and Meilahti in western Helsinki as well as Pohjois-Tapiola, Otaniemi, Pohjois-Leppävaara, Etelä-Leppävaara, Niittykumpu and Nihtisilta in eastern Espoo and Oitmäki in western Espoo as well as Kirkonkylä-Veromäki in Vantaa. Areas with highest potential for innovative growth locate mainly between areas’ with demand for housing. Especially the edges of the inner city as well as few subcenters on the ring roads get predictions of higher innovative output than today. Länsi-Pasila, Jätkäsaari and Pikku Huopalahti from Helsinki are on their own class with their innovative potential. Second highest innovative growth is predicted from Helsinki to Kulosaari, Kaitalahti and Kaivopuisto and from Espoo Laajalahti-Friisinmäki from Espoo and from Vantaa the zip code area Jokiniemi. |
Photo by Rob Hurson
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July 2018
AuthorJuho Kiuru, geographer living in Helsinki, Finland. |