Creative Talent in Relation to the City: The Case of a Natural Resource-Based Centre (Calgary)

Ryan, Camille D., Ben Li and Cooper H. Langford

Creative Talent in Relation to the City: The Case of a Natural Resource-Based Centre (Calgary)

dc.contributor.author	Ryan, Camille D., Ben Li and Cooper H. Langford	eng
dc.date.accessioned	2010-11-22T23:04:49Z
dc.date.available	2010-11-22T23:04:49Z
dc.date.issued	2010-11-22T23:04:49Z
dc.description.abstract	A large recent literature argues that cities’ capacity to attract and retain creative talent crucially supports innovation and economic health. Instead of understanding ‘creative’ talent contributions statistically through education, job classification, income, and economic growth, this paper qualitatively explores creative workers’ attitudes about the city in which they pursue a career. This paper reports on 28 factors of attraction and retention of creative talent in Calgary, a natural resource-based centre in Canada studied in the years 2006–2008. The data were drawn from interviewees’ responses to questions about attitudes toward the city as a place to work and about possible moves to alternative locations, in the context of a study of the social dynamics of innovation from the city perspective. The qualitative expressed preference methodology reveals the complexity of factors shaping individual preference for place, exposing a richness not accessible through regression analysis on statistical categories alone. Identification of 28 ‘embeddedness’ factors expressed in the interviews facilitates a grounded theory classification under seven main aspects of the socio and economic infrastructure that could be used to construct and test an indicator of the relation to the city. Given adequate economic opportunities, we find that several environmental factors, personal networks and professional networks were most attractive, while socio-cultural diversity was less emphasized. A multi-dimensional analysis could explain Calgary’s attraction of internal migration beyond growth predicted by population size and the characteristically dynamic growth of larger centers.	eng
dc.description.refereed	No	eng
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/30264
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/48280
dc.language.iso	eng	eng
dc.publisher.corporate	University of Calgary	eng
dc.publisher.faculty	Communication and Culture	eng
dc.subject	Embeddedness	eng
dc.subject	expressed preferences	eng
dc.subject	creative talent	eng
dc.subject	attraction	eng
dc.subject	retention	eng
dc.subject	economic growth	eng
dc.title	Creative Talent in Relation to the City: The Case of a Natural Resource-Based Centre (Calgary)	eng
dc.type	working paper	eng
thesis.degree.discipline	Arts	eng