Human-geographical study of creative cities: global and national context

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive human-geographical study of creative cities in the global and national contexts, focusing on their theoretical foundations, spatial organization, and practical implications for sustainable urban development. The relevance of the topic is determined by the growing role of creativity, knowledge, and innovation as key factors in post-industrial transformation and by the need to explore new models of urban recovery and competitiveness, particularly in Ukraine’s post-war conditions. In this regard, the creative city is analyzed as a multidimensional human-geographical phenomenon that integrates cultural, economic, social, and spatial components of modern urban systems.

The purpose of the study is to substantiate the theoretical and methodological framework for the human-geographical analysis of creative cities and to identify the features and patterns of their development at the global and national levels. The methodological basis of the research combines interdisciplinary approaches from human geography, urban studies, cultural economics, and regional development theory. The methods applied include comparative and structural analysis, systematization of scientific literature, content analysis of UNESCO and UNCTAD documents, and cartographic and analytical-statistical methods to identify territorial regularities and spatial disproportions in the development of creative cities.

The article traces the evolution of the creative city concept from the 1980s to the present. The early foundations were established by Charles Landry, who introduced the idea of the city as a creative organism capable of solving urban problems through imagination, innovation, and cultural resources. His works proposed methodological tools for integrating creativity into urban planning and management. Later, Richard Florida’s theory of the “creative class” (2002, 2004, 2007) shifted the emphasis to the economic dimension, arguing that the concentration of highly skilled and mobile professionals is a key determinant of urban competitiveness. The institutional approach, developed through the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) and international reports on the creative economy, conceptualized creativity and culture as strategic resources for inclusive and sustainable development.

According to Matovic and San Salvador del Valle (2020), three main research directions can be distinguished in the study of creative cities: (1) creativity as a toolkit for urban development (urban approach); (2) the creative city as an environment for the creative activities or industries (economic approach); (3) the city as a space for attracting and retaining creative human capital (socio–cultural approach).

Building on these perspectives, the present article introduces a fourth – the human-geographical approach, which extends the analysis to the spatial dimension of creativity. From this standpoint, the creative city is viewed as a territorially organized sociogeosystem that reflects the interaction of human capital, cultural infrastructure, innovation potential, and regional development processes.

The study analyzes the experience of cities participating in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, which currently includes more than 350 cities from over 100 countries across seven thematic categories – literature, music, film, design, gastronomy, crafts and folk art, and media arts. The geographical distribution of these cities demonstrates the growing importance of creativity as a global development resource, bridging cultural, economic, and technological spheres. The research highlights that creative cities function as nodes of global networks, fostering cultural exchange, innovation diffusion, and sustainable growth.

In the Ukrainian context, the article emphasizes the significance of developing creative cities as a strategic direction for post-war recovery, regional reintegration, and economic modernization. Cities such as Lviv, Odesa, and Kharkiv, which are members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, exemplify the role of cultural industries in promoting local resilience and international cooperation. The analysis reveals that the creative economy in Ukraine, despite wartime challenges, retains considerable potential for the diversification of urban economies, job creation, and the revitalization of historical and cultural spaces.

The findings confirm that the human-geographical approach provides an effective conceptual and analytical framework for understanding creative cities as spatially organized systems of innovation and human development. It allows for the identification of territorial patterns of creativity, assessment of spatial disproportions, and formulation of evidence-based policies for balanced and sustainable regional development. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of applying its results to improve national and local strategies in the fields of creative economy management, urban governance, cultural planning, and post-war reconstruction of Ukrainian cities.