Creative Hubs and Urban Development Goals (UK/Brazil)

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This project will contribute to international development by working with governmental, academic, and creative industry partners in Sao Paulo, Brazil to inform the design and operation of new publicly funded creative hubs. Creativity, digital inclusion, and the beneficial social impacts of a growing creative economy are key to the development goals of the State of Sao Paulo. Having invested significantly in the past in accessible IT facilities to enable access to digital technologies for disadvantaged communities, the State now recognises that digital inclusion is insufficient in itself to achieve their development goals, and is thus seeking to re-purpose these facilities as Creative Hubs that can support entrepreneurial activity, facilitate networking and collaboration between SMEs, and generate positive economic outcomes for disadvantaged communities within the State of Sao Paulo. They have a strong interest in working with researchers from Creativeworks London (CWL) and from the University of Sao Paulo (USP) to inform the methodology they will adopt to facilitate co-creation, networking, and collaboration within their creative hubs, and see this as a pilot for more significant and sustained collaborations in the future. This project builds on research into creative hubs undertaken within the AHRC-funded CWL project from 2012-16. This research has been widely disseminated internationally. Research partners from the USP participated in a workshop exploring the CWL methodology and research findings related to creative hubs in 2015. The CWL PI (Shiach) gave a keynote lecture at the ABRAPCORP Conference (Communication and Cultural Industries) in Sao Paulo in May 2016. This research visit was supported by People's Palace Projects (PPP), which has an outstanding record of UK/Brazil collaboration with a focus on culture and creativity. This project will support knowledge exchange with an impact on cultural and creative organisations and businesses in Sao Paulo. It will enhance the value of the original CWL project by examining how some of its major research findings can make an important contribution to policy development in other cities around the world - especially in the Global South. The project will contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by focusing on two areas: Goal 8, 'promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all'; and Goal 11, 'make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable'. In terms of the contribution that Arts and Humanities research can make to international development, this proposal will make a contribution in two areas: first, by supporting emerging creative economies, creative practices and creative hubs in ODA recipient countries; and second, by developing the potential for arts and humanities research to catalyse knowledge exchange between higher education institutions, state government, and creative SMEs in Sao Paulo.