Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IN SITU (Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas)
Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-06-30
IN SITU: Place-based Innovation of Cultural and Creative Industries in Non-urban Areas combines research and experimental actions to advance innovation-related practices, capacities and potential of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) based in non-urban areas of the EU. The non-urban constituency of the cultural and creative sector has grown in visibility and significance over the last decade in Europe and internationally but is still vulnerable due to the lagging attention of research and policy to its needs, characteristics and potential. In parallel, most knowledge about innovation in CCIs is derived from urban examples and processes and has an economic focus. Emerging ideas and observations indicate that how innovation processes occur in rural areas differ from those in cities.
IN SITU aims to better understand the forms, processes and governance needs of CCIs located in non-urban areas of Europe and to advance the ability of non-urban CCIs to act as drivers of innovation, competitiveness and sustainability for the places where they are located. To do this, it incorporates three interrelated dimensions: research, capacity-building, and policy proposal development.
Involving both Europe-wide research and place-based experimentation, a core defining aspect of IN SITU is the interlinking of research and practice through place-based IN SITU Labs – hubs for networking, training and capacity building, and monitoring case studies. The Labs are located in six non-urban regions in Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Latvia and Croatia. Adopting a Community-Engaged Research approach, IN SITU will advance knowledge in collaboration with CCI practitioners in these areas.
In our initial work, we feel we are bearing witness to a paradigm shift in how we view and imagine peripheral regions as sites of creativity and hubs of cultural production.
Specific needs addressed by IN SITU
1. Invisibility of non-urban CCIs sector
2. Nascent knowledge base on innovation and competitiveness of CCIs in non-urban areas with many gaps
3. Non-urban CCIs need capacity-building skills development; new, more resilient/sustainable business models; and skills to manage desired cross-sectoral connections
4. Horizontal working networks and more connected ways of working among CCIs
5. More appropriate policies, strategies and planning frameworks for CCIs in non-urban regions
IN SITU aims to better understand the forms, processes and governance needs of CCIs located in non-urban areas of Europe and to advance the ability of non-urban CCIs to act as drivers of innovation, competitiveness and sustainability for the places where they are located. To do this, it incorporates three interrelated dimensions: research, capacity-building, and policy proposal development.
Involving both Europe-wide research and place-based experimentation, a core defining aspect of IN SITU is the interlinking of research and practice through place-based IN SITU Labs – hubs for networking, training and capacity building, and monitoring case studies. The Labs are located in six non-urban regions in Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Latvia and Croatia. Adopting a Community-Engaged Research approach, IN SITU will advance knowledge in collaboration with CCI practitioners in these areas.
In our initial work, we feel we are bearing witness to a paradigm shift in how we view and imagine peripheral regions as sites of creativity and hubs of cultural production.
Specific needs addressed by IN SITU
1. Invisibility of non-urban CCIs sector
2. Nascent knowledge base on innovation and competitiveness of CCIs in non-urban areas with many gaps
3. Non-urban CCIs need capacity-building skills development; new, more resilient/sustainable business models; and skills to manage desired cross-sectoral connections
4. Horizontal working networks and more connected ways of working among CCIs
5. More appropriate policies, strategies and planning frameworks for CCIs in non-urban regions
In the period July 2022-June 2023, the IN SITU project launched, governance and management systems were established, initial Europe-wide research conducted and the six IN SITU Labs activated with a range of knowledge-gathering activities.
Main achievements
Big-picture quantitative and qualitative research provided a knowledge base to inform later research, practice-based actions in the Lab areas, the project’s training programme, and (later) the process of formulating policy proposals. The socioeconomic contributions of CCIs and social and economic spill-overs in non-urban regions across Europe were quantitatively assessed in original ways through two methodological approaches, one targeted towards creative industries/jobs (trademarks) and the other towards cultural activities (collective trademarks) [D1.1]. The main macro-level drivers of CCI innovation, which influence production and market contexts for CCIs located in both urban and non-urban areas, were reviewed [D2.1]. A diagnostics tool to assess the specific drivers of innovation of CCIs in non-urban areas was selected, which will be refined and implemented in each Lab’s CCI ecosystem in collaboration with Lab Partners.
The IN SITU Labs were launched and activated in early 2023 with an array of activities. In each Lab, Horizontal Networks were established involving key CCIs and other stakeholders in the area’s CCI ecosystem. CCI practitioners in each Lab area were engaged in focus groups, SWOT analyses and future envisioning exercises to identify challenges, resources, training and other needs, and aspirations, and participated in cultural mapping sessions to identify the size, scope and key features of the cultural and creative ecosystem in each place. To identify key issues in each area, “Speak Out” sessions with residents provided multiple perspectives on local issues and concerns, which informed a survey of creative practices and ideas addressing key local issues directed to CCIs in each Lab area.
In the first period, all WPs launched work (WP5 in a preparatory manner, in relation to the gender dimension of non-urban CCIs). As this work unfolded, the Consortium developed strategies to identify research synergies and opportunities for knowledge-sharing and collaboration, and addressed the need to carefully coordinate concurrent inquiries with special attention to inquiry ‘overload’ in the field. A Concept Guide was collaboratively developed as an internal reference to support interdisciplinary communication among partners.
Two in-presence working meetings were held in Lab areas: the Azores (Kick-Off meeting, Oct. 2022) and Rauma, Finland (May-June 2023). Members of the International Advisory Board were provided regular updates, and some met with research partners and reviewed deliverables in process. Outreach Partners disseminated some IN SITU news releases into their networks, with more active engagement in the next period now that IN SITU is producing more public deliverables and the Labs are established.
Main achievements
Big-picture quantitative and qualitative research provided a knowledge base to inform later research, practice-based actions in the Lab areas, the project’s training programme, and (later) the process of formulating policy proposals. The socioeconomic contributions of CCIs and social and economic spill-overs in non-urban regions across Europe were quantitatively assessed in original ways through two methodological approaches, one targeted towards creative industries/jobs (trademarks) and the other towards cultural activities (collective trademarks) [D1.1]. The main macro-level drivers of CCI innovation, which influence production and market contexts for CCIs located in both urban and non-urban areas, were reviewed [D2.1]. A diagnostics tool to assess the specific drivers of innovation of CCIs in non-urban areas was selected, which will be refined and implemented in each Lab’s CCI ecosystem in collaboration with Lab Partners.
The IN SITU Labs were launched and activated in early 2023 with an array of activities. In each Lab, Horizontal Networks were established involving key CCIs and other stakeholders in the area’s CCI ecosystem. CCI practitioners in each Lab area were engaged in focus groups, SWOT analyses and future envisioning exercises to identify challenges, resources, training and other needs, and aspirations, and participated in cultural mapping sessions to identify the size, scope and key features of the cultural and creative ecosystem in each place. To identify key issues in each area, “Speak Out” sessions with residents provided multiple perspectives on local issues and concerns, which informed a survey of creative practices and ideas addressing key local issues directed to CCIs in each Lab area.
In the first period, all WPs launched work (WP5 in a preparatory manner, in relation to the gender dimension of non-urban CCIs). As this work unfolded, the Consortium developed strategies to identify research synergies and opportunities for knowledge-sharing and collaboration, and addressed the need to carefully coordinate concurrent inquiries with special attention to inquiry ‘overload’ in the field. A Concept Guide was collaboratively developed as an internal reference to support interdisciplinary communication among partners.
Two in-presence working meetings were held in Lab areas: the Azores (Kick-Off meeting, Oct. 2022) and Rauma, Finland (May-June 2023). Members of the International Advisory Board were provided regular updates, and some met with research partners and reviewed deliverables in process. Outreach Partners disseminated some IN SITU news releases into their networks, with more active engagement in the next period now that IN SITU is producing more public deliverables and the Labs are established.
Public D1.1 (Socioeconomic contributions and spillovers of CCIs in non-urban regions) assessed the socio-economic contribution of creative and cultural workers to innovation in non-urban regions. The research found that combining patents and trademarks as regional innovation metrics provides a different map of regional innovation and its distribution across urban and non-urban regions.
Since the literature review on collective trademarks revealed a lack of an empirical assessment of the extent to which collective trademarks are actually used, IN SITU contributed to filling this gap through a challenging and very first exploratory analysis of the potential of collective trademarks to capture creative and cultural activities in non-urban regions in Europe. In this research, IN SITU examined the extent to which collective trademarks could be used as original and complementary metrics to other economic and innovation indicators.
Since the literature review on collective trademarks revealed a lack of an empirical assessment of the extent to which collective trademarks are actually used, IN SITU contributed to filling this gap through a challenging and very first exploratory analysis of the potential of collective trademarks to capture creative and cultural activities in non-urban regions in Europe. In this research, IN SITU examined the extent to which collective trademarks could be used as original and complementary metrics to other economic and innovation indicators.