Creative and Attractive Regions

In January 2015, together with colleagues Nils Bjorling (Chalmers University, Gothenburg) and Magnus Björkman (Theory into Practice Architecture, Stockholm) we launched a programme of action research which involves working in pilot regions of Sweden to deliver local cultural assets appraisals together with strategies for innovative culture-led actions for local development. The programme kicked off with a six-month long appraisal of the urban, creative and economic potential of two locations in the Skaraborg region of Sweden. Here we worked with Magnus Fredricson of the Skaraborg Association of Municipalities to produce a comprehensive examination of the urban and cultural ecology in two very different locations: the city of Skövde and the rural town of Gråstorp. Our starting point was to ask: which is the best way to provide local policy makers, civic leaders, creative practitioners and communities with the tools for understanding their city’s unique creative capacity and potential? What relationships can be established between those cultural and creative resources, the people who produce and use them, and place? What kind of holistic solutions could we offer to help Grästorp and Skövde function more cohesively for the benefit of all their citizens? The results of the first phase of the research are presented in this proposal, which was accepted with phased implementation of a cultural innovation strategy in Skövde, delivered in 2017.