Culture, institutions and creativity

David Emanuel Andersson

Chapter 2 in Understanding Creative Cities, 2026, pp 13-50 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Cities rely for the realization of their creative potential on a supporting infrastructure of widely shared cultural values, particularly values that support the creation of weak ties among individuals from different extended families and ethno-linguistic groups. The most creative cities have had relatively individualist cultures that promote exogamy, long-distance trade and tolerance of ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities. These cities have also had formal institutions that instantiate the rule of law. There is a strong correlation between cultural individualism and two globally available measures of creativity: scientific publication and citation quantities. The correlations remain significant after controlling for formal institutional quality. Aspects of cultural individualism such as positive attitudes towards immigrants and supranational organizations are most pronounced in high-density neighbourhoods in the largest cities. Large, dense and diverse cities with a supporting cultural and institutional ‘soft infrastructure’ are best placed to cultivate creativity.

Keywords: Cultural Values; Individualism; Rule of Law; Social Tolerance; Creative Cities; Weak Tes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035338344
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035338351.00009 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23540_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().