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The argument developed in this paper is that a resilient economy requires a growth agenda that is underpinned by a balanced industrial mix, the development and adoption of new knowledge or technological platforms, and risk taking in radical and incremental innovations as well as in soft and hard innovations. In other words, it is desirable to promote a sustainable and endogenous way to 'reset' the economy - borrowing the phrase from this study by Florida - by endorsing a growth agenda that includes also creative and cultural industries. It will further be argued that a policy agenda for the EU's economic growth takes little account of the opportunities and potential of creative and cultural industries, favouring hard technologies and services. A growing literature is starting to highlight the innovation capacity of cultural and creative industries as they intersect the innovation processes of other manufacturing and services sectors with innovative and creative outputs. The indecision of EU policy-makers on how to take advantage of creative and cultural industries for the delivery of a Smart Europe - as part of the Europe 2020 agenda - translates into a lack of commitment to such industries and indeed to a clear cohesion agenda. We make a strong case for EU policy-making to break the deadlock and clearly spell out a policy agenda that has an effective spatial dimension and that directly interfaces with its innovation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the recent interest in the development of individual creativity has drawn upon Richard Florida's (2002a) book The Rise of the Creative Class. Whereas in the industrial age, classical and neoclassical economic theory told us that 'people followed jobs', in the modern knowledge economy Florida describes how 'jobs follow talented people'. The research reported in this article represents an analysis of quality of place and the dispersion of the creative knowledge workers in seven European countries and builds upon the work that has been undertaken in North American cities in order to understand whether similar processes concerning the relationship between creativity, human capital, and high-technology industries are at work in Europe as claimed is the case within North America. Economic outcomes from creative class location are also reviewed. Finally, we consider the implications for further research, given the evidence presented here suggesting some variation of results by national socio-economic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]