Creative dynamics in districts of large Brazilian metropolises: Botafogo (RJ) and Santa Tereza (BH)

Abstract

The article addresses the relationship between creative activities and urban space through a comparative perspective between two neighborhoods, renowned for their creative dynamics, located in two Brazilian metropolises: Botafogo (Rio de Janeiro) and Santa Tereza (Belo Horizonte). The objective is to analyze how social, economic, cultural, institutional and urban characteristics shape the development of creative economy in these neighborhoods, engendering districts marked by agglomerations of firms and creative workers. Based on literature on productive clusters and cultural quarters, we developed a framework with nine categories: origin; evolutionary trajectory; connections; relational density; activities; built form; meaning; conflicts; and governance. The qualitative methodological procedures of this research included semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs, professionals, and public managers and urban landscape photographic analysis. Botafogo and Santa Tereza are old neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte and both stand out in the creative ecosystem of their cities. However, the flourishing processes of their creative activities are different, since Santa Tereza has greater historical and symbolic recognition than Botafogo, which went through a more recent process of development of these activities due to its social and economic characteristics. The obtained results show that cultural and creative districts can be developed by different processes and that governance mechanisms need to be improved to mediate some conflicts in favor of the sustainability of the cultural quarters. Finally, we hope to contribute to urban planning and creative economy development.