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US regional economist Richard Florida has developed simple, but very popular ideas to foster regional economic growth: attracting and haltening of members of the so-called 'creative class' by steering the focus of local government development policies for culture, tolerance (towards ethnic and other kinds of minorities) and knowledge. Members of the creative class, characterised by indicators of talent, technology and tolerance, should feel at home in the cities – the result of which would be that creatives either stay in the city where they already lived before or move to those cities which possess the named characteristics. The larger the number of creative people in a city, the better the economic performance of the city. Why that? Because, as Florida postulates, creative people produce economic value added for the region where they live as they more often (than non-creative people) start successful firms and more often engage in highgrowth sectors of the economy. Furthermore they are assumed – as an aggregate – to be able to attract existent firms: 'jobs follow (creative) people' instead of 'people follow jobs' to cite an old, but – thanks to Florida – still modern debate among economists. As Florida in his own empirical studies focuses on U.S. metropolitan areas only, there is a need to close the significant research gap in terms of empirical evidence outside the U.S., given the great popularity of his ideas among policy-makers outside the U.S. In the paper five of Florida's main hypotheses are discussed in an explorative approach based upon the available literature. None of these hypothesesreceive sufficient support. Consequently, it will hardly be possible to create creative industries by developing related government policies. Comparing government policies in favour of creative industries with government policies of former eras (when, e.g., clusters or high-tech regions belonged to the targets of such policies) there is not much empirical evidence that policymakers are able or even willing to learn from previous experiences – and failures.

US regional economist Richard Florida has developed simple, but very popular ideas to foster regional economic growth: attracting and haltening of members of the so-called 'creative class' by steering the focus of local government development policies for culture, tolerance (towards ethnic and other kinds of minorities) and knowledge. Members of the creative class, characterised by indicators of talent, technology and tolerance, should feel at home in the cities - the result of which would be that creatives either stay in the city where they already lived before or move to those cities which possess the named characteristics. The larger the number of creative people in a city, the better the economic performance of the city. Why that? Because, as Florida postulates, creative people produce economic value added for the region where they live as they more often (than non-creative people) start successful firms and more often engage in high-growth sectors of the economy. Furthermore they are assumed - as an aggregate - to be able to attract existent firms: 'jobs follow (creative) people' instead of 'people follow jobs' to cite an old, but - thanks to Florida - still modern debate among economists. As Florida in his own empirical studies focuses on U. S. metropolitan areas only, there is a need to close the significant research gap in terms of empirical evidence outside the U. S., given the great popularity of his ideas among policy-makers outside the U. S. In the paper five of Florida's main hypotheses are discussed in an explorative approach based upon the available literature. None of these hypotheses receive sufficient support. Consequently, it will hardly be possible to create creative industries by developing related government policies. Comparing government policies in favour of creative industries with government policies of former eras (when, e. g., clusters or high-tech regions belonged to the targets of such policies) there is not much empirical evidence that policy-makers are able or even willing to learn from previous experiences - and failures.

"Wie bei früheren Modethemen der kommunalen Wirtschaftsförderung sind die beschäftigungspolitischen Hoffnungen auch bei Unternehmensgründungen vielerorts ebenso hoch wie unrealistisch. Mittels Daten aus dem Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) und dem Regionalen Entrepreneurship Monitor (REM) liefert der Beitrag empirische Hinweise auf die Bedeutung von Gründungen für die Regionalentwicklung. Unternehmensgründungen sind primär ein Regional Event, dessen Ursachen und Wirkungen insbesondere im regionalen Umfeld zu suchen und zu spüren sind. Folglich differieren Umfang, Ursachen und Wirkungen von Unternehmensgründungen zwischen den Regionen beträchtlich. Maßnahmen der kommunalen Gründungsförderpolitik sollten bei den gründungsbezogenen Einstellungen der Bevölkerung ansetzen, die in einem auffälligen Zusammenhang zu Gründungsaktivitäten stehen. Der Weg zu einer gründungsfreundlichen Kultur ist noch weit. Handlungsbedarf besteht in den Bereichen Finanzierung sowie gründungsbezogene Aus- und Weiterbildung." (Autorenreferat)

"Aktuelle Erklärungsansätze wissensbasierter Regionalentwicklung, wie der Industriedistriktansatz, die innovativen Milieus oder die Netzwerkhypothese, betonen die Bedeutung intraregionaler Netzwerke von Innovationsakteuren. Dabei werden innovative Unternehmen und Forschungseinrichtungen zu den wichtigsten Innovationsakteuren gezählt, sofern es um den Einfluss intraregionaler Verflechtungen auf die Regionalentwicklung geht. Der Beitrag basiert auf umfangreichen Erhebungen in drei deutschen Regionen. Er konzentriert sich auf die Rolle, die die räumliche Nähe von Kooperationspartnern für die Entwicklung von innovativen Verflechtungen zwischen KMU des Verarbeitenden Gewerbes und anderen Partnertypen wie Forschungseinrichtungen, Kunden oder Zulieferern spielt. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen im wesentlichen die Hypothese einer starken und zunehmenden Bedeutung intraregionaler Verflechtungen zwischen den Innovationsakteuren. Allerdings überraschen manche der empirischen Resultate, beispielsweise im Zusammenhang mit dem vermeintlichen Industriedistrikt Baden." (Autorenreferat)

Brazilian Amazonia has drawn diverse resource extracting and managing projects into its sphere, notably since WWII. Large resource extracting and managing operations necessitated the planning and building of urban infrastructure to serve specific projects in proximity to select local resources. First to enter the regions was the Ford Motor Company at Boa V (Tapajos River) in 1928. Relocation to Belterra a few years later introduced improved housing stock, which has proven its viability by its current inhabitants dedication to its preservation and recent political decision to form a "municipio" independent of Santarem. Serra do Navio and Vila Amazonas were created to serve a large manganese mine in Amapa. Here, the key decision maker created optimal building stock, which carne to serve for the next three decades as model for comparable projects in the region. The formation of these urban places has not been copied or imitated in the open arena. Furthermore, as the products from the region increasingly enter the global economy, for how much longer can the firms provide suitable urban service infrastructure to its cost part of its products in the world Market? Indications point to active thinking of how to provide shelter for technical staff and professionals. A first idea is a platform rotation, which would constitute a radical change. Another possible venue would be federal and/or state government (s) active participation in such project place formation (s) to insure long-term urban system viability, even after the original function for a specific resource operation ended.