Search Results (24)

Traditional villages are integral to the broader context of global socio-economic transition. This study developed a resilience evaluation model centred on built-environment indicators. This model integrates the community, economy, ecology, and culture dimensions. Clarifying the typology and key driving factors of traditional village built environment resilience can effectively activate the inherent potential of villages. The study provides a holistic approach to identifying traditional village built environment resilience types and analysing the key influencing factors. Utilising a method combining the SOM-K-means clustering model and the interpretable XGBoost-SHAP model, the study provides a holistic analytical framework for identifying traditional village built environment resilience types and quantifying the nonlinear action characteristics of various indicators across different types. Taking the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region as an example, the study demonstrates that traditional villages can be categorised into six potential resilience types, with differentiated key indicator combinations across these types. Furthermore, the nonlinear action characteristics and operational thresholds of the same key indicator differ significantly across various traditional village types. For instance, at medium-to-high threshold levels, the accessibility of cultural buildings contributes significantly to the sustainability of culture–service-driven villages but, conversely, becomes a detriment in ecology-cultural composite archetypes. Similarly, in industry–creative driven villages, once the density of cultural and creative spaces reaches a specific threshold, it exerts a significant positive effect on traditional village development and stabilises into a sustained positive state. However, in ecology–agriculture–organisation-driven villages, exceeding a certain threshold in the density of cultural and creative spaces has a significant negative influence. The results provide an analytical framework for the resilience typology and influencing factors of traditional village built environments, consequently offering a scientific basis for formulating refined, differentiated policies for traditional villages. Full article

Research on coastal recreational activities has grown substantially, yet studies focusing on user perceptions of these spaces—critical for optimizing tourism experiences and management—remain fragmented and underdeveloped. This study addresses this gap by examining tourist sentiment in Xiamen, a renowned coastal city in China, using social media data. Text mining tools were utilized to process the Weibo contents through text segmentation, frequency analysis and cluster analysis. The Two-way Neural Network Fusion Model Based on the BERT (TNNFMB) deep learning approach was employed using transfer learning for sentiment analysis, while the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model was used to uncover latent thematic patterns. Sentiment polarity analysis revealed that positive comments constituted 56.47%, negative comments only 16.3%, and neutral comments 27.2%, confirming a generally positive perception of visitors’ coastal experiences. Tourists’ social media posts primarily revolve around five core themes in coastal areas: coastal waters, waterfronts, adjacent environments, culture and creativity, and reputation and expectation. The spatial and temporal changes in sentiment scores were discovered. Areas emphasizing sea–land landscapes, cultural theme reinforcement, and open public activities generally achieved high and stable sentiment scores. Natural and natural–artificial mixed coastlines experienced significant seasonal variations in sentiment. The recommendations of this study, generated from a sentiment perspective, include shaping a harmonious coastal environment by improving coastal management and support services to enhance the comfort of the tourist experience. This study advances understanding of user-centric coastal tourism dynamics, providing evidence-based tools for managers to enhance tourist experiences and spatial quality. Full article

The article examines the role of art in the successful revitalisation of brownfield sites in Nantes. The city’s deindustrialization in the 1960s–80s caused a severe economic and social crisis. Significant areas were left behind by the abandoned factories, which were rapidly degrading, negatively affecting the entire city. Many of these were located on a river island in the city centre. Since the early 1990s, the Nantes authorities initiated a process of revitalising brownfield sites. They implemented several culture-led regeneration strategies. Nantes opened up to temporary events: street theatre shows and art festivals. The flagship project and symbol of renewal became Les Machines de Île, mobile, interactive machines that took over the previously degraded island and hark back to its industrial past. Site-specific art installations filled the city. The municipal authorities also started to implement the concept of a creative cluster, concentrating art colleges, cultural facilities, and creativity-related businesses on former wasteland. The use of a variety of strategies brought success, and the results went beyond the revitalised area. Cultural activities became an accelerator of change and contributed to the regeneration process of the city. Full article

Several studies on cultural–creative tourism, urban branding (UB), youth engagement, and sustainability have been conducted in isolation, obstructing comprehensive approaches to UB development challenges. This review article aims to develop an integrated framework representing the complex interrelationships between these factors through a theory-based review and case study analysis. Methodologically, the investigation adopts bibliometric analysis using the VOSviewer software version 1.6.20 to identify thematic clusters across keyword pairings within research from 2000 to 2025, followed by content analysis for classification. The primary result is the Hierarchical–Relational Urban Sustainability (HRUS) framework, which employs a dual-pathway approach: (1) a sequential integration pathway, positioning cultural–creative tourism as the foundational mechanism supporting UB as the central concept, facilitating youth engagement as the key demographic group, and ultimately contributing to sustainability, and (2) a direct relationship pathway, examining specific connections between each factor and sustainability alone. This article contributes the first comprehensive framework that systematically integrates four main themes for sustainable urban development. The HRUS framework facilitates cross-sectoral collaboration by establishing actionable mechanisms for urban planners, universities, and tourism authorities to achieve sustainable urban brand development. Full article

The digital creative industry (DCI) has become an integral part of China’s strategic emerging industries. This paper, utilizing county-level data from Chinese digital creative enterprises in 2022, examines the locational factors influencing the spatial distribution of China’s DCI through Principal Component Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. The findings indicate that technological innovation and the level of economic development universally and dominantly influence the agglomeration of all DCI sub-sectors. Service-oriented digital creative enterprises are more likely to cluster in areas with abundant cultural resources and public facilities, with government policies and financial subsidies playing a significant role. In contrast, digital creative equipment manufacturing companies are more likely to locate in proximity to market demand and related industries. Full article

The cultural and creative industries have garnered widespread attention as an important vehicle for promoting the transformation and upgrading of urban industrial structures. In this investigation, we take Harbin—a city in China with a strong industrial legacy—as a case study. Through kernel density analysis and the DBSCAN clustering algorithm, we identify and analyze the spatial distribution and spatiotemporal evolution patterns of 157 clusters of cultural and creative industries in Harbin. We construct a Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) model using 20 indicators from three categories (i.e., social, cultural, and economic) to analyze the factors impacting the agglomeration of cultural and creative industries in Harbin. Our findings reveal that the cultural and creative industries exhibit an agglomeration pattern. A large-scale agglomeration area for large enterprises has formed in the city center, while scattered, small-scale agglomeration zones for emerging small enterprises have formed in newly developed areas on the urban periphery. The GWR analysis indicates that economic factors have the most significant impact on the agglomeration of cultural and creative industries; however, night-time economic facilities show a negative correlation. Among social factors, the convenience of public transportation and new energy transportation infrastructure have a significant impact on industrial agglomeration. Regarding cultural factors, cultural and sports facilities have the greatest influence, while public information kiosks and public arts education facilities exhibit spatial variability. These findings provide a scientific basis for policy formulation and contribute to promoting the healthy development of cultural and creative industries. Full article

In the adaptive re-use of buildings, the physicality of buildings—the way they are designed, planned, constructed and maintained—has fallen out of fashion in favour of socio-economic conceptualisations and critical urban interpretations of the redevelopment process. However, the materiality of buildings plays a key part in how locations are re-produced in response to socio-economic circumstances—in this case, the creation and sustaining of cultural and creative clusters. In response, this paper adopts a forensic approach to the characteristics of physical buildings in order to develop an original taxonomy of lo-fi adaptive features and interventions that enable the authors to infer which types and aspects of industrial buildings lend themselves to sustaining cultural and creative clusters. The focus on lo-fi interventions is an original contribution to the adaptive re-use literature where attention tends to focus on more formal and traditional design-based interactions with existing buildings. In doing so, the research utilises a comparative case study approach of several former industrial buildings associated with the contemporary independent food and drink industry in the Ouseburn Valley cultural and creative quarter of Newcastle upon-Tyne in England. The research finds that it is the functional tolerance and malleability of the case study buildings—their inherent adaptive capacity, that in part helps to sustain the cultural and creative cluster in this location. Full article

This study analyses the relationship between non-performing loans (NPLs) and innovation systems at a global level. The data were obtained from the World Bank and the Global Innovation Index over the period 2013–2022 for 149 countries. The k-means algorithm was used to verify the presence of clusters in the data. Since k-means is an unsupervised machine-learning algorithm, we compared the Silhouette coefficient with the Elbow method to find an optimization. The results show that the optimal number of clusters is three, as suggested using the Elbow Method. Furthermore, a panel data analysis was conducted. Results show that the level of NPLs is positively associated with cultural and creative services exports as a percentage of total trade and innovation input sub-index and negatively associated with the Hirsch Index, ICT services exports as a percentage of total trade, ICT services imports as a percentage of total trade, and information and communication technologies. Full article

The concept of “creative tourism”, emerging at the century’s start, responds to the “creative turn” in tourist destinations, aligning with the evolving creative class, clusters, and cities. This study employs a bibliometric analysis to examine the evolution and academic focus on creative tourism over the past two decades. Using databases like Scopus and Web of Science, we analyzed key trends, thematic developments, and the impact of creative industries on tourism. Our study reveals significant growth in creative tourism research, emphasizing creativity’s role in enhancing tourism experiences and formulating sustainable, culturally rich models. It underscores the importance of integrating creative industries into tourism and the positive impact on local economies and community development. This analysis not only maps the academic trajectory of creative tourism but also highlights its practical implications for future tourism management and sustainable community development. Full article

The creative class has become an important force in promoting sustainable urban development. Existing research has explored many factors for the agglomeration of the creative class, but there is still a lack of comparative studies from a heterogeneity perspective and on the design of cross-cultural adaptability factors, especially comparative studies across different regions in Chinese cities. This paper focuses on 27 central district cities in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, based on panel data from 2012 to 2019, and uses the location entropy method to measure the agglomeration degree of the creative class in different cities. Considering the cultural background of China, a model of influencing factors including five dimensions: economic foundation, living environment, cultural and educational environment, innovation environment, and ecological environment is constructed. The study finds: (1) The agglomeration degree of the creative class in the central urban cluster of the Yangtze River Delta is significantly higher than the peripheral level, forming an agglomeration distribution pattern led by Shanghai, with Nanjing, Hefei, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Ningbo, and other important node cities. The agglomeration degree of the creative class generally shows an upward trend. (2) The economic foundation, living environment, cultural and educational environment, innovation environment, and ecological environment all have a significant positive impact on the agglomeration of the creative class, among which the impact of the living environment, cultural and educational environment, and innovation environment is larger, while the economic foundation and ecological environment are relatively smaller. (3) There are differences in the influencing factors of the creative class agglomeration at the provincial levels of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui in the Yangtze River Delta. Compared with the more core provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the cultural and educational environment and ecological environment have a more significant impact, while the relatively peripheral Anhui province is more dependent on the city’s openness and innovation environment factors. This study reveals the spatial distribution rules and influencing factors of the creative class in the central cities of the Yangtze River Delta, providing insights for coordinated and sustainable regional development. Full article

As the imperative of sustainable development of cities has gained heightened attention within the global creative and cultural industries in the last decade, among all the relevant trials and practices, city design weeks are becoming a notable method offering diverse possibilities for the innovative approaches the cities could apply to their development. Therefore, the objective of the research is to understand how city design weeks facilitate urban sustainable development and how design-driven innovation is implemented in such a context. Employing a qualitative methodology, the study conducts a case study across 30 global design weeks, selected through a cross-validated process with the World Design Weeks global network and UNESCO City of Design network. Grounded in the design-driven innovation perspective, valid data from 2017 to 2022 is gathered in response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) primarily through extensive interviews, official project reports, and media communication materials. The data are further cross-analysed by adapting the Creative Cities Index into 10 indicators suitable for the context of design weeks. Among the research findings, three types of design-driven models emerge for the innovation practice of city design weeks: metropolitan integrative transformation and innovation, inclusive cultural diversity communion and innovation, and cluster incorporation and collaborative innovation. In this way, the study provides both the practical significance in terms of supporting the design week organisation by implementing suitable approaches to drive the city’s sustainable development and the theoretical significance in extending the possible adaptation of a design-driven innovation model for the urban development context. Furthermore, the limitation of this qualitative study opens avenues for future quantitative impact analyses on individual design weeks, providing applicable evaluation methods to iteratively inspect and refine the models over time, which complement the limitations of the current qualitative research. Full article

Governments are faced with the unique challenge of implementing large-scale and targeted protection against the global decline of large old trees. Incorporating socio-cultural values and encouraging public involvement are important parts of conservation policy. However, current studies on the socio-cultural valuation of large old trees are still limited, and how rural residents perceive the human-related value of large old trees remains largely unknown. Using a quantitative, spatial analysis and the contingent valuation method (CVM), we tried to explore a multi-scale socio-cultural valuation and protection framework based on a case study of Baoding City and Xiongan New Area in North China. The results showed that (1) the scattered large old trees in the study area were generally at a relatively younger stage, showing normal growth performance but having poor living environments. Some 96.99% of the trees resided in the countryside. Their distribution showed an agglomerative pattern with several clusters. (2) The species richness was relatively lower than that reported in urban areas. The species diversity had an obvious high–low gradient from the mountain to plain areas. Most endemic species were found in habitats of the village fringe (VF) and government/community/institutional ground (GC). (3) The mean willingness to pay (WTP) for the socio-cultural value of scattered large old trees was CNY 132.48 per year per person (1 US dollar equals about 7.2 CNY) of all the respondents, and CNY 84.30 per year per person with regard to farmers, which is relatively higher than that reported in large cities. (4) Economic income, gender, age, education level, place of residence, diameter at breast height, and tree habitat were factors that significantly influenced the WTP, among which economic income was the most significant. (5) The importance ranking of socio-cultural value connotations perceived by rural residents was as follows: spiritual attachment and homesickness > fengshui > social bond > witnessing history > education > creative inspiration. (6) The annual gross value was estimated to be CNY 349 million in the study area, and CNY 169,500 for a single tree on average. Based on the case study, a conceptual framework for socio-cultural value assessment and multi-scale protection of large old trees was proposed, which can provide references for the improvement of current conservation policies from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, and give insights into rural revitalization strategies in China. Full article

The motion picture industry is subject to extensive business and management research conducted on a wide range of topics. Due to high research productivity, it is challenging to keep track of the abundance of publications. Against this background, we employ a bibliographic coupling analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of current research topics. The following themes were defined: Key factors for success, word of mouth and social media, organizational and pedagogical dimensions, advertising—product placement and online marketing, tourism, the influence of data, the influence of culture, revenue maximization and purchase decisions, and the perception and identification of audiences. Based on the cluster analysis, we suggest the following future research opportunities: Exploring technological innovations, especially the influence of social media and streaming platforms in the film industry; the in-depth analysis of the use of artificial intelligence in film production, both in terms of its creative potential and ethical and legal challenges; the exploration of the representation of wokeness and minorities in films and their cultural and economic significance; and, finally, a detailed examination of the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises on the film industry, especially in terms of changed consumption habits and structural adjustments. Full article

Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) clusters are essential in increasing regional economic resilience, and regions with solid economic resilience can also promote the formation of CCIs clusters. However, there is little research on the two-way effect of cultural and creative industries on regional economic resilience. This study explores the relationship between the clusters of CCIs clusters and regional economic resilience from a spatial perspective. This paper takes 31 provinces and cities in China as the research object, uses panel data from 1997 to 2020, and divides the CCIs clusters into specialization and diversification. The spatial simultaneous equations model was used to verify the two-way influence relationship and the spatial interaction between the specialization and diversification of CCIs clusters and the regional economic resilience, respectively. The study found a two-way positive relationship between specialized CCIs clusters and regional economic resilience, while the opposite relationship existed between diversified CCIs clusters and regional economic resilience. There were positive spatial spillovers between CCIs clusters and regional economic resilience. The enhancement of local economic resilience comes from the specialization of local CCIs clusters and the diversification of CCIs clusters in neighboring regions. Full article

In this paper, I conducted a systematic review of the economic development literature from 1959 to 2020 to reveal the ebbs and flows of major research topics, combining the text mining technique with the bibliographic analysis. Topics such as “regional development” and “sustainable development” have gained importance over the decades, while “development strategy” has lost its prominent status. New topics such as “climate change” and “developing countries” have emerged in recent years. An analysis of the citation network reveals three distinctive research trajectories: One engages with the concepts of the creative class, human capital, clusters, and art and culture. Another centers around the topic of “regional development”, and a third, smaller group studies “new industrial district”. This study helps researchers understand the evolution of the roadmap in the field of economic development, properly situate their own work in the literature, identify influential citations, and discover novel research topics in need of further exploration. Full article