Development and potential of creative clusters for Brazilian medium-sized cities

Abstract:

This study investigates the presence of creative clusters in medium-sized Brazilian cities in 2010, and is based on the strategy proposed by Machado, Simões and Diniz (2013). The analysis of medium-sized cities points to the development of typologies, as well as different patterns of creative agglomerations. Also, when detaching the effects of the big and peripheral cities the analysis becomes more homogeneous, contributing to improve the understanding and knowledge of the creative economy in Brazil. The multivariate method of fuzzy clustering, which allows greater approximation of the results with the reality, was applied to a variety of constructed indicators and several other data provided by the national institutes of IBGE, DATASUS and FINBRA. A set of six clusters were selected from specific characteristics of the sample. We analyzed the results, geographical location, and disposition found for each group, with four presenting a more pronounced pattern.

Keywords:
creative cluster; agglomeration externalities; medium-size cities; fuzzy clustering