A creativity-led rural renaissance? Amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural Australia

This paper explores the relationships between amenity, creativity, internal migration processes and economic development in a significant proportion of rural Australia. In developing a predictive and synoptic model of migration attractiveness, we explore the extent to which rural regions and localit...

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Main Authors: Argent, Neil, Tonts, Matthew, Jones, Roy, Holmes, John
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier Ltd 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32905
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author Argent, Neil
Tonts, Matthew
Jones, Roy
Holmes, John
author_facet Argent, Neil
Tonts, Matthew
Jones, Roy
Holmes, John
author_sort Argent, Neil
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper explores the relationships between amenity, creativity, internal migration processes and economic development in a significant proportion of rural Australia. In developing a predictive and synoptic model of migration attractiveness, we explore the extent to which rural regions and localities have been able to attract ‘creative’ human capital since 2001, the geographic distribution of such gains, and the extent to which ‘creative class’ presence is positively associated with business and employment growth. We find that ‘creative industry’ members find high amenity and high socio-economic status areas of rural Australia attractive places in which to live and work, yet this group's presence is not readily attributable to rural migration processes. Presence of the creative class, together with select rural amenity indicators, are powerful predictors of firm numbers but appear to have little influence over employment creation in rural Australia. Given these findings, the paper argues that building regional development policies around the attraction of the creative class is unlikely to yield major economic development gains.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-329052017-09-13T15:26:25Z A creativity-led rural renaissance? Amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural Australia Argent, Neil Tonts, Matthew Jones, Roy Holmes, John Rural Australia Amenity migration Creativity Regional development This paper explores the relationships between amenity, creativity, internal migration processes and economic development in a significant proportion of rural Australia. In developing a predictive and synoptic model of migration attractiveness, we explore the extent to which rural regions and localities have been able to attract ‘creative’ human capital since 2001, the geographic distribution of such gains, and the extent to which ‘creative class’ presence is positively associated with business and employment growth. We find that ‘creative industry’ members find high amenity and high socio-economic status areas of rural Australia attractive places in which to live and work, yet this group's presence is not readily attributable to rural migration processes. Presence of the creative class, together with select rural amenity indicators, are powerful predictors of firm numbers but appear to have little influence over employment creation in rural Australia. Given these findings, the paper argues that building regional development policies around the attraction of the creative class is unlikely to yield major economic development gains. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32905 10.1016/j.apgeog.2013.07.018 Elsevier Ltd restricted
spellingShingle Rural Australia
Amenity migration
Creativity
Regional development
Argent, Neil
Tonts, Matthew
Jones, Roy
Holmes, John
A creativity-led rural renaissance? Amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural Australia
title A creativity-led rural renaissance? Amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural Australia
title_full A creativity-led rural renaissance? Amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural Australia
title_fullStr A creativity-led rural renaissance? Amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural Australia
title_full_unstemmed A creativity-led rural renaissance? Amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural Australia
title_short A creativity-led rural renaissance? Amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural Australia
title_sort creativity-led rural renaissance? amenity-led migration, the creative turn and the uneven development of rural australia
topic Rural Australia
Amenity migration
Creativity
Regional development
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32905