Places, Spaces and the Dynamics of Creativity: The Video Game Industry in Montreal

Abstract

Grandadam D., Cohendet P. and Simon L. Places, spaces and the dynamics of creativity: the video game industry in Montreal, Regional Studies. The aim of this paper is to understand better the dynamics of situated creativity by reconsidering the formation of externalities in cities. What is suggested is that these externalities are not due to the proximity between institutions of the ‘upperground’ or between individuals of the ‘underground’, but rather they emerge from the articulation between places and spaces, which both contribute to fertilize a so-called ‘middleground’. The case of the video game cluster in Montreal in Quebec, Canada, is analysed in order to illustrate this view.