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Contrary to the metropolitan bias, our results indicate that northern communities are not ‘hopeless places’
fully deprived of the creative capital. Creative ‘hot spots’ in the North exist, and could become the centers
of regional reinvention. The analysis shows that the creative class in northern regions is diverse
(represented by four major groups) and the groups are clustered (as expected). However, there is a
considerable (and systematic) difference among various types of communities. For example,
Aboriginal communities are strong on bohemia (cultural creative capital), but typically are weak on
entrepreneurial capital (this mismatch points to a fundamental impediment to developing profitmaking cultural economies in Aboriginal communities). Overall, Aboriginality appears to be
positively related to creativity.
In respect to the conceptual discussions, it is important to point out that our findings, while being in
line with the overall “creative capital theory,” counter some stylized representations and illuminate
peculiar role, structure and geography of the CC in remote, peripheral areas. Arctic regions
demonstrate the associations among CC indices closely resembling national patterns (thus indicating
that the creative capital ‘logic’ is applicable in the peripheral context). The coincidence of statistical
associations indicates that the major relationships are upheld, and the behavior of the creative class
metrics is very much alike the rest of the country. At the same time, there are important differences,
which emphasize the unique place of the Arctic in the creative capital theory. The following
emerging theoretical themes define the conceptual and empirical substance of CC research in rural
and remote areas.
Increasing role of CC (and demand for CC) for economic well-being, fate control and human development in general.
Although by a standard definition CC in the Arctic is underdeveloped, it could be argued that this
representation no longer reflects the variability and diversity of Arctic regions, some of which
demonstrate substantial levels of creativity that is based on non-codified informal knowledge and
therefore might not conform to the stylized notion of CC. On the other hand, there is a strong
theoretical argument that CC is critical for economic development and socio-economic
transformation in the Arctic as it often becomes the engine of economic reinvention and
revitalization of a region.
Clustering and synergy of CC in the periphery: Correlation coefficients illustrate close associations among
different creative class indices. Different groups of the creative capital are clustered in space.
Applied Sciences (ASI), Bohemian (BI), Leadership (LI) and Entrepreneurship (EI) indices are
strongly correlated. Different types of CC attract each other and reinforce region’s innovative
potential. Separated or disjoined, these components are much less powerful. It is likely that a local
synergy between CC and social capital (contrary to the metropolitan notion of the “weakness of
strong ties”) is an important component of economic success. In addition, a strong creative capital
coincides with top levels of attractiveness. The idea here is that ‘creative synergy’ is a critical
condition for utilizing local creative capacities.
Persistence of education and CC gaps: In terms of educational attainment (Talent Index) we observe the
following persisting gaps (1) between most Arctic and southern metropolitan regions; (2) between
urban/industrial Arctic territories and the rest of the Arctic; and (3) between Indigenous and nonIndigenous population in the Arctic.
Petrov