Contributions of Higher Education in Design for the Creative Economy of cities.
Supervisor: Bruna Ruschel Moreira
The creative economy aims to create, produce, and distribute products and services that use creativity and intellectual capital as a primary input. Moreover, this type of economy is often linked to geographical specificity by exploiting local characteristics in order to generate value for the companies and cities in which they are inserted. From this context, the following research question was established: How can higher education in Design develop competence related to creative entrepreneurship in order to contribute to the Creative Economy of cities? The research project aims to carry out a mapping of these skills to then point out scenarios for their development within the Degree in Design and contribute to the creative economy of cities. To do so, some European cities will be studied through field research with companies and universities, to understand how the relationship between Creative Economy, Entrepreneurship and Degree in Design occurs. The survey will start in 2018, in Lisbon, Portugal, since the cities hold 30% of the creative jobs of the country and, from them, 47% of the Gross Added Value is generated in the almost 22 thousand companies of the sector. Afterwards, other cities (to be defined) will be studied.
General Objective
To point out possible scenarios for the development of design students’ competences related to Creative Entrepreneurship, with a view to contributing to the Creative Economy of the cities.
Specific Objectives
- Understand the main competencies related to Creative Entrepreneurship and analyse the ways in which they may be related to the skills of Design practice;
- Identify the competencies related to Creative Entrepreneurship, developed during the Degree in Design;
- Converge the competencies related to Creative Entrepreneurship, developed during the Degree in Design, with the characteristics of the market context of the Creative Economy in order to establish relationships;
Expected results
It is expected that this research results in a descriptive report for each city surveyed, delivered in digital format, in order to expand dissemination, and composed of four parts:
a) Report I: the first part of the report will focus on presenting the existing approaches between the competences of Design and the main features of the creative economy;
b) Report II: the second part of the report will present the main skills, related to creative entrepreneurship, developed in the degrees in Design;
c) Report III: the third part of the report will promote a reflection on the correspondence between the competences developed in the Degree in Design and the characteristics of the market context of the creative economy;
d) Report IV: the fourth and last part will present possible scenarios for the development of the competences of the students of the degrees in Design, related to creative entrepreneurship, with a view to contributing to the creative economy.
With this document we aim to increase the knowledge of the possible contributions of Design to the cities, disclosing its potential as a positive agent of transformation for the creative economies.