A new index by the EU Joint Research Centre published Thursday measures 168 cities in 30 European countries and ranks how they perform in 29 areas of culture and creativity.
The ideal city would have the cultural venues of Cork, the cultural attractiveness and knowledge-based jobs of Paris, the innovation of Eindhoven, the new creative jobs of Umeå, the education system of Leuven, the openness, tolerance and trust of Glasgow, the connectedness of Utrecht and the good governance of Copenhagen. [...]
EU researchers found that while capital cities fly high, smaller cities often do better. The capitals of Austria, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, Netherlands and the U.K. all finished in second place or worse within their country.
Amsterdam and Łódź are at opposite ends of the index’s “cultural vibrancy” ratings despite having a similar population. Meanwhile, tiny Weimar in Germany achieved the same score as London and Berlin.
The index represents a major effort to inject “soft” issues such as culture into political debates about the future of Europe. It builds on emerging academic and economic consensus that the “creative economy” is an important foundation for thriving economies.
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