Evidence of creative clusters in Portugal

The late twentieth century consolidated a series of socioeconomic transformations that have impacted modes of production, consumption, relationships, enjoyment, and accumulation. The intangibility and digitization anchored in the revolution of information and communication technologies are markers of this structural shift. At the core of this process, creativity, knowledge, innovation, and place have become even more critical inputs for the development and diversification of economies. To identify clusters in Portugal, the primary data source used is the 2021 Census, carried out by the National Institute of Statistics of Portugal, which provides information about the country's 308 municipalities. Indicators are divided into variables related to artistic creativity, scientific creativity, and socioeconomic dynamism and diversity, taking into account the theoretical framework. After normalizing the indicators, the TSNE technique was applied, a non-linear dimensionality reduction method aimed at representing high-dimensional data in a lower-dimensional space while preserving local data structure. The study details the municipalities in five main clusters. It is suggested that the analysis of creative clusters can help better understand the distribution and characteristics of creative activities in different regions of Portugal, providing valuable insights for regional and urban development policies.