Creative clusters in Urban Settings: 22@BCN and Shoredicht East London. (Clústers creatius en entorns urbans: 22@Bcn i Shoreditch East London)

Creative clusters in Urban Settings: 22@BCN and Shoredicht East LondonABSTRACTAlthough the distance variable is not as important as in the past, the location of companies of new economy in urban zones areas continues to be a fact. Location factors such as infrastructures, close to demand, and face to face transactions first quarter of the twenty-first century ties the creative economy to cities in a similar way as factories located at the beginning of twentieth century. The city played an outstanding role in the development of "the new industrial economy" at the beginning of twentieth century, and it does so in the "the new creative economy" with the label of city of the knowledge. The morphological, social, economic and urban results are very different in each period; both phenomena impact the cities remarkably well. The goal of this research study is to analyze the mechanisms of agglomeration and clustering mechanisms in the creation of knowledge, advanced services, competitive activities at the top of the leading-edge developments in the cities of the twenty-one century. In Barcelona, the project 22@BCN, and in East London, the Shoreditch projects are compared. The effort that local authorities have put on creating the appropriate environment to attract and to create innovative companies, as engines for development at some European cities, has resulted in the emergence of very dynamic urban centers that are prepared and accommodate nodes of knowledge creation ("Urban Knowledge Hubs"), which represent a pool of high qualified jobs. This is the case of the projects of Barcelona (22@bcn) and East London (Shoreditch).Key words. Knowledge Economy, Clustering, Leading Cities.