Exploring paths to creative city emergence. The example of three Polish cities

The main aim of the article is to identify the development paths of creative cities in Poland. The authors made an attempt to define development potentials, and then to define their role in building a creative city. The research also took into account the role of instability as an additional factor which, in conjunction with the role of city authorities, becomes important for the emergence of a creative city. The first section of the article highlights the concept of territorial capital—which we consider to be fundamental for the discussion of creative cities and city development factors which follows in the second section. The review of literature on the creative city concept allowed us to identify several factors which we regard as required for the emergence of a creative city. They were further operationalized into three development potentials, based on culture, education and innovations in the third section. Case studies of three Polish cities labelled by UNESCO as creative cities are available in the fourth section. Discussion of case studies is presented in the fifth section and the conclusions are available in the sixth section. The result of the conducted research is the identification of two different paths of development of a creative city. We conclude that a balanced mix of development potentials based on culture, education and innovation is essential for the emergence of a creative city, which does not mean that these potentials are needed in equal doses. Each of them is necessary, but neither is sufficient in itself. In some of the cases studied, the process of creating creative cities would not start without the stimulus of instability.