From hierarchical convergence to reticular expansion: urban dynamics through Alice’s mirror

The paper addresses the role that Cultural and Creative Industries play in contemporary urban dynamics. In the framework of the knowledge-based economy, value is increasingly generated and multiplied by activating and consolidating networks between cities, and it is reproduced in intra-urban dynamics, by disrupting hierarchies and seeking value chains in unconventional areas. In this framework, the EU ROCK project is a paradigmatic experimentation of a new urban system in which convergence as a source of value is replaced by reticular expansion. The paper tests the ROCK methodology against network literature, investigating its role as a network infrastructure for knowledge and innovation expansion. This interpretation can inform policies for CCIs, especially in the context of the New European Bauhaus, as it calls for more articulated public action to redesign urban dynamics, settlements and flows in specific urban areas.