Engendering a Creative Milieu through University Engagement: Syracuse, New York Case Study

Abstract

The evolution of our Fordist, manufacturing economy to a creative, knowledge-based one has altered the discourse of city branding and the way cities form their identities within the public sphere. Cities are now adopting an alternative approach to the way they market to, attract, and retain populations. They now seek to utilize economies of knowledge, innovation, and culture as a contemporary means of remaining competitive and attractive within a creative economy. This work will specifically focus on the interplay between the city and the university, arguing that town-gown partnerships offer a unique contribution to the manifestation of creative milieus. Relationships between municipalities and institutes of higher learning are not new. Historically, cities and universities engaged in minimal dialogue with one another and it is the purpose of this work to bring to light the important possibility of a successful creative city brand through this medium.

This work will begin by affirming the rise of a creative economy where creativity and knowledge sharing have replaced the archaic manufacturing and industrialized ways of life. Cities are therefore branding themselves as innovative within this new market. Within this discourse, higher education institutes (HEIs) have evolved from their original roles as sovereign, academic fortresses to magnets of creativity and engagement within the surrounding community. It is the presence of an exogenous HEI within a knowledge economy that now serves to improve a city’s image by providing creative outlets for the community at large. This work will assert that innovative town-gown partnerships engender a creative way to alter a city’s image in the eyes of stakeholders, helping to analyze, support and add to the theories of Richard Florida, Charles Landry, Keith Dinnie, and others. This work’s case study will closely examine the relationship between one municipality, Syracuse, in central New York State, and its primary HEI, Syracuse University through its large-scale community engagement project called “Scholarship in Action.” It is this thesis’ goal to analyze, combine, and apply the theoretical and practical attributes of city branding, creative cities, and town-gown discourses to prove a cooperative and sustainable town-gown dialogue can engender a creative milieu within a knowledge economy.