Het Nederlandse beleid voor de creatieve economie: te veel vliegen in één klap?

Dutch policy for the creative economy: aiming for too many birds with one stone? Creative economy is a subject that enjoys a lot of attention from Dutch governments, from local to state. It is assumed that creative economy results in a positive image, safety and money. In the Netherlands, the writings of Richard Florida have become prominent in policy making. Florida characterises the creative class as value driven. Values are individuality, tolerance, and meritocracy. Cities that score high on Technology, Talent and Tolerance attract the creative class. The Dutch policy for this economy often coincides with urban renewal. Moreover, the Dutch government has a desire to define what successful creativity is. This has some side-effects that might harm the tolerant atmosphere that is essential to the creative class, as it excludes groups of people from the public domain. In this contribution, I present a project that wants to resist the homogenization and zero tolerance policies in the public domain. In the project Maximum Tolerance Zone all parties concerned negotiate the quality of ‘their’ public sphere and the rules needed to advance this quality. The MTZ-project does not assume a social intervention in which the government imposes norms one has to learn to adapt to, but a social-administrative intervention in which a joint learning process takes place. This is not an easy, but still a necessary assignment for all parties concerned, the government included.