Glocalisation dynamics: The appropriation of the ‘creative turn’ discourse in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2007–2015)

The global wave that elevates the creative economy and CI as instruments to gain urban competitiveness has been criticised in academia, for it presents extensive debates around definitions, methods and the overall impact of the CI. Scholars have been questioning the role of CI in economy and society: while some authors argue that CI are a generalised prescription that serve as vehicle to export neoliberal policy recommendations; others defend the ideal of a CI discourse with policy variance and attention to local contextual factors. However, those questioning or supporting the role of CI are mainly mapping examples from the Global North with only a few exceptions of study cases of from South-East Asia, Australia, Easter-Europe and Africa. As such, we introduce the case of Latin America, with the example of the city of Buenos Aires, as representative of a region that acquired similar strategies in their policies with respect to the CI. Accordingly, we remind how the creative turn adopted by cities is necessarily embedded in the territorialisation of global dynamics regarding creative theories and policies. By providing a deep analysis of the adoption of the creative turn in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the XXI century, this paper suggests that global theories may have different socio-economic impacts in different local contexts. CI are neither critical, nor can be disregarded, for social and economic change; rather they call for a more nuanced perspective that is much needed both in policy and academia to understand the specific contexts of the creative sectors. •Link global-local in the adoption of the concept of Creative Industries (CI).•The creative turn reached Buenos Aires and found fertile terrain.•Questioning the understanding of development that focus exclusively on economic aspects.•Local circumstances, global conceptions.•Need of a more nuanced perspective of the relationship between CI and development.