The state and creative clusters: Lessons on building a film cluster from scratch

Studies on the spatial organisation of so-called creative industries have exploded the last decade. This has resulted in an impressive amount of research on the clustering of creative industries, their reliance on buzz and why they are based on projects, and so forth. This literature has, however, neglected paying attention to the role of the state in general but more importantly in facilitating the emergence of a film cluster from scratch in the context of global Hollywood dominance. This is a problem as the state plays a central role in constructing catching up oriented competitiveness in many creative industries, especially film industries outside Hollywood. Based on an original empirical study of the Danish film cluster we show how it has emerged almost from scratch and positioned itself as a noteworthy player on the global scene industry during the last 20 years. Special attention is paid to the lessons on the role of the state in this process.