Reinventing creativity in old Europe: A development scenario for cities within the Upper Rhine Valley cross-border area

On both sides of the Rhine, from Karlsruhe to Strasbourg and Basle, a core region of Europe has been a focus of cultural and technological revolutions for almost one millennium. In particular, that area was one of the core regions of European Renaissance. The Upper Rhine valley, after a complex history, is now divided into regions belonging to three nation states. The challenge nowadays is to become a model territory for building Europe as creativity-based economy and society. The specificity of this area, and potentially its strength, is to be a polycentric metropolitan region. Linguistic and institutional variety, together with a very old common culture: will such circumstances turn to be a winning recipe in the 21th century? In this article, we address those topics with a special view on the Strasbourg city and the Alsace region, on the French side of the Rhine. The relevant policies for fostering innovation within this cross-border area - taking full advantage of the creativity potential of such a multi-cultural space - suppose a great deal of institutional cooperation but also a reengineering of the instruments, away from the classical “technology transfer” paradigm. It means giving more consideration to other sources of creativity than science and technology (cultural and creative industries) as well as developing a culture of innovation in every branch of activity.

►Cross-border regions can be particularly creative if some general conditions are met. ► The Upper-Rhine Valley, between France, Germany and Switzerland, is one of those examples of ''small Europe” under construction. ► We give some statistical evidence of the strong scientific potential of this area. ► Such potential has no real critical mass effect if internal links are not developed and cultural differences interfaced.