Living Environment of Inhabitants in Creative Occupations in Slovenia
Author: Kozina, Jani , jani.kozina@zrc-sazu.si
Department: Faculty of Arts, Department of Geography
University: University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Supervisor: Marjan Ravbar
Year of completion: 2013
Language of dissertation: Slovenian
Keywords:
creativity
, human resources
, living environment
, human geography
Areas of Research:
Regional and Urban Development
, Professional Groups
, Economy and Society
Abstract
In this increasingly developed knowledge society, creativity is gaining greater meaning. Recent development paradigms consistently list it as one of the key factors of economic growth and the development of cities, regions and a progressive market economy in general. In recent times, creativity has most often been connected to inhabitants in creative professions. Numerous empirical studies have indicated that their choice of residential location is disproportionate in terms of the regional division as well as of the urbanization level. Here, the locational factors play an important role as they may attract the creative work force to one environment and manage to retain it there. This dissertation attempts to answer two key questions: where do inhabitants in creative professions reside in Slovenia? And, why do they choose to live there? The aim was to explore the differences in terms of the selected regionalization, divided into eight functional regions, and in terms of the settlement urbanization level.
It was concluded that inhabitants in creative professions in Slovenia adhere to a similar percentage of the work force in other highly developed countries; this is also the occupational group that has increased in number the most compared to others (agricultural, production and service) in the last decade. The spatial distribution analyses showed that, similar to other countries, inhabitants in creative professions in Slovenia are unevenly distributed. Taking into account the selected regionalization, a lower concentration is typical for less economically developed regions in Eastern Slovenia, while a higher concentration occurs in more developed regions in the western half of the country. The highest concentration is in Central Slovenia. This region has seen the biggest expansion in terms of size and the concentration of inhabitants in creative occupations in the past decade. As for the level of settlement urbanization, the concentration of inhabitants in creative professions increases with a higher degree of urbanization; however, contemporary settlement processes run towards a dispersal from heavily urbanized settlement types to more sparsely settled suburbanized and rural settlements. A specialized analysis determined the relatively high level of spatial immobility of inhabitants in creative professions, which is most likely the reflection of a strong attachment to the local environment and of an extremely immobile real estate market and work force in Slovenia.
The most important spatial distribution factors for inhabitants in creative professions with regard to residence in Slovenia are access to leisure activities, living environment quality, identity, access to the workplace and access to services. Additionally, important differences were identified in the mentioned factors from the aspect of the selected regionalization as well as the settlement urbanization level. Despite this, based on result comparisons between other similar studies in Slovenia, it may be stated that the residential preferences of inhabitants in creative professions in Slovenia do not differ substantially from the preferences of the majority of Slovenians who wish to reside in an individual residential real estate object in a green environment with well-developed infrastructure and consequently good access to the workplace and different types of services.
