- Local processes and actors as key factors in the creative economy   397 kb by    Owei, Opuenebo & Nwikpo, Ley | obo_owei@yahoo.com    Short Outline The paper examines the negative role often played by local actors within municipal authorities and local urban communities in creating the spaces necessary for the creative economy in a developing country like Nigeria. Abstract Port Harcourt occupies arategic location within Nigeria's economic system. It is the capital of the nation's oil industry with the head offices of the trans - national oil and gas companies.Thus, in the last decade it is one of the fastest growing urban centre with a population exceeding 1 million in 2003. The formal sector of the urban economy is dominated by the oil industry and their investment has attracted a broad range of service industries including telecommmunications, banking and hotels.These investments in addition to the strategic location of the city has opened up its urban space to the potentials of the creative economy. However, the public sector which consists of the regional government and two local government authorities all of which have this city as their administrative headquarters have been unable to provide the necessary spaces for the creative economy to be anchored. There are factors militating against the proper planning of the city. The most significant of these are local governance issues that include the absence of the rule of law and arbitrariness in policy making that reflect the personalization of public office, inefficiency and absence of local institutions. In addition is the endemic confrontation between local urban communities and developers and even government that has made nonsense of the land use planning process. This paper tries to document these local processes and highlight how they impact on the urban structure and economy. The paper recommends the strategic option for the city, one that derives from institutional transformation and legislation. Keywords local actors, institutions, rule of law, municipal governance Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2005: Making Spaces for the Creative Economy   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper