Learn from elsewhere: A relational geography of policy learning in Bangkok’s Creative District

Abstract

The article investigates Charoengkrung Creative District as a site of cross-border policy learning. Heralded as Thailand's first creative district and a “prototype” for many more to come, Charoenkrung Creative District promises to rejuvenate the city through a participatory, broad-based approach. Rather than analyzing the creative district as a local intervention, the article foregrounds the transnational character of policymaking. It shows that while the policy intervention is local, it is globally inspired by the imaginaries of “successful” elsewheres. The paper analyzes the state's discourse of creativity as a global–local negotiation, whereby the local understanding of creativity is contingent upon (and therefore curtailed by) its selective perception of foreign successes. Building upon the notion of assemblage, it points to a collage of policy ideas and imaginaries of success, which are mobilized to promote the vision of the creative district at home.