Funder: British Council

Team: Joyce Yee, Viola Petrella (Northumbria University); Yoko Akama (RMIT), Khemmiga Teeerapong (Bangkok University).

Timeframe: 2010-2020

The research was commissioned in September 2019 as part of The British Council’s South-East Asia regional Creative Hubs for Good programme. It was aimed at understanding the role of creative hubs in the development of cultural and creative districts, and in particular how it catalyses social and economic changes in Thailand. The project team led by Professor Joyce Yee is part of the Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific network (https://www.desiap.org). Over a period of 6-months, the DESIAP team interviewed and conducted workshops with key actors involved in the creative scene in Thailand. It has resulted in four in-depth case studies of established creative districts in Thailand which are Songkhla, Chiang Mai, Bangkok (Charoen Krung) and Sakon Nakhon. This research is part of an ongoing DESIAP initiative to continually build a more culturally-grounded understanding of how design supports social innovation. The outcomes published in a report identifies the importance of hard and soft infrastructures and its social capital to understand the development and sustainment of a vibrant creative ecosystem. In particular, the work demonstrate the important role individuals and organisations play in bridging and linking with other groups, networks and organisations. They extend the value and impact of a place’s soft infrastructures by bringing in new ideas, connections and access to resources that otherwise would not be accessible.