A Bibliometric Analysis of Creative Cities: Research Hotspots, Trends, and Outlooks

Abstract

Creative Cities (CCs) have emerged as a prominent topic of global interest, representing a novel approach to urban development that fosters sustainability. This study employed the CiteSpace bibliometric tool to conduct a knowledge mapping analysis of CC research, utilizing the Web of Science (WoS) core collection as the data source spanning from 2004 to 20 April 2023. The research provides a comprehensive overview of the historical development of CCs, supported by both theoretical foundations and empirical data. Furthermore, it identifies research hotspots, core themes, and future trends within the field. A total of 2270 articles were retrieved for this study, revealing an upward trajectory in the number of articles associated with specific keywords. The research encompasses various disciplines, including geography, economics, urban studies, sociology, and art. The key focal points of CC investigations encompass sustainable development, cultural heritage, and information technology. The advancement of CCs has primarily focused on three core areas: theoretical research, policy strategies, and developmental challenges. This study underscores the importance of addressing issues such as gentrification, embracing information technology, and bridging the gap between theory and practice in CC development. The literature suggests that there is a dearth of comprehensive frameworks, spanning from theory to practice, which could serve as guiding principles and evaluation tools for the establishment and progress of CCs. This observation carries significant theoretical implications, while also offering a springboard for further exploration of the research hotspots by other scholars in the field.

1. Introduction

Creative Cities (CCs) represent a new form of urban development that has emerged alongside the rise of the creative economy [1]. They serve as an effective model for addressing contemporary urban challenges, fostering urban development, and enhancing international influence [2]. Furthermore, they present a crucial direction for future urban development [3]. The confirmation of the “creative city” comes from the “Creative City Seminar” jointly sponsored by the Australian Arts Council, Melbourne City Council, and Victoria [4]. In order to better integrate art and culture into urban development planning, the conference brings together artists and urban policy officials. The definition of CC has been interpreted differently by many academics. According to Peter Hall, a creative city must be dynamic and open, and it cannot be formed solely of creative elements [5]. Charles Landry believes that the function of a CC is to systematically solve urban problems, use cultural and artistic forces combined with creative methods [6], build a creative social environment, create a creative social atmosphere, and attract creative high-quality talents. According to Sasaki, a CC is a city that fosters the growth of cultural endeavors and the development of creative industries [7]. According to Jane Jacobs, the key to a creative city is the urban system’s ongoing renewal. Creativity, which she sees as a city’s most valuable asset, is fuelled by high-quality labor and small- and medium-sized businesses. [8]. It is worth noting that UNESCO has elaborated, stating that: creative cities have the characteristics of innovation centers and socio-cultural clusters, using creative industries and socio-cultural communities to create healthy urban environments. The United Creative Cities Network (UCCN) working group was founded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2004 for the international growth of CCs [9,10]. At present, 246 cities worldwide have signed up with the UCCN and are working toward CC development. Creative cities are a crucial component of the European Union initiatives to revive the economies of the various member states, providing an alternative strategy for implementing and improving clever specialization methods throughout Europe [11]. The current CC research emphasizes areas such as creativity evaluation, urban planning, the integration of CCs and information technology, and sustainable urban development [12]. Florida’s 3T theory, Glaser’s 3S theory, Hopes’ three elements, and Landry’s seven components are notable theoretical frameworks in this area [13]. Furthermore, Hopps divides CCs into four fundamental categories: technologically inventive, culturally intellectual, culturally technical, and technologically ordered [14].

A total of ten review articles on CCs were retrieved from previous studies. Published in April 2022, the latest article examines how street art has become an ally of urban policies shaped by the creative city model of Lisbon’s fringe communities [15]. In previous studies, CiteSpace was used to explore the research hotspots of CCs, the database shows that there was just one article published in 2013 [5], which makes this paper more timely. In related fields, many scholars have published comprehensive articles on topics such as smart cities, cultural heritage, and cultural parks, but there is still significant research potential in the CC field. The existing research reveals a significant disparity between the theoretical development and practical implementation, often leading to homogenization. The goal of this study is to synthesize and organize the existing research, build a solid theoretical foundation for CC development, translate theoretical insights into practical solutions that align with local policies, and ultimately, to promote sustainable urban development through enhanced urban policies [16,17]. As the COVID-19 pandemic gradually subsides, people’s lives are returning to normal, revitalizing their enthusiasm and expanding the range and frequency of their activities, thereby contributing effectively to the city’s development [18]. However, many cities are grappling with the formulation of policies that make them more appealing for tourism [19].

In 1998, the British government released the “UK Creative Industries Pathway Document,” which introduced the concept of “cultural and creative industries” and implemented proactive measures to foster industry growth [20]. In 2007, the European Commission published “The European cultural order in a globalized world” (ECO), which posits that the E.U. originated as a cultural community before becoming a political entity, highlighting the significance of cultural exchange in shaping the E.U. [21,22,23]. The introduction of the ECO marked the formalization of the E.U.’s strategic framework for culture. That same year, the 27 member states of the European Union ratified the Lisbon Treaty, which commits the E.U. to assisting member states in promoting cultural prosperity and respecting national and regional cultural diversity, with priority given to shared cultural heritage [24]. Japan proposed a cultural industry development strategy in 2007. In 2011, the European Commission adopted the Creative Europe cultural fund project with overwhelming support, aiming to further support and foster the prosperity of the cultural and creative sector in Europe. This initiative has had a profound impact on the cultural and creative industries both within the E.U. and globally [25,26]. Furthermore, the Chinese government unveiled the Cultural Industry Development Plan of the Ministry of Culture for the 13th Five-Year Plan period in 2017, and on May 21, 2021, the United Nations and the World Bank published “Cities, Culture, Creativity: Using Cultural Creativity for Sustainable Urban Development and Inclusive Growth” (CCC) [27]. Further details regarding these documents are presented in

Table 1. Typical spatial planning policies for CCs.

Document	Region	Issued Time	Connotation
Creative Industries Mapping Document	U.K.	1998	The concept of “creative industry” was put forward for the first time
UCCN	UNESCO	2004	Promote cooperation among cities that consider creativity as an element of sustainable development strategies
European Commission	E.U.	2007	It marks the formal formation of the cultural strategic framework of the European Union
The Lisbon Treaty	E.U.	2007	The EU will assist Member States in promoting cultural prosperity, respecting national and regional cultural diversity, while giving priority to their common cultural heritage
Cultural industry development Plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan Period of the Ministry of Culture	China	2017	We will establish a system for cultural and scientific innovation, and effectively promote scientific and technological innovation to lead cultural development
Cities, Culture, Creativity: Leveraging Culture and Creativity for Sustainable Urban Development and Inclusive Growth	UNESCO and the World Bank	2021	Cities are the centres of cultural and creative industries, and cultural creativity can stimulate urban space regeneration, improve economic development, strengthen social cohesion, and promote sustainable urban development

.

CCs have emerged as a crucial avenue for future urban development, with numerous countries worldwide adopting the construction of CCs as a key strategy to foster the growth of the creative economy [28]. The goal of this study is to look at the changing theoretical advancements, ideas, applications, and future directions of CCs. The first aspect involves reviewing the global progression of CCs. The second area focuses on the current research trends and future prospects of CCs. The third aspect entails analyzing the critical and digital images and the implementation of CC research. The existing planning strategy for CCs entails the following approaches: (1) enhancing the diversification of CCs and facilitating intercity exchanges; (2) promoting scientific research and technological innovation within CCs; and (3) integrating information technology for sustainable urban development.

To bridge the gap between theory and practice, it is crucial to establish a comprehensive evaluation system that can promptly optimize and adapt CCs’ culture, thereby achieving sustainable urban development [29]. Therefore, this study identifies the basic elements and keywords of CCs through the identification and analysis of CC trends. CiteSpace is employed to analyze the research trends, topical issues, and potential directions for future optimization, research, and expansion. This analysis aims to provide guidance and practical insights for CC research [30,31,32]. Based on the WoS database as a supplement to the historical evolution analysis, the future research trend of CCs is proposed, which provides a new perspective for the research direction and research path of CCs and provides a theoretical reference for the high-quality development of CCs in various countries. It is worth noting that the hotspots analysis of CCs in this study is different from previous studies, which means that on the basis of previous studies, targeted questions are raised to explore new ways for future research methods.

This paper is structured accordingly, beginning with a section that outlines the data sources and research methodology. The subsequent section introduces the relevant CC policies and presents case studies. Moreover, an examination is conducted on the collaboration patterns among authors, the publication journals, the distribution of published collaborations, and the research institutions, based on the number of published papers [33]. The analysis and summary include highly cited articles and literature within the most influential categories of the field. Overall, this analysis reveals the latest research hotspots, future directions, and development challenges [34]. The study concludes by discussing the evolving research hotspots, their evolution, and prospects. For the visual analysis in this paper, research results published between 2004 and 2023 were selected, as Japan and the E.U. introduced related policies in 2007 (refer to Table 1 for further details), which significantly stimulated the development of the CC field.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Data Sources

In this study, the first step was to create a unified database for analysis by selecting reference journal articles from reliable sources. The WoS platform has been chosen as the database for this paper. The WoS core database is an internationally recognized authoritative database [35]. This database includes a variety of databases and up to 20,000+ world-authoritative and high-impact scholarly journals and conference papers covering many areas of the natural sciences, arts, and humanities, and is authoritative and scientific [36].

The second step was to select appropriate keywords [37]. The theme of this study is to explore CCs in the context of achieving sustainable urban development and world cultural exchange. Therefore, “Creative City” and “Creative Cities”, “Creative Industry” and “Creative Industries” were selected.

2.2. Research Methods

CiteSpace was used as the analysis instrument for this study [38]. CiteSpace is a scientific bibliometric analysis tool for literature reviews. It is an information analysis visualization software based on the Java platform that presents a scientific knowledge structure through the visualization of data [22]. It is useful for identifying topics at the forefront of popular research. Compared to traditional bibliometrics methods, the computer algorithms and interactive visualizations save researchers time, allowing them to focus on the more important and critical analytical questions, abstract thinking, and creative thinking. The resulting graph becomes a “knowledge graph” or “bibliometric graph”.

This study was conducted using CiteSpace 6.2.R2, retrieved on 20 April 2023 [39]. A total of 2433 articles were refined to 2270 valid articles through censoring and sorting, and excluding other types of literature such as reviews, books, news, and one article of low relevance. These records were exported as full records of plain text file contents and citation references, and were subsequently imported into the CiteSpace 6.2R2 software for calculations, analysis, and further procedures. The CC study design is shown in Figure 1. A visual analysis was carried out by analyzing the publications, keywords, research institutions, authors, and authors’ countries in 2270 articles. The scientific analysis was used to discuss the progress of CC research.

The time slice was set to the civil year, and the rest were the default settings. The subject information, such as keywords, topics, authors, and institutions, was extracted and analyzed.

The hot keywords for each period can be visualized by means of a knowledge map. The software also shows the current state of the future development by calculating the relevant information, showing trends between 2004 and 2023.

3. Results

3.1. Results by Data Collection

3.1.1. Number of Publications

According to the results collected from the WoS core database, before the time node of the data collection, the countries with the largest number of articles were China (341); England (309); Australia (201); U.S.A. (176); and Italy (126). Between 2004 and 2023, the academic research on CCs passed through three stages: stable development (2004–2010), rapidly development (2011–2018), and rising fluctuations (2019–2023), as shown in Figure 2.

The change in the number of publications is an important indicator of the development of the field, with a high number of countries and institutions indicating more advanced research in the field. The use of CiteSpace to derive a knowledge map provides a clear picture of the trends and developments in the field. The analysis found that during the period of 2004–2023, CCs passed through three phases: slow growth (stable development), rapid growth, and volatile growth (a fluctuating increase).

• Slow growth or stable development

The establishment of the UCCN in 2004 and the introduction of related policies in several countries in 2007 stimulated academic research on CCs. Due to the time needed for research, the number of publications in the previous years was low, but the development of CCs was energized by the development and implementation of the E.U. Strategy 2020 in 2010. Therefore, growth began to occur in 2011, with a small peak in 2013.

• Rapid growth or development

Between 2014 and 2018, the theoretical foundations were completed, and a substantial body of literature emerged and began to grow steadily. This shows that CCs are gradually gaining widespread international attention.

• Volatile growth or the fluctuating increase

There were fluctuations in CCs between 2019 and 2023, with a peak in 2021, but a decline in 2022. The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 had implications for the hotspots of research that were happening in academia. There has been a degree of fluctuation in the number of articles on CCs, and as the data were initially collected on 20 April 2003, the growth in the number of articles issued by 2023 is not unexpected.

At present, the recovery from COVID-19 and the gradual recovery of the economy have expanded the flow range of people’s activity spaces compared with previous years. This has promoted the exchange of different cultures and strengthened the communication and interaction between cities, which is conducive to the development of CCs [40]. Therefore, the number of publications in this field is expected to increase significantly in the next few years.

3.1.2. The Analysis of Major Journals

The analysis of major journals can provide an effective direction for subsequent researchers by identifying which journals publish more intensive research on CCs, thus playing a key role in identifying the subsequent research directions.

The node type was set to the cited journal, and the time slice was set to 1 year to generate a map of co-cited journals. The analysis yielded a total of 843 nodes in journal distribution with a connection value of 6205 and a grid density of 0.0175. The top five journals with the highest number of publications were: The Rise of Creative Class (596); Urban Studies (562); International Journal of Cultural Policy (541); International Journal of Urban And Regional Research (457); and Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space (428).

Table 2. Major research journals in the field of CCs from 2004–2023.

No.	Freq	Centrality	Cited Journals	Publishers	Country
1	596	0.03	The Rise of Creative Class	Basic Books	USA
2	562	0.03	Urban Studies	SAGE	England
3	541	0.03	International Journal of Cultural Policy	Taylor and Francis	England
4	457	0.01	International Journal of Urban and Regional Research	Wiley	USA
5	428	0.01	Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space	SAGE	England
6	392	0.03	Regional Studies	Routledge	England
7	362	0.04	European Planning Studies	Routledge	England
8	327	0.03	Cities	Elsevier	England
9	311	0.02	Journal of Economic Geography	Oxford Uni Press	England
10	303	0.03	Geoforum	Elsevier	England

provides more details. Figure 3 shows the knowledge map derived using CiteSpace. According to Figure 3, we can identify which journals publish more articles, and elucidate the mutual relationship between the authors of each journal. The conclusions are drawn according to the discipline direction and main research content of the journal. The results show that the developments in CCs can directly affect the fields of economics, social humanities, geography, urban planning, etc.

3.1.3. The Major Regions’ Analysis

The analysis of the distribution of regional cooperation in publications provides key information about the main countries researching CCs, which can be useful for identifying future developments in CCs. An analysis of the knowledge map shows which countries have been more innovative and have initiated early research on CCs, thus providing practical implications for scholars in countries where research has begun more recently.

Using CiteSpace to analyze the distribution of regional collaboration with publications in the CC field, we find that China, the U.K., and Australia have the highest number of publications in CC research, with the remaining seven countries producing relatively low numbers of papers. As shown in

Table 3. A list of contributing countries and the number of records relating to CC research, 2004–2023.

No.	Freq	Centrality	Year	Country
1	341	0.15	2007	China
2	309	0.29	2005	England
3	201	0.15	2007	Australia
4	176	0.09	2004	U.S.A.
5	126	0.1	2008	Italy
6	120	0.06	2005	Taiwan
7	95	0.3	2008	Spain
8	92	0.01	2011	Canada
9	90	0.06	2007	Germany
10	89	0.05	2012	Indonesia

, research started earlier in the U.S.A., the U.K., and Taiwan. On the other hand, nodes with a centrality value greater than 0.1 are considered critical nodes when observed in terms of centrality, and these nodes are often considered to be important factors that lead to changes in the study area [41,42]. Table 3 shows that Spain (0.3), England (0.29), China (0.15), Australia (0.15), and Italy (0.1) have a literature centrality greater than 0.1, and these six countries have a high capacity for innovation and play a significant role in CC research.

As seen in Figure 4, there are 78 nodes in the diagram with a connection value of 318 and a grid density of 0.1059. The graph shows that the less connected countries, such as Croatia, Slovakia, and Lithuania, lack cooperation with other countries, while the U.K., China, and the U.S.A. cooperate more with other countries. Exchange and cooperation between countries can contribute to the further development of research.

3.1.4. Author Cooperation Distribution Analysis

The analysis of the distribution of author collaborations identifies the core research figures in the field, as well as the collaborations and crossover relationships between researchers.

A visual analysis of the collaboration mapping was carried out on 2270 papers (Figure 5), with the node sizes in Figure 5 representing the number of publications by the respective authors, and the connecting lines between the authors representing mutual writing relationships. According to Price’s law, assuming that the number of papers by the most productive authors in a field is nmax, then m = 0.749nmax1/2. In this field, authors with more than m publications were defined as the lead authors of the study [43]. It is known that n max = 14 m ≈ 5, i.e., those with more than five publications are core authors. The statistics yielded a total of nine core authors in the sample, of which Boren, Thomas, Rodach, Carl, Young, Craig, Comunian, and Roberta are the main core authors. The graph shows that each research team has a low level of collaboration with other research teams and are more independent. The analysis shows that there should be more collaborative communication between teams for the future research process.

Table 4. The top 10 productive authors in the CC field during 2004–2023.

No.	Publications	Authors	Institution	Country
1	14	Alacovska, Ana	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark
2	14	Chou, Huann-Ming	Kun Shan University	Taiwan
3	10	Hennekam, Sophie	Audencia Business School	France
4	10	O’brien, Dave	Sheffield University	England
5	7	Bennett, Dawn	Bond University	Australia
6	6	Avasilcai, S	Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iaşi	Romania
7	6	Lazzeretti, Luciana	University of Florence	Italy
8	6	Arauzo-carod, Josep-Maria	Universitat Rovira i Virgili	Spain
9	6	Capone, Francesco	University of Florence	Italy
10	5	Taylor, Mark	University of Warwick	England

shows that Ana Alacovska (14) and Huann-Ming Chou (14) from Denmark and Taiwan, respectively, are the two researchers with the highest number of articles in the field. Two of the top ten are from the U.K., and two are from Italy. Based on the results of this analysis, it is clear that researcher collaboration in the field of CCs is poor, and that research efforts in the field are in a more fragmented state, with individual scholars not closely linked to each other.

3.1.5. The Distribution of Contributing Institutions

Cooperation between research institutions provides academic support and recognition in the field. The knowledge map of the CC domain was generated using CiteSpace (Figure 6), from which it can be seen that it contains 275 connections, 421 nodes, and a grid density of 0.0031. Each node represents the number of papers in the structure, and the connections indicate the mutual collaboration between organizations, with more collaboration indicating a higher level of collaboration between this institution and other organizations.

Of the ten institutions with the highest number of publications between 2004 and 2023, the University of London (65), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) (43), and Copenhagen Business School (27) are the top three in terms of the number of publications, respectively. The University of London dominates the list. This indicates that the University of London has in-depth research in the field of CCs; however, the graph shows that collaboration between universities and institutions is more concentrated and banded, indicating that institutional collaboration in the field of CCs is coherent, and that collaboration between institutions can stimulate new research horizons and produce meaningful research more deeply and quickly.

Table 5. Contributing institutions by frequency and centrality.

No.	Freq	Centrality	Institutions	Country
1	65	0.1	University of London	England
2	43	0.02	Queensland University of Technology (QUT)	Australia
3	27	0.01	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark
4	27	0	Vilnius Gediminas Technical University	Republic of Lithuania
5	22	0.01	Bucharest University of Economic Studies	Rumania
6	21	0	King’s College London	England
7	19	0	Institute Technology of Bandung
8	19	0.01	University of Valencia	Spain
9	18	0.02	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands

shows that two of the top ten most-published schools or institutions are from the U.K., and the number of publications and centrality rankings are not identical, suggesting that there are research institutions that publish more articles, but the quality of the articles is not as high, and the impact is less significant. As Figure 6 and Table 5 show, there should be closer collaboration between research institutions, companies, and universities around the world.

3.2. Research Fields

Setting the node type to a category and the time slice to one year produced a collaborative relationship graph of disciplinary categories. According to the CiteSpace analysis, the knowledge graph shows a total of 119 nodes, 632 connections, and a grid density of 0.09. The magnitude of centrality represents influence, as shown in

Table 6. A list of the most influential categories relating to CCs, 2004–2023.

No.	Freq	Centrality	WoS Categories
1	139	0.16	Education and Educational Research
2	167	0.14	Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
3	81	0.12	Computer Science, Theory and Methods
4	413	0.11	Management
5	270	0.11	Business
6	289	0.1	Economics
7	109	0.1	Green and Sustainable Science and Technology
8	43	0.1	Engineering, Multidisciplinary
9	34	0.09	Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
10	101	0.08	Environmental Sciences

for the ten most influential categories. The most influential category shown in the table is Education and Educational Research (0.16), followed by Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary (0.14), Computer Science, and Theory and Methods (0.12). The results of the analysis show that the categories with high impact are not the ones with the highest numbers of publications, while the low centrality in some of the categories that lead in terms of the number of publications, indicates that the citation rate of the articles in the category is not high and that in-depth research should be strengthened to improve the quality of the publications. In the process of future CC research, reading the articles with a high central value could strengthen the breadth of research and aid in discovering new research directions.

In Figure 7, the thick purple outer boxes of the nodes represent high centrality values, and the connecting lines between the nodes represent relationships with other categories; the thicker the line, the stronger the relationship. As can be seen from the diagram, the core disciplines of the CC area are environmental studies, urban studies, geography, economics, sociology, green and sustainable development, history, and many others. These subjects are closely related to the study of CCs, and the visual analysis through CiteSpace demonstrates that collaboration between the disciplines is essential for future development.

Highly Cited Articles

Table 7. A list of keyword co-occurrence.

No.	Freq	Centrality	Year	Keywords
1	642	0.09	2007	creative industries
2	281	0.06	2005	city
3	236	0.09	2006	creative city
4	229	0.07	2007	creative industry
5	205	0.05	2010	innovation
6	153	0.03	2005	industry
7	148	0.08	2008	cultural and creative industries
8	124	0.04	2011	economy
9	113	0.04	2011	work
10	111	0.01	2012	politics

collates the 2270 articles filtered by searching for the keywords CC and CI in the WoS core collection, from the most- to least-cited. The most-cited article is ‘Struggling with the creative class’ (Cited 1388 times), the second most cited is ‘Creative cities: Conceptual issues and policy questions’ (Cited 608 times), and the third most cited is ‘ The Tension Between Professional Control And Open Participation Journalism And Its Boundaries ‘ (Cited 431 times). The above are the three most-cited articles, and the other detailed information is in

Table 8. References with the strongest Citation Bursts in CCs, 2004–2023.

No.	Title	Year	Citations
			Total	Annual
1	Struggling with the creative class	2005	1388	73.05
2	Creative cities: Conceptual issues and policy questions	2006	608	33.78
3	The Tension Between Professional Control And Open Participation Journalism And Its Boundaries	2012	431	35.92
4	The romance of work: Gender and aspirational labour in the digital culture industries	2016	205	25.63
5	Small businesses in the new creative industries: innovation as a people management challenge	2011	179	13.77
6	Rethinking the Creative City: The Role of Complexity, Networks and Interactions in the Urban Creative Economy	2011	173	13.31
7	Do Creative Industries Cluster? Mapping Creative Local Production Systems in Italy and Spain	2008	171	10.69
8	Policy transfer, consultants and the geographies of governance	2012	162	13.5
9	Pushing The Urban Frontier: Temporary Uses Of Space, City Marketing, And The Creative City Discourse In 2000s Berlin	2012	162	13.5

. From these highly cited articles, we can see that the current basic knowledge about CCs is divided into three aspects: (1) the conceptual problems of the creative class and creative cities [17,44,45]; (2) how creative industries promote enterprise development [46,47]; and (3) strategic policies for creative cities, including micro-interactions between creatives, the cultural sector, and infrastructure [48,49].

The analysis of the cited articles shows that the field of CCs and CIs covers a wide range of disciplines, suggesting that establishing a good CC strategy requires multidisciplinary communication and collaboration. Among the highly cited articles, there are also those with low impact factors, indicating that there is no direct correlation between the number of citations and the impact of the article. A high number of citations, but a low impact factor, indicates that the article is more influential than the journal in which it is published. Highly cited articles in the CC field indicate the dynamics and level of research activity in the field, and the most active disciplines and research directions can be identified by the cited articles. By looking at the relationship between the year of publication and number of citations, we can identify the current research hotspots and future directions for development.

3.3. Research Hotspots and Research Strategies

3.3.1. The Keyword Co-Occurrence Network

The keywords reflect the interrelationship between the various topics that are expressed in the literature and are the core summary of the article. Compared to co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis can more directly reflect the core hotspots, popular content, topic distribution, and disciplinary structure of the CC field, revealing the main content and research methods of the articles.

The data were imported into the CiteSpace software, the time period was selected as 2004–2023, the time slice was set to one year, and the network nodes represent the keywords, generating Figure 8 as a keyword co-occurrence map. The larger the node, the more frequently the keyword appears. The analysis revealed a total of 3977 nodes, 613 connections, and a grid density of 0.0212. For example, Table 8 shows the top ten rankings of the frequency of keyword occurrences in the CC field between 2004–2023. It was found that the hotspots in the CC field that the scholars have focused on are removed from the field of creative cities and creative industries; these hotspots were mainly: city (281); innovation (205); cultural and creative industries (148); economy (124); work (113); and politics (111). According to Table 8, the frequency rating largely coincides with the centrality ranking, which to some extent covers the hotspots and key turning points.

3.3.2. Keyword Co-Occurrence Time Zone Analysis

CiteSpace’s time zone charts revealed the changing hotspots in the CC field and the research trends in each period to predict the future directions. In this study, the keywords were divided into four time periods, with the top five hot keywords in each time period, to obtain

Table 9. The top five high-frequency keywords of papers published on CCs every five years from 2004–2023.

No.	Freq	Centrality	Year	Keywords
2004–2008
1	642	0.09	2007	creative industries
2	281	0.06	2005	city
3	236	0.09	2006	creative city
4	229	0.07	2007	creative industry
5	153	0.03	2005	industry
2009–2013
1	205	0.05	2010	innovation
2	124	0.04	2011	economy
3	113	0.04	2011	work
4	111	0.01	2012	politics
5	110	0.05	2011	policy
2014–2018
1	39	0.02	2014	impact
2	32	0.01	2015	gender
3	30	0.01	2016	space
4	26	0.01	2016	creative work
5	24	0.02	2015	organization
2019–2023
1	12	0	2019	image
2	12	0	2019	transformation
3	11	0.01	2020	challenges
4	8	0.01	2019	big data
5	8	0.01	2019	globalization

. The data were imported into CiteSpace to obtain a timeline graph of CC and CI studies between 2004–2023 (Figure 9). The analysis of the high-frequency terms revealed a wide range of research in the field of CCs and a clear difference in the focus of the research at different research stages.

After a comprehensive analysis of the relevant literature by combining the high-frequency terms of CC research in different years, we divided the evolution of CC research into the following three stages:

• The understanding and development stage (2004–2009)

This phase is the early stage of CC development, and this is the period when the research focused on the keywords: creative industries, city, creative city, creative industry, and industry, with multi-city research being the main focus. Since the establishment of the group by the United Nations in 2004, some countries have successively put forward policies related to the development of CCs, which has given a strong impetus to the development of CCs at the governmental level and attracted the attention of people all over the world. This has laid a good theoretical foundation for the next step of development [50], which is research on the relationship between the POS field and human health. This paper discusses the exploration of CCs as a development model based on rapid urbanization and the search for the sustainable development of people and cities.

• The rapid development stage (2010–2016)

The high frequency words that appear in this period are innovation, economy, work, politics, policy, influence, gender, and space. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the financial sector needed to be more innovative to promote economic growth and to meet the changing needs and expectations of the population [51,52]. This phase of research focused on the development of creative industries through policy and other means to achieve economic growth, involving research in disciplines such as economics, urban planning, and regional spatial studies [53]. The main research hotspots included the spatial vitality of CCs, political and economic policies on CCs, and so on.

• The steady development stage (2017-present)

During this period, the research heat decreased somewhat. With the rapid development of the global urbanization process, people put forward higher demands on cities, not only at the economic level, but also in the construction of CCs based on the needs of the people [54]. The hot keywords in this period include image, transformation, challenges, big data, and globalization. During this stage, the construction of CCs emphasizes the integration of technology and art, enabling the city to achieve sustainable development through the utilization of big data [55,56,57]. A new wave of issues regarding CCs has emerged, focusing on the reinvention of cultural heritage, creative tourism, and bridging the gap between practice and theory [58].

The time zone map of the CC domain (Figure 9) is presented below. To focus on the specific research keywords that span a significant time period, the knowledge map in Figure 9 excludes the three nodes of Creative City, Creative Industry, and Creative Industries.

3.3.3. The Keyword Clustering Analysis

In this paper, a keyword clustering analysis was performed on the knowledge graph, and the knowledge graph was derived using CiteSpace (Figure 10). The research themes and evolving trends in CC development over time are explored. The time period was chosen as 2004–2023, and according to Figure 10, we obtained 11 automatically generated clusters: #0 creative class; #1 managing ambidexterity; #2 creative work; #3 creative city; #4 creative industries; #5 branding medium-sized cities; #6 cultural industry; #7 output value; #8 online purchase intention; #9 mediating production; and #10 system industries.

In #0– #10, the smaller the number, the more keywords are contained in the set. The modular Q values range between −1 and 1. The study is often considered persuasive when the value is larger than 0.7, with values closer to 1 indicating a high degree of article agreement in the clusters [59]. The average silhouette value in Figure 10 is 0.7192, indicating that the class clustering is convincing. There are three ways to calculate the class clustering of clusters, namely LLR, LSI, and MI. The passage practice found LLR to be more practical and less repetitive, so we chose LLR as the main calculation method [60].

The largest cluster in

Table 10. The list of cited clusters and number of records related to CCs, 2004–2023.

Cluster ID	Size	Silhouette	Label (LLR)
0	124	0.733	creative class (1208.59, 1.0 × 10−4); creative city (957.04, 1.0 × 10−4); creative industry cluster (899.99, 1.0 × 10−4); spatial pattern (772.98, 1.0 × 10−4); location decision (765.22, 1.0 × 10−4)
1	108	0.677	managing ambidexterity (760.91, 1.0 × 10−4); information technology (652.58, 1.0 × 10−4); 21st-century digital skill (588.42, 1.0 × 10−4); moderating role (536.3, 1.0 × 10−4); creative performance (536.3, 1.0 × 10−4)
2	87	0.604	creative work (763.13, 1.0 × 10−4); social media age (487.52, 1.0 × 10−4); ex-centric perspective (415.88, 1.0 × 10−4); de-westernizing creative labour studies (415.88, 1.0 × 10−4); level understanding inequality (411.4, 1.0 × 10−4)
3	80	0.714	creative city (1033.11, 1.0 × 10−4); creative industries (646.68, 1.0 × 10−4); creative class (471.06, 1.0 × 10−4); business model (391.64, 1.0 × 10−4); creative entrepreneur (379.12, 1.0 × 10−4)
4	57	0.667	creative industries (1671.63, 1.0 × 10−4); european capital (573.71, 1.0 × 10−4); hidden side (441.94, 1.0 × 10−4); strategic project (441.94, 1.0 × 10−4); regional entrepreneurialism (441.94, 1.0 × 10−4)
5	26	0.809	branding medium-sized cities (235.06, 1.0 × 10−4); multi-level governance (235.06, 1.0 × 10−4); nantes france (235.06, 1.0 × 10−4); fluid space (224.81, 1.0 × 10−4); policy mobility (224.81, 1.0 × 10−4)
6	24	0.837	cultural industry (601.15, 1.0 × 10−4); chinese economic growth (387.75, 1.0 × 10−4); digital creative industry (381.16, 1.0 × 10−4); ecological communities (381.16, 1.0 × 10−4); developing digital content industry (367.97, 1.0 × 10−4)
7	20	0.967	output value (2183.71, 1.0 × 10−4); customer satisfaction (431.77, 1.0 × 10−4); open-end tio2 nanotubes array (347.38, 1.0 × 10−4); front-illuminated dye-sensitized solar cell (347.38, 1.0 × 10−4); digital value-added application (339.38, 1.0 × 10−4)
Cluster ID	Size	Silhouette	Label (LLR)
8	12	0.965	online purchase intention (165.98, 1.0 × 10−4); creative product (165.98, 1.0 × 10−4); consumer innovativeness (165.98, 1.0 × 10−4); golden goose (153.16, 1.0 × 10−4); international trade (140.36, 1.0 × 10−4)
9	7	0.984	mediating production (69.72, 1.0 × 10−4); cultural capital (69.72, 1.0 × 10−4); cultural worker (69.72, 1.0 × 10−4); east london (52.15, 1.0 × 10−4); presuming creative urban area (52.15, 1.0 × 10−4)
10	5	0.994	system dynamics (70.08, 1.0 × 10−4); creative projects management (52.42, 1.0 × 10−4); alternative method (52.42, 1.0 × 10−4); music festival (48.09, 1.0 × 10−4); reality modelling (34.86, 1.0 × 10−4)

(#0) contains 124 articles with a silhouette value of 0.733, with studies focusing on creative class, creative city, creative industry cluster, spatial pattern, and location decision, mostly published in 2013. The second largest category (#1) contains 108 articles on managing ambidexterity, information technology, 21st century digital skills, moderating role, and creative performance. The silhouette value of 0.677 for #1 is less than 0.7, indicating that the total core of articles in this cluster is not highly consistent, and most of its articles were published in 2015. The third major category (#2) contains 87 papers in which the main content is creative work, social media age, and ex-centric perspective. There are 11 clusters derived from CiteSpace, and the main elements in the other eight clusters are detailed in Table 10.

Six of the eleven clusters originated in 2015, indicating that the CC field flourished in 2015, with diverse research and relatively strong cross-collaboration across disciplines. The combination of the keyword co-occurrence and keyword clustering above provides a clear picture of the changing hotspots in the development of the CC field and the future trends.

3.3.4. Research Clustering Timeline

The Citespace Analytics timeline charts allow for better analysis of the rise, boom, and bust of the research hotspots in each period of CC research, as well as detailed timing to clearly analyze the research hotspots at a given time. High frequency words form clusters and show the dynamics of research in each cluster over time.

The eleven clusters can be grouped into five core themes based on the timeline generated from the keywords in CiteSpace (Figure 11):

• The theoretical study of CCs;
• The moderation of the business model of CCs by means of information technology, such as big data;
• The spatial pattern planning of creative clusters;
• Research on the strategy of CCs;
• Research on the evaluation system of CCs.

The landspace plots generated from CiteSpace (Figure 12) fluctuate on a timeline based on the hot keywords in each collection. The keywords contained in #0 and #1 were studied almost non-stop between 2004 and 2023, while the keywords contained in #10 were only popular around 2015. Figure 12 illustrates additional specific information.

3.3.5. Research Trends Analysis

The term “mutation” refers to words that appear frequently in the literature within a short period of time and have a high rate of change, and these can be used to make judgements about hotspots and research trends in the research field.

From the period of 2004–2023, 30 burst words were detected using the burst word detection method in CiteSpace (

Table 11. The top 30 keywords with the strongest citation bursts related to CCs, 2004–2023. The color blocks in the table represent the intensity of frequency.

Keywords	Year	Strength	Begin	End	2004–2023
system	2005	3.37	2005	2013	▂▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
firms	2007	3.17	2007	2012	▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
creative cities	2007	5.37	2009	2013	▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
creative class	2009	4.39	2009	2015	▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
urban development	2011	3.89	2011	2013	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
buzz	2011	3.61	2011	2015	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
new york	2011	3.21	2011	2014	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
social networks	2013	4.78	2013	2016	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
higher education	2008	4.28	2013	2016	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
regional development	2013	3.67	2013	2016	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
project management	2014	3.95	2014	2015	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
film industry	2013	3.99	2015	2017	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂
smart city	2015	3.16	2015	2018	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂
organization	2015	3.09	2015	2019	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂
institutions	2016	3.36	2016	2018	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂
evolution	2016	3.16	2016	2019	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂
information	2015	3.2	2018	2019	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂▂
transformation	2019	4.14	2019	2021	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▂▂
image	2019	4.14	2019	2021	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▂▂
social media	2015	3.57	2019	2020	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂
globalization	2019	3.52	2019	2020	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂
reflections	2019	3.52	2019	2020	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂
south africa	2019	3.08	2019	2020	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂
research and development	2019	3.08	2019	2020	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂
challenges	2020	4.21	2020	2023	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃
heritage	2018	3.58	2020	2023	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃
model	2007	7.8	2021	2023	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃
sustainable development	2013	5.09	2021	2023	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃
diversity	2013	3.55	2021	2023	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃
U.K. film	2021	3.09	2021	2023	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃

). Table 11 shows that there are clear differences in the research hotspots and research areas at different stages. It also provides further indirect evidence of the evolutionary path of the above-mentioned research hotspots. According to the graph, it is known that between 2004–2011, the research hotspots were mostly around the theoretical foundations of CCs and urban development, etc. Since 2010, there has been a surge in the number of articles on CCs, and from this time onwards, the number of emergent terms has also increased, with a broader field of research, including the film industry, project management, regional development, and smart cities. The analysis of the keywords that have emerged suggests that research in CCs will focus on the following four areas in the coming period:

• CC research and development for sustainable development;
• How to meet the challenges of diversity;
• How to develop a distinctive CC in the face of the diversity of world cultures;
• The solution to the problem of gentrification.

4. Discussion

In this study, we analyzed the WoS core data of CCs and CIs to map the changes in research areas and shifts in research directions during the development of CCs and to predict their direction by examining the number of publications in the field, the type and range of journals, the distribution of regional collaborations, and the partnerships of authors and the authors’ institutions. The changes in the research hotspots during the development process of CCs can be identified through the keyword co-occurrence map combined with time [61]. The research keywords in this field are scattered and interdisciplinary, and the cooperation density between disciplines is low. Keyword clustering research can scientifically divide research hotspots in the field, form scientific classification, and provide directions for subsequent research.

In terms of the future research directions in the field of CCs, we infer future research directions based on key words such as “challenges”, “heritage”, “model”, “sustainable development”, “diversity”, and so on. In the present study, the keywords have encouraged us to explore more in the fields of information technology, sustainable development, and so on. This report highlights the necessity of research on CCs. In particular, the outbreak of COVID-19 has been depressing for three years [62]. It is imperative to seize the opportunity, build a complete CI system, and drive the economic development of CCs.

In the future development of CCs, priority should be given to people’s psychological and physiological expectations, followed by the use of information technology to achieve the sustainable development of the city [63]. Considering the different regional cultural characteristics, it is important to strengthen the diversity of CC construction, avoid gentrification, and combine urban culture with artistic practice. Notably, cultural innovation cannot be separated from inheritance [64]. Innovation with inheritance is innovation with foundation, and only innovation with the characteristics of the specific locale can avoid gentrification [65]. Innovation and transformation need to be based on the local cultural characteristics, where the unique local culture is inherited. If innovation is pursued in isolation, it will cause homogenization and lose the significance of establishing a CC. In the process of CC construction, the concept of green ecology should be strengthened, and the green development of the city should be strengthened by reducing carbon emissions and using environmentally friendly materials in order to achieve the goal of sustainable development and explore a new model of CC development. The specific research framework is shown in Figure 13.

In this paper, the common feature of CCs and CIs is a new mode to promote urban development, which relies on the development of a creative economy, and is an effective mode to solve modern urban problems and improve urban development quality [66]. However, the significance of this paper is to encourage the creation of a diversified evaluation dimension of CC performance, avoiding the consideration of CCs without the urban characteristics of other cities. The theoretical contributions of this study are mainly reflected in four aspects: (1) This study’s time frame is longer, and its research focus is current with social advancement; (2) this study proposes that creative cities are affected by creative industries, creative atmosphere, and creative talents, and uses quantitative research methods to systematically study creative classes, creative industries, and creative cities in order to add new contributions to the construction of the CC theory; (3) on the basis of previous studies, this paper constructs a subjective theory of CCs; (4) CiteSpace’s time zone map can automatically present the evolution and clustering scale of the research topic in the time dimension, but it cannot clearly see the content of each research phase. In this paper, the publication time, download times, and citation times of the CC subject documents are considered through their co-occurrence history and co-occurrence records. It summarizes the research history of CCs more comprehensively and injects macro and micro perspectives for the future research and sustainable development of CCs.

There are also some deficiencies in the research process, which the following questions illustrate: How to ensure users’ satisfaction with the new CC model? How to realize CC mode control in different locations? How to build a new mode of mutual promotion between urban economy and urban culture? These are questions that need to be explored. Many countries in the world are exploring the establishment of CCs and CIs, but most are at the level of bringing theory into practice, and they have a long way to go toward reaching large-scale construction. In addition, the construction and implementation of CCs, including their on-going maintenance, are still to be explored [17]. The exploration of CCs opens a new mode that is conducive to promoting the exchange of world cultures, enhancing the influence and competitiveness of the city, and realizing the high-quality development of the city as the necessary path of modern urban development [67,68,69].

This paper chose the WoS core database as its research support. However, there are other databases available, such as CNKI and Scopus, etc. The largest abstract and citation database in the world, Scopus, has a broader range of journals than WoS. However, WoS was chosen because its citation index is more thorough and because [70], following a 2017 update, the Scopus database no longer perfectly matches CiteSpace. As a result, the CiteSpace software was employed.

5. Conclusions

Based on the WoS core database and the CiteSpace bibliometric analysis software, this study systematically reviewed the literature related to CCs published between 2004 and 2023. The development dynamics of urban and creative economies are analyzed from the perspectives of CCs and CIs. The overall results of the analysis show that the theoretical system of CC practice, construction, and evaluation is becoming increasingly clear, and more attention is being paid to the concept of sustainable development and CCs from a macro perspective.

According to the current research, CCs are a research field that is continuously expanding. The research hotspots for CCs are increasing yearly. Although the literature related to CCs in various disciplines has declined in recent years, the depth of the research discipline has improved. The distribution of journals is relatively wide, spanning various disciplines. Collaboration between publications is distributed in different countries, with less collaboration among some groups. However, the close relationship between scholars and publishing houses, as well as the relationship between some researchers, indicates that in the process of globalization, deep cooperation between different countries, publishers, and institutions can promote the development of a field. This paper identifies that there is a lack of cooperation among institutions in the field of CC research. Most of them are internally focused and do not cooperate with others. The choice of keywords in the present study reflects that CCs contain CIs, and that CIs are important pillars of CC development. In the future, CC research should focus on sustainable development, information technology, and urban cultural strategies. We believe that attention should be paid to the following aspects in future development:

• The gap between theory and practice;
• Gentrification;
• Creating multiple evaluation dimensions;
• The intervention and development of information technology in CCs.

As an integral part of the city, CIs cannot be ignored in urban development. The importance of CC development has become increasingly apparent, especially after the recent COVID-19 experience, making research and the systematic establishment of CCs even more necessary.

This study aimed to systematically analyze the cutting-edge theory of CCs as a whole and to elucidate some of the related concepts in order to provide references for how to promote urban development through the development of CCs. With the development of urbanization inheritance, from the perspective of creative talent, artistic practice, sustainable development, urban renewal, information technology, cultural heritage, evaluation systems, and other aspects, research on CCs has become crucial. Our conclusions have important implications for the establishment of a new model of CCs. The development of urbanization has important significance for people and cities. Therefore, through an in-depth study and review of CC research, we can further explore the development of CCs and promote the sustainable development of cities.