Creativity by Banush Shyqeriu

CREATIVITY IN-BETWEEN SMALL REGIONS AND BIG CITIES AND ITS IMPACT IN LIFESTYLE The poets speak of metropolis’ “hell”, while others for “idiotism of rural life” The escape from the city, howsoever un-functional, is a pure human reaction, if every human being is a poet somehow. …but, what about the opposite, to move from the smaller regions toward big cities, big magnets, that “someone” is creating these huge “attractors” that are attracting the creativity in a “selective” way, as magnets attract only other magnets and iron. We have to admit that we are the same people living under the same sky and are stepping above the same earth, but, in different time, different relationship of space-time. Our world has changed, I don’t know why; we have changed it – everywhere that the human hand has touched has created problems, has distorted the environment – Cities. …As biggest a city is, the smallest is the sky above it, less nature, flowers, increasingly smoke, concrete, technique, less personalities we are, increasingly we are falling in to mass… ... but, still.. “at the start of the 20th century, 10 percent of the earth's population lived in cities. By the end of this decade, 50 percent will be urban dwellers.”(The Geography of Change, by AMO, Wired Magazine). People are moving toward cities, generally all kind of people, but especially creative people. And, why do they move and how do these new environments effect their lifestyle, this is the question which in detail this paper in its core is going to discuss in details. Equality and fraternization of people is possible only if human beings are created by God. Equality of people is spiritual fact, not natural (physical or intellectual). In the mean time that the religious approach is dismissed, the empty space is immediately filled by different inequalities; racial, national, class and political inequalities. My aim is not to bring here a discourse about classis or religious division of mankind but to discourse briefly the term Creative Class and creativity in general, is it really a class that in people’s ears seams strange and a hard word, or do we have to change the term?. These kind of people that “tend” to form a class they have something that is the essence of the unity of human kind, as Florida states: “Every human being is creative in some way“, than we open our way for something that is really strong for the human welfare because in Florida’s words: “Ultimate economic resource – human creativity“. So people have discovered or better to say rediscovered that creativity is the bases of human future progress that in terms of technique and technology is fogy, insecure future, as much as technology puts human welfare in the context of civilization. … What forced and inspired me to search for; migration-lifestyle in my country of origin?!. In a country where a recent war was ended a couple of years ago, a country where there was a lot of migration through all the world, for different reasons and mainly economical and political. It looks like I am searching in the wrong place; I am looking for a lost needle in chaff. Yes, it’s challenging, but one thing I was sure, that as a global phenomena, creativity should be everywhere where we have a mixture soever small of 1

what Florida points out for creativity conditions: “3Ts: Technology, Talent, Tolerance”, even these 3Ts are not a Silicon Valley “Ts”. And in the other hand I have my family experience and my own experience of migrating for one to other smaller regions and than to a big city, and my own experience tells me that there is a certain relationship between the movement of creativity capital from smaller regions to big cities and the lifestyle. In 2000 it was estimated that the rural population was still over 60 per cent. It is difficult to predict future rural-urban changes, but if Kosovo follows the experience of other Balkan countries, it will experience a rapid shift toward urbanization. And this shifting from rural to urban is slightly changing toward urban, people are moving to the cities, why? So, I am searching for creativity in a population that 60% of them lives in rural conditions. Yes, this is my point to trace creativity in-between this shift and migration, to trace mobile people and their lifestyle how is changing and is influenced in new conditions and environments. As the City/Prishtina I am referring as a magnet of creativity, has undergone tremendous changes through out all its history, but, especially seven last years, passing through different social, economical, cultural, political and built conditions, but after all retaining its character. People began to move toward the city when a new “geography of place” appeared, people became more mobile, being nomad “creativity holders”, seeking a place to express their creativity, but not out of Kosovo but maybe for the first time in the history – within the country. People with certain attitudes were thinking and judging in a different way, because they were searching for places that allow them to express their creativity. The concept of migration has changed even just after the conflict. From a question on this aspect that was asked to the people: Given the current situation in Kosova, would you live somewhere abroad Kosova... · for several years · for ten years · forever · No, would not live abroad · Refusal / don’t know

The results to this question are as follows: 11.5% of interviewed persons declare that they would live somewhere abroad Kosova for several years; only 2.7% of respondents say that they would live outside Kosova for ten years, while only 1.0% say that they would live outside Kosova forever. Out of the whole sample of 1000 respondents, 82.8% answer with No, would not live abroad to these questions and only 2.0% refuse/don't know. Referring Richard Florida in “Creativity and Place”: The human capital theory says that economic growth will occur in places that have highly educated people. This begs this question: Why do creative people cluster in certain places? In a world where people are highly mobile, why do they choose to live in and concentrate in some cities over others and for what reasons? For me this doesn’t mean that the place doesn’t matter any more, in reality every place has its spirit with which people are connected in some sense. But I found out that these people are moving not just for place but what’s there in that place; jobs, opportunities, technology, openness, diversity and Lifestyle. The question I made is that these creative people are moving in this city for different reasons, which reasons I am going to bring

latter, but are they also moving for searching a different lifestyle or if not, is their lifestyle affected by the new environment?. During the time I personally moved to the city to follow the University, there were happening amazing things in the city, it was a blasting of cultural activities, especially in music and arts, people were willing to listen to every kind of music, celebrate every kind of holiday that was not at all related to the culture they used to grow up, even Halloween was celebrated, the society become open and more diverse, whatever were the effects. The lifestyle was changing. Nightlife was blossoming in every corner, streets were becoming “boulevards”, people were dressing differently, were behaving differently, even they were speaking differently, they wanted to be different because they wanted to be “Creative” … Cool “Culture” and creativity ... if you walk through the city centre, from „Santeja“ to „Lesna“ toward the „Grand“ Hotel, your eyes will depict an interesting “Europeanized” youth. In a corner you see a teenage girl, like “Breatny Spears“, with her exposed belly and tattoos, not so far away a “cooler” with hair style and clothing as “Paf Dady’ or other teenagers with ball in hands, wearing dresses of “Ronaldo” from Royal Madrid.. This is an excerpt from a newspaper depicting the new lifestyle of the young generation. But it’s not just the young generation, the “creativity syndrome’’ was attacking every creative person, attacking and attracting. The new amenities that city was offering, perhaps were influencing the lifestyle, or the technology, or talent that was clustering and concentrating? In fact all of these were playing their roles toward attracting and catalyzing the creative “migration”. This was a small city panorama, to introduce and correlate the term of “creative migration” or creative nomads. Lifestyle The people in my focus groups tell me that lifestyle frequently trumps employment when they’re choosing where to live. Many said they had turned down jobs or decided not to look for them, in places that did not afford the variety of “scenes” they desired – music scene, art scene, technology scene … Florida strikes out very interesting aspect of the decision of people where to live and work, what matters for them. Lifestyle as a characteristic bundle of behaviors of a individual within a certain society and a given time and place, is tightly related with culture, and while reflecting social relations, consumption, entertainment and dress, the culture within the lifestyle changes, adapts new features. So, “why you chose to move to this City/Prishtina? -

Job, Opportunities, Technology, Openness and diversity, Lifestyle 3

This was the first question I enunciated to my questionnaire, asking creative people that moved to this city. And it was normally what I expected – Job, the usual answer. From 17 questionnaires, the rank of “why you chose to move to this City” is: Job, all 17, then Opportunities is the second with 5 and Lifestyle is the third one in the rank with 3 people that have chosen as a reason to move to the City, while Technology, Openness and Diversity are the last ones with 1 each of them. It’s true that Job is the main generator to shift people from one place to the other, but while the primer reason was job, these creative people were realizing and evaluating another aspect -that is the lifestyle, even that was not first in rank- as a reason why they chose to move. Is their lifestyle changing since they moved here, is it influenced, and what is the relation of their new lifestyle and the culture, are the relations within the family clusters changing?. We sometimes think after we make a decision, or we began to think when a new situation appears, but the creative people in my questionnaire, they know exactly why they moved and how they influence the new surrounding or how they are influenced. Concerning my question “Has your lifestyle changed since you moved here?” 82% were answering “Yes”, their lifestyle has changed since they moved in this City, and this goes back on the short panorama I depicted on describing the tremendous changes that city has undergone and is going on as an incubator and generator of creativity. How their lifestyle has changed? First of all these creative people brought with them new energies and new concept of redefining things, beginning from the work places, and in the other hand the mixture with the existing city’s lifestyle brought into being a hybrid lifestyle influenced by both sides, actually I found that most of them (about 60%) wanted to change or adapt the new lifestyle. Concerning their family strong ties, these people yet are keeping this relations of family as first place of social interaction, but in the same time or separately they are creating also multiple weak-ties, that in some extend doesn’t influence the strong-ties. About 60% from my questionnaires were choosing strong-ties to be still remaining important in their culture and lifestyle. I was not waiting that creative people from my questionnaires to consider strong-ties and family, especially as second handed, first of all that the “creative ethos” doesn’t exclude or replace the family within culture and lifestyle but just recreates the place for it in the new conditions. “Life moves against era of mechanical legitimacy” (Kuznjecov) As these creative people have an identity, are individuals, they can fit themselves, fit their jobs, and fit their lifestyles, and while they are individuals, distinguished from the mass they are holders of the culture … …The holder of culture is man, holder of civilization is society. Even to, they describe their present lifestyle comparing to their first place of work and residence, as more flexible, but after flexibility also as challenging. Challenging, the new lifestyle has brought to the creative people also “disadvantages”. One of them is that the “nomad” creative people are delaying their marriages. The average marriage age in 2004 was 30 for men and 27 for women, while in 2007 the average marriage age has increased 14 months for females and 11 months for males. These are general data that are applicable and related also to the creative people. But this “creative” delay of marriage is also related to the fact I discovered from the questionnaires 4

that most of them refer to the city to be most appropriate for young people and less for couples with children. And in the other hand this fact is enhanced and supported by their choice that they wouldn’t like to pass the rest of the life in this City (Prishtina), only about 30% have chosen “Yes” on the question “Is this city you would like to pass your rest of the life?. But the other interesting aspect is that marriages of these creative people are stronger than other groups, and this somehow excuses the delay on marriage. The other interesting thing that I just pointed out before is the close connection between lifestyle of these people, culture and the influence of the job, people and amenities. As we saw that their primer reason for moving to this city was Job, these creative people refer to job as being also as a influencer in their lifestyle while people in general are ranked second and amenities are the last influence of the lifestyle. But in the other hand these people are also influencing their jobs, their work places; they fit their jobs for themselves, they also in some cases create flexible schedule, as an IT that was telling me, that he goes to work wherever he wants, because he can work also from home, but in the other hand his time is packed. These people by introducing a new lifestyle – creative lifestyle are transforming also the traditional work place and the dress code, the no-collar workplace. Welcome to the no-collar workplace. It is not merely the result of business trying to be hip and trendy, but and adaptation to the rise of the creative work… This workplace integrates elements of the flexible, open, interactive model of the scientist’s lab or artist’s studio more than the machine model of the factory or the traditional corporate office. In chapter of The no-collar workplace, Richard Florida seas the new dress code as a identification of the creativity and creative people, but not just that, even more as a promoter of the creative work, flexibility and openness of ideas. If I go back to my City and transfer this scenario that Florida mentions here, almost the same happens there, as I introduced before the term “cool” culture that with people movement brought also new way of dressing be it in the streets or in the work places. One day in our Architecture Studio, where I used to work, me and my colleges went out in front of the office, just to relax, someone to smoke and so on, just that time some investors were coming, men dressed in black, ties and so on, they asked about the architects who work here a about the responsible person for contact, one of my colleges said to them “It’s me, I am the responsible person” those people looked at him strangely, thinking that he is joking with them. This is the no-collar work place, wearing shorts, long hairs, even snickers in the summer. But the interesting thing that I want to point out is not just the dress code and the work place but the dress code and the lifestyle. Is this new dress code that maybe doesn’t distinguish as from being in a work place or being in a family environment, also a dresure that overwhelms our identities and creates fake identities and personalities of us, as creative people, or it depicts really what we are from inside out?. In my arguments it can be both, the border dividing each other is very foggy. First, the new dress code, that in fact is not a code but is a free choice of a creative person to express his self, is not a dresure, and in this way is original, but what about this new, “alienated” dress code and behavior generated from it, is not fitting within the context of individual and general culture?. In my point of view the new dress code can be integrated in the lifestyle without disturbing the culture if it is previously filtered. As we sum up that a driven force behind the movement of these people from smaller regions to a big City was job, in the other hand we find that is not merely a job, but a life, because the creative people we are referring to, are integrating their creativeness, 5

everywhere, connecting their life and their work, even they go to their work places as Florida points out: “People were coming to work to avoid stress at home” or, “There is a big connection between enjoying your work and doing good work?. As in my questionnaires the creative people to whom I am referring mostly appreciate responsibility, but it’s not so far their concern about flexible schedule, and flexibility is one of the aspects they find also for their lifestyle. As flexibility brings out the creative energy this is also stands behind technology and economic development - promoting and creating condition for talent as a driven force for economic development. Even to in my research my creative people found Talent to be the third in rank, while Tolerance the first and Technology the second. And as we mentioned Tolerance that was most appreciated from these creative people who chose to move in this City, I would like to elaborate further the Tolerance as an aspect of this “migration” and its impact in lifestyle and the culture in general.

Tolerance vs. Lifestyle and Culture 3 Ts of economic development: - Technology, - Talent, - Tolerance ...other ethnic groups consist according to LSMS mainly of Muslims/Bosniaks (1.9 per cent), Romas (1.7 per cent), and Turkish (1 per cent).

As the ethnic groups are one of the strong indicators of the Tolerance, we can sum up that the City I am referring is tolerant in this aspect. And, as tolerance is one of main aspects of the creative people moving to this City, in specific, because this city depicts better this situation of diversity of ethnic groups. In my questionnaires I have creative people from other countries that moved to this city and they really appreciate tolerance as a driving factor aside job and other factors. But, what is more important in this level is the tolerance in comparison with lifestyle, as every creative person or in general the creative “class” has its own lifestyle, also this ethnic groups have their own lifestyle out of creative “class”, and in these level there is membrane of permeability, I wouldn’t say a clash of different cultures, because cultures coexist aside. And in this aspect I found that also different lifestyles can coexist but as much as they are related to the basic cultural aspect of the particular creative individuals, and as much as there’s no difference there is creativity as a driven force, without creating a specific class that divides people. As tolerance is not a physical aspect, its basic source is inner, and as people belong different groups, there is something that unites them and this unity is also inner and its outer expression of unity is creativity as Florida states: “Creativity – common good, like liberty or security – belonging to all of us” I also went further on, referring Florida’s Tolerance Index consisting of: Gay Index Bohemian Index Melting Pot (foreign born people) Racial integration I struggled to search and get information for a theme that principally is a taboo in my country, but in a mass I succeeded finding few information about the Gay Index, and this tiny information clearly shows for the concentration of gays in this City.

From the table we clearly see that Prishtina ranks first in list for the Gay Index. But, for my Prishtinë 49 24.50% Gjilan 3 1.50% Prizren 49 24.50% Sharr 2 1.00% research and my case this index is not so Pejë 24 12.00% Besianë 1 0.50% important, considering our culture this index is Mitrovicë 14 7.00% Deçan 1 0.50% a taboo, and I think it’s going to be for a long Rahovec 14 7.00% Kaçanik 1 0.50% time, not that our society is not diverse and Gjakovë 13 6.50% Lipjan 1 0.50% open, but as I already mentioned before, there Ferizaj 11 5.50% Malishevë 1 0.50% are still strong-ties, family as a cluster of Therandë 10 5.00% Vushtri 1 0.50% culture. As I mentioned diversity, from my F.Kosovë 5 2.50% questionnaires, my question to creative people Total 200 100.00% that moved in this City, “Do you consider the city to be diverse”, I got 70%, “Yes”, and this is an indicator that these people appreciated and found as an important factor in the city while making decision where to live and work. City

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The other factor I found extremely important is the concentration of University. As more than 90% of university faculties and departments are located in the city and that more in one or two parts, the university has acted as incubator and as a hub of creative people. As Florida sees University more as a huge advantage in the Creative Economy, in my case I see it as an attractor, as an opportunity, and as an engine for creativity production. From my research, my creative people, most of them (70%) are 22-33 years old, and a number of these, especially ITs, are graduate students. An other interesting fact related to university is that most of our country population is young, the population till the age of 18 consists 46% of the overall population, the thing is that all these young people who move to this city for the purpose of study, create and “excess” of creative capital that maybe the city is not able to handle. The solution in this case, I think is the spread of the University through out other cities. As in my questionnaires creative people whom I referred chose that, they don’t want to pass all the life in the city, meaning that they are mobile persons, and in certain stages of their life they find places that fit them and their lifestyles. But these young graduates that find the city to be creative, their job to be creative, the city where they can fit themselves and appreciate the lifestyles, they are creating a concentrated Creative Center, in the same place where the University acts as a creative hub, which is basically what a city wants, and what creative people want, a city where they can have a creative job and a lifestyle that depicts their culture. But, in the other hand all these process seems to act negatively in the small regions from where these people moved, it tends to segregate them, taking all the creative potential from them. As in my personal case, I and my family moved to the City for two purposes, the Job and the University, it was this combination what we needed, not lifestyle nor culture. I new that not a lot of creative people moved to this city for the purpose of lifestyle, especially couples with children. The lifestyle, in my research I found to be extremely important for artists and “Bohemians”, they were the only ones that aside Job have chosen Lifestyle as a reason why they’ve chosen to move in this City. But, my intention was to elaborate the impact and connection of the new lifestyle they face and make in the new creative conditions. As City in itself offers a new kind of lifestyle and a new kind of culture, a culture that my creative people referred 47% to be “Mass-culture” and more as Creative Culture, the point was to trace the new kind of social interaction in the same community. As I mentioned community, I would say as far as I’ve got the results that these creative people hold the Strong-ties, I would conclude that the inner force that consists community is still alive in these creative people, even to they are mobile persons and move from one to the other place.

What is the relation of community and society, are these the same, what role has one and the other in the civilization, does creative class belongs to civilization or to the culture, a culture that consists, shapes and guides their lifestyles? The holder of culture is man, holder of civilization is society. Culture – raise and perfection of human being Mass-culture – fulfillment of needs Mass-man - final product of civilization Is not my intention to bring a discourse about the culture and the civilization but I need this context to put my creative people and their lifestyle that I am referring in my research. As in my questionnaires the creative people tend to hold the Strong-ties, in the same time they keep the character of community within the society. But, while they are mobile, their close community changes, what happens in this case? The answer is that they are people that can fit themselves and their lifestyle in the new community, not merely creating their own lifestyles. Diversity in this case plays a major role on creating a proper climate for creativity to flourish. Diversity allows these people to fit themselves as creative people, define their personalities, and fit their lifestyle in the specter of the community overall lifestyle and culture. As in my research, creative mobile people strongly evaluate the diversity of a place. On my question “Do you consider the city to be diverse”?, about 70% answered “Yes”. Actually diversity tends to unite the community and unite the different communities also, as long as it’s not based on ideologies that lead to classes and other divisions. And I found that this diversity is important starting for the individual and going to the community and society as a whole. … there are people that don’t like that this segment of western Europe has come to us, too. While out of Kosovo, such dances are quite normal, we have still difficulties to accept such fun and joys in our life… (A stripper’s comment who moved from Germany to Prishtina) This comments of this guy that performed a strip for the first time in Prishtina, show as a clear view that our culture does not support alienated products, it’s not about diversity but about originality, about preserving the culture and the lifestyle. Also other comments from small gay “community” tend to reflect the same question about the permeability of the communities and the society. Society is transforming, changing, but society is not the highest level to judge, that is culture. Culture is the “art to be human”, while civilization is the artifice to operate. I have to admit that in my case I don’t see diversity as an uncontrolled penetration of every kind of behavior, be it personal or of a certain group, but more as a filter/membrane that in the same time separates and unifies; interest, thoughts, attitudes in a creative way toward openness of the creativity potential to flourish . It is important to say that the migratory patterns of creativity are formed according to these membranes, which filtering the individual culture and lifestyle in the overall culture tend to form a creative climate that becomes a hook for creative people to move in certain places. By not just simply melting but fitting the individual lifestyle the City I am referring is becoming centre of creativity. Comparing the two sides, the first place that these creative were and the City they moved, gives as a better understanding of these membranes of diversity in terms of lifestyle. As the small regions tend to be more “gated” more fanatics on preserving the source cultural aspects, preserving and unifying a same overall lifestyle that applies also for the creative people, in the other hand, a big city gives the creative people a higher level of “melting” to become quickly insiders. In one side this is an advantage but also can be a chance to loose those strong-ties that these creative people used to retain. While in my questionnaire, 8

about 40 % were saying that they are crating multiple weak-ties, and also about the same number referring to the new environment as more flexible for the lifestyle, we clearly see the difference, which is the flexibility and the opportunities for fitting and even making new lifestyle, which is not applicable to smaller regions. And this, as a conclusion might be a huge driving force of the creative capital toward bigger regions.

Experiential life and lifestyle Does society of nowadays experience life? Is technology and mass-culture all what we experience? Is the cycle closed – “Produce to gain, gain to spend” Why, when material standard increases, the “psychological” standard decreases? Why the progress isn’t in the same time humanization? I am not going to answer these question, the answers might be in-between the lines of what I will discuss here about the creativity and the lifestyle, especially about the experiences of those creative people who moved to the City. … a creative life packed full of intense, high quality, multidimensional experiences. And the kinds of experiences they crave reflect and reinforce their identities as creative people. (Richard Florida, Creativity and Experience) The new amenities and the lifestyle that City offers, creates a proper environment for the creative people to test their new way of experiencing life. As our days are getting “shorter” and our time is “wrapping”, we need to find a creative way of dividing time. As creative people in my research, value the flexible schedule, in order to experience life, to have time for leisure, to live a life and do a job. Is interesting that creative people who moved in the City tend to consider more than ever the concept of experiential life. They want strong emotions, they have a competitive spirit, they like going out, they like “street level” culture, thinks that happen suddenly and fast, they don’t have time for long experiences. Experiences are replacing goods and services because they stimulate our creative faculties and enhance our creative capacities. Florida finds out a very interesting point, early or latter people are filling up with readymade experiences, like media, and they want real experiences, even physical ones. And especially creative people are those who are highly appreciating the experiential life, in my research they tend night life, beginning from walking outside, jogging, young people attending night clubs, bars, streets full of people, and is not that they are not satisfied with their family life searching for third places, but is the creative mixture of experiences. The other important experience is leisure. I found that these people are appreciating leisure more than before they moved in the City, not just because city offers more leisure, but because offers them differently. As most of the urban people, the most extreme experiences they will evoke during a football or box match. While all around in a countryside is alive, basic, pure, between sunrise and sun set. The assurance that an urban dweller has more chances and possibilities for artistic, and esthetic experiences, is a strange prejudice. Is it that; concerts, museums or exhibitions that are attended from an unimportant number of urban population, could ever replace just one basic experience of the rural life – the “sun rise”? And what is amazing that creative people have already understood well, that the experiential life is not just what you see and here in the streets, in night clubs, it’s something that is inner and has to be fulfilled not just in a material way. 9

Long working hours of creative people need very high experience life, and this can not be achieved in the normal amenities that our consumer society offers. The dependence of human kind on matter is increasing every day, reach countries that consist 1/3 of the world, spend 15 milliard dollars per year only on cosmetics, every American spends 18 tons of different materials per year. By creating needs even more needs, new needs, inventing needs, civilization is tending to intensify the exchange of matter between man and nature, to stimulate outer live to the prejudice of the inner life. “Produce to gain, gain to spend”. The question is open, but the answer is there – a climate of spiritual life. “Migratory patterns” of creative people within the City As I traced these creative people moving from other region to the City, discussing the patterns they create in these movement, in terms of lifestyle and its relation with job, culture, every day life in general, now I am going to trace and discuss the same patterns within the City, which district these people chose to live and what’s in there, whose there, what happens there?. It’s interesting to find that how these creative people from different professions are settled in different districts of the city. As I have mentioned before the appropriateness of the city for specific groups, from my questionnaires I got more answers that the City is more appropriate for Young people, and than ranked singles, couples with children and retired people ranked in the end of list, and these rank is almost applicable within the city, too. I found centre to be more appropriate for young people and single creative people, while they have next to door experiences, “street culture” and happenings. While the district where I use to live is more a mixed zone in between young people choosing to live there, couples with children and few retired people, because this district offers a more quiet and “safer” environment, infrastructure for education and other facilities for children, also quiet places for old people. I once meet a banker who wanted to shift in this place because of the school next to door for his child. While young creative people tend to be concentrated in areas that offer high levels of experiences and night life, couples with children do have other tendencies, they think differently on which place to choose for living. And we have the district that is the heart of the city, where bankers, artists, musicians live, mostly young creative people, they chose this place to settle there, not just for job, but for its high level of nigh live: Zanzibar an old Pristina expat favourite, the Zanzibar is a shabby, time-worn basement bar with a wall of smoke and loud live rock music every Friday and Saturday. With just one small entrance/exit it‘s going to be a Darwinian rush to the doors if anything happens down there. Find Zanzibar down the steps in the alley. As my neighborhood is the biggest district in the city, is also the zone of mixture, where also a lot of foreigners (from united nations mission) live, they have chosen this place for lot of reason; next to door amenities, crowded streets and in the same time quiet environment for children and old people, full of sport facilities, shopping areas for social interaction and what most they appreciate as creative people – a place where they can fit themselves because of the diversity that exist there. I have to say that it’s very obvious to judge different districts of the city as more or less attractor for creativity and this is the requisites that different districts offer for a lifestyle that can be fit. As the city itself acts as a magnet for creativity, also we saw that different parts of the city differ in terms of where these creative people that moved to the City chose to live than

merely to work. The place does matter because it might or might not offer the lifestyle that these creative people want to have.

Conclusion My paper doesn’t see the city as a built structure, or arrangements of the built form, or quality of the space in terms of built form, but more in terms of quality of lifestyle that it offers; diversity and cultural attitudes of the city to offer choices. As the city was tremendously increased in number of inhabitants (within 7 years, from 220.000 to 500.000), and this increase is more about the incomers that rushed toward the City. The city infrastructure was overloaded. The city has become a creativity attractor but was not ready to accept that amount. But, as very optimist people, the newcomers and the residents are finding common interest to go forward, and that is encourage of tolerance and talent as requisites for creativity in order to develop technology and so a sustainable creative economy. Kosova as the most optimistic country in the world, compared to other countries in the region, Albania, Macedonia and Yugoslavia, is more optimistic in general. After Kosova, the second most optimistic country in the region is Macedonia (48%), than Yugoslavia (46%) and Albania, as the most pessimistic country in the region (29%). As for the optimism for the economic development, Kosova again takes the first place in the region. It was a lot pessimist to search for creativity in Kosovo in terms of Creativity Class that Richard Florida refers to US, but let it be clear that the creativity I was tracing in terms of the “migratory patterns” of the creative people and their lifestyle is in context of the country and the City itself, not in the scale that Florida finds in US, but nevertheless: Creativity – common good, like liberty or security – belonging to all of us.

Banush Shyqeriu Prishtina: 08.02.2008

References:

1. Richard Florida, “The Rise of the Creative Class” Basic Books , New York 2002 2. Questionnaires 3. Gallup International Voice of the PeopleTM 2007 4. Statistical office of Kosovo, www.ks-gov/esk 5. INDEX KOSOVA Ltd, www.indexkosova.com 6. Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, www.mpms-ks.org

Appendix 1 Questionnaires

Questionnaire form:

Appendix 2 The other question posed was:

Question do you have any member of you family living outside of Kosova, reveals that at the time of the survey 43.6% of respondents ascertain having someone of the family abroad, 55.3% answer with No, while 1.1% of respondents don't know or refuse to give an answer. From those who have family members living outside Kosova, 45.4% are from rural areas and 54.6% from urban areas.

Marriages and divorces (numbers)

Source: SOK Vital statistics

For 2004 and 2005 the number of divorces is increasing. But this numbers are still far behind from the European realities. Even though the rate of divorces for 2005 indices a value of 9 divorces for 100 marriages compared to 2004 it increased only 1.6 percent.

Looking at the results by region, six in ten respondents were pessimistic about their chances of recovering the loss of their job in Middle East (59%) and Latin America (55%), whilst nearly half felt the same way in North America (49%). Next, 45% in Eastern & Central Europe and 44% in Asia Pacific, Africa and Western Europe think it might take them longer to find a new job.

On a country-by-country analysis, the opinion that it may take longer to find a new job is more frequent in Egypt (70%), Paraguay (64%), Kenya (62%), Iraq (62%), Colombia (61%), Italy (61%), Macedonia (61%), Albania (60%), Lebanon (60%) and UN administered Kosovo (60%), whilst the countries where the highest levels of confidence on this matter are Iceland (79%), Australia (72%), New Zealand (72%), Denmark (70%), Norway (63%), Belgium (61%), Sweden (61%), Netherlands (59%), UK (59%), Israel (58%), Hong Kong (56%), and Finland (55%).

Univers. 23,1%

Level of employment based on Qualification

High Sch. 13,6% No Sec. Sch. Qualific.Half-qualif. Qualif. 3,3% 1,4% 0,9% 1,3%

Level of employment on the bases of age 2.6% 2.1% 1,7%

Salaries on the base of qualification

0,5%

16-24

25-39

40-54

55+

No qualif.

HalfQualif.

Qualified

Se co n d . Sch o o l

High Sch.

University