Spatially varying associations between creative worker concentrations and social diversity in Shenzhen, China

Creative worker is recognized to be essential driving force of regional economic growth. It is argued that highly tolerant society is prone to accept creative workers’ distinctive behaviors and accommodate their creative needs in science and technology. In this regard, examining the associations between creative worker concentrations and social tolerance should provide important references for urban governors who want to achieve sustainable economic growth through innovation. This paper develops a set of social diversity indicators as proxy for tolerance, and applies geographically weighed regression (GWR) to characterize the associations between creative worker concentrations and social tolerance at district level in Shenzhen, China. GWR identifies spatial non-stationary associations between CCCs and social diversity. More specifically, CCCs have positive correlations with income, education and housing diversity; and the correlations are stronger in districts within the Special Economic Zone (SEZ). CCCs are positively correlated with ethnic and birth place diversity within the SEZ, while opposite correlations are found in districts outside the SEZ. The identified spatial non-stationary relationships may partially answer for the controversial empirical conclusions in earlier case studies. Our study expands the understanding of intra-urban creative worker concentrations in relation to social tolerance. It is believed to provide empirical figures to test the social theory on creative economy.