Creative Work Environments

In the course of the reunification of Germany all the former Eastern German industrial core
regions had to undergo a transition from socialist, centrally planned economy towards postfordist
modes of production. One major vision of urban development of the early 1990s was
to deindustrialise Leipzig from a site of heavy equipment/machinery production and coal
mining towards the 2nd centre region of tertiary sector in the Neue Bundesländer after the
capital Berlin. In the beginning this strategy seemed to be successful – Leipzig’s image was
dominated by the phrase “boomtown of the East”. Undergoing a change from one of the most
polluted and dilapidated cities to a place full of experimental urbanism and renovated
Gründerzeit quarters with parks and a lake district in the southern fringe, the city attracted
service companies from financial, legal, insurance, business consultancy and media sector.
But in the end of the 1990s the city underwent a decline in service sector, which was
characterised by retreat and shutting down of branches of national and global players. On the
one hand the Eastern German market stagnated at low demand for services. So the whole
Eastern German market could better be served from Berlin. On the other hand the Leipzig
regional market was too small to run branches as nearly all the industrial production sector,
which demands services, was destructed after reunification. This shows the negative impact of
mono-sector development strategies. But it offers also an insight into resulting opportunities
for the city.
Today one of the biggest potentials of the City of Leipzig is its high degree of spatial
opportunities – vacant apartment buildings, vacant suburban housing, vacant offices, vacant
old-industrial facilities and vacant brown-fields for redevelopment. The City of Leipzig is
marked by a relaxed density. It offers freedom, spaces and places for creativity at discount
prices without forcing people to instant, economic success. That’s what people see,
experience and transport as an image of the city. The local educational infrastructure
(Academy of Visual Arts, University of Music and Theatre, German Literature Institute,
Master Programme Media Leipzig, etc.) attracts a lot of young people to the city. The
economic situation (high unemployment rate, low income levels, low industrial jobs rate)
though doesn’t offer good employment opportunities, so a lot of the graduates leave after
acquiring their degree. But the urban structure and low living cost levels offer the freedom to
develop own businesses. Therefore quite a few former students stay to pursue their career in a
smooth urban environment.
The present study focused on these people working in creative and knowledge intensive
sectors (such as radio and TV, software and games development, E-publishing, law and other
services, finance sector, ICT, etc.), who are supposed to play a central role in making a place
competitive in the global network of regions. Furthermore it paid attention to graduates of the
Leipzig educational institutions. The general aim was to get to know why workers and
students came to this city, how they like it and if/why they are planning to stay or not. The
report is split into four chapters. The 1st chapter highlights more detailed the current context,
in which the workers and graduates live. After an introduction to the Leipzig Metropolitan
Region the existing creative knowledge policies are outlined and the population of workers
and graduates is presented. The methodological approach of the survey is outlined in chapter
2. For this study a total sample of 200 workers and graduates was surveyed using a
standardised questionnaire. This sample was split up into 75 knowledge intensive workers, 75
creative workers and 50 graduates. In chapter 3 the results of the survey are presented. Having
described the demographic situation of the sample, the basic employment and residential
features will be exploited. The following sections are dedicated to analysing the satisfaction
patterns concerning the city in general, the neighbourhood and living environment, and the
job and work situation. In addition a section with bivariate examination of the data is
presented before comparing knowledge intensive workers to creative workers in order to find
out about possible differences between their attitudes. The 4th chapter is dedicated to
interpreting and concluding the findings and deducing implications for policies of
competitiveness. Finally some limitations of these interpretations are outlined.
The study brought to light that most of the interviewed workers and graduates came to
Leipzig because of study and job opportunities, but that soft location factors also play a
significant role. In addition, personal connections (e.g. proximity to friends and family)
played a significant decision making role. Once in Leipzig they prefer to live in the city centre
quarters of Leipzig, where they could profit from the big pool of restaurants, bars, pubs,
cultural and sports events that they tend to frequent regularly. As the overall economic
situation in Leipzig indicates, also the knowledge intensive and creative workers show low
levels of income. Nonetheless they tend to be satisfied with their working and job situation
and the life in Leipzig in general. One third of the respondents indicate an overall friendliness
of Leipzig to be one of the reasons why feeling comfortable here. Another important fact is
the affordability of high quality housing. Other important reasons for feeling at ease with
Leipzig are its cultural diversity and the diversity of leisure and entertainment facilities.
Concerning the micro level of the neighbourhood the interviewees acknowledge the
atmosphere and quality of their neighbourhoods, which gives them a feeling of personal
safety. Furthermore the possibility of maintaining personal networks is a relevant fact, which
in the Leipzig economic context is of major importance for the creative knowledge workers in
order to get good business information, and which is comfortably realizable in the Leipzig
urban size and structure. The study shows that traditional networks such as political and
religious networks and community yet only play a subordinated role. Consequently, more
than half of the Leipzig respondents indicate not to have the intention to leave the city. They
seem to be tied to the city by their personal connections and the city’s general atmosphere
(esp. cultural diversity, space, low living costs).
The Leipzig situation simultaneously forces and enables political leaders to experiment with
unconventional and often pragmatic solutions. Therefore the administrative staff of the City
of Leipzig is open to suggestions from all directions of civic engagement. Hence it is not
astonishing that the City of Leipzig, recently, is paying much attention to the creative
knowledge sector in order to make the existing initiatives, developing in the city’s free
atmosphere, economically more powerful and sustainable.