PRODUCTION OF NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE

IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY:

THE CASE OF PUERTO VALLARTA
MARCOS VALDIVIA* & RICARDO MACIP**
* Regional Center for Multidisciplinary Research at National University of Mexico (UNAM),
Mexico. E-mail: marcosv@correo.crim.unam.mx
** Graduate Program in Sociocultural Anthropology, Beneme rita Universidad Auto noma de Puebla,
Mexico. E-mail: fmacip@gmail.com

Received: August 2015; accepted April 2017

ABSTRACT
This paper proposes an agent-based model (ABM) that combines ethnographic and economic
methods to analyse how the social interaction between creative actors generates new creative
knowledge. The chosen case of study is Puerto Vallarta, a sun and beach international
destination in Mexico. Puerto Vallarta contains, potentially, many of the key elements that are
discussed in the literature on creative economy. Our methodological strategy identifies
ethnographically types of knowledge that are associated with a standard typology of creative
industries in a city. The model is evaluated by simulations of agents engaged in producing ideas
based on these types of knowledge either collectively or individually. Among the main findings
are the presence of ‘elevated common knowledge’ between creative agents (which can be an
important constraint for rising creativity) and that mixed behaviour of knowledge production
(collective and individual) can boost better the production of ideas in Puerto Vallarta. Finally,
we claim that the proposed methodology can be extended to and implemented in other similar
contexts.

Key words: Knowledge spillovers, creative industries, production of ideas, mixed methods

INTRODUCTION that are widely available specially in the econ-

This research is oriented to analyse how new
creative knowledge can be modelled as result
of social interactions and cultural contexts in
which creative agents are embedded. Aiming
at this goal implies that we are along those
views discussed in the literature on creativity
that draw attention to the social dimension
out of which creativity emerges (Csikszentmi-
halyi 2014). In concordance with this social
view of creativity, the best way to approxi-
mate this perspective analytically from a
decision-making approach – as the one
adopted in this research – is through looking
at the several models of knowledge spillovers
omic literature of social interactions (Ioan-
nides 2013) or spatial economics. If creativity
emerges from bottom-up agent interaction
through knowledge externalities, some of the
rule decisions of the mentioned approaches
can be good proxies for modelling the com-
plex process of rising creativity when
exchange and diffusion of information
among agents are key players. In particular,
we find in Berliant and Fujita’s (2009) model
of transmission of new ideas based on the
stock of common and differential knowledge
between agents, an appropriate proxy to
model rising creativity under a social interac-
tion setting. This paper takes into account

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2018, DOI:10.1111/tesg.12271, Vol. 109, No. 2, pp. 309–326.
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310
some of these insights to model new knowl-
edge – as proxy of creativity – using a compu-
tational agent based methodology and
considering a particular regional setting that
we describe next.
This research postulates that the creativity
process is not only constrained by peer influ-
ence (or social interactions) but also by social
context and culture (Csikszentmihalyi 2014;
Sacco et al. 2014). To study empirically this
hypothesis, we decided to choose a specific
case of study in Mexico such as Puerto
Vallarta because of two motivations: on the
one hand, Puerto Vallarta has displayed econ-
omic specialisation in the so called ‘creative
industries’ since early 2000 (see below), and
on the other, it is an important tourist desti-
nation for national and international comers
making Puerto Vallarta an interesting case to
analyse the interplay between creativity and
tourism to boost local growth. We believe that
Puerto Vallarta could be an interesting com-
parative case to study similar cases from the
‘global south’. In this sense, the theoretical
discussion about creative classes and indus-
tries started in North America and Northern
Europe, and its empirical research has been
predominantly oriented to these regions.
However, it is also well known by now that the
rise to prominence of groups identified as
creative is not exclusive of developed regions
(Buitrago & Duque 2013; UNESCO 2013). It
is then our interest to participate in this theo-
retical discussion by analytically describing
how the ascendance of creative groups is
shaping new creative knowledge in a major
touristic destination in Mexico such as Puerto
Vallarta, and at the same time suggesting a
methodology that could be used in other sim-
ilar settings worldwide.
To analyse this case, we develop and pro-
pose an agent-based model to study some of
the creative forces at play in Puerto Vallarta
and how they are generating new creative
ideas in the region. In adopting this meth-
odological perspective, we are in the same
spirit of those efforts that have developed
computational models of interactive agents
to analyse creativity or culture in a much
broader sense (Dignum & Dignam 2014;
Helin 2014). But our approach considers in
addition two components that have not been
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MARCOS VALDIVIA & RICARDO MACIP
jointly incorporated so far into the standard
computational strategies that analyse creativ-
ity or culture. First, in order to have an
appropriate understanding of the relation-
ship between culture and creativity in a par-
ticular setting such as Puerto Vallarta, it was
necessary to perform ethnographic fieldwork
to gather qualitative data that were reliable
to represent appropriate or ‘real’ agents in
the modelling. Second, these ‘real agents’
are implemented in a computational model
that explains the production of new creative
knowledge in Puerto Vallarta, and these
agents follow rules of decision that are theo-
retically grounded by a microeconomic
model of knowledge spillovers (Berliant &
Fujita 2009). We claim that the results of the
simulations could have policy implications to
boost creativity in Puerto Vallarta (see final
section).
Then, the paper aims to advance an ethno-
graphic computational model that analyses
the production of new creative knowledge in
a regional setting that takes into account the
qualitative dimension between creativity and
culture. Our central thesis is that production
of new creative knowledge depends not only
on the individual knowledge endowment but
also on both face to face interaction between
agents and a specific culture and social con-
text in which those interactions take place.
To implement this, we apply a microecon-
omic model of knowledge transmission – as
rule of decision of agents – based on the
stock of common and differential knowledge
between agents (Berliant & Fujita 2009), this
model essentially postulates that the rate of
creation of new knowledge is highest when
proportions of common knowledge and dif-
ferential knowledge are in balance; ethno-
graphic fieldwork allowed to identify
empirically the types of knowledge that were
considered in the modelling and the initial
conditions of common and differential
knowledge for the case of Puerto Vallarta.
Simulation results in the study reveal high
presence of ‘common knowledge’ in Puerto
Vallarta, which constrains knowledge produc-
tion, and that makes a mixed behaviour of
knowledge production (collective and indi-
vidual) as the best strategy to boost creativity
in Puerto Vallarta.
NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY
This paper has four sections besides this
introduction. In the following section, we dis-
cuss some theoretical issues on the linkages
between spillovers and creativity. In the third
section, we provide useful contextual informa-
tion on Puerto Vallarta as a creative cluster.
In the fourth section we propose an ethno-
graphic agent-based model to analyse the pro-
duction of new creative knowledge in Puerto
Vallarta. Finally, we conclude with a section of
final remarks with policy implications.
A BRIEF REVIEW ON SPILLOVERS,
CREATIVITY, CULTURE AND NEW
CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE
The issues discussed in this paper are related
to the arguments and concepts advanced by
Glaeser (2011), Melander et al. (2014) and
others about the central mechanisms that
make cities economically prosperous. These
ideas correspond remarkably with a long
standing line of thought in localisation theory
that argues for focusing on the factors that
attract people to specific places instead of pay-
ing attention to those that attract firms or
industries (Storper & Scott 2009). These fac-
tors are commonly associated with the contex-
tual and environmental characteristics of a
city, typically called ‘amenities’, which draw
people to move to a specific place. Such
amenities can take the form of a wide array of
cultural, natural or institutional urban fea-
tures such as weather, tolerance, strong pres-
ence of sexual and racial minorities,
gentrification, low levels of criminality, beauti-
fied urban areas, parks, restaurants and so
forth. This argument has become a darling
for policy-makers interested in promoting
urban development. In this sense, the amenity
dimension is generally conceived in terms of
the characteristics of the centrality of place or
cities such as that advanced by Jacobs (1969).
On the other hand, we can find in the lit-
erature on creative industries (which concen-
trates on the industrial sectors rather than
places or cities) that the existence of an
industrial creative base in a region can be
also seen as amenity value to attract talented
people because such creative sectors (i.e.,
TV, radio and movies, architecture,
311
publishing, etc.) are fashionable for new tal-
ented residents or mobile professionals (Lee
2014).
When we are dealing with the concentra-
tion of talented people in a region, inde-
pendently of its prima facie cause, a central
piece of analysis that emerges is the positive
externalities that produce social interaction,
buzz or face to face interaction between crea-
tive or talented people. As it is convention-
ally known in the discussion of localisation
and urbanisation economies (Brakman et al
2009), these ‘spillover effects’ can be ana-
lysed within industries ( a la Marshall-Arrow-
Romer) or among industries or whole cities
(
a la Jacob), being the latter a much wider
social context where the pollination of ideas
tend to occur under non-pecuniary external-
ities (Laffont 2008).
Similar to this last account ( a la Jacobs),
we can find the notion of a ‘cognitive-
cultural economy’ that Scott (2007) proposes
to discuss the ‘cognitive-cultural’ nexus in
firms and cities that characterises the post-
Fordist world. Under this setting is where we
believe Florida (2014) puts forward his cen-
tral thesis about the role of creativity as
opposed to simple knowledge, technology or
innovation as the main driver of economic
development in the post-Fordist world.
Creativity is embedded in individuals
(labour force) but it is shared (or transmit-
ted) through social interactions and intersub-
jectivity, both of which can take such creativity
to a superior level. A branch of psychology
theory also shares strongly this ‘social view’ of
creativity; in particular, Csikszentmihalyi
(2014) has discussed widely the interplay
among what he calls the domain (knowledge,
tools, values, practices), the field (community
of practices, gatekeepers) and the person
(individual practitioner, his/her talents, etc.).
From a methodological perspective, an
interesting linkage to these ideas is the agent
interactive modelling on knowledge and/or
creativity formation. For example, Spencer
(2012) analyses the emergence of creativity
as a product of agent interaction through
intra and inter networks. An attractive fea-
ture in Spencer’s approach is the use of the
concept of homophily to compare agents in
terms of their cognitive distances: interaction
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between agents would be more likely, the
smaller the cognitive distance between them
and vice versa. A similar idea is developed
further by Berliant and Fujita (2009) to ana-
lyse the creation of knowledge through non-
pecuniary externalities. But Berliant and
Fujita (2009) in addition to homophily (that
they called ‘common knowledge’) introduce
the role of differential knowledge as other
key factor for agent interaction and knowl-
edge creation. We will explore in detail this
type of modelling below.
Now, it is not enough with invoking an
abstract model of knowledge creation to con-
sider appropriately the role of culture and/or
context in the production of ideas. In a
recent paper reviewing the literature on local-
led cultural development models, Sacco et al.
(2014), propose an approach where global
and local levels are embedded in a multi-
causal and non-linear way of modelling actors
in a specific context. In particular, they sug-
gest that economic agglomeration forces must
be analysed considering also ‘the displace-
ment of individuals who embed knowledge
and abilities, given the essential role it has in
supplying cultural, cognitive, and behavioural
practices that can diverge [even] from the
dominant’ (Sacco et al. 2014 p. 2816). This
can be a critical issue when arguing that the
promotion of creative classes or industries can
fail to boost local economies –especially if one
is interested in studying persisting gaps in
development – when it lacks an appropriate
diagnosis of the cultural capability shortages
in local communities.
It is important to point out that, within
the traditional literature on creativity, discus-
sions on ‘culture’ take this concept for
granted, showing a peculiar bias towards its
relative portability. Following Roseberry
(1996), Narotzky and Smith (2006), Smith
(2011) and Sider (2014), we aim to under-
stand how culture shapes and is shaped by
social processes, paying attention to how its
dominant forces unfold over emergent and
residual elements and how differentiated the
effects of their interactions over diverse pop-
ulations are. Therefore, all that it has been
mentioned above boils down to considering
seriously ethnographic methods to discover
what kind of cultural capabilities are present
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or absent in particular economic settings
where talented people are gathered and are
able to produce new creative knowledge.
This is key to implement appropriately a
model that explains knowledge creation as
the one considered in this research.
From a methodological perspective, agent-
based model (ABM) (bottom-up modelling
based on interacting and heterogeneous
agents) has become during the last years a
powerful approach to model creativity in
economic processes (Spencer 2012; Malick
et al 2014; Liu 2015). Among the main
advantages of ABM against other approaches
is the capability to manage heterogeneity,
bounded rationality and decision interde-
pendence of agents (Axtell 2010); these fea-
tures are well suited to model new creative
knowledge as a result of social interactions
and contexts in which creative agents are
embedded. In addition, in ABM framework
it is easy to introduce input data to enrich
the system model, a typical example is the
use of geographical information systems in
ABM to provide realistic landscape and spa-
tial structure in the simulation; and
recently, ethnographic data has been used
to ‘inform’ ABM oriented to simulate rich
and complex human-cultural environments
(Dignum & Dignam 2014; Ghorbani et al.
2015). In particular, to model creativity
requires – as we discussed above – a good
understanding of the domain ( a la Csiks-
zentmihaly) or/and homophily between
agents; therefore, ethnographic data
becomes in an appropriate input (for an
ABM approach) to identify the types of
knowledge (or creativity) associated with the
domain of creative persons in a specific
context.
In the fourth section, we advance an eth-
nographic agent-based model to study new
knowledge creation in Puerto Vallarta that
gathers many of the theoretical and meth-
odological issues just discussed above.
THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF PUERTO
VALLARTA
Object of study and justification – Puerto
Vallarta relies heavily on the tourism sector,
NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY
with traditional tourism representing
between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of the
local gross domestic product (GDP) (INEGI
2013). Nevertheless, in recent years Puerto
Vallarta has shown less concentration in tra-
ditional tourism since the sector has diversi-
fied to include new niches for more
sophisticated tourists: lesbian-gay-bisexual-
trans (LGBT) tourism, boutique hotels and
spas, ecotourism, art galleries, tourism for
business and conventions, and medical tour-
ism (Marın 2009). Likewise, Puerto Vallarta
has shown an important increase in interna-
tional residential tourists.
Given these changes, it is interesting to
consider a recent OECD report about tour-
ism and creative economy (OECD 2014)
which sustains that creative tourism is more
oriented to producing externalities of inno-
vation as opposed to externalities of conser-
vation, as is the case in cultural tourism. We
suggest that Puerto Vallarta’s recent changes
in the diversification of tourism services are,
to some extent, a response to the emergence
of a creative tourism niche in the region.
Vallarta and the Riviera Nayarit,1 operating
as a cluster, are experiencing the pressures
and contradictions of a mass-tourist destina-
tion. Large and foreign-based operators tend
to overrun local businesses by offering
budget all-inclusive packages, thus develop-
ing strong adversarial relations with local
business and populations. Alternatives to this
model are constantly being demanded by all
of those whose future depends on the suc-
cess of local tourism services. Puerto Vallarta
faces the alternative to move from a model
of mass tourism into a model where a large
influx of tourists enjoy added value amenities
and specialised niches for tourism. This latter
alternative would demand creatively catering
to a diversified series of epicureans.
Nevertheless, this scenario is not absent
from contradictions and social inequalities
such as those advanced by Scott (2007). The
process of demographic growth in the Puerto
Vallarta is associated with contingents of pre-
carious workers, impoverished inhabitants
and socio-spatial segregation (N ~ ez &
un
Rodrıguez 2009; Perez-Campuzano 2010) of
an expanding economy of services and
amenities.
313
General socio-economic indicators and
creative economic activities in Puerto
Vallarta – We postulate that creative econ-
omic activities have emerged in Puerto
Vallarta as a result of the diversification of
the tourism sector, prompting the emer-
gence of a ‘creative cluster’ in the region
and forcing agents to develop strategies to
adapt to a changing service sector (Marın
2009). Next, we describe empirically the
main socio-economic process that sustains
such diagnosis.
The metropolitan area of Puerto Vallarta
(MPV), which concentrates two municipal-
ities from two different States of Mexico, had
379,834 inhabitants in 2010 (INEGI 2010),
67 per cent of whom lived in the municipal-
ity of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco
and 33 per cent in the municipality of Bahia
de Banderas in the State of Nayarit. The
annual population growth rate in the MPV
during 1990–2010 and 2000–2010 was 7.6 per
cent and 5.5 per cent respectively. During
2000–2010, the Municipality of Bahia de Ban-
deras was the main driver behind population
growth in the metropolitan area given that
its annual rate (10.7%) was almost three
times that of Puerto Vallarta (3.8%).
In terms of dynamic migration during
2000–2010, the MPV was among the top met-
ropolitan areas of Mexico with the highest
indicators of strong population mobility.
Among all the metropolitan areas of Mexico
and according to population census data for
2010 (INEGI 2010), the MPV came in ninth
place in terms of net internal migration, first
in the rate of internal migration (2.5 net
migrants per 1,000 inhabitants), sixth in
migration intensity and fifth in migration
intensity with respect to the labour force.
Regarding international migration, the MPV
is one of the main places attracting interna-
tional migrants (from USA and Canada),
allegedly dominated by retirees.
The municipality of Puerto Vallarta con-
centrates most of the economic activity of
the metropolitan area; however, it has also
shown an important decline: Puerto Vallarta
represented 90 per cent of the gross value
added (GVA) in 1999 but dropped to 75 per
cent in 2008 (INEGI 1999, 2003, 2008). This
drop shows an ongoing decentralisation
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Table 1. Presence of creative industries in the metopolitan area of Puerto Vallarta
Share of Ranks
Creative
Industries
(Gross Value (Employment)
Added)
1998
MPV 3.1 13
All metro areas 2.9
No. specialised MAs
2003
MPV 2.9 4 2.8
All metro areas 3.1
No. specialised MAs
2008
MPV 3.2 7 2.2
All metro areas 2.5
No. specialised MAs
Source: Economic Census Data 1999, 2004 & 2009, INEGI, Mexico
process in the MVP in recent years character-
ised by the expansion of the economy toward
the north of the metropolitan area, specifi-
cally to Bahia Banderas. Bahia de Banderas
has also become an important economic
driver not only for the Riviera Nayarit corri-
dor but also for the MPV. From 1999 to 2008
Bahia de Banderas registered an average
annual GVA growth rate of 11.7 per cent,
almost three times the national average.
In terms of real estate developments in the
tourism sector, Puerto Vallarta has experi-
enced an interesting shift in the supply mar-
ket of accommodations from one dominated
by hotel units to one dominated by condos
(Virgen & Ruiz 2011). Even when condos are
not necessarily considered a second place of
residence, these numbers shed light on the
emergence of a new real estate market for
residential tourists in Puerto Vallarta.
Table 1 shows several key economic indica-
tors of the creative industries in the MPV
based on the UNCTAD (2010) classification
of creative industries and following the adap-
tation done by Boix and Lazzeretti (2012)
and others. If we consider the contribution
of the creative industries to the GVA of each
metropolitan area in Mexico, the MPV
ranked quite high across all metropolitan
areas. The MPV had a creative share to GVA
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Share of Ranks Location Location
Creative quotient quotient
Industries (based on Gross (based on
Value Added) Employment)
2.1 30 1.05 0.76
2.8
15 8
12 0.95 0.86
3.3
2 6
32 1.26 0.68
3.2
15 6
of 3.1 per cent in 1999, 2.9 per cent in 2003
and 3.2 per cent in 2008, which ranked the
MPV in the 13th, 4th and 7th positions in
the list of all 59 metro areas (MAs) of Mex-
ico (the national figures were 2.9%, 3.1%
and 2.5%). Interestingly, if we use a standard
location quotient of the form LQ5 ei/e/Ei/E,
to evaluate the concentration of creative
industries with regard to the GVA in the
MPV compared to the one registered in all
the MAs (see column (5) of Table 1), the
MPV becomes relatively concentrated in crea-
tive industries in 2003 and 2008 with a quo-
tient of 1.05 and 1.26 respectively. This
means that the MPV displays 5 per cent and
26 per cent more concentration in these
industries than that observed in all MAs in
those years. In 2008, only 50 metropolitan
areas had a location quotient greater than
one (i.e. specialised metro areas in creative
industries), including the MPV.
According to Table 2, the MPV is special-
ised in only four of the 12 subsectors that
constitute the creative sector. The subsectors
in which the MPV is specialised are: TV,
radio and movies, libraries, museums and
recreational parks, casinos, lottery and gam-
bling, and sports activities. Table 2 also dis-
plays the distribution of the specialised
subsectors across all MAs in Mexico (the last
NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY 315

Table 2. Intra specialisation in creative industries 2008

MPV Specialised Metro Areas In

Mexico
Specialised Absolute Relative (%)

Editing NO 7 4
TV, radio and movies YES 35 22
Broadcasting NO 4 2
Programming, computer consulting NO 7 4
Architecture NO 12 7
R&D NO 10 6
Publishing NO 4 2
Other professional activities NO 19 12
Artists NO 19 12
Libraries, museums and recreational parks YES 9 6
Casinos, gambling YES 18 11
Sport activities and others YES 17 11
Total specialised MAs 161 100

Note: Specialisation is the location quotient using GVA.

Source: INEGI (2009).

row of the table indicates that there is a total
of 161 specialised subsectors across MAs). If
we compare this last distribution to those
subsectors in which the MPV is specialised, it
can be suggested that the MPV’s specialisa-
tion in TV, radio and movies, casinos and
ambling and sports activities is in line with
national figures (because these percentages
are relatively high across all metro areas) but
it over performs in the subsector of libraries
and recreational parks (in contrast to the low
percentage of the subsector at national level
with 6%) and underperforms in artists and
other professional activities (at the national
level, these subsectors have a relatively high
percentage: 12% each).
Nevertheless, if we consider the employ-
ment data, the MPV turns out not to be the
creative ‘hot spot’ one we would expect. The
creative employment share (to total employ-
ment) is quite below the national metropoli-
tan figure for any of the years with available
data during the period between 1999 and
2008 (see column (3) of Table 1). This lack
of creative clusters in terms of employment
in the MPV is consistent with what we find in
other labour market indicators in the region,
which could reflect either a weak bargaining
power of those workers associated with the
creative sector or a strong cover of informal
activity in the industries where employment
is precarious.2 Thus, the existence of creative
groups as part of the cognitive-cultural econ-
omy in Puerto Vallarta goes hand in hand
with an underbelly of precariousness; how
one affects the other is still to be researched.
AN ETHNOGRAPHIC AGENT-BASED
MODEL TO ANALYSE THE CREATION
OF NEW KNOWLEDGE IN PUERTO
VALLARTA
In this section, we propose an ethnographic
agent-based model to analyse the creation of
new knowledge in the MPV. The main
purpose is to advance a computational meth-
odology that incorporates ‘real creative individ-
uals’ who were studied during the fieldwork
done in the MPV. In the model, these ‘real
individuals’ are engaged in the exchange and
transmission of ‘creative ideas’ with each other
in order to improve their individual stock of
knowledge. This improvement is what we
called ‘new creative knowledge’ which is con-
sidered a proxy of creativity. This process of
knowledge creation is governed by rules of
decision of exchanging knowledge that are jus-
tified by a model of social interaction that is
explained in the next subsection.
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First conceptual model based on qualitative
data to analyse creativity formation – We
draw primarily on a microeconomics model
that relies on the creation of knowledge
when two individuals decide to interact with
each other under conditions of common and
differential knowledge (Berliant & Fujita
2009). We have adapted this model under
discrete time conditions and for n heteroge-
neous agents. Our purpose has been to
derive a measurement of creativity in the
aggregate as a product of the decisions of
agents who engage in interactions to learn
‘ideas’ from each other and, more impor-
tantly, to create (creative) knowledge jointly.
Let us define ni,k(t) as the idea agent i has
of a type knowledge k at time t (n is treated
as a binary variable indicating the presence
or absence of types of knowledge):
X
23
ni;k ðt Þ5Tki ðt Þ; (1)
k51
where 23 is the total number of types of crea-
tive knowledge; we decided to choose 23 ks
that will be explained in the ethnographic
part of the modelling.
Total knowledge is given by:
X
17
Tki ðt Þ5TK ðt Þ; (2)
i51
where 17 is the total number of agents inter-
viewed – the selection of the number of
agents will be also explained below in the
next subsection.
Common knowledge between agents i and
j is calculated by:
X
23
CKi;j ðt Þ5 ni;k ðt Þ  nj;k ðt Þ: (3)
k51
Let us define DFKi,j as the differential knowl-
edge that agent i has with respect to j and
DFKj,i as the converse. The equations of these
variables are given by:
DFKi;j ðt Þ5Tki ðt Þ2CKi;j ðt Þ; (4)
DFKj;i ðt Þ5Tkj ðt Þ2CKi;j ðt Þ: (5)
A key element in the model is that interac-
tion between i and j must somehow produce
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MARCOS VALDIVIA & RICARDO MACIP
new knowledge, an essential element in any
framework that attempts to model creativity.
Following Berliant & Fujita (2009) closely,
knowledge creation (KC) between i and j is
ruled by:3
 
KCi;j ðt Þ5b  CKi;j  DFKi;j ðt Þ  DFKj;i ðt Þ 1=3 ;
(6)
where beta is a parameter > 0.
In the same way, a transfer of knowledge
from i to j (TrK,ij) and from j to i (TrK,ji) is
represented by the following expressions:
 
TrKi;j ðt Þ5c  CKi;j  DFKi;j ðt Þ 1=2 ; (7)
 
TrKj;i ðt Þ5c  CKj;i  DFKi;j ðt Þ 1=2 : (8)
Knowledge creation can occur without inter-
action between i and j, that is, KCi 5 KCj. We
model it, also along the lines of Berliant and
Fujita (2009), in its simple dynamic form:
KCi ðt Þ5a  Tki ðt Þ: (9)
With these equations in mind, we will analyse
the dynamics of TK by way of simulations tak-
ing a discrete approximation of the previous
equations. In particular, we consider that Tki
at time t 1 1 depends on Tki at time t plus
knowledge creation between i and j at time t,
plus knowledge transfer form j to i also at
time t, that is:
X
23  
Tki ðt11Þ5 ni;k ðt Þ2TrKi;j ðt Þ=23 1KCi;j ðt Þ
k51
X
23  
1 ni;k ðt Þ1TrKj;i ðt Þ=23 :
k51
(10)
In the same way, we consider that Tkj at time
t 1 1 depends on Tkj at time t plus knowledge
creation between i and j at time t, plus knowl-
edge transfer form i to j at time t, that is:
X
23  
Tkj ðt11Þ5 nj;k ðt Þ2TrKj;i ðt Þ=23 1KCi;j ðt Þ
k51
X
23  
1 nj;k ðt Þ1TrKi;j ðt Þ=23 :
k51
(11)
NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY
As we can see in (10) and (11), the model
also considers TrK a loss of knowledge for j
and i in a way that can be considered a
depreciation of knowledge due to social
interaction. Equations (10) and (11) indicate
that the depreciation and the gain of knowl-
edge from the other agent are both distrib-
uted proportionally through all 23 types of
knowledge.
If the interaction does not hold, Tki at
time t 1 1 will depend on Tki at time t plus
KCi at time t, that is:
Tki ðt11Þ5Tki ðt Þ1KCi ðt Þ: (12)
The central decision rule of the model is
shown next. In this rule, the main objective
is to model whether agent i is better off if s/
he engages in interaction instead of behaving
alone.4 Therefore:
If KCi;j ðt Þ1TrKj;i ðt Þ > KCi ðt Þ; then i interacts
with j and equation ð10Þ and ð11Þ apply;
otherwise s=he behaves alone and equation
ð12Þ holds:
(13)
We now show how i chooses j at time t.
Agents are scattered in a two dimensional lat-
tice (D2) under the condition that only one
agent can occupy a specific place in the lat-
tice given by the coordinates X, Y.5 We con-
sider two options of interaction: global and
local. Global interaction indicates that agent
i chooses j randomly in order to evaluate
equation (13). On the other hand, local
interaction implies that agent i chooses ran-
domly only one of those js that are physically
close to i.
To model local interaction, we have opted
for a network structure of each agent (to
which other agents are connected) based on
the proximity between agents (given by
Euclidean distance). The specific rule to cre-
ate the network structure is by connecting
agents through (closest) links, that is, it is a
simple graph that does not have loops (self-
links) and does not have multiple identical
links. The number of agent’s links is calcu-
lated standardly as follows:
317
Number of agent’s links 5 (average-agent-
degree * 17)/2, where average-agent-degree is
a parameter that takes a number in the
range [0, 17] and 17 accounts for the
total nodes which is equal to the number
of agents.
The average-agent-degree is the same for each
agent (because it is a global variable) but the
links that connect specific agents tend to be
almost different along the range [0, 17]. To
build the network, an agent is randomly cho-
sen and connected to the nearest agent with
which s/he is not already connected to. This
process is repeated until the network has the
correct number of links to give the specific
average number of neighbours (see support-
ing information section available at the pub-
lisher’s web site to see an example of a
random network).
With global and local interaction defined,
we can set other variables such as total com-
mon knowledge (TCK), total differential
knowledge of agent i (TDFKij) and total dif-
ferential knowledge of agent j (DFKji) as
follows:
X
N
TCK ðt Þ5 CKi;j ðt Þ; (14)
i51
X
N
TDFKij ðt Þ5 DFKi;j ðt Þ; (15)
i51
X
N
TDFKji ðt Þ5 DFKj;i ðt Þ: (16)
j51
At each period of time t, all agents execute
rule (12) either locally or globally, but note
that each agent chooses randomly with
whom to interact.6 Consequently, it is impor-
tant to generate large numbers of ts to have
an idea of how (13), (14) and (15) behave
statistically. At this stage of the modelling, all
other exogenous factors that can influence
knowledge creation are assumed constant.7
Ethnographic components of the
computational model – We simulated the
model of the subsection above with the quali-
tative data from our fieldwork in the MPV
and its surroundings. We used an inductive
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318
approach in which open-ended and semi-
structured interviews, participant observation,
and fieldwork methods are combined. Fol-
lowing some of Ghorbani et al. (2015) meth-
odological guidelines regarding the use of
anthropological information for agent-based
modelling, we selected 17 creative agents and
propose 23 types or types of creative knowl-
edge (ks) in order to simulate the model just
advanced above. In other words, at this stage
of the research, the theoretical model
described in the last subsection provided the
rules of the model itself and its operation,
whereas ethnographic research allowed us to:
(i) select agents (or creative actors); (ii)
identify types of creative knowledge (ks) that
are in principle linked with a standard typol-
ogy of creative industries; and (iii) ascertain
initial endowments of knowledge for our set
of agents.
Previous to the selection of individuals,
industrial census data (INEGI 2009) filtered
by the classification of creative industries
(see Table 2) allowed us to identify the hot-
spots of creative people both at census tract
level and at firm level in the MPV. Then,
fieldwork based on participant observation
was conducted during approximately one
month on such spatial agglomerations previ-
ously detected. Next, ‘creative individuals’
were selected (in some cases with the help of
local informant’s networks) for semi-
structured interviews according to a quota
selection, such that one of the subpopula-
tions had occupations (i.e. artist, cultural
promotor, software developer, etc.) associ-
ated with at least one of the creative indus-
tries, and the other gathered persons whose
localisation decision to move to MPV
responded to amenity attraction factors (i.e.,
international migrant from USA and Canada
with second residence, academic professors,
entrepreneurs relocated by weather and sun-
beach, etc.). Likewise, each selected person
should have met the sociodemographic crite-
ria of being person between 20 and 70 years
old and having at least high school educa-
tional attainment.
The fieldwork brought to selection 17 crea-
tive agents (is) able to be interviewed. An
open-ended or semi-structured interview was
applied to each selected person. The main
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purpose of the interviews was to bring to the
conversation types of knowledge (ks) associ-
ated with creativity and how well each of
them fitted to the interviewed. Some types of
knowledge were previously identified such
that they easily corresponded to the catego-
ries of ‘creative industries’ (see Table 2) or
‘creative class’; for example, the types of
knowledge called ‘cinephilia’ and ‘literature’
(see column (1) of Table 3) are clearly asso-
ciated with the TV, radio and movies and
artists industries respectively, while ks such as
‘gentrification’, ‘epicureanism’, or ‘multicul-
turalism’ are more linked with the notion of
‘creative class’. But others types as ‘indige-
nous’, ‘intercultural’ or (creative) ‘parasit-
ism’ rose to prominence during the
exchanges, interviews and observations, and
they are clearly associated with the social
context and culture of MPV.8
The qualitative research produced 23 ideas
or types of creative knowledge (ks) and the
interviews allowed us to identify how they
were distributed across the 17 selected crea-
tive agents (see Table 3). ‘Types of creative
knowledge’ (ks) are keywords working as
‘empty’ and ‘floating’ signifiers (Laclau
2005). As such, they allowed us to move from
simple conversation into passionate engage-
ments with the interviewers. It was precisely
the prevalence and dominance of these key-
words what was worth pushing for qualitative
insight and for patterns that would probably
emerge once we started analysing them. Lit-
erary theorist Raymond Williams (1976,
1981) focused on the insight these types of
keywords provide in retrospective. In our
case, we are projecting their analytical power
to ethnographically-informed economic mod-
elling in order to model ‘new creative knowl-
edge’. Such an attempt may be considered a
‘tropicalising’ effort at its most vulgar deri-
sion, but we rather discuss it within the long
tradition of ‘transculturation’ (Ortiz 1995) in
Latin America. Further research will allow us
to propose a more nuanced critique of the
process.
Further documentation of the model, fol-
lowing ODD guidelines, and validation issues
are discussed in the Supporting Information
section.
NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY 319

Table 3. Knowledge matrix of people interviewed

Type of knowledge \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Total

Creative agent

Work 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 15
Literature 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 14
Gentrification 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 14
Authenticity 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14
Tourism 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 13
Epicurianism 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 13
Craft 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 12
Green Behaviour 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 12
Popular 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 10
Cinephilia 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 10
Liberal 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 10
Multicultu ralism 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 10
Countercultural 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 9
Community engaged 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 9
Innovation 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 9
Excel 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 9
Indigenous 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 8
Intercultural 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 8
Artistic 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 7
Charity 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 7
Dilettantism 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 6
Fast food 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 6
Parasitism 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 5
Tki 18 7 19 13 23 6 10 14 9 21 18 5 13 17 6 15 16 230

Results of the simulations – Table 3 displays
the distribution of types of knowledge among
all individuals who were analysed. Data is
arranged by row from the highest to the low-
est type identified for each individual: ‘work’
is the highest with 15 units, followed by ‘liter-
ature’, ‘gentrification’, ‘authenticity’ and
‘tourism’ with 14 units each, and so on. The
type with the lowest score is ‘creative parasit-
ism’ with five units. The total knowledge
(TK, see Equation (2)) is equal to 230 units.
Table 3 also shows information about each
individual’s set of knowledge (equation (1)).
For example, individual number 5 has the
highest number of types with 23 units fol-
lowed by individual number 10 with 21 units
and, at the bottom, individuals with numbers
6, 15 and 12 have the lowest scores with 6, 6
and 5 units respectively.
Table 4 shows the estimations of total com-
mon knowledge (TCK, see equation (14),
Differential Knowledge of individual i
(TDFKij see equation (15)) and Differential
Knowledge of individual j (TDFKji see equa-
tion (16)). The data was calculated by run-
ning the simulation 1,000 times at the initial
condition t 5 0 with different network condi-
tions of interaction.9 The first row of Table 4
shows the means of TCK, TDFKij and TDFKji
of the simulations when the average number
of contacts is 1. In the same way, the second
row shows the estimation of these variables
when the average number of contacts is 2,
and so on. At the bottom of the table, the
estimations in relative terms are displayed.
The results clearly indicate that common
knowledge prevails over differential knowl-
edge under all conditions. For example,
when the average number of contacts is 1,
TCK is 52 per cent, and both TDFKij and
TDFKji are 24 per cent each. The mean of
TCK is reduced as more contacts occur until
the average of contacts is three; after this,
TCK maintains stability at 44 per cent.10
A key analytical result of the microecon-
omic model upon which this exercise is
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Table 4. Common and differential knowledge.
Average TCK TDFKij
network
1 158 72
2 146 84
3 142 88
4 142 88
5 141 89
1 0.52 0.24
2 0.47 0.27
3 0.45 0.28
4 0.44 0.28
5 0.44 0.28
partly based (Berliant & Fujita 2009) estab-
lishes that the growth of knowledge creation
would be best if the proportions of TCK,
TDFKij and TDFKji were evenly distributed
across individuals. Table 4 indicates that this
is not the case because there is too much
TCK as an initial condition. Therefore, it
would be beneficial if TCK were in some way
reduced; given the results shown in Table 4,
this is possible to do by increasing the aver-
age network of interaction. In order to have
a more precise picture of what this may look
like, we display an estimation of the common
knowledge distribution in Figure 1 (in con-
trast to the means displayed in Table 4) gen-
erated by 1,000 simulations under two
situations. One distribution is estimated
when the average network is 1 (see distribu-
tion leans toward the left) and the second is
estimated when the average network is 5 (see
distribution leans toward the right). In Fig-
ure 1, the distribution with higher contacts
leans toward the left side when compared to
the distribution that has only one average
contact; this means that TCK would probably
decrease more if the individuals we inter-
viewed had a greater set of options with
whom to interact with.
Until now, we have only shown the initial
conditions of TCK, TDFKij and TDFKji pro-
duced by our ethnographic research. How-
ever, we have not yet analysed the dynamics
of knowledge creation that these endow-
ments of common knowledge and differen-
tial knowledge could potentially generate
(i.e. equations (10), (11), (12) and (13)). In
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MARCOS VALDIVIA & RICARDO MACIP
TDFKji
72
84
88
89
89
0.24
0.27
0.28
0.28
0.28 (Average networks used of 1 and 5).
Figure 1. Gaussian kernel estimation of total common
knowledge
order to have a first approximation to this
issue, we performed a few simulations under
the following parameter conditions: an aver-
age network of 3 contacts is considered
(note that the means of TCK, TDFKij and
TDFKji do not show important changes
beyond this point; see Table 4), the value of
the parameter beta associated with joint
knowledge creation (see equation (6)) was
set to 0.2, and the value of the parameter
alpha associated with individual knowledge
creation (see equation (9)) was also set to
0.2. Under these conditions, we evaluated
how knowledge evolves across time by run-
ning the simulation 1,000 times under each
condition and computing the means in each
case.
Figure 2 displays the results of the simula-
tion under the above-mentioned conditions;
the series show the evolution of TCK (on the
ys) through step times (which are on the xs).
Each series points to a different scenario.
First, it is important to highlight that all
series begin at step 0 with 230 units of TCK
and, from there, they start to increase as a
result of the interaction between a pair of
individuals. Now, it must be noted that
almost all series practically stabilise at step 3
(except for the solid black series, which is
labelled as ‘intera and indiv’). This means
that total knowledge reaches a maximum of
growth with three interactions in average
(producing an exchange of knowledge).
After this point, knowledge creation is no
NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY
Figure 2. Simulation results of total knowledge avg network 3, beta50.2, gamma50.2 and alfa50.2
longer possible because the differential
knowledge is exhausted and all the total
knowledge is just common knowledge. In all
these series (except the solid black) alpha is
set to 0, which implies that the growth of
knowledge is only possible by interaction. In
solid black series, alpha is set to 0.2, which
makes the series upper unbounded (i.e. it is
not stabilised as in the rest of the series)
because knowledge creation does not require
neither common knowledge nor differential
knowledge to grow.
In this regard, one of the first interesting
results we obtained is that, before step 4 is
reached it is better for knowledge growth to
rely on the social interaction between indi-
viduals rather than on individual knowledge
which is not socialised.
An interesting thing to contrast in Figure
2 is the simulation results under pure condi-
tions of social interaction with the original
data (see long dashes series) against the rest
of social interaction simulations that are
modified at the beginning of the run (i.e.,
time-step 0) with a kind of knowledge shock.
For example, the tiny solid black series called
‘shock_10_all’ is a simulation that allocates
one more unit of ‘epicureanism’ to each
individual as an initial condition. Likewise,
321
the series called subsidy to 8 agents is a simu-
lation that allocates one more unit of a ran-
dom type knowledge to 8 individuals who are
chosen randomly. In general, when an
improvement in the stock of knowledge is
introduced, the total knowledge creation is
reduced under these settings because
these improvements increase common knowl-
edge. As was previously stated, the ethno-
graphic study revealed a knowledge structure
with too much common knowledge in con-
trast to what was revealed by census data (see
Table 2).
Now, if for some reason there is an
improvement in the initial stock of knowl-
edge, which type of knowledge is enhanced
matters for total knowledge growth. In Figure
3, we show simulation results (under the same
conditions as before) considering improve-
ments in three different types of knowledge:
tourism (see series called ‘shock_5’), epicur-
eanism (series calledshock_10) and artistic
(series called shock_11). This improvement
means that one more unit of the ‘associated
knowledge’ is allocated to each individual at
the beginning of the run. The evolution of
total knowledge (see left y axis) is represented
by the solid curves. The results clearly indicate
that artistic improvement generates the best
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1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0 0.00
0 1 2 3 4 5
Shock 5 Shock 10 Shock 11
CK_5 CK_10 CK_11
Figure 3. Impact of improvements in different types of
knowledge. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlineli-
brary.com]
results (followed by tourism and epicurean-
ism) given that the ‘artistic’ type is scarcer
among individuals, which produces less com-
mon knowledge at the beginning of the simu-
lation (this is also consistent with census data,
as shown in Table 2). This can be seen along
the dashed curves indicating the associated
common knowledge (displayed in relative
terms) being produced (see right y axis): the
dashed green line is the common knowledge
produced by the artistic type, the dashed red
line is CK produced by epicureanism whereas
the dashed grey line is the knowledge pro-
duced by tourism. Therefore, the highest
curve of total knowledge produced by the
artistic type (tiny solid black curve) corre-
sponds to the lowest curve of common knowl-
edge (wide solid curve). On the contrary, the
lowest curve of total knowledge produced by
epicureanism (grey solid curve) corresponds
to the higher curve of common knowledge
(grey dashed curve).
An important issue to consider in the anal-
ysis is whether the diffusion and creation of
knowledge (trough interaction) reduces
inequality in the distribution of knowledge.
Inequality, as we see next, is measured
trough a dispersion indicator of types of
knowledge. This is an important issue to
explore because, as we described before,
Puerto Vallarta also seems to be subject to
precarious employment in the process of
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1.00
0.90
0.80
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
Figure 4. Inequality in the creation of knowledge. [Col-
our figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
emerging creative activities (see endnote 2).
A positive outcome in the computational set-
ting is that knowledge creation (i.e. creativ-
ity) brings out an even distribution of
knowledge among individuals. In order to be
able to measure this, we computed the stand-
ard deviation of the log (types of knows) in
all individuals in each run and then we calcu-
lated the mean in all runs to measure
inequality, which is like a sigma measure-
ment of convergence commonly used in
regional economics.
Figure 4 shows the results of the exercise
under the same parameter conditions of the
previous simulations (alpha, beta and gamma
set to 0.2, 1 000 runs, 3 average contacts,
etc.). The series in solid black display the
results when knowledge creation is produced
only by interaction, while the series in black
dashes also include the possibility of individ-
ual knowledge creation. At time 5 0, inequal-
ity is 0.48 in both series (which can be
measured directly from the data in Table 3).
It is important to mention that a reduction
of inequality must correspond to a decreas-
ing indicator in the next time-steps; other-
wise, inequality persists. Figure 4 shows that
inequality grows during the process of knowl-
edge creation either collectively or in mixed
behaviour (collective and individual). In
addition, inequality has a greater increase
under social interaction than under mixed
behaviour, which means that individual
knowledge creation can play an important
role in containing increasing knowledge
inequality under pure conditions of collective
behaviour.
It is also important to provide some infor-
mation about the profile of those individuals
NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY
who are subject to the most drastic changes
in the process of knowledge creation. Pure
collective behaviour is more beneficial to
individuals with a higher initial stock of
knowledge associated with cultural and
artistic environments (this is the case of indi-
vidual 3, whose knowledge profile is shown
in Table 3). These environments are scarce
in the economy if we consider economic cen-
sus data (see Table 2). In contrast, mixed
behaviour (collective and individual) is more
beneficial to individuals with higher knowl-
edge associated with academics and univer-
sity teachers (this is the case of individual
10). Pure collective behaviour seems to bene-
fit those individuals on the lower ladder of
knowledge associated with touristic activities
and precarious jobs but who have an urban
background (7, 14 and 4), whereas mixed
behaviour is more beneficial to those individ-
uals in the lower ladder of knowledge and
with a university background (7 and 9). We
conclude with the case of the individual with
the highest score: individual number 5. As
can be seen in Table 3, all types of knowl-
edge were intentionally allocated to him (he
is a young man associated with small entre-
preneurial activities). Our simulations indi-
cate that this individual tends to be
vulnerable in terms of social interaction. This
can have interesting implications for policy
because the process of social creativity can
destroy potential individuals linked to activ-
ities that contribute to local economic
growth. For example, if a policy intervention
relies heavily on social interaction to boost
creativity, at the same time it must provide
the mechanisms to protect (or to insulate)
those talented people that underperform
under social interaction conditions.
Further corroboration and more con-
trolled observations are needed in order to
sustain these findings more robustly – see
online Supporting Information for a valida-
tion discussion of the model. This model has
assured us that we have found a good case
over which to ponder how creative knowl-
edge can be produced under a specific social
and cultural context. What remains to be
done is a follow up study with tailor-made
methodology. Such a study would entail plan-
ning a verification list for different creative
323
types and their observed interactions. In
addition, it would involve identifying similar
regions to the metropolitan area of Puerto
Vallarta in order to assess how general and
specific the transculturation of a cognitive-
cultural economy is.
FINAL REMARKS
The main purpose of this paper was to advance
a methodology that allowed us to analyse the
rise and diffusion of new creative knowledge in
the MPV. We claim that our methodological
procedure can be extended to and imple-
mented in any particular social and cultural
context. The model at its current stage pro-
duces some interesting findings that could
motivate some policy insights to boost creativity
for the MPV. We mention next some of them
just for illustrative purposes.
First, creativity (proxied as knowledge pro-
duction) increases more under conditions of
social interaction rather than under individ-
ual behaviour basis. This finding echoes one
of the main ideas surrounding the literature
on creativity, namely, that creativity is best
developed under collective behaviour (Csiks-
zentmihalyi 2014). Nevertheless, our simula-
tions suggest that social interaction tends to
increase inequality in the distribution of
knowledge in MPV. In this regard, a mixed
behaviour of knowledge production (collec-
tive and individual) as opposed to pure col-
lective behaviour generates less inequality in
the distribution of knowledge among individ-
uals. Also mixed behaviour allows least-fitted
individuals – in terms of knowledge – experi-
ence upward mobility but also that the best-
fitted individuals continue to increase creativ-
ity. The latter kind of individuals can be, as
our fieldwork suggests, potential entrepre-
neurs who can contribute to local growth,
whereas the former type of individuals are
the ones whose occupations are precarious.
Simulations also suggest that improve-
ments in the artistic types of knowledge are
beneficial for the production of ideas in the
MPV. Individuals associated with artistic types
have the best performance under pure col-
lective behaviour, and this might suggest that
Puerto Vallarta has plenty of room to attract
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these ‘bohemian’ agents (even at the
expense of a higher inequality in knowledge
production). That is, urban policy oriented
to gentrify neighbourhoods could improve
knowledge creation in the area.
Finally, it is important to mention that our
simulations indicate that there is too much
common knowledge among the creative
agents detected ethnographically.11 This indi-
cates that a kind of innovation in types of
knowledge is needed in order to boost crea-
tivity in Puerto Vallarta beyond the kind that
can be experimented through the arrival of
artists and bohemians. Such a scenario could
indicate that the MPV has plenty of room for
attracting cultural minorities or qualified
people to increase the differential knowledge
that is required in the community.
It is important to conclude that the above
mentioned policy implications must be seen
with caution because further validation of
the model and additional ethnographic field-
work are required to support them.
Acknowledgements
This research was possible thanks to the funding
provided by Direcci
on General de Asuntos del Per-
sonal Academico, Universidad Nacional Aut
onoma
de Mexico, through the grants PAPIIT IN304214
and PASPA.
Notes
1. Riviera Nayarit is a predominantly touristic cor-
ridor that runs along the coast of the state of
Nayarit. It covers the municipality of Bahia de
Banderas almost in its entirety.
2. According to industrial census data in 2008,
the average wage in creative industries in the
MPV was higher than that of other industries
(44.2 pesos versus 34.4 in non-creative activ-
ities); nevertheless, it is still half of that
observed in the creative industries of all metro-
politan areas (63.9 pesos).
3. Equation (6) guarantees an important condi-
tion in the Berliant-Fujita (2009) model: the
rate of creation of new knowledge is highest
when proportions of common knowledge and
differential knowledge are in balance. This is an
interesting assumption because it implies that
knowledge creation would not be at its highest
when the common knowledge between i and j,
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the ideas exclusively of agent i, and the ideas
exclusively of agent j are not proportional.
4. Note that in this formulation j is passive in
deciding interaction because she is only wait-
ing to see what i decides.
5. The only purpose of the physical location of
the agent is to construct the network structure;
therefore, it does not reflect any real residen-
tial (or job) location of agents, since that physi-
cal location is random at each simulation.
6. The model assumes that ‘transportation’ costs
for agents (to meet each other) are null, since
we are modeling a network of creative agents
rather than residential or physical job location
of agents (see endnote 5). This assumption
could be relaxed imposing a cost of meeting a
specific agent according to s/he creative
characteristics.
7. For example, level of tolerance, income, gen-
der, age, transportation costs, etc. are variables
that could condition new knowledge creation.
Likewise, we decided not to introduce a sto-
chastic term in the equations --which can proxy
these other variables--in order to keep the
model simple at this stage of the ABM.
8. It is possible to make a connection of these last
types of knowledge with the discussion of
Garcıa-Canclini (Garcıa-Canclini and Piedras,
2006), in particular with his notion of cultural
hybridism. He also has experimented with
mixed methods to study anthropologically
regional settings in Mexico. (We thank to one
of the reviewers to rise this point).
9. It should be noted that the model we are ana-
lysing is based on pair interaction. This means
that an individual i has the chance to interact
with only one individual j each time. There-
fore, in order to have reliable statistics about
TCK, TDFKij and TDFKji it is necessary to run
the simulation n times so that a given individ-
ual has the opportunity to interact with every-
body else under random basis.
10. It is interesting to mention that when these
results are contrasted to those commonly
obtained with representative data of economic
sectors, TCK is drastically reduced in the latter
results. That is, either ethnographic research
seems to overestimate the presence of TCK or
economic analysis tends to underestimate it.
11. We must insist that this is not necessarily in
line with what can be estimated through real
economic census data at the level of creative
NEW CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN A LOCAL DEVELOPING ECONOMY
sectors, but it could have interesting empirical
implications in terms of validation of the
model -- see online Supporting Information.
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SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Additional Supporting Information may be found in the
online version of this article at the publisher’s web-site:
Figure A.1. Graphical User Interface in Netlogo of the
Model.