milan: a city easy for working but difficult for...

Milan: A city easy for working but difficult for living?

Understanding the attractiveness of the metropolitan region for creative knowledge workers

ISBN 978-90-75246-79-7 Printed in the Netherlands by Xerox Service Center, Amsterdam Edition: 2008 Cartography lay-out and cover: Puikang Chan, AMIDSt, University of Amsterdam All publications in this series are published on the ACRE-website http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/acre and most are available on paper at: Dr. Olga Gritsai, ACRE project manager University of Amsterdam Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt) Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130 NL-1018 VZ Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel. +31 20 525 4044 +31 23 528 2955 Fax +31 20 525 4051 E-mail [email protected] Copyright © Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt), University of Amsterdam 2008. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced in any form, by print or photo print, microfilm or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.

Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the Enlarged Union Amsterdam 2008 AMIDSt, University of Amsterdam

Milan: A city easy for working but difficult for living?

Understanding the attractiveness of the metropolitan

region for creative knowledge workers ACRE report 5.12 Enzo Mingione Francesca Zajczyk Elena dell’Agnese Silvia Mugnano Marianna d’Ovidio Carla Sedini

ACRE ACRE is an acronym of the international research project ‘Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the Enlarged Union’. The project is funded under the Priority 7 ‘Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-based Society’ within the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Union (contract no 028270). Coordination:

Prof. Sako Musterd University of Amsterdam Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt) Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130 NL-1018 VZ Amsterdam The Netherlands Participants:

Amsterdam (Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Marco Bontje ~ Olga Gritsai ~ Heike Pethe ~ Wim Ostendorf ~ Puikang Chan

Barcelona (Centre de Recerca en Economia del Benestar – Centre for Research in Welfare Economics, University of Barcelona, Spain) Montserrat Pareja Eastaway ~ Joaquin Turmo Garuz ~ Montserrat Simó Solsona ~ Lidia Garcia Ferrando ~ Marc Pradel i Miquel

Birmingham (Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham, UK) Alan Murie ~ Caroline Chapain ~ John Gibney ~ Austin Barber ~ Jane Lutz ~ Julie Brown

Budapest (Institute of Geography, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) Zoltán Kovács ~ Zoltán Dövényi ~ Tamas Egedy ~ Attila Csaba Kondor ~ Balázs Szabó

Helsinki (Department of Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland) Mari Vaattovaara ~ Tommi Inkinen ~ Kaisa Kepsu

Leipzig (Leibniz Institute of Regional Geography, Germany) Joachim Burdack ~ Günter Herfert ~ Bastian Lange ~ Katja Manz ~ Robert Nadler

Munich (Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Germany) Günter Heinritz ~ Sabine Hafner ~ Manfred Miosga ~ Anne von Streit

Poznan (Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland) Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz ~ Jerzy J. Parysek ~ Tomasz Kaczmarek ~ Michal Meczynski

Riga (Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia) Anders Paalzow ~ Diana Pauna ~ Vjacheslav Dombrovsky ~ Roberts Kilis ~ Arnis Sauka

Sofia (Centre for Social Practices, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria) Evgenii Dainov ~ Vassil Garnizov ~ Maria Pancheva ~ Ivan Nachev ~ Lilia Kolova

Toulouse (Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban and Sociological Studies, University of Toulouse-II Le Mirail, Toulouse, France) Denis Eckert ~ Christiane Thouzellier ~ Elisabeth Peyroux ~ Michel Grossetti ~ Mariette Sibertin-Blanc ~ Frédéric Leriche ~ Florence Laumière ~ Jean-Marc Zuliani ~ Corinne Siino ~ Martine Azam ~ Hélène Martin-Brelot

Milan (Department of Sociology and Social research, University degli Studi di Milan Bicocca, Italy) Enzo Mingione ~ Francesca Zajczyk ~ Elena dell’Agnese ~ Silvia Mugnano ~ Marianna d’Ovidio ~ Carla Sedini

Dublin (School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, Ireland) Declan Redmond ~ Brendan Williams ~ Niamh Moore ~ Veronica Crossa ~ Martin Sokol ~ Enda Murphy

Nevrotici metropolitani is a temporary (05-12-2007 to 31-12-2007) public art exhibition located in front to Central station of Milan- Photo by Tom Waterhouse

i

Table of contents

Executive summary.......................................................................................................................... 1

1 Introduction........................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 ACRE: General overview ....................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Contents of the report ............................................................................................................. 5

2 Milan Metropolitan Area: The creative and knowledge intensive industry................... 7 2.1 Milan Metropolitan Area: The economic driven .................................................................... 7 2.2 Are there any policy strategy and action able to accommodate creative–knowledge

industry economy?.................................................................................................................. 9 2.3 Milan Metropolitan Area: Graduates and workers in the creative and knowledge

intensive sector ..................................................................................................................... 10

3 Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 13 3.1 Creation of questionnaire...................................................................................................... 13 3.2 The sampling......................................................................................................................... 15 3.3 Application of the questionnaire ........................................................................................... 17

4 Results: Profile of workers and graduates of the creative and knowledge intensive sector in Milan Metropolitan Area.................................................................... 19

4.1 Demographic structure.......................................................................................................... 19 4.2 Basic residential features ...................................................................................................... 22 4.3 The employment feature ....................................................................................................... 25

5 Results: How satisfied are workers and graduates of Milan city region? .................... 31 5.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................... 31 5.2 Why are you living in Milan? ............................................................................................... 31 5.3 The creative and knowledge intensive workers living in Milan ........................................... 35 5.3.1 The gender dimension ......................................................................................................... 41 5.3.2 “I’m young and I enjoy the city”......................................................................................... 43 5.3.3 Households typology and satisfaction with the city ............................................................ 46 5.3.4 Income level and the city..................................................................................................... 48 5.3.5 Residential environment and the city .................................................................................. 50 5.3.6 Overall satisfaction.............................................................................................................. 51 5.4 Satisfaction with neighbourhood and living environment .................................................... 54 5.5 Is Milan a welcoming city?................................................................................................... 56

6 Results: Mobility – Are graduates and workers of the creative and knowledge intensive sector staying or going?...................................................................................... 61

6.1 Reasons to move to Milan Metropolitan Area ...................................................................... 61 6.2 “Should I stay or should I go?”............................................................................................. 63

7 Results: Satisfaction with the job ...................................................................................... 67 7.1 Creative and knowledge employees: The happy workers..................................................... 67 7.2 Who are the less satisfied and why ....................................................................................... 69

ii

8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 73 8.1 The profiles of the creative and knowledge intensive workers............................................. 73 8.2 Some general conclusion ...................................................................................................... 76

References ....................................................................................................................................... 79

1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

For a long time Milan has been one of the main economic engines of the country. The industrialising process was mainly concentrated in the Milanese area which became very soon the symbol of the national industrial progress. The history of the city and the region remarkably overlaps the development of industries and factories. However, as it has occurred in the main western metropolis in the last thirty years, Milan is an emblematic city: coming from a strong Fordist identity based on the central role of the heavy industry, it has very fast become as a tertiary city based on services for consumers and for business. Milan metropolitan area has rapidly become the new national icon of the creative and knowledge intensive industry. From the creative view point, Milan hosts some of the major design and fashion firms, has a very well recognised music scene, but it is not much stimulating culturally. Furthermore, Milan metropolitan area has a nationally primacy in knowledge intensive field. Milan houses some of the major research centres in Italy in the field of in biotechnology, pharmacy and medicine. Throughout a survey which has interviewed 75 employees of the creative industry, 75 employees of the knowledge intensive industry and 50 graduates, this work is exploring the quality of living and the degree of satisfaction of respondents.

The report is organised into four main sections. The first section (chap. 2) introduces Milan city–region in terms of creative and knowledge intensive economy and highlights what are the main creative and knowledge intensive sectors in Milan Metropolitan Area. The second section (chap. 3) is completely dedicated to the methodology used to carry out the local survey: the creation of the questionnaire, the main dimensions of the research and how the questionnaire has been applied. The research has focused on specific sectors of the creative and knowledge intensive industries. The creative sectors included were: a) computer games, software, electronic publishing; b) architecture and c) radio and TV. The knowledge intensive sectors were a) R&D and higher education; b) law and other business; c) ICT and d) finance. Furthermore, the creative and knowledge intensive workers have been selected from small, medium and large enterprises of Milan and Milan metropolitan area. The interviews were conducted on line or via email.

In the third section (chap. 4, 5, 6, 7) the results of the survey are reported, particularly focusing on satisfaction with the city and the neighbourhood where they live and satisfaction with job and work environment. In the first part (chap. 5, 6) - satisfaction with the city and the neighbourhood- are discussed the reasons why our sample has chosen to live in the metropolitan region of Milan. Analysing the data about the overall satisfaction of the respondents with the city; the focus will be on three main aspects: leisure, public services, and environment. Then, we will consider the worries of the population, we will particularly explore the dimension of personal security, poverty and exclusion, sociality, traffic and pollution. The last part of the section will looked at the openness and the friendliness of the metropolitan area to foreign people, subcultures (minorities), and homosexuals. The second

THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE METROPOLITAN REGION

2

part (chap. 7) - satisfaction with job and work environment.- is dedicated to the explanation of the reasons why the creative and knowledge workers are (or are not) satisfied with their current job and with the physical, technological and social environment in which they work.

In the final section (chap. 8) the work will be dedicated to sketch some profiles of workers employed in the creative and knowledge intensive sectors and to draw some general conclusions on the relationship between the results of the survey and the theoretical debate on the creative and knowledge intensive industry and propose some recommendations to implement accommodation policies for creative and knowledge intensive industries and high skills workers.

Very briefly it could be said that Milan has two main strengthening points: the power of local ties, which keep people into the city for their life-long and the presence of very good job opportunities. It seems that the so-called soft factors, the weather, the cultural scene, the agreeability of the city in general, are playing a negative role, in the sense that they do not attract many foreigners workers to the city: Milan is said to be terribly polluted, ugly, without a real cultural scene, ... Therefore, despite the “ugliness” of the city people still remain in Milan because of social networks and despite the high job opportunities foreigners are not attracted to the city because of the lack of other (soft) factors. Milan still remains a good attractor for people of the surrounding regions, also because they arrived in the city thanks to the presence of very good universities. Concluding it could be said that strong policies oriented to the reinforcement of the potentials of the city on the one hand, and, on the other, policies towards the improvement of the so-called soft factors could be a real engine of the future development of the creative and knowledge intensive industry.

3

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 ACRE: General overview

Economic regions and cities or urban units are highly unstable entities. Change and transformation are normal for them. Economic regions change in terms of their structure: they either grow or shrink; and urban units do the same. The dynamics are tightly linked in this way with particular forms or sorts of urban development. In the 19th century it was the industrial Revolution that gave birth to the typical factory town. In the 20th century, the rise of Fordist mass production was associated with the growth of the large industrial metropolis. Recently, urban economic structure has been undergoing another market shift, away from Fordist mass production regimes. The shift implied more flexible forms of production as well as the new principle of “just–in–time” and “production–on– demand” delivery of products (Harvey, 1987).

The ACRE project – the acronym of Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the Enlarged Union– aims to assess the impact of the emerging ‘creative class’ and the rise of the ‘creative industries’ on the competitiveness of EU metropolitan regions. While the traditional ‘hard’ location factors that firms use will remain important for international competitiveness, new ‘soft’ location factors that are mainly related to attracting the required ‘talent pool’ would deserve increasing attention.

The central research question is: what are the conditions to create or stimulate ‘creative knowledge regions’ in the context of the extended European Union? We will compare the recent socio–economic development trends and strategies in several metropolitan regions across Europe to get a better insight of the extent to which creativity, innovation and knowledge are indeed the keys to a successful long–term economic development.

The study draws on city–regions in thirteen European countries: Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The metropolitan regions are Amsterdam, Barcelona, Birmingham, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Leipzig, Milan, Munich, Poznan, Riga, Sofia and Toulouse.

The most important topic to consider is which metropolitan regions might develop as ‘creative knowledge regions’, and which regions might not. With the results of this study the EU might seriously consider strengthening the profile of metropolitan regions within the EU area as regards creative knowledge branches and activities in the face of increasing competition with other growth regions in the world.

The ACRE project focuses on six dimensions:

– The (potential) effectiveness of regional competitiveness policies that focus on a creativity– and knowledge–based metropolitan economy;


4

– The role of path dependency: do traditions in certain economic branches and certain local and regional historic spatial structures contribute to a more favourable point of departure when trying to develop a ‘creative knowledge region’?

– The extent to which policies for competitive ‘creative knowledge regions’ not only aim at attracting certain types of economic activities, but also at providing ‘soft location factors’ like an attractive residential environment, public space, and ‘meeting places’ for the ‘talent pool’ needed for these economic activities.

– The question which regional geographic and administrative scale is most relevant for regional competitiveness when aiming at ‘creative knowledge regions’.

– Differences and similarities between metropolitan regions in West, Central and Eastern Europe in their potentials to become competitive centres of creativity, knowledge and innovation.

– The role of trans–national migration of a skilled labour force towards centres of creativity and knowledge: to which extent are these trans–national migrants attracted by ‘soft’ location factors like an attractive residential environment, a diverse population and a tolerant atmosphere in the metropolitan regions they migrate to? How important are such factors when compared to job or career opportunities and costs of living? To what extent are migrants to ‘creative knowledge cities’ different from migrants to ‘global’ or ‘world cities’ in their reasons to migrate?

INTRODUCTION

5

1.2 Contents of the report

In the first report of the ACRE project (Musterd et alt. 2006) it has been reviewed a relevant selection of literature about the creative knowledge economy. This has been done by linking urban and economic transformation with several theoretical debates about what is important to understand such transformation. A later series of report– Paths of creative and knowledge based industries 2.1 to 2.13– specifically dealt with creative and knowledge economy in the thirteen countries previously mentioned. (http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/acre/results/index.html).

This report will present the results of a survey conducted in Milan Metropolitan Area between June and October 2007. The report belongs to a series of thirteen reports produced by each national research unit which presents results related to each local content.

The basic aim of the survey is to understand the drivers behind the decisions of higher educated graduates and workers in cultural and knowledge intensive industries to find a job at a specific location in the region and a place of residence, as well as a place to live.

The report is organised into four main sections. The first section introduces Milan city–region in terms of creative and knowledge intensive economy and highlights which are the main creative and knowledge intensive sectors in Milan Metropolitan Area. The second part of this section will analyse the current state of affairs of the higher educated graduates in the selected creative and knowledge– intensive sectors for Milan Metropolitan Area.

The second section is completely dedicated to the methodology used to carry out the local survey. The section will explore the creation of the questionnaire and will describe the main dimensions of the research. Furthermore, the sampling process and the selection criteria will be analysed.

The third section will go at the heart of the research and the results of the survey will be presented. Firstly the sample will be described by giving its demographic, residential and employment features (chapter 3). The second part will focus particularly on the degree of satisfaction that workers and graduates of the creative and knowledge intensive sector have for Milan Metropolitan Area (chapter 4). In particular, the report will investigate three main satisfaction dimensions: satisfaction with the city, satisfaction with neighbourhood and living environment, and satisfaction with the job and work environment.

Chapter 5, 6 and 7 explore more in detail how the workers and the graduates of the creative and knowledge intensive industries are moving, how are using the city–region and how are they living their working environment.

In the conclusions some preliminary considerations will be drawn on the theoretical and policy viewpoint. On the one hand, the way of living, working and using the city–region by the workers and graduates will be related to the current theoretical debate. On the other hand, the conclusions will highlight how the local, regional and national policies are helping or putting obstacles to workers’ and graduates’ of creative and knowledge intensive economy accommodation in Milan Metropolitan Areas.


6

The fieldwork has been coordinated by Silvia Mugnano with the great support of the interviewers Jeannette Segues, Carla Sedini and Anna Pizzoccaro. In additions, the pilot stage of the fieldwork has been carried out with the collaboration of a group of students during the Laboratorio Nuovi Strumenti per la riqualificazione urbana, Corso di Laurea Specialistica in Sociologia, Facoltà di Sociologia, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca ( 2006–2007). The technical support for the on–line questionnaire has been provided by Sergio Sean Minelli and by Marco Pelucchi from the Sistemi Informativi of Università degli studi di Milano Bicocca.

All SPSS elaborations have been provided by Marianna d’Ovidio. The report has been written by Silvia Mugnano (chap 1, 2, 3, 7, 6, 8) Marianna d’Ovidio (chap 5, 8) Carla Sedini (4, 5.5). The whole work has been done under the supervision of the Scientific Committee composed by Enzo Mingione, Francesca Zajzcyk and Elena D’Agnese.

7

2 MILAN METROPOLITAN AREA: THE CREATIVE AND KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE INDUSTRY1

2.1 Milan Metropolitan Area: The economic driven

For a long time Milan has been one of the main economic engines of the country. The industrialising process was mainly concentrated in the Milanese area which became very soon the symbol of the national industrial progress. The history of the city and the region remarkably overlaps the development of industries and factories.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a new metallurgic district was created between Sesto San Giovanni and Milan (in the North East, where is now located the University of Milano–Bicocca). It had roots in the past, since it was obtained out of the concentration and the renewal of the traditional metal manufacturing of the pre–Alps. But it was also a sign of the future. Technologically advanced and highly planned in relation with the network of transport and with the urban planning of the city, it was a real sign of change. Thanks to its presence, the metropolitan area of Milan started to develop along its particular profile, characterised by an oversized North and a far less urbanised South.

As many other industrial cities all around Europe, Milan has known a strong decline of the manufacturing activities in the last decades. The big industrial areas occupied by Breda, Pirelli, Falck, and other big industries of the past have been abandoned and now they are experiencing a post–industrial era and are reconverting into leisure, research and educational areas, following the model of the knowledge city.

Nevertheless, industrial enterprises are still a significant component of the economic life in Milan Metropolitan Area, partially because of the strong presence of manufacturing enterprises in the industrial districts and partially because of the new trend of customisation synergy between industrial and tertiary enterprises.

Looking at the short–term trends, we can consider that in recent years the number of enterprises in manufacturing industries has been fast decreasing (–1.2 per cent in 2002; –1.1 per cent in 2003; –1.1 per cent in 2004); on the contrary, sectors like constructions and services have shown a remarkable growth (+4.6 per cent and +3.8 per cent). This situation is strictly related to the crisis of the so called “made in Italy”, which is composed by products like textiles, clothing, leather products, wood, furniture and industrial metal products. Nevertheless, a significant increase has been experienced by industries producing food and

1 For further information see Mingione, E., E. dell’Agnese, S. Mugnano, M. d’Ovidio, B. Niessen and C. Sedini (2007) Milan city-region: Is it still competitive and charming? Pathways to creative and knowledge-based regions. ACRE report WP2.12.


8

beverages (+6.9 per cent in 2004) and by enterprises producing transport equipments (+5.7 per cent).

The traditional manufacturing activities of the twentieth century related to metallurgical, mechanical and chemical products have been loosing their importance. In the Metropolitan Area 553,969 workers are employed in 130,022 local units. 31 per cent of the working population is employed in the creative knowledge sector, as well as 34 per cent of the local units: the creative sub–sector employs 14 per cent of the working population of the metropolitan area, followed by the law sector (6 per cent), the ICT and the financial (5 per cent) and by the research and development (1 per cent). New companies operating in public relations, consulting, advertising, broadcasting and ICT have been created. A notable exception in this field is represented by good performance of industries producing office, accounting and computing machines (+2.4 per cent in 2002; +5.2 per cent in 2003; +4.9 per cent in 2004).

Milan Metropolitan Area has a great relevance in the national communication industry, due to the concentration of public relations, consulting and advertising companies. Radio and television enterprises are strongly based in the area (particularly the Mediaset group), and they involve 25 per cent of the whole national employees in the sector. Moreover, there are more than 700 publishers, which is around 21 per cent of the Italian amount.

In Milan are based the most important national and international banks and insurance companies. Borsa di Milano is one of the main European stock exchanges, with 282 companies listed and daily exchanges for a value of 4,200,000,000 EUR.

Another essential economic specialisation of the metropolitan area of Milan is the organisation of national and international trade fairs; the Milanese trade fair centre (the Fiera) is second in Europe for covered surface (after Hannover) and involves around 50 per cent of the national trade fair market.

Looking at the transformations that have occurred in the main western metropolis in the last thirty years, Milan is an emblematic city: coming from a strong Fordist identity based on the central role of the heavy industry, it has very fast become a tertiary city based on services for consumers and business. This brutal change has involved all the dimensions of the metropolitan area. Districts like Bicocca, Bovisa, Ripamonti and Santa Giulia are involved in processes of urban regeneration driven to new identities as tertiary, residential and university areas. The main question that should be asked is how the policy framework is supporting and accompanying these economic, urban and social transformation of the Milan Metropolitan Area?

THE CREATIVE AND KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE INDUSTRY

9

2.2 Are there any policy strategy and action able to accommodate creative–knowledge industry economy?

The relation between creative–knowledge industry and policy framework is very recent. Most of the city history is characterised by a strong private entrepreneurship. For long time sectors such as design, fashion, finance have flourished thanks to some Milanese bourgeois families. It is in fact a common agreement that the Milan Metropolitan Area has developed this economic sector thanks to the cultural and economic heritage of the golden age of the industrial time. Comparing with other industrial Italian city, Milan has started to implement strategies much later. One of the reasons is that the new economic and social changes have clashed with a period of political stalemate. Only very recently has a political framework been created to foster the competitiveness of territory. And the new century has the real land mark of this new tendency.

However, according to the OECD report the loss of competitiveness of Milan compared to other metropolitan areas is strongly related to two factors. The first is that “Milan is still striving to make the transition from its past experience of efficient municipal governance to the challenge of adjusting to a larger and more homogenous Region, with a lesson to learn from its aborted attempt to institutionalise metropolitan governance”. The second factor is that “the national background has left Milan in the midst of an unfinished decentralised agenda” (OECD, 2006: 130). In other words, Milan for a long time has been leaving out the past heritage without properly investing in its future. Someone can even say that Milan is “a city of the lost glamour” (Turani, 2007). The weak competitiveness of Milan is said to be caused by the low capacity of creating innovation. The policy system is indeed not sufficiently supporting the innovation process. Although Milan for a long time has been included in the most important European Networks (5th Corridor, Blue Banana and Pentagon) in the last two decades Milan Metropolitan Area has not invested enough in innovation and research.

In this non–positive and proactive scenario, however, there are few important elements that can tell us that a different future for Milan is possible. The new millennium has indeed started with few important steps forward which can be evaluated positively:

1. at the Regional level: the new cultural industries policies and the creation of the meta districts

2. at the Province level: the promotion of the Province strategic plans 3. at the Local level the candidature for the Expo 2013 (see Mingione et Alt 2007)


10

2.3 Milan Metropolitan Area: Graduates and workers in the creative and knowledge intensive sector

In Milan2, more than 9 percent of the total Italian employees is converging, and the city concentrates about 12 percent of all Italian creative–knowledge economy. Specifically, Milan employs 19 percent of the Italian working population in the ICT sub–sector, 15 percent both in the finance and in the law sector, and between 8 and 9 percent in the other industries.

Looking at the proportion of cultural workers within Lombardy3, the Region where Milan is located, we can see that Milan is the privileged city for the creative knowledge economy, with more than 56 percent of the employees in the creative knowledge economy of the Region, followed by Brescia and Bergamo (9 percent), and Varese (8 percent).

In the Metropolitan Area 553,969 workers are employed in 130, 022 local units. 31 per cent of the working population is thus employed in the creative knowledge sector, as well as 45 per cent of the local units: the creative sub–sector employs 14 per cent of the working population of the Metropolitan Area, followed by the law sector (6 per cent), ICT and finance (5 per cent) and research and development (1 per cent) sectors.

Looking at the same data, and within the urban cultural economy, the proportion of each sector is composed as follows: 45 per cent of employees in the creative knowledge economy are employed in the creative industry, followed by the law sector (19 per cent), the financial and ICT (with 16 per cent) and 3 per cent employed in research and development industry.

As far as the number of local units is concerned, it reflects the composition of the employees, with some little differences: the creative sector has small units, therefore it encompasses more than 60 per cent of the local units involved in the creative knowledge economy of the metropolitan area of Milan. The same can be said for the law sector, consisting of 23 per cent of the creative–knowledge economy. The opposite is happening in the financial and ICT sectors, with, respectively, 7 and 8 per cent of the local units.

Table 2.1 reports the first 10 sectors, per employee, in the Knowledge–cultural economy in the Metropolitan Area of Milan, including the city of Milan.

2 From here and in the following pages, with the term Milan we intend Milan Metropolitan Area (also MMA) 3 The Region is analysed by Province, which is the best proxy for the metropolitan area (see also OECD 2006)

THE CREATIVE AND KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE INDUSTRY

11

Table 2.1 - First ten sectors4 by employees in the Metropolitan area of Milan (Including Milan). Knowledge–cultural economy

Code Description Employees Local Units

741 Legal, accounting, book–keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy; market research and public opinion polling; business and management consultancy; holdings

75,288 28,087

651 Monetary intermediation 46,057 2,097 722 Software consultancy and supply 39,464 6,246 742 Architectural and engineering activities and related technical consultancy 30,863 17,705 745 Labour recruitment and provision of personnel 24,720 887 642 Telecommunications 17,193 281 744 Advertising 16,559 3,921 723 Data processing 15,222 3,284 221 Publishing 15,178 1,670 322 Manufacture of television and radio transmitters and apparatus

for line telephony and line telegraphy 14,694 859

Source: ISTAT Censimento dell’Industria e dei Servizi 2001

The size of the local units vary a lot within these first ten sectors; as a matter of fact, financial, labour recruitment, telecommunications and manufacture of audio–visual apparatus tend to have larger enterprises, with, on average, more than 30 employees per local units.

The other enterprises, on the contrary, tend to be very small, with, on average, 5 employees per local unit, with the exception of the architectural consultancies which do not reach 2 workers per local unit.

Table 2.2 shows the distribution of employees in the sector chosen by the ACRE research group to survey the creative and knowledge economy in the Metropolitan area of Milan.

Data are organised by territorial distribution (within the city of Milan, or outside it) and by size of the enterprises. We integrated the EU definition with the Italian one: the European current definition categorises companies with fewer than 50 employees as "small", and those with fewer than 250 as "medium", in Italy also “micro” enterprises are defined, if employees are less than 10. Large enterprises are those with more than 250 employees.

Table 2.2 - Employees by sectors – Metropolitan Area of Milan, 2001 Metropolitan area (no Milan city) City of Milan Dimension of enterprise Dimension of enterprise Branch Total micro small medium large total micro small medium Large total

Software 53,456 4,226 3,094 3,129 4,193 14,642 4,950 5,060 6,271 22,533 38,814

Film and radio 8,629 370 327 685 2,653 4,035 1,156 1,145 1,675 618 4,594

Advertising 16,323 1,810 513 665 767 3,755 4,720 3,005 2,925 1,918 12,568

Law 79,747 12,033 2,767 1,959 2,582 19,341 32,811 8,526 6,552 12,517 60,406

Finance 92,023 138 440 1,942 2,485 5,005 526 3,330 11,603 71,559 87,018

Higher education 19,357 464 161 373 372 1,370 1,263 842 993 14,889 17,987

Source: ISTAT Censimento dell’Industria e dei Servizi 2001

4 Two sectors has been deleted because they must be counted only partially:, Other retail sale of new goods in specialised stores, cod 524 and Miscellaneous business activities n.e.c., cod 748


12

As far as University level is concerned, Lombardy is one of the centres of excellence in Italy. Lombardy Region has a very excellent educational system in terms of quality, quantity and variety. On the entire regional territory there are 12 Universities. In Milan Metropolitan Area only, there are 7 Universities (Bocconi, IULM and Cattolica are private Universities).These Universities offer the entire range of disciplines and subjects. In the academic year 2004–2005 48,960 students have graduated from Lombardy Universities: 38,227 in Milanese area Universities, and two students out of three from public Universities.

Table 2.3 - Graduated in Lombardy Universities (2005)

Lombardy Universities Students (2005)

Università degli Studi di Milano 9,485 Università degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca 5,141

Politecnico di Milano 9,580 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore 7,325 Università commerciale Luigi Bocconi 4,422 Università IULM 2,027 Università Vita Salute San Raffaele 247 Università di Bergamo 2,019

Università degli Studi di Brescia 2,196 Università degli Studi di Pavia 4,543 Università degli Studi dell’Insubria 1,292 Università Carlo Cattaneo LIUC 683 Total 9,485

State Universities 5,141 Private Universities 9,580

Source: Camera di Commercio di Milano, 2007

However, Milanese Universities are a reference frame for the entire National educational system in terms of “force of attracting” students from other cities and regions. Non–Milanese students are still choosing Milan as a place where to carry on their high education studies. During the 50s’ and 60s’ Milan, apart from attracting labour force, also gathered young students from the Southern part of the country and from rural areas to attend Milanese Universities. Nowadays, 20 per cent of the students of Milanese Universities and 32.8 per cent of Pavia University are coming from out side Lombardy region. The most attractive University in Milan is still Bocconi (the only one in which regional students are less than the non–regional ones) due to its well– recognised prestige.

13

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Creation of questionnaire

The questionnaire was developed and led by members in the Dublin team. The creation of the questionnaire entailed a number of different steps which involved collaboration both within the team and with members from the entire ACRE project. Below is an outline of the different steps followed in the formulation of the questionnaire, from its conception to the final version.

1) Developing the questionnaire

The objective of this particular section of the project and, more specifically, of the questionnaire, was to understand the drivers behind the decisions of higher educated graduates and workers in creative and knowledge–intensive industries to find a job at a specific location in the region. A second and interrelated objective was to explore the role that both hard and soft factors play in workers and graduates decision to live in a particular location in the region, as indicated on guidelines and descriptions provided in the ACRE proposal.

With these general objectives in mind the questionnaire was divided into 4 categories:

A. Satisfaction with the city. One of the key topics in the debate on knowledge and creative cities, is that what are termed as ‘soft factors’ are increasingly important in the location decisions of both firms/organisations and individual workers. In particular, it is argued that workers in the creative sector place a high value on what are termed ‘soft factors’, by which is meant for example the atmosphere of a city, the variety of attractions and interests that are to be found there. The idea behind the creation of this section of the questionnaire was to find out how satisfaction of workers and graduates were with different aspects of the city. In developing this section, it was intended to achieve an overall evaluation of the city.

B. Satisfaction with job and work environment. In the knowledge economy, and in particular in the creative economy, there is a suggestion that the work–life of the knowledge worker is more flexible, creative and interesting than other types of jobs. This sought to address issues of satisfaction with respect to the respondents jobs and general work environment.

C. Satisfaction with neighbourhood/area and dwelling. Although people can be generally satisfied with the city in which they live, this satisfaction does not necessarily translate into other spheres of their life. Given that neighbourhood in which people live is a central element to people’s satisfaction, the Dublin team thought it would be pertinent to address issues of neighbourhood and, more concretely, dwelling satisfaction.

D. Background data. Background information is essential in any questionnaire, as it is what provides a basis for the analysis.


14

The formulation of many of the questions required drawing from current research on, for example, life satisfaction and quality of life issues. Upon completion of this task, the Dublin team met to share/discuss the questions produced and think about possible omissions. Through a deliberative process the Dublin team began by identifying and discarding overlapping questions. Once the overlaps were addressed, the challenge was to identify gaps in each section.

The Dublin team piloted the questionnaire (sample of 12) locally and made adjustments from the feedback. Once the pilot questionnaire was implemented, a number of problems were identified with the exiting draft. The postdoctoral researcher who conducted the pilot test shared the experience and addressed some of the existing problems of the questionnaire to the entire Dublin team. The team agreed that substantive revisions of some sections of the questionnaire had to be made and some questions had to be rephrased. As soon as the post–pilot editing was completed, the Dublin team met once again and went though the entire questionnaire to make sure it was substantively, grammatically and linguistically precise.

2) Distributing the draft questionnaire

Upon completion of the first draft, the entire questionnaire was sent to the management team (Amsterdam). The questionnaire was then returned to the Dublin team with some minor comments and suggestions. Changes and edits were made accordingly. At this point, the questionnaire was ready for distribution with all the teams. During the project meeting in March 2007 (Sofia), the Dublin team gave a general introduction to the rationale behind the structure and logistics of the questionnaire. In addition to the presentation, each of the 12 teams was given a copy of the first draft of the questionnaire. After the presentation, each team was given a space to discuss, suggest and provide constructive comments on the existing draft of the questionnaire. After this general ‘questions–answers’ session in the conference room, a consensus was reached over how to proceed with the existing structure of the questionnaire: each team was to provide comments and suggestions on how to change the questionnaire to fit the broad objectives of the research as well as to account for the particularities of their individual case study. The teams had just over one month to provide comments.

3) Feedback and revision

Once the agreed deadline was reached, the Dublin team met to discuss the received suggestions. Some of the suggestions were relatively straightforward and required minor editing. Others suggestions, however, required extensive thought and, in some cases, major substantive revisions. In the majority of cases, the suggestions and recommendations from the various teams were incorporated to the questionnaire. This, however, extended the size of the questionnaire significantly (more than double the original size), and we were thus faced with a problem of size/length of time per interview. After the recommendations were added to the questionnaire, a first draft was sent to the coordinating team – Amsterdam. The questionnaire was then fully revised and significantly reduced in size and then approved by the coordinator and the coordination team. The Dublin team was asked to ensure that the teams restrain from changing elements of the questionnaire, as it would make future comparisons difficult.

METHODOLOGY

15

4) Posting online – extranet

Once the coordination team fully revised the questionnaire, the Dublin team edited the questionnaire in accordance to the recommendations made and posted it on the extranet. This was done in May 2007. However, two months after the questionnaire had been posted one of the teams noticed a potential minor problem with one of the questions (question A2). The team raised the issue with the coordination team, who then asked the Dublin team to change question in accordance to the suggestion made. Once this suggestion was incorporated, the new version of the questionnaire was posted online (extranet) on July, 2007.

3.2 The sampling

The sample is formed by 200 respondents: 75 employees of the creative industry, 75 employees of the intensive knowledge industry and 50 graduates (broken up into 25 graduates from Universities and 25 graduated from specific art and vocational schools). To carry out the sampling two main steps have been taken. The first step was to select the sectors of the creative and knowledge intensive, and it has been a coordinated and collaborative work between the national teams. The second step– the local sampling– has been conducted individually by each team of the ACRE research group.

The first stage, more specifically, was aimed at defining which sectors had to be included into the category of creative and knowledge intensive industry. The sectors were included as follows:

For the Creative sector:

• Advertising • Architecture • Arts/antiques trade • Craft • Design • Designer fashion • Video, film, music and photography • Music and the visual and performing art • Publishing • Computer games, software, electronic publishing • Radio and TV

For the knowledge intensive industry:

• ICT • Finances • Law and other business services • R&D and higher education • Total Knowledge and creative industry


16

By comparing between the most important sectors in each city regions of the ACRE project the selected sectors were:

For the creative industry:

• Advertising • Radio and TV • Computer games, software, electronic publishing

For the knowledge intensive industry:

• Finances • Law and other business services • R&D and higher education

In the second stage, the local teams were asked to proceed to the selection of the local sample. In the case of Milan Metropolitan Area it was decided to take into account two dimensions:

The territorial dimension. Although the Italian case study is the Milan Metropolitan Area, it has been decided to stress the differences between Milan–city and the small and medium size towns belonging to the province of Milan. Therefore the sample has been divided into metropolitan area and Milan city.

The enterprise dimension. Micro, small, medium, and large enterprises have different needs, different way of employment interactions and so on. To taking into account this dimension for each selected sectors we sampled enterprises with less then 15 employees1 – representing micro and small enterprises– and enterprises with more of 15 employees– representing medium and large enterprises.

Few important remarks should be added. Before starting the fieldwork – July 2007– it has been carried out an exploratory work by interviewing some key players of the selected sector, this to identify the major enterprises of the sector in the Milan metropolitan scene. In two specific case, finance and Film and Radio, the interviewees have argued that the sample might be inaccurate or misleading. In specific, regarding to the financial sector, according to the sample the firms were equally distributed within Milan city and the rest of the metropolitan area. The real scenario appears to be more complicated. Merchant banks, firms working with the stock markets and international finance are mainly located in Milan city and in particular in the financial district – near to the Stock market, while in the metropolitan area there is a high presence of local bank branches and consulting firms for private banking. In accordance to this information, the Italian team has decided to focus more the attention on the “high finance” and therefore the finance sample is more Milan city oriented. A similar information has been given to the Film and Radio sector, although a major TV channel –Mediaset– is located in the metropolitan area, most of the production which is externalised to satellite firms

1 In Italy, enterprises with les than 15 employees are subjected to a different legislation than the larger enterprises.

METHODOLOGY

17

is localised in Milan city. Also, in this case, the decision was to change the quota of the sample.

Table 3.1 – List of interview conducted related to workers employed in the creative and intensive knowledge sector in Milan Metropolitan Area for the ACRE project Metropolitan area (no Milan city) City of Milan Branch total <15 >15 total <15 >15 total Software 35 1 8 9 13 13 26 Film and Radio 21 3 0 3 11 7 18 Advertising 22 2 1 3 7 12 19 Law 28 5 1 6 6 16 22 Finance 29 5 3 8 4 17 21 R&D 17 1 4 5 1 11 12 Graduates 27 Art school 21 Source: ACRE research, 2007

The sample is not representative: 150 cases are not enough to build a real sample of the working population. It has been built using the “snowball” technique: we started from a group of interviewees and we collected more contacts from them.

The ACRE research project included also 50 interviews of graduated from Universities/Polytechnics and vocational schools of the selected sectors. As the graduates are concerned the sample from Universities/polytechnics has been built taking into account two main dimensions: degrees and Universities and Polytechnics in the Milan Metropolitan Area– which are all localised in Milan city. The graduates have been selected from Politecnico di Milano, Bocconi University, Statale di Milano University, Statale di Milano, Bicocca University, IULM, Cattolica University: in the case of the vocational schools, the sample have been selected throughout the LOP members (Istituto Europeo del Design, Domus Academy, NABA).

3.3 Application of the questionnaire

The questionnaire was distributed between July and October 2007. Due to the very high qualified and educated sample, it was chosen to distribute the questionnaire by email and on–line. Four interviewers were employed in the fieldwork, they had the task to contact the potential interviews, provide all information about the research and inform about the different opportunities of filling in the questionnaire (by e–mail and on–line with a personal password). To reduce the possibilities of filling–in errors, the interviewees checked if each questionnaire was filled in each of its parts.

In order to reduce the errors, the on–line questionnaire was designed so that each interviewee had the possibility to fill in either section by section (the questionnaire was divided in four sections, as mentioned above) or all together. With the first option, the interviewee had the possibility of filling in the questionnaire in different times, going back to the questionnaire


18

when (s)he had free time. Most of the items in the questionnaire are closed. The IT support weekly provided the report of the questionnaire filled in.

Only ¼ of the questionnaires were filled in on line and the rest by email. This happened for three reasons:

1. the on–line system started to work later because of technical problems. At the beginning the questionnaire was not running on the Apple system, which is very used by graphics and advertising employees.

2. some of the interviewees were not comfortable with the methods so they prefer to fill in the questionnaire off line and then send it to the interviewer by e–mail.

3. the questionnaire was quite long, in particular section A; therefore some interviewees did not finished the questionnaire. This was more common amongst the on–line questionnaires rather then amongst the others.

Overall, the interviewees were quite happy with the self–fill in system because it was giving freedom to answer to the questionnaire when they have free–time at work, at home or travelling.

19

4 RESULTS: PROFILE OF WORKERS AND GRADUATES OF THE CREATIVE

AND KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE SECTOR IN MILAN METROPOLITAN AREA

4.1 Demographic structure

In this chapter the main features of the sample of workers and graduates of the intensive knowledge and creative industry will be described in details. In specific, their socio–economic features will be analysed. The sample is mainly composed by people born in Milan and still living there. The subjects are in prevalence young people.

The sample is gender balanced, however there is a small predominance of male subjects (60 per cent) which underestimate the gender division of the working population of the Milan Metropolitan Area. In Milan Metropolitan Area women are 52 per cent of the entire population, however only 58.2 per cent of women are active in the labour market (versus 75.1 per cent of men)1. This gap between the sample and the entire population might be explained by the fact that people interviewed are working at high position, which often is a synonymous of man working position and often we are in a situation called crystal ceiling. However, there is a slight difference between the creative (31.6 per cent are women) and knowledge intensive workers (39.7 per cent are women). Indeed, there are some sectors where the presence of women is over the average of the sample. In specific in the Film and Radio sector women are 52.6 per cent of the sample, in the Finance one they are 41.4 per cent and finally in R&D they are 52.9 per cent. On the contrary in the software industry men are the 80 per cent of the sample.

Figure 4.1 – Gender of the sample by sectors

0

20

40

60

80

100

Advertising

Artschool

Film & Radio

Finance

GraduatesLaw

R&D

Software

Total

FemaleMale

Source: ACRE research, 2007

1 The data, however, is quite high comparing to the regional and national scenario. In Lombardy region 75 per cent of men are working versus 55,1 of women, while in Italy 69,1per cent of men versus 45,3 per cent of women.


20

In regard to age, for 83.8 per cent the sample is aged less than 45 years with a significant presence of people in the class 25–34 years old (48.2 per cent). These data can be explained in several ways. First of all, the aim of the survey was to interview employees working in the creative and knowledge intensive sector that had good working positions but were not at managerial level. Therefore, taking into account a correlation between age and working position, it might be possible that in the sample there is an over representation of young people. Secondly most of these sectors (especially creative sectors) attract young workers.

This choice might affect partially the results. For instance, data about workers’ incomes show that, even if they do not earn a high salary, they seem fairly positive about the possibility of achieving a better economic situation in the future.

Figure 4.2 – Age of the respondents

35-44

45 years and more

25-34

15-24


Indeed, by looking at the sample by sectors, the creative workers are over represented in the class 35–44 years old (42.9 per cent) while within the knowledge intensive workers the modal class is that of aged 45 and over (26.4 per cent). There is a higher presence of workers in the age class 35–44 in advertising (50 per cent) film and radio (40 per cent) sectors; whereas the lawyers are the majority (61.5 per cent) within the adult class (age 45 over).

Although the sample is quite young, it well represents the different household typologies: the respondents mostly live in couple with or without children (27 per cent). This category and the young single (18 per cent) represent almost half of the sample. In particular, if we focus our attention on the dimensions of households, it is possible to underline that more than 54.6 per cent of the family units is composed by one or two people. In specific, workers employed in the creative sector are those who are largely belonging to these groups (32.9 per cent of creative workers are living in couples and 23.3 per cent alone). Singles and couples without children are more represented in the film and radio sector. One out of four of the respondents has children and lives with or without partner. 32.8 per cent of the knowledge intensive workers is living in couple with children, specifically those who are working in law firms (37 per cent) and in R&D sector (37.5 per cent).

Another quite relevant number of respondents live in non–family households (28.6per cent). This data is much higher comparing to statistic on household composition in Milan

PROFILE OF WORKERS AND GRADUATES

21

Metropolitan Area. This shows that for some categories house sharing is quite a common housing strategy. This can be the result of the young age of the sample but also it can be explained by different life experiences (university or abroad experiences etc) which have led to adopt the housing share as a new housing life style. Half of people who have chosen this answer are classified as graduates.

Table 4.1 – Household by sectors – frequencies and percentages (%) Creative Knowledge

intensive Graduates

and art schools Total

One person 17 (23.3) 9 (12.9) 8 (17.4) 34 (18) Couple 24 (32.9) 19 (27.1) 8 (17.4) 51 (27) Couple with children 17 (23.3) 23 (32.9) 7 (15.2) 47 (24.9) No related persons 14 (19.2) 17 (24.3) 23 (50) 54 (28.6) Two or more family units 1 (1.4) 2 (2.9) 0 (0) 3 (1.6) Total 73 (100) 76 (100) 46 (100) 189 (100) Source: ACRE research, 2007

Because the aim of the research is that of interviewing high skills workers, data about education are not significantly varying; almost the totality of the sample is composed by graduated or post–graduated people (98 per cent). None with low education has been interviewed. No distinction has been made between the new and old university degree2.

Closely related to education is the place where the interviewees have obtained their degrees. This dimension explains quite well Milan’s high capacity of attraction for high education. 75 per cent of the interviewees have studied in the area. A very small percentage (11 per cent) has obtained his/her degree in Milan Metropolitan Area and a considerable number has studied in other cities or even abroad (37 per cent).

The relation between the place where the respondents were born and the place where they have studied is quite interesting. Considering those born outside Milan mostly chose Milan as a place to study. 75 per cent of those born in Province of Milan chose to study in Milan, as those born in Lombardy (43 per cent), in Italy (49 per cent) or even abroad (63 per cent). Although the sample of the foreigners is very small, it is important to underline their tendency of studying in Milan.

The mobility of people in Italy is generally quite low, especially for the new generations. Although Italy during the Fifties has been characterised by a strong internal working migration, at the moment there is a quite static population. In general terms, the most outstanding data is the non–EU immigrants, which is nearly 10 per cent of the entire population. In regards to high–skill workers Milan Metropolitan Area seems to attract not many non–EU workers.

2 In 1999 in Italy the educational system changed. The “new” laurea is now obtained after a three years course, while the “old” system scheduled a 4 years or 5 years course. In the new legislation specialisation programmes are organised after the three years courses in order to complete the education.


22

Table 4.2 – Place where the responded was born Frequency Percentage Valid percentage Milan 101 50.5 51.3 Milan Metropolitan Area 31 15.5 15.7 Lombardy Region 14 7.0 7.1 Italy 43 21.5 21.8 Abroad 8 4.0 4.1 Total 197 98.5 100.0 Missing Value 3 1.5 Total 200 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

67 per cent of respondents were born in Milan Metropolitan Area, specifically 51 per cent was born in Milan–city. There is a quite significant regional migration (7 per cent was born in Lombardy), and quite high national migration (22 per cent was born in Italy). Most of the subjects are Italian (97 per cent), there are very few cases of people with non–Italian or dual nationality. The place of birth is quite significantly related to some specific working sector. The employees working in the advertising sector and lawyers are mainly Milanese: 59.1 per cent of the advertisers were born in Milan as well as 61.5 per cent of the lawyers. The film and radio sector, as well as R&D, is the one attracting more from the rest of Italy. One out of four employees of the films and radio and of R&D sector is coming from another region. An interesting situation is the financial sector which is very much characterised by workers (48.3 per cent) born in the province of Milan (later we will find out that they majority are working in Milan city).

In conclusion, Milan Metropolitan Area can be considered attractive in terms of high education and work especially for those coming from the same Region. It is still quite attractive in the national scenario (although it has lost its attractive power in respect to the Fordist time) especially for some categories, but it seems it is not at all appealing for workers from other countries.

4.2 Basic residential features

In general terms it can be said that creative and knowledge intensive workers live mainly in the city of Milan. Taking into account that Milan–city has a radius of approximately 9 km, a high percentage of the sample live in a central (20 per cent) or semi central part of the city (32 per cent). The outskirts of Milan host quite a large number of workers and graduates. Very recently, some peripheral areas of Milan have become new poles of attraction for high qualified workers. There is an important process of gentrification of neighbourhoods located in semi peripheral area of the city. In particular, Isola, Lambrate, Savona, Porta Romana neighbourhoods which are located in quite peripheral area have become new areas of attraction for young couples with and without children with high qualified jobs. However, it could not be undervalued the data that 1 out of 4 respondents live in the metropolitan area and that a high percentage of respondents lives in small towns of the metropolitan area (19 per cent).


23

Table 4.3 – The residential feature of the respondents Frequency Percentage Valid percentage City Centre 40 20.0 20.4 Rest of the core city 63 31.5 32.1 Rest of city including the outskirts 40 20.0 20.4 Village or small town in metro area 38 19.0 19.4 Medium or large town in metro area 14 7.0 7.1 Don’t know 1 .5 .5 Total 196 98.0 100.0 Missing value 4 2.0 Total 200 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

More in detail, the residential distribution of the sample might vary regarding the sub–sectors. The lawyers, as well as R&D workers –41.2 per cent–, are those who are more likely to live in the city centre. In general, the creative workers are those who are occupying a central and semi central area. 38 per cent of people working in the advertising sector live in more peripheral areas and the film & radio workers are localised in semi central areas. A quite outstanding data is the residential location of the financial workers of our sample. There is a quite interesting polarisation between those who live in the semi–central area of the city (52.5 per cent) and those (47.4 per cent) who live in the metropolitan area.

Another important result is related to the low mobility of the respondents. In Italy, in general the population has quite a stable housing career. This partially depends on the high percentage of the homeowners and also on the low working mobility. However, comparing to the rest of Italy, Milan Metropolitan Area, has a lower percentage of owned homes than Italy as a whole. The Italian fiscal system regarding the housing sector is quite restrictive. For instance, if a house is bought and sold within a certain time, the taxation is quite high. Therefore, most of the respondents have a long standing localisation; in our sample, 57.1 per cent of respondents have been living in the same neighbourhood at least in the last 5 years.

Table 4.4 – Time living in the neighbourhood Frequency Percentage Valid percentage Less than 1 year 14 7.0 7.1 Between 1 and 5 years 68 34.0 34.7 Between 5 and 10 years 30 15.0 15.3 More than 10 years 81 40.5 41.3 Always 3 1.5 1.5 Total 196 98.0 100.0 Missing value 4 2.0 Total 200 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

The new comers to the neighbourhood are only 7.1 per cent. In addition to the low housing mobility, Milan–city as well as the Metropolitan Area, follows the national trend of changing house but not neighbourhood. Several researches have stressed that Italian people tend to have their housing carrier within the same area of the city. This mostly depends by one’s informal network and social and families ties. However, the data confirm this only partially: the respondents, although they are long–standing residents, and they were born in the area, do not


24

tend to stay in the same neighbourhood for the whole life (only 1.5 per cent of the respondents have always been living in the same neighbourhood).

Regarding the tenure profile, 66.2 per cent of the respondents live in their own accommodation with (33.8 per cent) or without mortgage (32.3 per cent). On the other hand, 22 per cent of the respondents are tenants. A considerable number of people have answered that they live in accommodations without paying rent (6 per cent). Certainly, this data can be explained by the informal and family networks which in some cases are indirect financial support.

The majority of lawyers (57.1 per cent) and many of the R&D workers (47.1 per cent) are those who own a house without a mortgage. People working in the advertising sector (28.6 per cent) and film and radio sector (33.3 per cent) and those who have graduated from art schools (35.0 per cent) own their house with a mortgage. The social housing sector is completely absent (only three people in the sample live in this type of house). Regarding to the free rent, the R&D workers appear to be quite well represented. 11.4 per cent of them live in dwelling without paying any rents.

Housing costs are very high in Milan Metropolitan Area, and as the survey is reporting, the housing expenses (mortgage or rent) are declared to be less and less affordable. In particular, 34 per cent of people who pay rent states that they spend about 21–30 per cent of their income in this; but an alarming data is that 23 per cent declares to spend 51–60 per cent of their income in rent, which is far beyond the affordable expenses. The weight of the mortgage on the income results more distributed among the different categories.

Table 4.5 – What % of income is rental payment or mortgage

Rent payment Mortgage Frequency Percentage Valid

percentage Frequency Percentage Valid

percentage 0–10 4 2.0 8.5 7 3.5 11.7 11–20 9 4.5 19.1 13 6.5 21.7 21–30 16 8.0 34.0 15 7.5 25.0 31–40 4 2.0 8.5 13 6.5 21.7 41–50 3 1.5 6.4 8 4.0 13.3 51–60 11 5.5 23.4 4 2.0 6.7 Total 47 23.5 100.0 60 30.0 100.0 Missing value 153 76.5 140 70.0 Total 200 100.0 200 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

In the interviewees opinion, housing cost is a very hot issue, only for a small number of people it is easily affordable (5 per cent claims it is very easy and 30 per cent claims it is easy), on the contrary the majority of the respondents claim it is just about affordable. For 39 per cent it is just about to be affordable, and for 24 per cent is becoming sometimes difficult.

Not all the workers suffer from the housing issue, it seems it depends by sectors. For a large number of people working in the finance (50 per cent) and in the Law sector (100 per cent) the housing costs are easy, or even very easy to afford. For the rest of the sectors, especially advertising, film and radio, and R&D, the housing cost is just about affordable. Those who


25

find it harder are people who have an art school degree. In this case, 36.4 per cent declares that the rent is very difficult to afford.

4.3 The employment feature

The labour market of the creative and knowledge workers appears to be very flexible and with not many guarantees. Apart from 28 per cent of the respondents who declares to have a permanent contract, the majority of workers live on temporary contracts. The flexible contract is the status more represented in the sample (30 per cent) and there is nearly 10 per cent stating to be without contract. Maybe the most interesting observation is that there is a 22.5 per cent of people who have chosen the category “other” showing that a large number of people have atypical situations. The creative and knowledge intensive workers might belong to the people of the “Partita IVA”3: high–skills workers who are permanent consulting for big or mid–size firms. Although there is a permanent collaboration, the workers are contracted on a consultancy based.

Table 4.7– Typologies of contracts Frequency Percentage Valid percentage Stable 57 28.5 30.8 Flexible 60 30.0 32.4 without a written contract 19 9.5 10.3 Other 45 22.5 24.3 don’t know 3 1.5 1.6 Total 185 92.5 100.0 Missing value 15 7.5 Total 200 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

However, the working contracts might change in the different sectors of the creative and knowledge economy. In particular, the knowledge sector tends to be more stable than the creative one. 40.6 per cent of the workers of the knowledge intensive sector have stable contracts, versus 31.6 per cent of the creative ones. The most precarious working conditions are found among graduates. 48.9 per cent has flexible contracts and 15.6 per cent has not a written contract. Let us explain that 71 per cent of lawyers declares to have a contract neither stable nor flexible, because Italian lawyers companies do not employ but associate senior lawyers.

3 Professional free-lance


26

Table 4.8– Typologies of contracts by sector– frequencies and percentages (%) Creative Knowledge

intensive Graduates

and art schools Total

Stable 24 (31.6) 26 (40.6) 7 (15.6) 57 (30.8) Flexible 28 (36.8) 10 (15.6) 22 (48.9) 60 (32.4) Without a written contract 8 (10.5) 4 (6.3) 7 (15.6) 19 (10.3) Other 15 (19.7) 22 (34.4) 8 (17.8) 45 (24.3) Don’t know 1 (1.3) 1 (1.6) 1 (2.2) 1 (1.6) Total 76 (100) 73 (100) 45 (100) 184 (100) Source: ACRE research, 2007

The creative and intensive–knowledge sector is characterised by a fragmentation into small or even micro enterprises. Nearly one out of three of the respondents works in a micro or small enterprises. A limited number works in medium enterprises (10.8 per cent) and 17.5 per cent is employed in large enterprises. The small size of the enterprise is related to different aspects. In same specific sectors such as law, the common scenario is that of a small firm with one or two lawyers with some employees. 35.7 per cent of the lawyers are employed in micro enterprises, and 46.4 per cent in small ones. The presence of firms with a large number of employees is quite rare in Milan Metropolitan Area. In Milan–city some big law firms can be detected and they are often specialised in International law or finance–law. Furthermore, it has been revealed during the fieldwork that in a sector such as film and radio, the emerging tendency is that of satellite–firms (post–production, costume, doubling) collaborating on a regular base with the major TV companies, such as Mediaset4, Rai5 and LA76. Most of the TV production is increasingly externalising part of the production to micro or small enterprises.

Table 4.9 – Size of the enterprises per sector Advertising Art

school Film radio

Finance Graduates Law r&d Software Total

Micro 45.5 57.9 30.0 34.5 42.3 35.7 17.6 32.4 36.9 Small 27.3 21.1 30.0 31.0 26.9 46.4 41.2 23.5 30.8 Medium 18.2 5.3 20.0 10.3 3.8 10.7 .0 14.7 10.8 Large 9.1 5.3 10.0 24.1 19.2 3.6 41.2 29.4 17.9 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

Indeed, 60 per cent amongst film and radio workers are employed in small and micro enterprises, and 10 per cent in large ones. An opposite trend is for the R&D workers who are mainly occupied in large companies localised in the inner city. 41.2 per cent of the researchers and academics are employed in big institutions. It was very difficult to find large enterprises in the R&D sector in the Metropolitan Area of Milan (outside the city)7. The firm dimension affects also the level of responsibilities that the workers have. Quite a big part of the sample

4 The main Italian private TV company 5 The National TV company 6 One of the biggest private TV companies in Italy 7 An example of research institute near Milan, but not in the metropolitan area, is the Kilometro Rosso (Red Km) which is a scientific and technologic district. It is an incubator for R&D institutes and laboratories located between Milan and Bergamo -around 40 km from Milan.


27

does not have someone under his/her supervision (41.1 per cent have only two people under their supervision) and this can be explained by the high presence of freelancers in the sample (56 per cent).

Apart from being flexible, the creative and intensive knowledge workers seem to have a quite high work mobility within the labour market. A high percentage of the respondents has been working in the company for less than 5 years (44.9 per cent). Only 18.8 per cent have been working in the same company from 5 to 10 years. However, there is also a portion of the sample that have a long standing in the company – 21 per cent is in the same company from 10 to 20 years; finally 15 per cent has been working in the same place since more than 20 years. These two natures of workers probably depend by the sectors in which the workers are employed.

In Italy the working hours per week are on average more than 36 (74 per cent) and the sample presents a similar feature.

Figure 4.3– Working hours per week in Italy

0

20

40

60

80

100

Less than 24 25-35 More than 36

Source: Istat Census, 2001

Only 9.5 per cent of the sample has replied that the working hours vary per week. The creative employees work full time: 84.3 per cent of the sample work between 31 to 55 hours per week (6 to 11 hours per day), and not all are as flexible as these jobs are portrayed.

Table 4.10 – Working hours per week Frequency Percentage Valid percentage Less than 20 3 1.5 1.5 Between 21 and 30 11 5.5 5.6 Between 31 and 42 76 38.0 38.6 Between 43 and 55 76 38.0 38.6 More than 55 hours 12 6.0 6.1 Varies per week 19 9.5 9.6 Total 197 98.5 100.0 Missing value 3 1.5 Total 200 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

Furthermore, they are quite mobile as we expected. Creative and knowledge intensive workers are very often portrayed as the new jet–setter workers, and the sample reveals that


28

many creative and knowledge intensive workers travel for work. In fact a high percentage of people has a high mobility within the region (at least once a week 11 per cent and 27 per cent travel within the region once a month) and within the country (28.7 per cent at least once a week and 30.4 per cent once a month) a small percentage is moving outside Italy (10.3 per cent once a month) but nearly half of the sample claims to travel outside Italy at least once a year (40.4 per cent ) and outside Europe (22.7 per cent).

On average, the monthly income is rather standard (1,000–1,999 Euros for 40.4 per cent of the sample), 31.1 per cent earns between 2,000 and 3,999 Euros and a very small percentage earn more. The reason why the salary is high but not very high is due to the fact that the sample is mainly composed by young workers who are at the very beginning of their working career. We chose to interview this group of subjects for two principal reasons. Firstly, because we though that these kind of people would have been more representative of the general status of the majority of creative and knowledge workers. Secondly, because the ACRE research plans a following step focused on managers who represent the group of workers which have accomplished their carrier.

Figure 4.4 – Net income of the respondents

11,9

46,431,0

10,7

0

20

40

60

80

00

Less than 1,000 1,000-1,999 2,000-3,999 4,000 or above


Those who earn less are those who are in the sub–sample of graduates. We should remember that they are also the youngest in the sample. There are not many differences between salaries of creative workers and those of the knowledge ones. This cannot be said for the different sub–sectors. There are some sectors which seem to be particularly “money oriented”. The super–salary is mainly declared by lawyers. 38.9 per cent of the lawyers declares to earn 4,000 Euros and above per month. A good number of people claims to earn between 2,000 and 3,900 Euros per month. In specific, 40 per cent of the people working in advertising and finance, 44.4 per cent of the people working in law and software. Surprisingly, the workers of film and radio are those, on average, who earn less. A great majority of the film and radio workers (55.6 per cent) earn monthly between 1,000 and 1,999 Euros.


29

Table 4.11 – Income of the respondents per sector Advertising Art

school Film

Radio Finance Graduates Law R&D Software Total

less than 1,000 5.0 41.2 5.6 .0 32.0 .0 6.3 6.9 11.9 1,000 – 1,999 35.0 47.1 55.6 52.0 56.0 16.7 68.8 41.4 46.4 2,000 – 3,999 40.0 11.8 33.3 40.0 4.0 44.4 25.0 44.8 31.0 4,000 or above 20.0 .0 5.6 8.0 8.0 38.9 .0 6.9 10.7 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

The salary is one of the main reasons why the workers would like to change their job. To seek for a better salary has been chosen by the 36 per cent of the sample as one of the two main reasons. Overall the respondents seem to be quite satisfied of their job and only 31 per cent declares to look for a more interesting job.

31

5 RESULTS: HOW SATISFIED ARE WORKERS AND GRADUATES OF MILAN CITY REGION?

5.1 Introduction

This section investigates the satisfaction of the respondents with the city and with the neighbourhood where they live.

In this paragraph we will discuss about the reasons why our sample has chosen to live in the metropolitan region of Milan. Several dimensions will be taken into considerations to explore this location choice: personal connections, job reasons, location, characteristics of the city, people and education. In the following, we will analyse how different people (by gender, age, household structure, …) use the city; we then will investigate data about the overall satisfaction of the respondents with the city; the focus will be on three main aspects: leisure, public services, and environment. Then, we will consider the worries of the population, in particular we will explore the dimension of personal security, poverty and exclusion, sociality, traffic and pollution. Gender, age, household characteristics, city of origins, income are the main variables used as explanatory (independent) variables. The last part of the section will look at the openness and the friendliness of the metropolitan area to foreign people, subcultures (minorities), and homosexuals.

5.2 Why are you living in Milan?

We asked people the reasons why they currently live in the Metropolitan area of Milan; the respondents could choose among different reasons to live in the city, in fig.5.1 we present all the reasons, in the following figures reasons have been collected in six big categories: personal connections, job, location, characteristics of the city, people and education.

As shown (fig. 5.1), reasons linked both to personal connection (“born here”, Family lives here”, proximity to friends”) and to job (good job opportunities, moved because of job/partner’ job) are the most important. The reason ranked as the main important by most of the respondents is “born here” (valued as the main important reason by more than 30 per cent of the sample), followed by “family lives here”: this underlines once more the importance of personal connections.


32

Figure 5.1 Reasons for staying/coming in MMA

0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 70,0

Born here

Family lives here

Studied in City

proximity to friendsmoved because of my job

moved because of partner's job

good employment opportunitieshigher wages

size of city

weather/climate

good transport linksproximity to natural environment

housing affordability

housing availabilityhousing quality

safe for children

open to different people

open minded and tolerantgay/lesbian friendly

language

overall friendlinessdiversity of leisure & entertainment

cultural diversity

diversity of built environment

presence of good universities

ranked 1ranked 2ranked 3ranked 4


In order to simplify the interpretation of data, we recoded answers in two main categories: important (ranked 1 to 2) and not very important (ranked 3 to 4) and we aggregated the items in 6 main groups, as shown in the following figures.

Figure 5.2 Reasons for staying/coming in MMA. Entire sample

All

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

PersonalConnection

Job

Location

Citycaract

People

Educationnot very important

important


HOW SATISFIED ARE WORKERS AND GRADUATES OF MILAN CITY REGION?

33

Presenting data disaggregated by the amount of time people live in the city makes it possible to understand that people living in the city for long time are more interested in personal connections while people who have been in the city for less time are living in Milan mostly for job reasons.

Figure 5.2a Reasons for staying/coming in MMA. People living in MMA for more than 10 years.

people living in milan since more than 10 years

0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 70,0 80,0 90,0 100,0

PersonalConnection

Job

Location

Citycaract

People

Education

not very important

important


Figure 5.2b Reasons for staying/coming in MMA. People living in MMA for less than 10 years. people living in milan since less than 10 years

0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 70,0 80,0 90,0 100,0

PersonalConnection

Job

Location

Citycaract

People

Education

not very important

important


Looking at the aggregated categories, that of personal connections, (i.e. family, friends, born origins, studies), seems to be the most important group of reasons why people are still living in the metropolitan region of Milan; indeed, this category has been ranked as important by 35 per cent of the respondents. Between them the groups of lawyers (54 per cent), software workers (43 per cent) and advertisers (38 per cent) are the most representative. On the contrary, people who work in film and radio (19 per cent) and R&D (18 per cent) sectors indicate personal contacts as less important than the others. This testifies the fact that, as we saw above, among these two groups of respondents there are many people who come from outside the city.


34

Figure 5.3 Importance of personal connection and job opportunities for staying/coming in MMA by sectors

0 20 40 60 80 100

adv

filmradio

softw

finance

law

r&d

graduates

artschool

Job important

Job not very important

PersonalConnection important

PersonalConnection not veryimportant


Job reasons have been valuated as important by 7 per cent of people. In particular the respondents marked the “good employment opportunities” as one of the most important reasons to live in the city; indeed, 34 per cent of them has collocated this reason in the first two positions on a scale of importance of four. As proof of the relevance of job reasons is the fact that between those who were not born in Milan the most important reason why they moved to the metropolitan area of Milan is to be on to a new job in the city (30 per cent).

Job is more important among art schools (19 per cent), film and radio (11 per cent), and finance (10 per cent) groups. For the group of people who studied in the several art schools of Milan the job expectations are quite important maybe because they look at Milan as an important pool for the development of creative projects and works. As we discussed above, several people who work in film and radio sectors arrived in Milan from other cities; the role of the Milan Metropolitan Area is well known, in fact Mediaset, several Rai studios and MTV are localised here as well as some of the most important national radio. Finally, the role of Milan as financial capital of Italy is very rooted and it is easy to understand that people working in the financial sector give importance to job reasons.

Location, characteristics of the city and social atmosphere result to be less important than the others mentioned before. Amongst these groups of reasons the variables indicated as most important are: size of city (20 per cent), cultural diversity (22 per cent) and the fact that in Milan different languages are spoken (17 per cent).


35

5.3 The creative and knowledge intensive workers living in Milan

Firstly we would like to understand how people are happy and satisfied with their city: two questions raised the satisfaction about a list of leisure activities and about a list of public services offered by the city. The variables have been respectively aggregated into two dimensions.

The second dimension we were interested in was the opinion of the sample about the environment quality. Again, the original question, composed by many sub–questions, has been aggregated into a concise variable ranging to poor, average and good.

Thirdly, as the satisfaction with the city can be measured also with the worries inhabitants have, we measured how worried people are about a number of issues. In order to simplify the analysis and to better understand the covariation between worries and explanatory variables, we aggregated the sub–questions into four variables. In particular a variable measuring how people is worried about personal security and feeling of security (it collects questions about amount of crime, safety, drug problems, demonstrations, prostitutions, graffiti); a variable about exclusion and poverty (availability of affordable houses, jobs, presence of homeless, migration); a variable about the availability of public places (availability of recreation place for children, for teenagers, for seniors), and finally a variable rating the worries about traffic and pollution. The variables vary between “not worried” and “worried”, with a neutral modality.

Finally we were interested in how people use the city: how often people are involved in going out with friends, going to pubs, cultural events, cinema, and so on. The original question raised fifteen different areas (see http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/acre/results/index.html for the original questionnaire), which have been aggregated into four categories: social activities (going to bar/pub/night clubs, eating out, visiting friends); cultural activities (going to movie/theatre/concerts, visiting museums/art galleries, participating to festivals); leisure and sport activities (walking around city centre, making excursions in parks or green areas, going to sport events); political and participating activities (residents’ associations, political activities, community working, religious activities). In order to simplify the interpretation, and to provide an easy and readable analysis we aggregated the answers into two modalities: “less often” and “often”.

A very brief synthesis of the results could be summarised in the following statements. On average, the sample declared not to be very satisfied with the life in Milan Metropolitan Area. Within a scale going from 1 –very satisfied– to 10 –very unsatisfied– they marked the city with a 6. Therefore the workers of the creative and knowledge intensive sector appear to be not completely happy with the city which they live in. On the contrary, they appear not too unhappy with their neighbourhood.

Women are generally more critical towards the services offered by the city, as they are more worried than men about all the issues we investigated. They use the city a little less than men. As far as the age is concerned, people between 25 and 35 years old are the main “users” of the city: they are involved in going to see friends, in cultural activities, and so on. Nevertheless, the most satisfied from the leisure activities offered by the city is the youngest group (less


36

than 25 years old). Singles or people living with friends are those who are more involved in activities in the city; couples with children are the most dissatisfied with services offered by the city and the most critical about environmental issues.

Finally, despite the fact that the city is an expensive city there is no correlation between income and satisfaction with the city. On the contrary, people with less income are generally more satisfied about the services offered by the city rather than people earning more.

In the following pages each issue is investigated in details.

In order to verify the general satisfaction with the metropolitan region of Milan three fields will be taken into consideration: leisure, public services and environment.

Table 5.1– Satisfaction with Leisure, Public Services and Environment (valid %)

Leisure Public services Environment

Dissatisfied 9.5 64.6 33.7 Neutral 32.6 28.2 62.2 Satisfied 57.9 7.2 4.1 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

As far as the satisfaction with the leisure opportunities is concerned, people declare to be satisfied in 58 per cent of cases. In particular, cinemas satisfy 63 per cent of the respondents; 60 per cent is happy with the quality of pubs and restaurants; 55 per cent is satisfied with the offer of museums and galleries; 52 per cent of the sample states to be satisfied with the cultural activities; 50 per cent of shopping areas which are located in the metropolitan region. A fairly negative judgement is given to the architectures and monuments (32 per cent) and public spaces (37 per cent). Regarding the sectors, it is possible to notify that graduates, people from art schools and the R&D workers are the most satisfied with leisure offers (about 70 per cent in both cases). The explanation can be found in the young age of these two groups. Nevertheless also workers from the other sectors state to be satisfied with leisure. If looking at the categories, the workers in the creative sector (49 per cent) are less satisfied than workers in knowledge – intensive industry (60 per cent).

Figure 5.4a Satisfaction with public services and environment

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

creative

know ledge intensive

graduates and artschools

dissatisf ied

neutral

satisf ied



37

Figure 5.4b Satisfaction with leisure activities

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

creative


graduates and artschools

dissatisfied

neutral

satisf ied


Figure 5.4c Rating of the environment

0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 70,0 80,0 90,0 100,0

creative


graduates and art schools

poor

average

good


A general and strong dissatisfaction was discovered with the public services; indeed 65 per cent of the respondents declares to be very dissatisfied or dissatisfied. In particular, 59 per cent is dissatisfied with transports (public services, connections between city centre and peripheral areas, presence of bike lines), 50 per cent with safety (on the streets, police services), 27 per cent with social security and health services, and 42 per cent with attractions for tourists. There is no significant difference between the three categories; only creative workers seem to be little more satisfied with the public services (13 per cent) than the workers in knowledge (3 per cent) and people from the university and the art schools (4 per cent).

As pertain to the environment, people state to be dissatisfied in 34 per cent of cases. Anyway, it is necessary to make some observations: in most cases people state that the condition of the environment is on the average which means neither poor nor good, for instance the judgement about the city streets (45 per cent), the cleanse of the city (40 per cent) and parks (38 per cent), the recycling collection services (33 per cent) and the quality of playgrounds of the city (38 per cent); the aspects that people rank as good are only two: the quality of drinking water (42 per cent) and the waste collection (37 per cent). On the other hand, the features that people judge poor and very poor are mainly those linked to pollution and mobility: the air pollution (95 per cent), the availability of bicycle lanes (81 per cent), the availability of parking space (59 per cent), the noise pollution (57 per cent) and the traffic congestion (78 per cent).


38

The small group which declares to be satisfied with the environment is among advertisers (11 per cent), graduates (12 per cent) and R&D workers (12 per cent).

We will talk now about the aspects the citizens of the metropolitan region of Milan could be worried about: personal security, poverty and exclusion, sociality, traffic and pollution.

Table 5.2 – Worries about different aspects of urban living (valid %)

Personal security Exclusion Sociality Traffic and environment

Not worried 18.0 3.9 18.5 0.5 Neutral 27.3 30.9 17.4 2.1 Worried 54.6 65.2 64.1 97.4 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


The security problem is increasingly becoming a hot issue. In fact in Italy in general and also in Milan, the political programs are very much focused on this kind of problems and for this reason the perception of insecurity of the population is probably increasing. Recent news stories created many discussions inside the Parliament where a new immigration law has been designed. The alarmism from media and politicians risks to flow into real intolerance actions which are due to a diffused atmosphere of fear. Indeed, the percentage of respondents which declares to be worried or somewhat worried about personal security is about 55 per cent. In order of relevance the dangers perceived to personal security are: aggressive and anti–social behaviour (somewhat worried: 37 per cent), drug problems (somewhat worried: 35 per cent), amount of crime in city and safety (somewhat worried: 34 per cent), prostitution on street (somewhat worried: 25 per cent), amount of graffiti (somewhat worried: 19 per cent) demonstrations on public spaces (somewhat worried: 9 per cent). Among the different macro–sectors the less worried are people from art schools (46 per cent). In this case the age cannot be the discriminating element, as it was underlined above. Indeed, the graduates and workers in R&D are more worried than people from art schools (56 per cent and 53 per cent). The most worried seem to be the workers in finance (73 per cent), film and radio (63 per cent) and software (62 per cent).

Figure 5.5a Worries about security issue by sectors

0 20 40 60 80 100

graduates

artschool

filmradio

adv

softw

law

finance

r&d

not worriedneutralworried



39

Figure 5.5b Worries about exclusion issues by sectors

0 20 40 60 80 100

graduates

artschool

filmradio

adv

softw

law

finance

r&d



Figure 5.5c Worries about sociality issues by sectors

0 20 40 60 80 100

graduates

artschool

filmradio

adv

softw

law

finance

r&d



The worry about exclusion seems to be relevant for 65 per cent of the sample. The more concerning problem other than housing (somewhat worried: 35 per cent) and job (somewhat worried: 30 per cent) is the presence of homeless people (somewhat worried: 46 per cent); though the presence of immigrants is less worrying than the other aspects (somewhat worried: 22 per cent). Regarding the macro–sectors the workers in finance and film and radio sectors (76 per cent) with also people from art schools (75 per cent) are the most preoccupied.

64 per cent of the respondents cares about the dangers for sociality, as for instance the lack of spaces for children (somewhat worried: 37 per cent), teenagers (somewhat worried: 32 per cent) and seniors (somewhat worried: 29 per cent). In fact, due to the perception of a lack of living public spaces, in recent years there has been a demand for public structures which take care of both youngest and elderly; the goal is in the first case that of filling in the youngest lives with interesting and helping activities (giving them a valid alternative to catholic associations), in the second case, the aim is to solve the problem of loneliness of seniors. Among the different macro–sectors the more worried about exclusion are the workers in R&D (77 per cent), advertising (76 per cent), software and people from art schools (71 per cent).


40

As it was seen in the section about the satisfaction aspects, problems about mobility and environment seem to be the most imperative. 97 per cent of the sample is worried or very worried about this kind of problems, as the availability of public transportation (somewhat worried: 40 per cent), traffic (very worried: 51 per cent) and pollution (very worried: 70 per cent).

As traffic and environment look like two of the main aspects of dissatisfaction and worry of the citizens, it will be interesting to explore their mobility behaviour.

The sample has a fairly heterogeneous way of travelling. The private means of transport (car and bike o scooter1) are not the most used (46 per cent); in fact, most of the sample (54 per cent) adopts a sustainable way of moving: 32 per cent uses mainly public transport (33 per cent of them five or more days per week) and 22 per cent has a slow kind of mobility (bicycle and walk). As was notified above, a focus on the different sectors makes more sense than one on the categories. We can split data in sustainable mobility (slow mobility and use of public means of transport) and use of private means of transport.

Figure 5.6 – Main mode of transport by macro–sectors (valid %)

0 20 40 60 80 100

graduates

artschool

filmradio

adv

softw

law

finance

r&d

Slow mobilityPublic meansPrivate means


People from art schools and the workers in R&D sectors are the most sustainable (moving with slow mobility and public means) groups of the sample (71 per cent); also the graduates(56 per cent), workers in software (54 per cent) and finance (52 per cent) sectors show a predilection for a sustainable way of moving. Among them, the graduates are those who choose a slow kind of mobility (40 per cent); instead, people from art schools (48 per cent), finance (45 per cent) and R&D (41 per cent) sectors use public transport. People who work in advertising prefer to use private means of transport (57 per cent). People working in law sector are divided in two groups: one using private means (50 per cent) and the other travelling in a sustainable way (50 per cent). These data can be explained by the fact that in

1 Because of the significant percentage of the sample which chose “other” we can suppose that between them there are people who use bike or scooter, which in Milan are largely used. In fact “bike” response was not present in the list.


41

general lawyers tent to choose their own office close to their house (when it is not inside the house) and for this reasons their place of work is very accessible. As testimony of this there is the datum relative to the slow mobility: among lawyers there are more people who use bicycle or walk (29 per cent) than people who use public transport (21 per cent).

An interesting aspect is that, opposite to the national average, a very high percentage of the sample (49 per cent) has only one car for household and there is also 14 per cent of them which does not have a car.

The trip from home to work generally does not take them more than 30 minutes (33 per cent) this is due also to the fact that 59 per cent of the respondents work relatively close to home (10 km maximum).

5.3.1 The gender dimension

Men often have different attitudes than women, they are interested indifferent fields, they have different life styles in respect with women. Here the gender dimension of city satisfaction and consume is investigated.

As regards the satisfaction with city, the sample is satisfied with leisure activities offered by the city, with small differences. 60 per cent of men are satisfied versus 55 per cent of women, who are more frequent on critical positions: they have less neutral opinion than men, they seem more interested in problems than men. In details women are more critical towards the availability of public spaces and the city monuments. On the contrary women are a little more satisfied than men about the cultural offer of the city, this is linked to the fact that they are more involved in these activities.

Women are more critical than men also as far as services are concerned: 71 per cent of them are dissatisfied versus 61 per cent of men; only 4 per cent of women are satisfied versus 9 per cent of men. Women feel more insecure than men, they trust less than men the police services, they are more unhappy with bicycle lanes, more worried about social security and more discontent about social services. As far as transport services and traffic in the city, the opinions of men and women do not differ significantly. About the environmental issues men are more likely to take neutral positions, while women are a little bit more critical.


42

Figure 5.7 – Satisfaction with leisure activities, services and environment by gender satisfaction with services

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Male Female

satisfiedneutraldissatisfied

Rate environment

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Male Female

goodaveragepoor


Specifically higher differences are on traffic issues, pavement conditions, and availability of parking spaces. The pollution is a problem which both men and women are concerned with, women (who do not represent in the sample the majority of people with children) are a little bit more worried about availability of Children playgrounds.

As far as problems are concerned, in general women are more worried than men, especially towards security issues and social exclusions.

The security issue is indicated as worrying by 55 per cent of the sample, but only 50 per cent of men is worried by it, versus 61 per cent of women. Similarly, 71 per cent of women plea for problems about exclusion, and so do 61 per cent of men. Traffic and pollution are indicated as problems by 97 per cent of the sample: all women (99 per cent) and the vast majority of men (97 per cent). Only 3 men and 1 woman declare to be neutral towards this kind of problem.

How do men and women use the city? Do they use it differently? Here such dimension is investigated. Men are going more often to the pub, women are more interested in going to restaurants, although 73 per cent of men and 77 per cent of women go to restaurant at least once a week. Women are more likely to visit friends (80 per cent of women versus 71 per cent of men visit friends once a week; 14 per cent of women versus 21 per cent of men less often).


43

Women are more involved in cultural events, especially cinema, museums are visited by 15 per cent of men and by 16 per cent of women at least once a week. Women go more often to urban parks and gardens (23 per cent of women claim to go there once a week, versus 19 per cent of men), but they are also those who claim they never go to parks (3 per cent of women versus 1 per cent of men). Half of men and 64 per cent of women declare they never go to nightclubs, while men are more involved (45 per cent of men go there seldom, versus 35 per cent of women). 10 per cent of men is involved in sport events once a week and 47 per cent less often; 34 per cent of women is seldom interested in sport events. Festivals in the city are not particularly frequent, and both men and women attend such events seldom. These attitudes reflect the leisure opportunities of the city: going to the cinema for the ultimate novelties, going to good restaurants and especially the aperitivo rite.

Participation is scarce in the city, both for men and women, who are a little more involved in residential association, religious events and, surprisingly for Italy, in political activities. Men are a little bit more involved in community works.

Table 5.3 – % of respondent involved often in the activities by gender

Male Female Total

Social activities 44.6 38.0 42.1 Cultural activities 7.9 9.7 8.6 Leisure activities 9.8 8.3 9.2 Source: ACRE report, 2007

5.3.2 “I’m young and I enjoy the city”

The satisfaction and the attitude towards the city is investigated through the age dimension. We aggregate the age classes into four classes: the youngest group (15–24 years old), the young group (25–34 years old), the young adults (35–44 years old), the Adults (44 years old and more).

As far as leisure satisfaction is concerned, the youngest group is the most satisfied (10 out of 11 claim they are happy with leisure activities), while the Adults are the less satisfied (9 out of 29 are satisfied), and they take neutral opinions (16 on 29 are neither satisfied not discontent, only 4 are unhappy), also because they are not much involved in such activities (see below). Particularly Adults are very dissatisfied with public spaces (17 out of 30 are discontent, that is 57 per cent, versus 37 per cent of the sample), with cultural activities and with restaurants (respectively 30 per cent of Adults are unhappy with cultural activities versus 20 per cent of the sample; 23 per cent dissatisfied with museums versus 17 per cent of the sample, 16 per cent with restaurants versus 13 per cent).

Adults are more critical also towards services: 24 out of 31 claim they are dissatisfied by city services. In particular transport (connections, transport within the city) and health services. Issues about security are judged critically by 25–34 years olds: 59 per cent of them is not satisfied by security on the street, 43 per cent is not satisfied by police (as the 35–44). Bicycle lanes are not satisfying for young people and for Adults (around 77 per cent of them declare to be dissatisfied or very dissatisfied on this issue).


44

Figure 5.8 – Satisfaction with leisure activities, services and environment by Age Satisfaction with leisure activities

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

15-24 25-34 35-44 45 years and over


Satisfaction with services

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

15-24 25-34 35-44 45 years and over

age


Rate environment

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

15-24 25-34 35-44 45 years and over

age

goodaveragepoor


As far as environment is concerned, on a general basis it is possible to say that Adults are more worried than the others (11 on 31 judge the environment poor), even though there are not big differences. The vast majority of people rate the environment of Milan on the average (the adults are less represented here). In particular traffic issue (congestion, bike lanes, parking space) are judged poor by younger people, even though the most critical towards bike


45

lanes are the Adults. Noise and air pollution are bad for everyone; the quality of drinking water is judged good both by very young people and by the Adults. Finally the quality of playgrounds: the oldest the age the worst is judged the quality.

Let us now come to problems of the city. Security. In general the youngest group and the Adults are the less worried about security issues, while young adults are the most worried. Looking this dimension in the seven items composing it, we can say the following: the Adults are less worried about crime in the city (45 per cent are very or somewhat worried versus 63 per cent of the sample), the most worried are the young Adults. Safety. The majority within the youngest group declare to be somehow worried about it, while, again, the less worried are the Adults. Adults, on the contrary, are worried about drugs, but the majority of them claims they are “somewhat worried” (17 on 31). The presence of graffiti is a worrying issue for adults and young adults, while demonstrations are not so much worrying.

Figure 5.9 - Worries by age

0 50 100 150 200

not worried

neutralworried

not worried

neutralworried

not worriedneutral

worried

not worriedneutral

worried

Wor

ried

secu

rity

Wor

ried

excl

usio

nW

orrie

dso

cial

ityW

orrie

dtra

ffic

age 15-24age 25-34

age 35-44age 45 years and over


Exclusion. Here the most worried are the Adults (who, let’s remind it, are also those who take part in the public and political life of the community). The young Adults are on neutral positions. In particular this dimension is composed by four items: availability of housing, jobs, homelessness and migration. Young people are very sensitive towards issues as jobs and housing, the adults towards homelessness and migrants.

Sociality. In general young people are less worried about sociality (availability of recreation for teenagers, children and seniors) than Adults and young Adults: 80 per cent (24 on 30) of Adults is worried versus 56 per cent of young people (52 on 93). The most worried about places for children are the young Adults (who are more sensitive because with family or willing to have a family), while the most worried about Senior are the Adults (probably because they fear about their own future).

Last issue, traffic and pollution (item composed by Availability of Public Transport, Air pollution, Traffic). All people are worried about it, without any age distinction. Less worried


46

about traffic are Adults, less worried about public transport young Adults, all are worried about air quality, the more worried about air quality are the Adults.

As pertains the use of the city, the main “users” of the city are the young group (25–34 years old). The young group is more involved in social activities followed by those aged 35–44 and 15–24 (who are only 11.5 per cent of the sample). The youngest group is more involved in going to pub and visit friends, rather than going to restaurant, where Adults are more involved (20 out of 31 go to the restaurant at least once a week), although the young group are those who more often frequent restaurant every day (13 out of 59). The Adults are less involved in cinema or theatre, where the young group is more involved: summing up their answer on the cultural activities we can conclude that, within the young group, 11 per cent (10 out of 90) claims to go often to cultural events, versus 9 per cent (5 out of 56) of the young Adults, versus 3 per cent (1 out of 29) of the Adults, and no one of the youngest group. The young group is also the most involved in sport activities (10 out of 88 claim they are involved often in sport activities), followed by the young Adults.

On the contrary the Adults are those more involved in activities linked with social participation, especially in political participation: 17 per cent of them is involved in political activities at least once a week (versus 3 per cent of the entire sample). 33 per cent claim they are political active seldom (versus 20 per cent of the sample).

Table 5.4 – % and frequencies of respondent involved often in the activities by age

15–24 25–34 35–44 45 years and over Total

Frequency 3 48 18 8 77 Social activities % 30.0 53.9 32.1 27.6 41.8 Frequency 0 10 5 1 16 Cultural activities % 0.0 11.1 8.9 3.4 8.6 Frequency 0 10 6 0 16 Leisure activities % 0.0 11.4 10.5 0.00 8.7


5.3.3 Households typology and satisfaction with the city

Living alone, with children, or with a partner can have a strong influence on the way in which one uses or perceives the city. Here the structure of household is taken into account and put in relation with the satisfaction with the city. Household has been recoded into 5 classes: people living alone (Singles), people living with partner (Couples), people with children (couple with children and lone parents are aggregated, since the numbers of the last are small), people living with related and non related persons, two or more families units (very limited).

How do they perceive the offer of the city, in terms of leisure activities and services? How are they satisfied? In general people sharing flats are the most satisfied with leisure activities and services, people with children the most critical. About leisure activities there is a general high degree of satisfaction, singles are less satisfied and more neutral. The situation about services is on the opposite side: there is a general dissatisfaction especially by people with children (33 on 46 are dissatisfied from services of the city, 4 on 46 are satisfied, the other are neutral) and


47

people living with friends or relatives (3 on 22 are satisfied), while couples and singles present more neutral positions.

Table 5.5 – Satisfaction with Leisure by household typology

Household

one person

couple couple with children

(non) related persons

two (or more) families units

Total

Frequency 3 3 4 7 0 17 Dissatisfied % 9.4 5.9 8.7 14.3 0.0 9.4 Frequency 14 17 18 11 1 61 Neutral % 43.8 33.3 39.1 22.4 33.3 33.7 Frequency 15 31 24 31 2 103

Satisfaction with leisure offer Satisfied

% 46.9 60.8 52.2 63.3 66.7 56.9 Frequency 32 51 46 49 3 181 Total % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


The environmental aspects of the city (from pavement conditions to recycling services, from air pollution to quality of playgrounds of the city) are marked all together as on average by the vast majority of the sample, but, in particular, people with children are the most critical towards traffic congestion, lack of bicycle lanes and pollution (especially air pollution).

Traffic and pollution is the concern which the entire sample, regardless of the typology of family, is worried about: singles and couples are the most worried about it, but no one claims not to be worried. The issue of exclusion is the second important one. People living with friends or relatives are the most worried about it, especially as far as housing issue is concerned. The availability of job is an issue which worries singles (more than three quarters declare to be worried or very worried on this concern), and people living with children. Problems about migrants and homelessness are issues which worry couples and people with children. Issues related to personal security, in general, do not worry the majority of people, nevertheless, most people are concerned about safety (especially couples), about violence and the amount of crime. Finally the problems related to the availability of recreation spaces for children, teenagers and seniors are worrying most couple with children (especially, of course as far as spaces for children are concerned, but also spaces for seniors).

As far as the use of the city is concerned, people co–habiting with friends or relatives, and singles are the main users of the city: more than a half claim they often are involved in social activities. Couples with children or lone parents follow, and finally couples. In particular, singles and couple with children or lone parents are those who claim more often they visit the pub everyday (respectively 9 out of 42 and 12 out of 46), but people with children are also those who declare they never go to the pub (5 on 46). Co–habits visit the pub mainly at least once a week (39 on 52). All categories visit restaurants often, mostly at least once a week (more than 60 per cent), except couples with children or lone parents (less than 50 per cent). The vast majority of people with children claim never to go to nightclubs or disco, which are visited seldom by half of people co–habiting and by singles. Visiting friends is an action in which singles, people living with (non) related persons or with children are rather often involved (two third declare they visit friends at least once a week).


48

Table 5.6 – % and frequencies of respondent involved often in the activities by household typology one

person couple couple with

children (non) related

persons two (or more) families units

Total

Frequency 15 12 13 28 2 70 Social activities % 50.0 25.5 28.3 56.0 66.7 39.8

Frequency 3 5 2 6 0 16 Cultural activities % 9.7 10.4 4.3 11.8 0.0 8.9

Frequency 4 2 4 6 0 16 Leisure activities % 13.8 4.2 8.5 11.8 0.0 9.0


As already mentioned cultural activities are not very frequent within the sample, but people sharing flat and couples are the main visitors of cultural events: 5 on 48 and 6 on 51 (around 10 per cent) claim to be often involved in cultural events, followed by couples without children. A quarter of the people living with relatives or friends visit a museum or an exposition at least once a week, while the others are involved in such activities less often. Cinema or theatre is visited most by people living alone (a half claims to visit cinema at least once a week), and less often by people with children.

Sport and leisure activities (visiting urban parks, or natural areas, walking to the city centre) are generally performed less often, even if singles and co–habiting people are involved in such activities a little more than the others. On this respect, 11 on 52 (more than 20 per cent) of people co–habiting claim never to visit a natural area or parks (outside town): probably because, being generally young, they do not have cars and are not able to get easily out of the city to get there.

As far as participation issue is concerned, people with children are more involved than the others in religious activities and resident associations, less involved in community works and political participation (singles are more involved).

5.3.4 Income level and the city

As the city is said to be expensive by the sample, we can imagine that the more one earns, the more one will use the city, the services and the facilities offered by the city. From the analyses, nevertheless, it appears the opposite.

As far as the use of the city is concerned, surprisingly the less one earns the more one is involved in social activities: this demonstrates that there is no relation between the two variables, and that the city, despite being an expensive city, offers also cheap opportunities. Those who have a lower income are also the youngest, i.e. the people involved more in the city activities. People with less than 1,000 Euros income have frequencies in social activities (going to pub, visiting friends, eating out, going to night club) rather similar, or more active, to those who have at least a 4,000 Euros income! Again, also for the cultural activities there is no correlation between the two variables, this means that the cultural offer of the city varies for all the economic possibilities. People with a medium–low income are those more involved


49

in sport and leisure activities: they go to urban parks. Income does not present any relation also with the participation in political, religious, community activities.

There is, on the contrary, a relation between income and satisfaction with leisure activities: people with a low income are generally more satisfied than people earning more: 65 per cent (13 on 20) of the low income interviewees are satisfied with the leisure activities of the city, while only a half of the higher income are satisfied. The more people earn, the more people assume neutral position, or are dissatisfied. The same can be said for rating the environmental aspects of the city: 7 on 18 people earning more than 4,000 Euros rate the environment as poor (around 40 per cent), 20 on 52 of those with a medium high income (between 2,000 and 4,000 Euros) rate it poor (around 38 per cent), 22 on 74 (30 per cent) of those with a medium low income (between 1,000 and 2,000 Euros) and 5 on 20 (25 per cent) of the lower income. In particular higher income people are dissatisfied by quality of the urban environment (sidewalks, cleanliness of parks), and by air and noise pollution.

Figure 5.10 – Satisfaction with leisure activities by income level

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

less than 1.000 1.000 - 1.999 2.000 - 3.999 4.000 or above



As far as services are concerned, people with low or medium income tend to rate them worse than people with higher income: although more than half of the sample is dissatisfied with them, a larger number of higher income people gives them a better rate. In particular the higher income people are more satisfied with health services (more than half is satisfied), than people with lower income, probably because they have access to private facilities. There is a general satisfaction with public transport, while on traffic, safety on streets, and bicycle lanes people with low income express lower rates. Finally we want to investigate whether the income influences the perception towards a number of concerns about the city. On a general basis the income does not influence largely the perception of problems, with a number of differences. All people, without any income differences, are worried about pollution and traffic issues. People with lower income are mainly worried about availability of jobs and affordable houses, not very worried about security issues (especially as far as anti–social behaviour, prostitutions or graffiti are concerned), or sociality issues. People with a medium low income are worried about security issues, drug problems and anti–social behaviour, they are worried about sociality issues, which worry also people with higher income.


50

Figure 5.11 – Worries by income level

0 50 100 150 200

not worried

neutralworried

not worried

neutral

worriednot worried

neutral

worried

not worriedneutral

worried

Sec

urity

E

xclu

sion

S

ocia

lity

Traf

fic

less than 1.0001.000 - 1.9992.000 - 3.9994.000 or above


5.3.5 Residential environment and the city

Milan, being a concentric city, is said to be a city where everything happens in the city centre. How is the perception of the city by people living in the outskirts? Do people living in the city centre use the city more than the others? Are they more satisfied with the city in general? Who is more worried about problems of the city? Here we investigate issues related to the residential areas of the sample.

People living in the core of the city or in small towns in Metropolitan Area of Milan are the most satisfied with leisure services: restaurants, pubs and cinema are the main satisfying activities. As regards restaurant, people living in the very centre of the city are not completely satisfied, because of the high prices. The quality of public spaces is for everyone not completely satisfied, but for those living in the outskirts is very dissatisfying, as sports facilities and architectures are. As far as services are concerned, reminding that all the interviewees are not satisfied, people living far from the city centre are generally much more dissatisfied than people living in the core of the city. People living in the city, but in the outskirts, are very dissatisfied with public transports, as they are people living in small towns in the Metropolitan Area of Milan; as regards safety and police services, people living outside the city are very dissatisfied, less those living in the city centre. People living in small towns and villages, together with those living in the city centre are the least dissatisfied about bicycle lanes, although there is a small percentage of interviewees (9 on 40 and 10 on 37) who present neutral position on this concern. Finally people living in the medium–large towns of the Metropolitan Area of Milan are generally satisfied with the health services offered by their cities (9 on 14, more than 60 per cent), much more than the others.

The environment is judged as on average or poor by every interviewee, with some differences due to the residential area. People living in medium or large towns in the Metropolitan Area of Milan tend to give an average score (11 inhabitants of the Metropolitan Area of Milan on 14 total, about 80 per cent, rate the environment as on average) rather than people living in the city – except the city centre –. Few people are unhappy about waste collection and


51

recycling, or with the conditions of streets or sidewalk, and the residential area is not linked with this attitude. All the aspects linked to traffic and pollution are rated as negative, with interesting distinctions in the areas of residential. In the core of the city and in the city centre people are less unpleased about traffic congestion than in the outskirts or in the small villages or town of the Metropolitan area, the same can be said for the parking spaces and bicycle lanes. On this respect people living in towns in the metropolitan area are less dissatisfied than the rest of the sample (while in the rest of the sample bicycle lanes are rated as very poor by more than 60 per cent, in these areas “only” 40 per cent rate them as very poor).

Finally we investigated how a number of issues are linked to the place of residence.

The security issue is considered a problem more by people living outside the city (e.g. 29 on 34 people living in small towns of the Metropolitan Area of Milan is worried about this issue, versus 29 on 61 people living in the core of the city). People living in the outskirts are a little bit more worried than people living in the centre, but less than those living outside the city. The same can be said, with appropriate differences, as far as issues linked with exclusion are concerned: the more people are living outside the city, the more they are worried. For instance migrants represent a problem for people living outside the city, while the availability of affordable jobs and houses are a concern for people living in the outskirts of the city, more than people living in the Metropolitan Area of Milan. People living in suburbs are more concerned than other on issues linked with sociality, with the availability of recreation places for children, teenagers or seniors. Finally, although each interviewee is worried about traffic and pollution, the less concerned ones are those living inside the city, the more worried are those living outside, especially for traffic and availability of public transport, rather than air pollution.

Regarding the use of the city, people living in the core of the city, but outside the city centre, are those who spend more time in social or cultural activities. There are no relations between involvement in cultural activities and residential area, probably because people are keen on moving in order to reach museums, or exposition centres and because cinemas are spread out on the whole territory. It must be said that people living in small towns in the Metropolitan Area of Milan are the less interested in going to museums. People living outside the city in small or medium–large towns are the more active in leisure or sport activities, both in practicing sports and in participating to sport events. As far as participation to public life is concerned, as expected, in small town community life is more vibrant: people living out of the city are more active in resident associations and in religious activities, a little less in political activities.

5.3.6 Overall satisfaction

This last section uses a very general index, a 1–10 variable, as a rate for the city, in order to measure a general satisfaction from people. Firstly, there is no relation between income and the overall satisfaction with the city. Figure 5.12 shows the scatter plot of the two variables, and it is no possible to see any correlation.


52

Figure 5.12 – Satisfaction with the city and income


As far as the gender dimension of the satisfaction is concerned, women tend to give a slightly higher rate to the city than men, but the difference is very small.

Table 5.7 – Satisfaction with the city and gender

Satisfaction with the city

Average Variance Frequency

Male 6.2 2.1 119

Gen

der

Female 5.7 2.9 78


As far as age is concerned, rates are always on the average, even though the youngest group rates the city with a higher score, the differences are very small (The youngest group rates 5.3 the city, while the other ages rate 6).

Table 5.8– Satisfaction with the city and age Satisfaction with the city Frequency Average Variance

15–24 11 5.3 2.8 25–34 95 6.1 2.6 35–44 59 6.0 2.6 A

ge

45 years and over 31 6.0 1.7



53

Combining age and gender is possible to say that younger women rate the city with a better score, and adult men with a lower score.

Table 5.9 – Satisfaction with the city, age and gender Age men

15–24 years old 25–34 years old 35–44 years old 45 years and over Average Variance Average Variance Average Variance Average Variance 6.2 0.7 6.29 2.2 6.0 2.4 6.3 2

Age women

15–24 years old 25–34 years old 35–44 years old 45 years and over Average Variance Average Variance Average Variance Average Variance 4.5 3.5 5.9 3.3 6.0 3.1 5.5 1.1 Source: ACRE research, 2007

There is no difference as for the origins (Abroad, Italy, MMA, Milan city). Regarding the preference to Milan for those who lived also in another city the situation is as follows: people born in Milan present average score, claiming both that Milan is a slightly better place to live in (16.5 per cent) and that it is a slightly worse place to live in (17.6 per cent), the rest do not answer (61.5 per cent). For those born in the Metropolitan Area of Milan the city is a slightly better place to live in for 43 per cent and a slightly worse place for 10 per cent, similar situation for people born outside Milan, in Italy (56 per cent a slightly better and 26 per cent a slightly worse). In conclusion we can say that those who choose Milan are somewhat satisfied, but not that much.

Table 5.10 – Satisfaction with the city and birth place

City satisfaction

Average 6 Milan Variance 3 Average 6 Province of Milan Variance 2 Average 6 Lombardy Region Variance 2 Average 6 Italy Variance 2 Average 7

Bir

th p

lace

abroad Variance 2



54

5.4 Satisfaction with neighbourhood and living environment

Since above we deal with the overall satisfaction with the city, here our attention is focused on the neighbourhood where the respondents live, in order to discover differences if there are any.

Overall, the respondents are generally satisfied of the neighbourhood (76 per cent) where they live. There is a very small percentage of people who are very dissatisfied with their neighbourhood. It seems that for most of the people the residential location has been a rational choice and that it responds to their expectations (79.6 per cent).

Figure 5.12 – Overall quality of life in the neighbourhood

Satisfaction with the neighbouhood

Very Satisfied11%

Quite Satisfied66%

Somewhat unsatisfied

18%

Very unsatisfied

3%

Don’t know2%


Using as a starting point the fact that the responds are mainly living in the city centre or near to the city, they perceive their neighbourhood as a safe place to live (78.8 per cent), which offers a high and good quality of shops and commercial areas (86.2 per cent of the respondents are satisfied) and which is quite well connected with the public transport (72.4 per cent). In other words, in terms of accessibility, the respondents are quite satisfied. Although they are mainly satisfied, the respondents claim some problems related mainly to the city in the whole rather then to their area of the city.

The shared low satisfaction for public services such as health (51 per cent), social and services for Children (30.3 per cent) is not a problem only related to their neighbourhood but to the Metropolitan Area of Milan in the whole. In particular, the provision of children care service is a hot issue in the whole Metropolitan Area.

Milan Metropolitan Area is an interesting focus to understand the difficult situation of the Italian women of the new century. There is in fact a great mismatching between the social economic transformations and the service provided. The increasing number of working women, together with the shrinking of the extended family, has lead to a growing demand of services for family care– which include services for children and elderly people. According to


55

several researches on provision of family care services– especially kindergarten– there is higher presence of such services in the metropolitan area rather than in the city of Milan. Therefore, the low satisfaction for family care provision and in particular the 16.2 per cent of respondents who are very unsatisfied, can be seen in more general terms. In regard to the health provision, the low satisfaction might be more related to the quality of the services rather than a presence of health structure. The Metropolitan Area of Milan is one the health point of excellence of the country. There is a high presence of hospitals, clinics and health centre. In Milan–city there are several hospitals. The main problem is the decreasing role of GPs for adults and children. In general, GPs have to be chosen within the same neighbourhoods. The role of the GPs is to provide general health cure and advises– such as a general check up of the well being if the patients, provide aids for seasonal diseases etc. Due to the increasingly number of patients for GPs, in the last years the service offered has decreased. It is in fact very alarming that the 24.7 per cent of the sample feels somewhat dissatisfied and 7.6 per cent fells very dissatisfied with the service.

Another dissatisfaction aspect revealed by the respondents is the low environmental conditions. The responds declare a high dissatisfaction for air (71.1 per cent) and noise (47.5 per cent) pollutions. Every year, the Metropolitan Area of Milan exceeds the number of days in which the level of air–pollution is higher of the EU standards. Furthermore, low provision of public transport, especially connecting the metropolitan area to Milan–city, is increasing the traffic congestion of the Metropolitan Area of Milan.

A special attention should be paid to the social dimension of the satisfaction. The creative and knowledge workers declare to live in areas where the neighbourhood interaction is quite satisfactory (45 per cent). The social networks and relationships are quite strong. However, it should be noticed that there is a polarisation regarding social network: there is indeed a part of the sample (38.9 per cent) who declares that the interaction is quite rare.

From the architectural viewpoint, the respondents seems to live in neighbourhoods where the aesthetic aspect is quite satisfied (60.6 per cent) and where the offer of public spaces is very satisfactory (69.7 per cent)

Table 5. 11– % of people satisfied by the following aspects in their neighbourhood

Satisfied with %

Access to commercial facilities (food. chemist. etc) 83.3 Access to public spaces (parks. etc) 69.7 Access to public transport 72.4 Appearance of the neighbourhood 60.6 Nearness to employment 72.2 Personal safety 78.8 The level of pollution 30.0 The level of social interaction between neighbours 43.9 The level of traffic noise 52.5 The provision of childcare facilities 30.4 The provision of healthcare facilities 51.0



56

5.5 Is Milan a welcoming city?

We analyse now data about the welcoming, the friendliness and the open–mindedness of the metropolitan region of Milan.

Figure 5.13 – Hospitability and friendliness with different categories of people (valid %)


Even if the social atmosphere of a city in general could be one of the most important factors which influence the choice to living in a specific place, from the data obtained the situation in Milan does not appear very comforting. In general, the respondents do are not able to give a judgment. Nevertheless, there is a tendency to mark negatively the hospitability of the metropolitan region of Milan to people from other countries (41 per cent) and the visible minorities (50 per cent). The data are fairly different in the case of gay and lesbian people; Milan is considered pretty friendly (55 per cent on the average). Regarding the differences between the friendliness of the city to gay and lesbian we underline that people (most of all female respondents) declare that Milan is open to gay people, also because of the stereotype which links gays to fashion and vice versa, but it is less friendly with lesbian women.

Figure 5.14 –Unfriendliness with different gay and lesbian people by gender (valid %)

Unfriendliness with gay and lesbian people by gender

0

10

20

30

Male Female

GayLesbian


0 10 20 30 40 50

Strong

Present

Nor strong nor poor

Mediocre

Absent

Don’t know

Gay and lesbian people Visible minoritiesPeople from other countries


57

The question about tensions inside the society shows some controversies: indeed the sample is divided among those who agree (29 per cent), those who disagree (26 per cent), and those who do not agree or disagree (27 per cent) with the statement that “This city is a place with tensions between different income groups”.

The opinion about the quality of life and the satisfaction with metropolitan region of Milan in general is very pitiless. In fact the respondents are very dissatisfied with Milan and they rank it negatively (68 per cent from 1 to 5 points on a 10 points scale).

People interviewed state that in the last five years the quality of life in Milan has become worse (64 per cent).

Table 5.12– The quality of life in the Milan Metropolitan Area during the last years

Frequency Percentage Valid percentage

Improved 15 7.5 7.7 Stayed the same 42 21.0 21.4 Gotten worse 126 63.0 64.3 Don’t know 13 6.5 6.6 Total 196 98.0 100.0 Missing 4 2.0 Total 200 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

One of the causes of dissatisfaction can be found in the high cost of living in Milan. Indeed respondents state that Milan is very expensive in 47 per cent of cases and another 47 per cent affirms that the cost of living is expensive.

Figure 5.15 – The general cost of living (Valid %)

Very Expensive

Expensive

Average


In order of relevance the more expensive goods and services are: housing (99 per cent), leisure (75 per cent), food and beverages (71 per cent), basic services related to the house (66 per cent), transportation (34 per cent). The most dissatisfied with the cost of living in Milan seem to be people working in advertising, film and radio and finance sector.


58

Tables 5.13a and 5.13b show the answers from the open question about the reasons why the quality of life in the city has improved or not; not everyone answered to the open question, but we collected around 150 answers on this item. We see that the 5/6 of the respondents is concentrated in the first 4 answers: traffic and pollution, cost of life, insecurity and low quality of urban spaces.

When traffic is quoted, many of the respondent talk about public transport and bicycle lanes, but often they just quote traffic and bad air quality, without any other specification.

The cost of life is often referred to the housing market, but not always; many respondent complain about a general rising of the cost of living in the city, which has not been followed by an equivalent growing of income levels. Insecurity is another “hot” issue: 25 people quote this as an increasing problem of the city. Often they declare that security is put in danger by the massive presence of migrants, in particular by illegal immigrants. Indeed recently in Italy, there has been a hard campaign against immigrants, pushed by right–wing parties and politicians which moved most of the public opinion and which had a very strong influence in the whole society. The fourth issue for the respondents is the decreasing quality of life of the city in general, linked with the lack of green areas and, especially, with the inadequacy of the politician in governing the city. The city, is often said, is driven by the economic forces and by the housing market and the politicians are not able to build a city for the citizens. The following issue is, of course, strictly linked with this one and it concerns the scarcity or lack of social policies for the city. The grey–area lines contain the positive features of the city, which has been quoted by few respondents.

Table 5.13a – Reasons why Milan is getting better than 5 years ago Bad traffic/pollution situation 42 High cost of life 39 Insecurity 25 Low quality of life 24 Inadequate social policies 12 Increasing of anti–social personal behaviour (individualisms/racisms/intolerance) 11 Lack of cultural offer 8 Lack of job offer 4 Social conflicts 4 Too much work/stress 2 Source: ACRE research, 2007

Table 5.13b – Reasons why Milan is getting worse than 5 years ago Better quality in the green areas 2 Increasing security 2 Improving of transport 1 Improving of the quality of life in the province 1 Improving of the urban design 1 Improving of leisure spaces 1 Better life style 1 Much more responsibility from institutions 1



59

Most of the sample could not rate the satisfaction about the life in Milan in respect to other places where they lived, because 40 per cent of the sample has never lived somewhere else. The remaining part of the sample is quite equally divided between those who think that Milan is a slightly better place where to live (30 per cent) and those who think that Milan is a slightly worse place where to live (20 per cent). Maybe also because of this distribution, the respondents answer to spend their week–end partly in Milan (55 per cent) and partly out of Milan (43 per cent).

Table 5.14 – “How would you rate this city as a place to live?” Frequency Percentage Valid percentage The best place in which to live 2 1.0 1.1 A much better place in which to live 7 3.5 3.8 A slightly better place in which to live 54 27.0 29.7 A slightly worse place in which to live 37 18.5 20.3 A much worse place in which to live 7 3.5 3.8 The worse place in which to live 2 1.0 1.1 Not applicable 73 36.5 40.1 Total 182 91.0 100.0 Missing 18 9.0 Total 200 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

In spite of this negative judgement, 62 per cent of respondents do not claim they will move away from Milan in the next three years. While for creative and graduates or art schools groups the respondents are quite equally divided in all the statements, having a taste for the assertion that they will not too likely move from Milan in the next three years, the knowledge intensive group is strongly concentrated in responding that they will not be likely to move away from Milan in the next three years (58 per cent). In particular, there is 43 per cent of workers in film and radio sector and 30 per cent of people from art schools who thinks that he/she will move somewhat likely. On the contrary the highest percentages of people who answer that they will surely not move are among the law group (25 per cent).

Figure 5.16 – The likelihood of moving in the next three years by micro–sectors (valid %)


Are you planning to move away?

0 20 40 60 80 100

creative

knowledge intensive

graduates and art schools

Almost Definitely Very Likely Somewhat likely Not too likely Not likely at all


60

The reasons of the staying in Milan could be due on one side to the very important role covered by the personal connections and the employment opportunities (as we discuss above) on the other side we romantically and ironically explain this behaviour with a sentence of Giorgio Gaber, a famous departed Milanese singer: Che noia questa città ma non potrei vivere altrove2.

2 What a bore this city! But I couldn’t live anywhere else!

61

6 RESULTS: MOBILITY – ARE GRADUATES AND WORKERS OF THE CREATIVE AND KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE SECTOR STAYING OR GOING?

6.1 Reasons to move to Milan Metropolitan Area

One of Florida’s underlining assumptions is that individuals within the creative and knowledge intensive class are largely mobile people. In the sense that they move from one city to another seeking for better job opportunities, or for a better quality of living etc. The sample of Milan Metropolitan Area case study seems to partially contradict this theory. The creative and knowledge intensive class in Milan is particularly stable and localised. It is important to remind the reader that a large part of the sample, 67 per cent, was born in the metropolitan area and therefore it might be that they have never questioned the main reasons of living in the region.

The questionnaire was exploring different reasons why people decide to live in Milan. Although no one of the reasons seem to be very important for the respondents, it can be noticed a difference of priorities between those who have always lived in the area and those who have moved from another city or country within and outside Europe. It can be argued that the main force of attraction of Milan Metropolitan Area for people coming from outside is work, while the main reason for staying is the personal connections. In general terms, aspects such as the characteristic of the city and the good offer of Universities available are not seen as good reasons to stay or to come to Milan Metropolitan Area.

Table 6.1–Personal connection and past mobility

Where lived prior to moving to City

Never moved

In city but other

neighbourhood

Another City in region/province/

country

Another city in

country

Outside country

Outside Europe

Total

Frequency

47 35 18 18 3 3 124 Personal connection not very important

% 60.3% 61.4% 60.0% 100.0% 100.0% 60.0% 64.9%

Frequency

31 22 12 0 0 2 67 Personal connection important

% 39.7% 38.6% 40.0% .0% .0% 40.0% 35.1%

Frequency

78 57 30 18 3 5 191 Total

%

100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%


There is a general trend for those who can be defined “the Milanese”, in another terms those who have never moved and always lived in the city or the metropolitan area. For the Milanese the personal connection is a quite important reason for staying here. 39.7 per cent of those


62

who have never moved, 38.6 per cent of those who have moved within the same neighbourhood and the 40.9 per cent of those who have moved within the metropolitan area declared that personal connections are important. Milan, indeed, although it is quite an international large city, it is still keeping quite untouched the importance of the family and circle of friends. Although most of the interviewees have shown a quite international approach (travelling abroad from working, spending long period in other cities etc), they reveal a strong affection to Milan as a place to come back.

For the new comers, the personal connection is a quite irrelevant aspect while the seeking of a better job opportunity seems to be quite a relevant element for choosing Milan. In particular, 22.2 per cent of the people coming from another city is arguing that the job seeking was one of the main reasons.

Table 6.2–Job and past mobility

Where lived prior to moving to City

Never moved

In city but other

neighbour-hood

Another City in region/ province/

county

Another city in

country

Outside country

Outside Europe

Total

Frequency 75 54 27 14 2 5 177 Job not very important % 97.4 96.4 90.0 77.8 66.7 100.0 93.7

Frequency 2 2 3 4 1 0 12 Job important % 2.6 3.6 10.0 22.2 33.3 .0 6.3 Total Frequency 77 56 30 18 3 5 189 % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

If the job and the personal connection are the main reasons, it might be important to understand whether they are enough to fulfil the expectations of people. In particular the question to be posed is for those who have decided to move to Milan Metropolitan Area, has the city offered the opportunity that they were expecting? And for those who have never moved away, is the city still offering a reason to stay?

The attractiveness of a city, indeed, can not be measured only by the capability of attracting new comers but also by the force of keeping the people. The burn–out syndrome of a city can be even more dangerous of its low attractiveness. Cities which are so hectic, high–speed and workaholic might be attractive for a short period: a place to go through without really being embedded. The local contexts, the personal connections and the social dimensions can be given away for working opportunities and other important dimensions.

The Milan Metropolitan Area is a city–region that seems to be quite ejecting: nearly 1/3 of sample has the intention to leave it.

Those who have moved or stayed in the Metropolitan Area of Milan for personal connection are the most unlikely to leave in the near future. 73 per cent that is very unlikely to leave are those who have moved here (or stayed) for personal connections.

MOBILITY: STAYING OR GOING?

63

Table 6.3 – Personal connection and future mobility What is the likelihood that you will move away from this city in the next 3 years

Almost definitely

Very likely

Somewhat likely

Not too likely

Not likely at all

Total

Frequency 8 17 27 59 15 126 Personal connection not very important

% 80.0 77.3 62.8 60.2 65.2 64.3

Frequency 2 5 16 39 8 70 Personal connection important

% 20.0 22.7 37.2 39.8 34.8 35.7

Frequency 10 22 43 98 23 196 Total % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


On Table 6.3 an interesting relation between personal reasons and decision to go away is presented. Those who are more rooted within the city– region are the most unlikely to move. No relation seems to exist with the other dimensions such as the attractiveness of the city, people, and education universities. A second explanatory dimension is given by the job. Amongst those who want to move away from the city–region the percentage who have selected the job as a reason to come to Milan is higher than the average.

Table 6.4– Job and future mobility

What is the likelihood that you will move away from this city in the next 3 years

Almost definitely

Very likely Somewhat likely

Not too likely

Not likely at all

Total

Frequency 9 19 39 92 23 182 Job not very important % 90.0 86.4 95.1 93.9 100.0 93.8

Frequency 1 3 2 6 0 12 Job important % 10.0 13.6 4.9 6.1 .0 6.2

Total Frequency 10 22 41 98 23 194 % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Source: ACRE research, 2007

It can be argued that even though for some interviewees the priority of the job might be still quite important and might lead to the decision of moving away (6 out of 12), for the other 6 people Milan seems to have offered good opportunities to make them stay on.

6.2 “Should I stay or should I go?”

We will now attempt to draw a profile of the mobile and the more stable individuals, underlining also the type of mobility they have. No much can be said on the education level of the respondents. The sample is formed mainly by graduates, therefore we could not prove any correlation between education level and the decision to move in or out in the near future.

The more interesting aspect seems to be the age variable. Different typologies of mobility related to the age and in some case to the life circle can be identified.


64

Table 6.5– Age and past mobility Age

15–24 25–34 35–44 45 Plus

Total

Frequency 6 35 19 17 77 Never moved % 54.5 38.5 33.3 60.7 41.0 Frequency 4 24 22 6 56 In city but other neighbourhood % 36.4 26.4 38.6 21.4 30.3 Frequency 1 18 7 3 29 Another City in region/province/country % 9.1 19.8 12.3 10.7 15.4 Frequency 0 9 7 1 17 Another city in country % .0 9.9 12.3 3.6 9.0 Frequency 0 3 0 0 3 Outside country % .0 3.3 .0 .0 1.6 Frequency 0 2 2 1 5 Outside Europe % .0 2.2 3.5 3.6 2.7 Frequency 11 91 57 28 188 Total % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


The less mobile are those who are very young or those who are adults. Considering that 41 per cent of the sample never moved, those aged between 15–24 and those over 45 are higher respectively of 54.5 per cent and 60.7 per cent. There is also a quite high mobility within the city for those aged between 35–44, as the 38.6 per cent of the sample have moved from another neighbourhood within the city. This data is more explanatory of the housing carrier of the respondents rather then their national and international mobility. In respect to the attractiveness of the city, from Table 6.5 appears that Milan city region is attracting individuals located in the central classes (25–44). Especially those at the age of 24–35 are the most interested in the opportunities offered by the city. Although the sample of the foreigners is very small, however it is worth notice that they are all aged between 24–35.

The relation between mobility and age is also strengthened by future prospective. The younger the interviewers, the higher is the expectation of moving away. Amongst the youngest group (aged 15 to 24) 27.3 per cent claim that they will almost definitely move away, 27.3 per cent claim that it is very likely. The data is even more interesting if we considered that only 5.2 per cent of the sample has such a strong intention of moving away. The most stable group and with very low intention of changing urban environment are those over 35 years old. 51. 7 per cent of the responded aged between 35–44 have answered that it is not very likely that they will leave the Metropolitan Area of Milan. The data on high number of young people who show a desire of moving away from Milan Metropolitan Area can be partially explained by the sense of freedom given by this kind of decisions. Nevertheless young people worry that Milan is not able to offer to them the same working and living opportunities that were given to the previous generations.

MOBILITY: STAYING OR GOING?

65

Table 6.6– Age and future mobility Age

15–24 25–34 35–44 45 plus

Total

Frequency 3 7 0 0 10 Almost Definitely % 27.3 7.6 .0 .0 5.2 Frequency 3 11 6 1 21 Very Likely % 27.3 12.0 10.3 3.2 10.9 Frequency 3 26 13 0 42 Somewhat likely % 27.3 28.3 22.4 .0 21.8 Frequency 1 41 30 26 98 Not too likely % 9.1 44.6 51.7 80.6 50.8 Frequency 1 7 9 5 22 Not likely at all % 9.1 7.6 15.5 16.1 11.4 Frequency 11 92 58 31 193 Total % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


The watershed is around the 30 years old, when people decide to become less mobile. This is probably mostly related to the working stability and decision of having a family.

Indeed, the household composition has a strong correlation with the decision of moving away. Those people who are living in couple with or without children, declare not to have intention of moving away. 21.3 per cent of the couples with children and 18 of couples show no interest in the possibility to move away. Also those who live alone seem to be well embedded into the local context. The majority of singles (85.3 per cent) seem to be quite stable in the city region. The most mobile ones are those who are living with non related people. The co–habitants or people sharing flat are those who are more likely to move away. It is likely that 56.5 per cent of the non related persons could decide to move away in the next three years, let us remember that they are the youngest of the sample.

Table 6.7 – household and future mobility

Household recoded

One person

Couple Couple with children

(non) related persons

2 (or more) families units

Total

Frequency 1 2 0 2 5 10 Almost definitely % 2.9 4.0 .0 8.7 16.1 5.4 Frequency 3 8 2 4 4 21 Very likely % 8.8 16.0 4.3 17.4 12.9 11.4 Frequency 14 9 5 7 6 41 Somewhat likely % 41.2 18.0 10.6 30.4 19.4 22.2 Frequency 15 22 30 9 15 91 Not too likely % 44.1 44.0 63.8 39.1 48.4 49.2 Frequency 1 9 10 1 1 22 Not likely at all % 2.9 18.0 21.3 4.3 3.2 11.9 Frequency 34 50 47 23 31 185 Total % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


Gender dimension does not appear to affect the decision of staying or going away, while job stability is slightly more related. Nevertheless, workers with flexible contracts and no written contracts appear to be more open to change city. Indeed, 41.4 per cent of people with flexible contracts and 36.8 per cent of workers with no written contract can consider the possibility of moving away. On the contrary there is also a high percentage of flexible workers (35.1 per


66

cent) who are quite stable. Here, it comes out the double nature of the typologies of occupation. In some case in fact the flexibility is synonymous of free–lance jobs and in other case of instability.

67

7 RESULTS: SATISFACTION WITH THE JOB

The next section is about how creative and knowledge intensive workers are satisfied with their job. It will be specifically dedicated to the explanation of the reasons why the creative and knowledge workers are (or are not) satisfied with their current job and with the physical, technological and social environment in which they work. It clearly results that in general terms the job is one of the main force of attraction of Milan. However, the satisfaction with the job is not homogenous. The section will investigate whether, the sector, income, expected time in company, commuting, hours worked and contract status can influence the satisfaction with job.

7.1 Creative and knowledge employees: The happy workers

Generally speaking the respondents are overall satisfied with their job. 12.9 per cent of the sample is very satisfied and 62 per cent is satisfied with his/her job. The percentage of people who show a great dissatisfaction is very limited (less of the 10 per cent of the sample). What are the reasons why the creative and knowledge intensive workers are such “happy workers”?

Figure 7.1 – Overall satisfaction with job

0102030

40506070

VerySatisfied

Satisfied Neither Dissatisfied VeryDissatisfied

Dont know

Percentage


In particular those who work in these sectors are enjoying their jobs because they can have a high sense of achievement from their work. 74 per cent of the workers show a good satisfaction for using their own personal initiatives and have a high influence over their job.


68

Figure 7.2 – Degree of satisfaction on job and work environment

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Using your own initiatives

Intellectually stimulating

Friendliness of working environment

Sense of achievement for the work

Influence over your job

Facilities workplace

Ability of meet and network

Training you receive

Job security

Balance personal and work life

Holiday time / paid leave

Prospects of carrier advancement

The amount of payment you receive

Very satisfiedSatisfiedNeitherDissatisfiedVery dissatisfied


Among the workers employed in advertising the sense of achievement they get from their work is very high. 31.8 per cent declared to be very satisfied and 45.5 per cent satisfied. A similar situation can be found among lawyers ( 35.7 per cent satisfied and 46.4 per cent satisfied) and people working in R&D (29. 4 per cent very satisfied and 47.1 per cent satisfied) and software sector ( 31.4 per cent very satisfied and 42.9 per cent satisfied).

Table 7.1 – Sense of achievement you get from your work per sectors

Adverti-sing

Art school

Film radio

Finance Graduates

Law r&d Software Total

Freq. 7 3 5 6 7 10 5 11 54 Very satisfied % 31.8 15.0 26.3 20.7 26.9 35.7 29.4 31.4 27.6 Freq. 10 8 11 17 15 13 8 15 97 Satisfied % 45.5 40.0 57.9 58.6 57.7 46.4 47.1 42.9 49.5 Freq. 3 4 2 2 3 2 3 3 22 Neither % 13.6 20.0 10.5 6.9 11.5 7.1 17.6 8.6 11.2 Freq. 2 2 1 1 1 2 0 5 14 Dissatisfied % 9.1 10.0 5.3 3.4 3.8 7.1 .0 14.3 7.1 Freq. 0 3 0 3 0 1 1 1 9 Very dissatisfied % .0 15.0 .0 10.3 .0 3.6 5.9 2.9 4.6

Total Freq. 22 20 19 29 26 28 17 35 196 % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


In a different position are those graduated from the art schools (3 out of 20 are dissatisfied). The level of dissatisfaction of art schools graduates is quite high for other items. In particular, 25 per cent feel dissatisfied with the possibility of using their own initiatives. Furthermore, 30 per cent of them declared they are quite dissatisfied with the amount of influence they have

SATISFACTION WITH THE JOB

69

over their job. In other words, from the results of survey it can be noticed that the graduates from art schools seem not be able to fully express their creativity in their job. It might be that their job expectations were not fully met.

The interviewees declare that they are highly satisfied with the working place and with the working environment that it is quite often friendly and welcoming (27. 5 per cent is very satisfied and 49.5 per cent is satisfied).Probably one of the reasons is related to the typology of enterprises in which they work. The creative and knowledge sectors are, as it has been underlined in the previous sections, particularly characterised by micro and small enterprises. And this might help to build up friendly and welcoming environments. For example, one of the enterprises interviewed has implemented an in–house food catering for employees for proving good and healthy food and giving a quality time lunch break to their employees. The lunch break is a moment for the employees to relax and chat over a health lunch in a welcoming environment.

Table 7.2 – The friendliness of the working environment per sectors

Adver-tising

Art school

Film radio

Finance Graduates

Law r&d Software Total

Freq. 10 1 4 8 9 10 4 9 55 Very satisfied % 45.5 5.0 20.0 27.6 34.6 35.7 23.5 25.7 27.9 Freq. 7 13 12 16 9 17 9 16 99 Satisfied % 31.8 65.0 60.0 55.2 34.6 60.7 52.9 45.7 50.3 Freq. 4 4 4 3 7 1 4 8 35 Neither % 18.2 20.0 20.0 10.3 26.9 3.6 23.5 22.9 17.8 Freq. 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 1 6 Dissatisfied % 4.5 5.0 .0 6.9 3.8 .0 .0 2.9 3.0 Freq. 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Very dissatisfied % .0 5.0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 0.5 Freq. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Don’t know % .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 2.9 0.5

Total Freq. 22 20 20 29 26 28 17 35 197 % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


People working in the advertising sectors declare to have a friendly working environment (77.3 per cent). In some sectors, such as R&D and software the job environment appears to be quite neutral.

7.2 Who are the less satisfied and why

Here we investigate what variable are linked to the job satisfaction of the sample. The respondents seem to be less satisfied with their possibility of balancing their job with their family life and leisure time. Although people are very satisfied with the holiday time and paid leave (10.9 per cent is very satisfied and 41.5 per cent satisfied). 20.4 per cent of the workers is unhappy with the balance between work and private life. The job seems indeed challenging but at the same time absorbing (as we have seen the working hours are quite long). The level of dissatisfaction is high in all the sub sectors and also between man and woman. The difficulties of balancing work and private life probably is more related to the frantic rhythm of


70

modern life. A large part of the sample (nearly 63.1 per cent) feel that the salary is not adequate to the effort that they put in what they do.

Figure 7.3 – The amount of pay you receive per sectors

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Adver

tising Art

Film

Fina

nce

Gradu

ates

Law

r&d

Softw

are

Dont knowVery DissatisfiedDissatisfiedNeitherSatisfiedVery Satisfied


The most unhappy are those graduated from art schools (the 60 per cent is dissatisfied). However, also the advertisers and R&D workers seem not so satisfied by their income. In the sample those who appear better off are the lawyers which are those who earn more. The 42. 9 per cent of the lawyers feel that their salary is adequate. In the same position are the workers who are employed in the finance sector (41.1 per cent are feeling satisfied).

The small minority who shows a level of dissatisfaction are those who also are a little bit more dissatisfied with the job, but there are no strong relations. The low income of the workers is indeed explained better by their age. There is, indeed, a strong relation between income and age, therefore people with low income are also younger: it is argued that, at least in the analysed sectors, there are possibilities to build carriers. The most satisfied are those with a medium–high income (8 on 50 are very satisfied and 32 are satisfied), those with higher income are satisfied (on 17, 14 are satisfied, 2 are very satisfied).

The characteristic of Milan as a city where, in the considered industrial sectors, there are good job opportunities can be seen also by the fact that those who are not satisfied from their job want to change it, and they expect to leave the organisation in short time: out of 14 people who are not satisfied with the job, 7 think of leaving the company in which they work in less than 6 months, 3 in less than a year, 1 between 1 and 3 years (the rest 3 of them do not know about their future).

SATISFACTION WITH THE JOB

71

Table 7.3 – How long do you expect to remain in this company * Overall satisfaction with job Overall satisfaction with job

Very satisfied

Satisfied Neither Dis-satisfied

Very dissatisfied

Don’t know

Total

Freq. 3 7 6 4 3 0 23 Less than 6 months % 13.6 6.0 27.3 40.0 75.0 .0 13.1

Freq. 2 18 3 3 0 0 26 Less than 1 year % 9.1 15.5 13.6 30.0 .0 .0 14.9 Freq. 4 19 2 1 0 0 26 Between 1 and 3

years % 18.2 16.4 9.1 10.0 .0 .0 14.9 Freq. 1 9 1 0 0 0 11 More than 3 but

less than 5 years % 4.5 7.8 4.5 .0 .0 .0 6.3 Freq. 2 9 0 0 0 0 11 Between 5 and

10 years % 9.1 7.8 .0 .0 .0 .0 6.3 Freq. 5 20 0 0 0 0 25 More than 10

years % 22.7 17.2 .0 .0 .0 .0 14.3 Freq. 5 34 10 2 1 1 53 H

ow lo

ng d

o yo

u ex

pect

to r

emai

n in

this

com

pany

Don’t know % 22.7 29.3 45.5 20.0 25.0 100.0 30.3 Freq. 22 116 22 10 4 1 175 Total % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0


It is important to remind that in most sectors there is a high percentage of free lance or self–employed and in most case the workers have talked of very low guarantees (holidays, job security etc.). However, the creative and knowledge intensive workers do not feel unsecured in their job. 43.9 per cent of the sample admits that they feel secure for their job. Although, as it has been underlined before, the contract’s typologies are very flexible, there is a belief that they will have a job stability. According to the sample, the career advancement is a satisfactory part of the job. The 30.8 per cent of the sample is satisfied with his/her working mobility. Indeed, there is no strong relation between typology of contract and job satisfaction. Nevertheless, there is no relation between fixed or flexible contracts and job satisfaction; the only exception are those without a written contract who present lower satisfaction rate than the sample.

Overall, the Metropolitan Area of Milan offers a general great atmosphere. According to the sample working in Milan gives very high satisfaction in regard to the opportunity to meet and network with other professionals from the same field. There is in fact an informal map of places (bars, café, public spaces etc) where people from the same sectors hang out for formal and informal networking. Milan Metropolitan Area seems a place where the flavour of creativity and innovation can be smelt. The cultural and working opportunities are several. Congresses, conferences, exhibitions and specific fairs meet the need of workers of the sectors who are feeling very satisfied with the general atmosphere of the Metropolitan Area of Milan. Workers in the creative and knowledge intensive sectors which we investigated are satisfied with their jobs, independently from how far they live, or how long it takes for them to go to work: there is no relation between time or space for commuting and fulfilment with job. Similarly the job satisfaction is not linked to hours worked: if related with income, it is possible to see that often those who work less hours, have a lower income.

73

8 CONCLUSION

The conclusion of this report will be structured in two parts. The first part of the work will be dedicated to sketch a few profiles of workers employed in the creative and knowledge intensive sectors. In the second part some general conclusion will be drawn on the relationship between the results of the survey and the theoretical debate on the creative and knowledge intensive industry and propose some recommendations to implement accommodating policies for creative and knowledge intensive industries and high skills workers.

8.1 The profiles of the creative and knowledge intensive workers

Taking into account what has been said in the previous pages, there are some socio–economic typologies of workers that can be detected. The way in which a worker of the creative or knowledge sector portrays the city where (s)he lives, appreciates his/her job, is satisfied with the cultural opportunities and the services of the city, strongly depends also from his/her household composition, income and gender. In this perspective we will attempt in the next few pages to underline how different socio–economic profiles have a different view of Milan city–region.

The profiles have been chosen among the most represented socio–economic categories in each sector. In specific four different profiles have been created:

– Film and Radio workers with no kids – Man working in the software sector – Young adults working in finance (yuppies) – People working in the advertising sector with flexible contract

Film and Radio workers with no kids: in the film and radio sector the workers who are single or in couple without kids are 80 per cent of the interviewed. The major features of this group is that they are mainly young (50 per cent is between 25–34 and 43.8 per cent is 35–44), and for the majority they live in gentrified neighbourhoods in semi central and peripheral areas of Milan (81.3 per cent).The residential choice of this group is very similar to most of other singles or young couples living in Milan.

As it can be noticed by the map reported below, young singles and couples with no kids in Milan live mainly in the semi central area of the city. The residential choice of this specific group forms a Y on the map of Milan, with a high concentration in the north of the city in the ex–industrial area of Bovisa, in the night districts such as Navigli and Isola and in the upcoming gentrified areas such as Lambrate etc.


74

Map 8.1- Single and couple no kids-% families

Source: Elaboration Mario Boffi- University of Milan-Bicocca, Istat Census 2001

Workers of the film and radio industry belong to the generation Y of Milan, however they are not all Milanese (only 50 per cent were born in Milan), 25 per cent come from the rest of Italy and there is a small portion coming from abroad (12.5 per cent). Work–wise they are very often self employed (75 per cent) and therefore they have no stable contract with any company. They are producers, costume designers, TV program writers, radio speakers and they all very much use their creativity to work. Their working life is in general quite flexible. There is a large number who have declared that their working hours vary from week to week (25 per cent of the group). In general the salary is not very high (the majority between 1,000–1,999 euros per month). Their working future is quite unpredictable: 62.5 per cent do not know whether they will stay on in the same job. The profile of the film and radio workers with no kids is quite the stereotype of the creative class. The relevant question is how do they interact with the city? What is the cultural life of this group and what do they do in their spare time? Even though the profile is quite stereotyped their life off work is quite surprising. Although they are so residentially central and they do not have family duties, their spare time is mostly dedicated to broader social networks (43 per cent). Less often they spend their time in cultural activities (cinemas, galleries, exhibition theatres) and for leisure. Indeed, 75 per cent of film and radio workers do not do it often. 50 per cent of the sample spends the week end at home, and 37.5 per cent out of town. One possible reason why they are not so actively involved in the leisure and cultural life of the city is that they are not so satisfied with the

CONCLUSION

75

services provided by the city of Milan. Half of the group is quite dissatisfied with the leisure service provided. Within this scenario the desire of moving away from Milan is high (63 per cent).

Men working in the software sector. Out of 34 people working in the software sector, 28 are male. 11 of them are employed with creative tasks, 11 with managerial or knowledge intensive duties, 6 have more operative functions. Mainly young adults, with university or higher education, they live with children and with partners, or alone. Half of them was born in Milan, one third was born in Italy, out of the Metropolitan Area of Milan or in the Lombardy region. Half of them works on a freelance basis, but one third has a fixed contract, although they work a lot (15 out of 28 work more than 43 hours per week) they are satisfied with their job, even if there are 5 people who are dissatisfied. They think about changing company: about half of them say they will be changing company in the next three years, while a little more than one third thinks about leaving Milan in the next three years. They live in the city of Milan, mainly outside the centre of the city, and they have a rather active social life, they go out often to pub or restaurants, less often to cinema or museums, but they are not involved in sport activities. Although they consume often the city in their spare time, they are critical towards leisure activities the city offers (only a half claim to be satisfied by them), similarly they criticise the services. They are very critical towards the environmental aspects of the city, nevertheless they spend their week–ends at home, or in town.

Young adults working in finance: The third profile we present here is quite relevant for the urban economy of the knowledge intensive city. We will deal with young people working in the finance sector (20 people out of 28 working in this sector are aged 25–34): since Milan is the national pole for this important sector, examining how young workers in this sector behave, can tell us a lot about the city. Young workers (25 –34 years old) are young enough to have relevant consumes and old enough to be into a career life.

We will not investigate their demographic structure a lot, since the sample is not representative and very limited, nevertheless we will focus on their behaviours and on their consumes.

First of all they have a vibrant social life: 15 out of 20 visit pubs and 18 go to restaurants at least once a week (5 of them go to restaurant every day), the same amount visit friend often. They are quite active in going to the cinema (4 respondents go to the cinema on a regular basis, 15 less often) and in visiting museums or galleries (16 state that they attend an exposition seldom). They are quite active in sports activities: many of them (16) are seldom involved in going to parks and excursions, and in urban parks. Half of them spend week–ends not a home, both in Milan and outside the city.

Looking at their behaviour in the residential neighbourhoods, we can assume that they do not go out in their residential neighbourhood. Therefore they use the opportunities offered by the city, preferring, probably, social places located in the centre (the finance workers in our sample are mainly located in the Metropolitan Area outside the city of Milan) and attended by the same working categories.


76

Although they are so involved in social activities, they are not even involved in participating in residential associations, nor in political or religious activities: more than half claim they never participate in that kind of activities.

They are almost satisfied with leisure activities and dissatisfied with services offered by the city.

Finally, they are satisfied with their job, although they do not have high incomes (probably because they are relatively young), and most of them have fixed contracts. They are going to leave the company where they work, in order to upgrade their career, but they do not want to leave the city: only 3 workers claim they almost surely will leave Milan in the next future.

Concluding we can assume that this portion of workers in the knowledge–intensive economy has a high impact on the city, using it as a place where networks and relations can be built and where career opportunities can be found in every social event.

People working in the advertising sectors with a flexible contract: This group of people is relatively young as well (half between 25–35 and the other half is 35–44), mainly living in couples (with kids 20 per cent and without kids 40 per cent). There residential choice is “super Milanese”. In fact they live either in the city centre (30 per cent) or within the city border (60 per cent). From the working point of view 70 per cent are self employed with a flexible contract. Compared to the previous group they spend more hours working and they are overall quite satisfied with their job (80 per cent). Their future job expectations are more stable, and actually half of the group portrayed itself in the same job in a three year–time. They earn a relatively good salary (40 per cent between 2,000–3,999). Although they have good working position, their life in Milan is economically difficult. There is a general worry about the cost of living. 80 per cent thinks that Milan is expensive especially for the housing costs. They somehow “live” the city in terms of social and cultural activities but they are quite active during the week ends. Half of them go away for the week end. The high concern in terms of environmental conditions (such as air and noise pollution) for them is quite worrying. 1 out of them considers the environmental condition very poor. For this reason they are using the city for working but whenever they can they escape to other destinations.

8.2 Some general conclusion

From the profile of those typical creative and knowledge intensive workers we can start to draw some general conclusion on Milan Metropolitan Area. One of the main general conclusions is the mismatching between the image that Milan has across the world and the portrait drawn by our sample. Although Milan across Europe is still seen as the glorious capital of fashion and design, and within the country as the one of the main cultural, productive and progressive centre of the nation, the opinion of the residents are partially arguing that this is a stereotype. The research indeed shows that in the eyes of the creative and knowledge intensive workers Milan metropolitan area appears to be a place that suffers of “a stagnation syndrome”. Although it is acknowledged to Milan a glorious past abound of creative productive and innovative energies, the new image is that of a city–region which has worsened. The quality of the services has downgrade, the quality of the air, security and the

CONCLUSION

77

level of tolerance have diminished, the cultural and creative atmosphere has dissolved. The major problem of the city is related to the fact that for a long time there has been a vacuum in the urban governance. Milan crisis is partially contingent on the lack of the political interventions. In the last twenty years, Milan metropolitan area has gone through a massive socio–economic transformation– such as the shift from a Fordist to a post Fordist city, the immigration flow etc–. The new needs and emerging urban questions have not met a correct respond by the local politicians. The local government, instead of promoting new strategies, have attempted to postpone the answers by passing the hot issues from one legislature to the other. Furthermore, while Milan was suffering such a stagnation period, other cities around Europe – easily comparable to Milan such as Munich, Barcelona, Birmingham etc– were putting on trail new and innovative ways of governing the new urban problems. Milan has in certain ways got worse in relative terms, in the sense that it has not progressed as we could expected. In other terms it is still having its own force of attraction but this is less intensive in respect to other European cities and in some ways to other Italian large and medium size cities. The high cost combined with the low quality of life is putting the city region in a dangerous competition with other urban context. In this critical scenario, it cannot be denied that Milan still has a captivating image in terms of the capacity of attracting and accommodating.

Historically, it can be noticed that Milan has partially changed its force of attraction, in terms of quality and quantity of people (workers and habitants). From the qualitative viewpoint, in comparison with the past (50s and 60s) Milan has partially lost its force of attraction. During the Fordist period Milan has been characterised by a strong attraction of labour force. High and low skilled workers were moving from other parts of Italy, especially from the southern regions, to work in the industrial district of Milan Metropolitan area. Furthermore, Milan Universities were quite well known all over Italy. Nowadays, the force of attraction has changed. In the last twenty years, Milan metropolitan area, as well as other Italian metropolitan areas, has been characterised by important flows of low skilled international migration, in regards to the high skilled workers the situation is different. As the research is pointing out, Milan is still having an interesting force of attraction for high skills workers from the rest of Italy (nearly 20 per cent of the sample) and it has an intensive attraction for workers from all Lombardy Region. No much attraction is still shown for highly skilled foreigners. The number of foreign workers in our sample is very low. This might be explained by the low force of attraction but also by the fact that some of the creative sectors that are most recognised internationally are not included. The design and fashion sectors are those which attract more foreigners. To support this idea another indicator is provided by the composition of students in vocational schools of design and fashion. According to the coordinators of the main Milanese schools (Domus Academy, Istituto Europeo del Design) the courses in fashion and design attract largely students from abroad. In terms of attraction for high education, the force of attraction of Milan metropolitan area seems to be quite locally oriented. First of all, it should be underlined that the force of attraction is limited to Milan–city. Opposite to other international contexts, the seven universities of Milan are all located in Milan city. There is no presence of High education poles in the metropolitan area.

Although Milan is still attractive, the sample does not show much positive positions of the accommodating value of the city. Milan is indeed a place which still attracts workers but the


78

quality of life is quite low. The sample in fact declares that Milan suffers of environmental problems, that the cost of living in relatively high, that the cost of housing is just affordable, the level of the services (hospitals, schools) is not satisfactory. In other words, on the one hand workers might be attracted by Milan due to carrier, job offer and opportunities, on the other hand, the respondents are not much satisfied with the city.

Who feels less comfortable with the city? Who are those who would like to move away? Although Milan is not offering what the interviewees aspect, their future life is still inked to the city. Milan is not a city of a temporary attractiveness. At least it is not for all. Regarding the future there is a sharp difference between those who are living in Milan for working reasons and those who are here for personal connections. Those who live in Milan for personal connections, given that the job opportunities are good, have no intentions to move away. Those who are in Milan for working reasons are those who are more willing to go. However, the tendency of moving away is quite low. This might be explained in different ways. First, as it has been explained several times, Italian mobility is quite low. People tend to stay in the same city for all their life. Second, it might be that although Milan has some problems, the job opportunities offered are very high. This is combined with a high cultural life and several other opportunities.

Who are the most dissatisfied of the city? In general young people of the sample are those who find more difficulties.

For them job opportunities are available but the salaries are quite low. The housing conditions are the most precarious and most of the young interviewees declare that the housing cost is difficult to afford. The city seems to be not so friendly for new talents who feel the need to go away, to move to other cities and countries. City administrators should look at the youngest generations more carefully. The escape of the creative brains is not a problem to undervalue. And what it comes clearly out is that the reason to move it is not the job. The urban policies can not only focus on the productivity of the city to keep the young people in the area. The research has shown clearly that the main problems of Milan are the lack of affordable houses, and of policies aimed to improving the quality of life (air pollution, transportation system, services). To accommodate new workers, Milan should become more environmentally and socially friendly.

79

REFERENCES

Amadasi, G. and S. Salvemini (eds) (2005) La città creativa. Una nuova geografia di Milano. Milano: EGEA.

Amendola, G. (1997) La città postmoderna: Magie e paure della metropoli contemporanea. Bari: Laterza.

Amin, A. (1994) Post-Fordism: Models, fantasies and phantoms of transition. In: A. Amin (ed), Post-Fordism. A reader. Oxford: Blackwell

Bagnasco, A. (1977) Tre Italie. La problematica territoriale dello sviluppo italiano. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Belussi, F. (1997) Dwarfs and giants maintaining competitive edge: The Italian textile clothing industry in the 1990s. In: I.M. Taplin and J. Winterton (eds), Rethinking global production. A comparative analysis of restructuring in the clothing industry. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Bertola, P., D. Sangiorgi and G. Simonelli (eds) (2002) Milano distretto del design. Un sistema di luoghi, attori e relazioni al servizio dell’innovazione. Milano: Il Sole – 24 Ore S.P.A.

Bianchini, F and M. Parkinson (eds) (1993) Cultural policy and urban regeneration. The West European experience. Manchester: Mancester University Press.

Bovone, L., M. Magatti, et al (2000) Intraprendere cultura. Milano: Franco Angeli. Burroni, L. and C. Trigilia (2001) Italy: Economic development through local economies. In: C.

Crouch, P. Le Gales, C. Trigilia and H. Voelzkow (eds), Local production systems in Europe: Rise or demise? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Camagni, R. (2001) The economic role and spatial contradictions of global city-regions: The functional, cognitive, and evolutionary context. In: A.J. Scott (ed) (2001) Global city-regions. Trends, theory, policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cappetta, R., A. Salvemini and A. Carlone (2004) Per una nuova creatività che riqualifichi e rilanci Milano. Ricerca “Scena creativa”: Un progetto per Milano Assolombarda - Università Bocconi.

Ciciotti, E. (1993) Competitività e territorio: L’economia regionale nei paesi industrializzati. Roma: Carocci.

Clark, T.N. (2001) Amenities drive urban growth. Draft for Urban Affairs, august 2001. Corbellini, E. and S. Saviolo (2004) La scommessa del Made in Italy e il futuro della moda italiana.

Firenze: RCS Libri S.P.A. Corna Pellegrini, G. (1973) Studi e osservazioni geografiche sulla regione–città. Milano: Vita e

Pensiero. Corna Pellegrini, G. (1977) Milano – Megalopoli padana – valli alpine. Bologna: Ed. Patron. Crouch, C., P. Le Gales, C. Trigilia and H. Voelzkow (eds) (2001). Local production systems in

Europe: Rise or demise? Oxford: Oxford University Press. European Commission, D. E. a. S. A. (2001) Exploitation and development of the job potential in the

cultural sector in the age of digitalisation. European Commission. European Community (2001) Commission regulation (EC) No. 29/2002 of 19 December 2001.

Official Journal of the European Community. Florida, R. (1998) Regional creative destruction. Economic Geography, 72 (3): 314-334. Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the creative class: And how it's transforming work, leisure, community

and everyday life. New York, NY: Basic Books. Florida, R. (2003) Cities and the creative class. City and Community, 2 (1): 3-19.


80

Florida, R. and I. Tinagli (2005) L’Italia nell’era creativa. Research report on the creative class in Italy by Creativity Group Europe. http://www.creativitygroupeurope.com/

Foot, J. (2001) Milan since the miracle. City, culture, identity. Oxford: Berg. Forgacs, D. (1990). Italian culture in the industrial era, 1880-1980: Cultural industries, politics, and

the public. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISTAT, Classificazione delle attività economiche, Metodi e norme, serie C, n. 11 (Ateco '91) Landry, C. (2000). The creative city: A toolkit for urban innovators. London, Earthscan Publications. Lash, S. and J. Urry (1994) Economies of signs and space. London, Sage. Le Gales, P. (2002) European cities. Social conflicts and governance. Oxford: Oxford University

Press. Mingione, E., E. dell’Agnese, S. Mugnano, M. d’Ovidio, B. Niessen and C. Sedini (2007) Milan city–

region: Is it still competitive and charming? Pathways to creative and knowledge–based regions. ACRE report WP2.12.

OECD (2006) Territorial review. Area metropolitana milanese. Report for the Chamber of Commerce and the Province of Milan.

Punzo, M. (ed) (2004) Milano. La fabbrica del futuro. Milano: Skirà. Turri, E. (2000) La Megalopoli Padana. Venice: Marsilio. White, N. (2000) Italy: Fashion, style and national identity 1945-1965. In: N. White and I. Griffits

(eds) (2000), The fashion business. Theory, practice, image. Oxford and New York: Berg Wittel, A. (2001) Toward a network sociality. Theory, Culture and Society, 18 (6): 51-76. Xing (2004) La scena creativa e Milano. Creatività, identità, visione, cambiamento. Ricerca “Scena

creativa”: Un progetto per Milano Assolombarda – Xing. Zukin, S. (1995) The cultures of cities. Oxford: Blackwell.

milan: a city easy for working but difficult for...

Documents