This volume critiques the current model of the creative economy, and considers alternative models that may point to greener, cleaner, more sustainable and socially just cultural and creative industries. Aimed at the nexus of cultural and environmental concerns, the book assesses the ways in which arts and cultural activities can help develop ideas of the 'good life' beyond excessive and unsustainable material consumption, and explores the complex interactions between cultural prosperity, place and the quality (and availability) of employment, leisure and the rights to self-expression. Adopting a deliberately wide and inclusive interdisciplinary and international perspective, contributors to this volume showcase current and future ways of 'doing' creative economy, ecologically, otherwise and differently. In 11 chapters, the book outlines some of the most relevant arguments from among the growing literature that critically analyzes the current creative economy, with a focus on issues of gentrification, inequality and environment. This volume is timely, as it emerges into a political and economic context that is seeking desperately to 'reboot' the economy, re-establish 'business as usual' and to do so partly through significant investment and expansion in the creative economy. The book will be suitable for upper level undergraduates and postgraduates studying a wide range of topics, including: cultural and creative industries, media and communications, cultural studies, cultural policy, human geography, environmental humanities and environmental policy, and will be of further interest to arts professionals, creative economy researchers and policymakers. The chapter "Towards a New Paradigm of the Creative City or the Same Devil in Disguise? Culture-led Urban (Re)development and Sustainability" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Dr. Kate Oakley is Professor of Cultural Policy at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds. She was previously Head of the Centre for Cultural Policy and Management at City University, London and a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts London. Her research interests include the politics of cultural policy, work in the cultural industries, and regional development. She came into academia following careers as a journalist, market researcher and civil servant and for 15 years she ran a successful consultancy and research business in the cultural sectors. Her portfolio of projects included: work on cultural and creative industry strategies; work on the social impacts of culture and the arts; work on skills and employment in the cultural industries and cultural policy advice at a variety of spatial levels. Dr. Mark Banks is Professor and Director of CAMEo Research Institute for Cultural and Media Economies, University of Leicester - an interdisciplinary institute launched in 2016 to explore the changing productive dynamics of the cultural and creative industries, cultural consumption, media and arts. Prior to this, he was Director of Research (2015-16) and Academic Programme Director (2014-15) in the Department of Media and Communication. His research is mostly concerned with the relationships between culture and economy, mainly in the context of the cultural industries, and he is especially interested in issues of cultural work in relation to identity, access and opportunity, social justice, and moral economy.