Can creative cities be inclusive too? How do Dubai, Amsterdam and Toronto navigate the tensions between creativity and inclusiveness in their adoption of city brands and policy initiatives?

Creative cities tend to generate higher levels of innovation and economic growth as well as be vibrant places to live. Many cities in the world have adopted the creative city label to realise these benefits. It is not certain


Introduction
Urban governments worldwide have increasingly engaged in city branding of which the adoption of popular city labels is an essential element (De Jong et al., 2015;Green et al., 2016;Lucarelli and Olof Berg, 2011).Those city labels represent the industrial or economic profiles cities wish to convey to the outside world.A sustainable city, smart city, ecological city, knowledge city and resilient city are examples of the 35 labels examined by Schraven et al. (2021) in their latest study.We confine ourselves to two prominent labels: the creative city and the inclusive city.Recently, cities such as Melbourne and Copenhagen, which have acquired fame as 'creative cities', have added the label 'inclusive' to their brand (Anttiroiko and De Jong, 2020;Liang et al., 2021).Although most city labels aim to balance social liveability, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability, not all labels can be effortlessly combined without potentially causing inconsistencies and tensions in branding and policy efforts.While attracting and preserving a thriving creative class primarily benefits economic vibrancy, being inclusive refers to broader social goals that may or may not be favourable for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.To some extent, a creative city agenda could even contradict inclusive development, as Richard Florida (2017) and Joel Kotkin (2014Kotkin ( , 2020) ) have amply demonstrated.More specifically, while a creative city may target the creative class to generate economic value, an inclusive city is expected to remove obstacles for all groups and classes, including elderly and disabled people who do not per se generate significant economic value.Furthermore, while the creative city has been a conventional approach to urban economic development for twenty years, the inclusive city in fact did not originate from this same discourse.However, matters of inclusion do condition -and partly facilitate -urban economic development.We believe it is important to examine the partial overlap of these two areas of diversity and tolerance.
The combination of creative & inclusive can be problematical for two reasons.First, it is difficult to demarcate what 'creative' and 'inclusive' mean in practice and how cities realise this.Especially the concept 'inclusion' is underdefined, since it is still to be determined which social groups are to be included in what specific locations, opportunities, or activities and how the interests of certain identified groups can be considered and respected without unduly compromising those of others.The second reason is that the creative city may lead to socio-economic class divides; an exclusion ground often brushed aside (Anttiroiko and De Jong, 2020).Whereas creative cities tend to be more inclusive in age, religion, political views and broader gender issues, socio-economic inequality is likely to increase (Hall, 2004;Peck, 2007).It is difficult for cities to be inclusive on all counts or to be creative and fully inclusive at the same time.In other words, there are possible tensions between the use of the creative city label and that of the inclusive city.This article examines these tensions by analysing city brands and policy initiatives.More specifically, we raise two questions: • How can the concepts 'creative city' and 'inclusive city' be operationalised, measured, and related to each other?• How do cities that adopt these two city labels implement them in their city branding and policy initiatives?What can we say of the internal consistency and tensions between these brands and policies?
We have selected three creative cities of repute on three continents (Amsterdam, Dubai, and Toronto) and examined the possible tensions between creativity and inclusion in place branding and policy initiatives.In our theoretical approach, we rely on approaches and methodologies in place branding and on academic work related to urban development and political science.This includes studies on how creative cities realise social inclusion (Baycan, 2011;Lee and Hwang, 2012;Peck, 2007;Pike et al., 2017), and how inclusive cities can be defined and operationalised (Anttiroiko and De Jong, 2020;Broadhead, 2017;Bunnell, 2019;Greene et al., 2016).Therefore, this study makes a significant contribution to research on urban policy by conceptualizing the concepts creative and inclusive city, mapping convergence and divergence in their meaning and policy implications and empirically applying them to three different cities.In other words, our study contributes to the current literature by offering a more thorough view of how the creative and inclusive labels interact and how their interrelationships can be conceptualized and implemented in branding and policymaking.
The upcoming sections discuss the following.Section 2 presents an overview of the current theories on creative and inclusive cities, assesses how cities move from branding to adopting policy initiatives and affect the viability of creative and inclusive city labels.Section 3 describes the research methodology and design.Section 4 subsequently presents the results, exploring Dubai, Amsterdam, and Toronto's branding and adopted policies related to creativity and inclusion.Section 5 is the analysis section; we compare branding and policymaking in the three cities and map the tensions between creativity and inclusion.In chapter 6, we draw conclusions, summarise our findings and explore avenues for future research.

Defining and operationalising the creative city
Part of the ambiguity surrounding the 'creative city' policy approach might be attributed to a weak notion definition.Landry and Bianchini (1995) have been credited with the first cohesive statement on the creative city.Landry (2000) connected his work within UK urban development to a new repositioning of cultural industries and regeneration in the late 1980s and early 1990s.A creative city is therefore one where citizens employ innovation to address social problems such as a growing dissatisfaction with the built environment, an increase in alienation and fear of citizens, social fragmentation, mobility inequity, and 'the diminishing sense of locality, shared place and identity' (Landry and Bianchini, 1998, pp. 14-15).In 1998, the term 'creative' became popular in several theoretical contributions.This reflected a shift toward the creation of cultural and creative products and the prevalence of skilled workers, seen to be drivers behind the new knowledge/creative economy (Emery and Flora, 2006;John, 2001;Throsby, 1999).This movement may be traced back to the birth of the phrase "creative industries" (DCMS, 1998) and then to the establishment of the "creative class" concept (Florida, 2002).The use of the term "creative industries," as well as the DCMS definition, was harbinger of a reinforced emphasis on the creation of cultural/creative products, creative people, and the infrastructure that supports them (Baker and Huber, 2013;McNulty, 1988;Paddison and Miles, 2020).As a place where creative enterprises are concentrated and nurtured, a new conceptualisation of the creative city emerged (Montgomery, 2005).
Scholars such as Landry (2012) and Sasaki (2004Sasaki ( , 2010) ) stressed the need for social inclusion in creative cities, and emphasised the importance of harnessing grassroots creative and cultural sectors on the urban tissue.A socially inclusive creative city, according to Sasaki (2010), is a city that produces unique trends in arts and culture while also promoting innovation by utilising the creative activities of artists, creators, and ordinary people.The scholarly work of Landry (2012) concentrates on the practical use of creativity in urban renewal policymaking.He claims that the creativity of urban residents determines future urban policies and steers urban transformation processes.On the other hand, Florida's theory focuses on the rise of the 'creative class' in American and other Western societies.In economies increasingly driven by knowledge, cities and provinces with creative talent thrive (Florida, 2002(Florida, , 2004)).Florida claims that firms follow creative talents and not the opposite, as creatives have many locational choices.Both Landry and Florida thus postulate that cities need to compete to attract and retain creative people.This study adopts the definition offered by Florida because it has a significant correspondence with the so-called exclusion grounds (see below under 'Defining the inclusive city') that we aim to examine.Moreover, Florida's definition has become more influential in international literature and urban practices.
The creative class comprises labourers who employ their creativity to add value to goods and services (Florida, 2002).This class encompasses symbolic and knowledge workers and technical and artistic professions.Distinct work patterns are also associated with the rise of the creative class, such as the disappearance of Taylorist systems of employment control and a more highly skilled and adaptable workforce (Leslie and Catungal, 2012).Creativity turns out to have distinguished geography.Florida (2002) implies that cities with a prominent creative class are more likely to be economic winners.Their existence is fundamental to the fate of cities and city regions because it encourages innovation and attracts investors and companies.Cities have deployed strategies that focus on the 'quality of place': this includes not only local facilities, such as authentic neighbourhoods, art galleries, a vibrant music scene, outdoor spaces, cafes, and historic architecture, but also a tolerant spirit.An open and tolerant milieu indicates low entrance barriers to human capital essential for promoting new ideas (ibid) because the creative class needs to think "outside the box" and confront deeply rooted beliefs.
However, due to the reliance of the creative city concept on both competitiveness in a capitalist economy (enterprise, creative industries, growth, talent) and social issues linked to local development (inclusion, tolerance, participation, diversity), the notion of the creative city has evolved into a somewhat ambiguous term.According to Florida (2002), attracting the creative class will serve everyone in the long run since urban growth will boost the entire society.This suggests a concept of social justice that is 'trickled down.' As Shearmur (2007) points out, there are parallels here with Reagan's trickle-down economics, which A. Alsayel et al. called for lower taxes for the wealthy and the elimination of economic restrictions.Because a 'rising tide raises all boats,' the assumption was that enriching the top classes would enhance the situation of all classes.These policies were ineffective, as seen by the widening divide between rich and poor in the United States since the 1980s (Leslie and Catungal, 2012).
Measuring creativity has been challenging because it is a vague and intangible asset.A widespread notion has been the 3Ts (Talent, Technology, and Tolerance).While both the creative class concept and its index have been commonly accepted, two essential components of creativity appear to be missing: culture and creative infrastructure.Yum (2020), therefore, introduced a new creativity index named 3Ci (Creative class, Creative infrastructure, and culture) to amend the 3 T index and make it more reliable and holistic.He defines creative infrastructure as the primary materials and organizational structures required for creativity performance and cultural places as the proper context for distributing creative ideas and attracting creative inhabitants.Yum (2020) suggests that culture is revealed in places, buildings, and people.Fig. 1 summarises our definition of the creative city, operationalised in Section 3 as inspired by Florida and Yum.

Defining and operationalising the inclusive city
The ethical responsibility to promote social inclusion and a critical attitude against exclusion arose from the pores of democratisation, capitalism, and industrialisation.The twentieth century saw a fast shift in the intellectual landscape, where activist organisations began to view society through the prism of structural oppression and collective victimhood, particularly after the advent of political movements supporting the acceptance of multiple identities.It focused on disadvantaged people's ability to participate in social, economic, political, and cultural life, and stretched the notion of exclusion to any form of isolation and separation from mainstream culture (Duffy, 1995).Henri Lefebvre's (1968) "Right to the city", argued that cities are coproduced by operations, actions, and interactions of urban citizens who all have a right to occupy the city.His perspective was later popularised by David Harvey (2008).From the 1970s on, large-scale social and economic exclusion in Western democracies was empirically demonstrated (Levitas, 2005;Lister, 1998).More recently, inclusion has been incorporated in discourses regarding urban development agendas, with arguments that inclusion promotes creativity and economic growth (see e.g.Lindberg, 2018;Rawal, 2008;Sen, 2000).The pursuit of creative and inclusive urban societies has thus been mainstreamed (Estivill, 2003) and the result was the emergence of a substantial overlap between the creative and inclusive city concepts.
Operationalising the inclusive city is a challenge because it is a complicated process in which trade-offs are made, and disputes are managed.We apply the exclusion grounds of Anttiroiko and De Jong (2020), which identifies multi-dimensional categories from which groups of individuals may be excluded (see Fig. 2).They define the inclusive city as a healthy and thriving city that has removed all unnecessary obstacles to dignity, freedom, self-expression, and value creation.We apply this model because it is multi-dimensional, as Liang et al. (2021) recommend and enables us to explore and visualise the trade-offs of policymakers between the creative and inclusive city and between various exclusionary grounds.

Urban governance of creative & inclusive cities: place branding and policies
Urban governance enacts policy goals and their application in policy initiatives to materialise them, discussed and pursued in collaborative networks (Fransen et al., 2021).In this paper, the policy goals are to become a creative and inclusive city, enacted in place branding and materialise in policy initiatives.Moreover, the broad angle of urban economic development will be taken as point of departure in both our research framework and indicator system for studying contribution of creative and inclusive city ideas to the urban economic development agendas in the three cities under study.This is reflected in how we look at city branding and policy initiatives as approaches and actions to strengthen the respective local economies.Anttiroiko (2014) highlights that place branding supported by stakeholders such as urban developers, investors, experts, and individuals may critically impact a city's future development.City branding is a vital instrument for coordinating and combining various elements in a new vision of what the city should become.We have included it in this study as the first indication of how the city labels 'creative city' and 'inclusive city' have been fleshed out and a reference point of where potential tensions can be found.Lu et al. (2017) define place branding policy as the practice of conveying a brand or symbolic essence of a nation, region or city to target audiences for enhancing one's fame and reputation or otherwise obtaining strategic gain.The second indication is the adoption of policy initiatives.Place branding can trigger policy instruments that may enable other policies and policy initiatives (Oliveira, 2015).According to De Jong et al. (2019), adopting policy initiatives can be defined as actions initiated in response to generally formed policy ambitions and goals.Hence, the visible manifestation of the brand's actual implementation.We examine the policies initiated by municipal governments in response to generally formulated city brands and investigate the realisation of creative and inclusive city ambitions through policy instruments.Fig. 3 portrays our conceptual reasoning.We take the creative and inclusive city labels as a point of departure and examine their branding policies and policy initiatives, how they are fleshed out, and what concordance and discordance between them can be found.That gives us an idea of how each city under study governs the inclusive creative city.

Research design
This study examines the tensions between realising a city's creative and inclusive elements.We adopt a multiple case study strategy with an exploratory qualitative approach as our research strategy.Branding and planning practices must be understood within the particular context in which they are embedded as real-life phenomena which are not "easily observable outside the natural settings in which they occur" (Bonoma, 1985, p. 202).Furthermore, case studies help to produce answers to 'Why?', 'What?' and 'How?' questions.Since the paper aims to examine how cities present themselves and their policy intentions to the outside world rather than the actual implementation process, content analysis of public sources rather than in-depth interviews or surveys were applied to assess the three selected cities' development plans, strategic visions and policy initiatives (see: Table 1).Content analysis of public sources A. Alsayel et al. such as municipal websites is a widely used and legitimate research method in place branding studies (Chan and Marafa, 2013;Govers and Go, 2004;Noori and De Jong, 2018;Opoku and Hinson, 2006).However, whenever we believed the information was unclear or incomplete, local experts in the three cities were consulted for more details regarding branding policies and policy initiatives.When gathering information, utilising distinctive sources enables researchers to build extensive and profound comprehension of the phenomena being examined and the specific situation in which they occur (Cassell and Symon, 2005).

Case study selection
Dubai, Amsterdam and Toronto are chosen as case studies because of their efforts at branding themselves as creative and inclusive cities, their role as leaders in this area within their respective continents and their well-known permissive reputation.According to the PICSA Index (D&amp and L Partners, 2019) on inclusive prosperity, Toronto won the most Intensive Inclusive Prosperity Practice award in 2019, while Amsterdam was within the top 20 inclusive cities list.Moreover, on the 2018 Millennial Cities Ranking (Nestpick, 2018), Amsterdam and Toronto were among the highest-ranked cities regarding business ecosystem, amenities and essential services, openness, recreation, and LGBT friendliness.All three cities are well-positioned in Kearney's Global Cities Index 2020, Toronto 19, Amsterdam 23, and Dubai 27, the last one being the highest-ranking city in the Middle East.Although Cooper (2013, pp. 65-71) has described Dubai as a "City of Gold, City of Slaves" and it is often lambasted for disregarding human and (foreign) workers' rights, the Government of Dubai has made concerted efforts to align its strategic objectives with the global agenda, to reach the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) principle (Zakzak et al., 2019).Dubai's strategic location, global connectedness, business-friendly orientation, and proactiveness in diversifying its industrial profile implies that inclusion has become instrumental for its urban economic development.A final reason for our selection is that we expect variety among these three cities in how they define and elaborate creativity and inclusion within their divergent regional contexts, the Anglo-American, Western European, and Middle Eastern contexts, respectively.

Geographic discrimination
Policy measures designed to increase the inclusion of special identity groups

Operationalisation
Data collection is operationalised in the following order.The first step examines the three cities' creative and inclusive city branding by exploring their official websites and relevant documents.We concentrate on the level of urban policymaking given that Dubai, Amsterdam, and Toronto, as large public bodies operating in federal or decentralised unitary states, all enjoy substantial autonomy in their branding and urban economic development.However, we are aware that in other institutional contexts such as those of China or Saudi Arabia, urban policies are far more influenced by national plans and policies.We identify branding policies by looking at the main objectives, themes and pillars of the city visons and urban plans.After collecting all branding profiles, we classify their branding efforts based on our inclusive and creative city frameworks, as presented in Table 2.
Secondly, we map the adopted policy initiatives from each city's official action plans or sectoral implementation plans.We look at the level of detail, such as implementing plans for policy initiatives.The third step analyses cities' attention to creative and inclusive city labels in their branding strategies and adopted policy initiatives.We use an ordinal scale to indicate how much value cities attach to each aspect of creativity and inclusivity (Table 3 and Appendix 1: Calibration of raw data).Central attention (four bullets) will be given if more than two clear branding policies and detailed policy initiatives with an implementation plan.Regular attention (three bullets) is given to two clear branding policy initiatives.Some attention (two bullets) is given if there are one clear branding policy and detailed policy initiatives.Occasional attention (one bullet) is given if there is an embedded branding policy and policy initiatives under the general policy.Finally, a score of zero is awarded if there is no branding policy and policy initiative in place at all.The final step of our research operationalisation is a comparative analysis of differences in attention that cities give to place branding versus policy initiatives (do cities deliver what they promise?) and attention given to the various elements of creativity versus inclusion (what tensions arise?).Finally, the results will be compared between the three cities.

Results
This section describes the study results on (1) place branding as creative cities, (2) place branding as inclusive cities (Table 4), (3) policies to be creative and (4) policies to be inclusive (Table 5).It shows which dimensions of the 'creative city' and the 'inclusive city' each city concentrates on and which ones are less intense.

"Creative City" branding
The city of Amsterdam aims to offer "choices that turn wealth created by activity, creativity, and entrepreneurship into opportunities for everyone" (Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018, p. 3).Amsterdam has a history of creativity in transforming the city and aims to retain, develop and access this creative resource.It pays regular attention to attracting the creative class and boosting quality universities and creative industries.Central attention is given to the rest infrastructure policies.The coalition agreement of the governing parties mentions that "we will increase the visibility and presence of recreational activities" (Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018, p. 22), and "Green and parks will be connected by networks of green city streets and green connections" (Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018, p. 43).Tolerance policies likewise have central attention.The city emphasises that "Amsterdam will always offer space for free speech, creativity, and entrepreneurship, which are part of the DNA of the city" (Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018, p. 4).Besides, the central chapter in the coalition agreement is all about inclusive and connected Amsterdam and offers "One Amsterdam, all Amsterdammers!" as its slogan.Cultural buildings and places receive occasional attention by releasing extra funds for the Arts Plan.The city secures space for artists by offering more breeding grounds and rehearsal rooms for musicians and promoting experimental festivals in the public space.
The City of Dubai pays central attention to attracting the creative class, providing technology, rest infrastructure, and cultural buildings.Dubai brands itself as a place "where creativity is boundless; where tradition and modernity exist side-by-side" (Dubai Culture, 2018, p. 4).The city uses a fair amount of terminology around creativity in its core and sectoral plans.Dubai Plan 2021 has a pillar labelled as 'THE PEOPLE -A City of Happy, Creative & Empowered People'.The plan concentrates on establishing a creative environment that enables creative people to play an active, productive, and innovative role in all aspects of society and the economy.The cultural plan positions Dubai as "A global centre for culture, an incubator for creativity, A thriving hub for talent" (Dubai Culture, 2018, p. 13).Regarding the creative class, the cultural plan considers it as its mission to "Attract and retain diverse global talent" and "To enable talent to be inspired to connect and create"(Dubai Culture, 2018, p. 16).In terms of the technology and rest infrastructure, the plan aims to foster an ecosystem for young talent to thrive inside and outside the education system.Furthermore, the plan expresses a desire to integrate art and creativity into the city's urban space.Dubai pays regular attention to tolerance and cultural places.It aims to be a place 'where the world comes together to celebrate difference and common ideals' (Dubai Culture, 2018, p.4).The brand furthermore aims "to make culture everywhere and for everyone", "to position Dubai on the global cultural map", and "to ensure national heritage is preserved, celebrated and globally recognised"(Dubai Culture, 2018, p. 3).
The city of Toronto pays central attention to all creative city variables.It has started to brand the creative city agenda since 2001 by producing 'The Creative City: A Workprint'.The Culture Plan for the Creative City has been adopted as a 10-year strategy outlining 63 recommendations to position Toronto as an international cultural capital.A new Action Plan has been released named 'Creative Capital Gains' to enhance Toronto's position as a leading international cultural hub and escalate the role of creativity in the city's economic and social development.The document emphasises that "…the city promotes its cultural

"Inclusive city" branding
Amsterdam promotes itself emphatically as an 'inclusive city' by choosing four related and integrated labels: 'Fair City',' Connected city', 'Free city', and 'Democratic city'.Amsterdam's diversity is valued as an essential feature of urban life and an engine for economic growth.It includes ethnicity and sexuality, gender, disability, and age (Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018).The central focus lies on religism, ideological discrimination, racism, and sexism.The city states that 'Anyone who is thrown out on the streets because of his sexuality, spits on her headscarf or his kippah, is groped because of a short skirt or is sent out because of his skin colour will always find us on her or his side'(Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018, p. 24).Moreover, Amsterdam prides itself on its position as a 'Rainbow City' or a 'safe-haven' for bi-cultural youth and refugees with an LGBTQI+ background.Alongside this, the city pays regular attention to the inclusion of the elderly.The plan emphasises that "Amsterdam remains an elderly-friendly city, with special attention to well-being and good care for elderly people with dementia"(Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018, p. 19).The brands only pay occasional attention to disabilities, geographical discrimination, and classism.The city promises that 'when fighting inequality, we will focus on well-being in addition to wealth'(Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018, p. 5).It emphasises that "low-and middle-income people can find a home" and that "everyone has equal opportunities, regardless of the neighbourhood you grow up in or the school you attend" (ibid).
Through the Executive Council, the Government of Dubai introduced the 2014 framework for Dubai 2021.The plan aims to empower and Culture Plan for the Creative City

Table 4
Attention of creativity and inclusion in branding policy.Toronto City appreciates the contributions of its citizens and states that "the diversity among its people has strengthened Toronto" (City of Toronto, 2012, p. 22).The inclusion and diversity goals are central in the Corporate Strategic Plan of the City of Toronto (City of Toronto, 2012 and 2018b).The vision prepared in 2018 describes inclusion as 'valued and celebrated' and considers diverse 'communities' a source of pride' to pursue the mission, vision, and goals of the City Council.The city intends to "create an environment of equality in the government and in the community for all people" (City of Toronto, 2018b, p. 1).In doing so, the documents centrally address religism, racism and sexism, mentions ageism regularly, but by contrast mentions inclusion based on disabilities, income and wealth and location only occasionally.

"Creative City" policy initiatives
The city of Amsterdam emphasises policies that generate creative environments for all its inhabitants."Every Amsterdammer has the opportunity to be able to participate and develop his or her talents and abilities within the city"(Amsterdam Gemeente, 2020, p. 11).Regular attention is paid to cultural places and buildings, technology infrastructure and rest infrastructure.The city has several parks and public spaces policies that catalyse creativity, such as its 'Greenspace policy', 'Green Agenda', 'Amsterdam Forest', and its 'Main Green Structure'.The city has also initiated the 'Amsterdam studios and creative hubs policy 2019-2022', which encourages the development of young artists, allows them to showcase themselves and attempts to distribute scarce studio spaces more fairly.Moreover, the Arts and Culture Memorandum 2017-2020 concentrates on developing talent and art throughout the city, cultural education, archaeological treasures, and the city's strong presence in the international playing field.Regular attention also has been paid to attracting the creative class.A toolkit named 'Diverse Talent: it works!' ('Divers Talent Werkt') provides a step-by-step guide to attract and retain a diverse group of workers.Moreover, the city has adopted the 'Developing talent' policy, which aims to develop a creative environment for writers, dancers, musicians, painters, sculptors, and photographers.To stimulate tech talent, the city facilitates the creation of 'Start-up Amsterdam', The Talent Institute, and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions.Above all, however, Amsterdam stresses tolerance in its diversity policy and under most adjacent policies such as the Culture and the Arts Policy and 'Pink Agenda'.The "Compass for Government" policy fixes overlap between different departments and agendas within city councils and local authorities.
Dubai has enacted a creativity strategy that "fully acknowledges and values design, innovation and creativity, not only for economic growth but also for social progress and urban quality of life enhancement" (UNESCO Creative Cities Network, 2017, p. 2).Central attention is given to attracting the creative class, rest infrastructure, and cultural buildings.Stressing Dubai's position as an incubator of creativity, a global centre for culture, and a hub for talent, it has issued a new system to grant cultural visas to attract creative talents in the fields of creative industries, arts, history, heritage and cognitive studies, and literature and culture (Dubai Culture, 2020b).The Golden visa is another initiative to offer long-term residence to investors, entrepreneurs, specialised talents and researchers.'Arts Services' is another example of identifying, encouraging, and building talent in Dubai within literature, film, performing arts, and visual arts (Dubai Culture, 2020a).Regular attention is given to technological infrastructure: the city has established various educational institutions to catalyse creativity, such as 'the Dubai Design and Innovation Academy' and 'Dubai Centre for Heritage Development'.Moreover, Dubai Design District (D3) was developed as a creative neighbourhood which offers an ecosystem for 500 creative designers from Dubai and beyond, generating about 10,000 new jobs.Dubai pays regular attention to cultural buildings, as envisaged in over 70 galleries, and some attention to cultural places, by initiating 21 events including 'Dubai Design week', 'Cultural-Pottery-Festival', and 'Downtown Design'.
Toronto places the creativity agenda at the heart of its economic development strategy."The Agenda recognises creative and cultural resources form one of four foundations of Toronto's success as a world city and regional economy" (City of Toronto, 2017, p. 4).Creative city pundit Richard Florida describes Toronto as "an inflection point, to

Table 5
Attention of creativity and inclusion in policy initiatives.

Concepts
Variables Dubai Amsterdam Toronto

Creativity
Creative class A. Alsayel et al. strive for greatness as one of the world's magnet creative cities.All the ingredients are here" (City of Toronto, 2017, p. 3).The city pays central attention to all creative city variables.

"Inclusive City" policy initiatives
Amsterdam acknowledges that racism and discrimination exist."The poison of racism and discrimination is slowly seeping into our society and threatens our connected city; we should not and will not shut our eyes to this" (Amsterdam Gemeente, 2018, p. 25).Religism, racism, and sexism receive central attention in the 'Multi-year Policy Plan for Social Issues 2015 -2018'.The approach to gender and sexuality is detailed in the 'Pink Agenda', which supports initiatives of the LGBTI community.The 'Women's empowerment memorandum 2015-2018' aims to strengthen the position of women in reaching their full potential.The 'anti-discrimination policy' covers religion, ideology, race and ethnicity.It focuses on teaching tolerance within schools, preventing workplace discrimination, and combating aggression and violence in public spaces.Furthermore, the city sometimes pays attention to classism and geographic discrimination.The 'Policy Resolution on Reintegration' has been set to increase labour participation and help people living low income.Although Amsterdam pays only occasional attention to ageism and ableism, it deserves mentioning here that several related policies can be found at the national level, such as the Dutch "Disability Benefits Act" and the "Social Support Act." In Dubai, the culture plan states that "we work on producing policies to protect the rights of the vulnerable groups such as Senior Citizens, people with disabilities and children" (Community Development Authority (CDA), 2016, p. 7).Ableism and ageism receive central attention.The city has adopted at least seven policy initiatives to protect the rights of the disabled and six policies to benefit its seniors.For example, Law No. (2) of 2014 aims to provide accessible environments, protection from all forms of neglect, discrimination, and abuse, and respect for the dignity of persons with disabilities.Meanwhile, the Community Development Authority offers services that provide care and improve senior citizens' quality of life through the "Weleef Program", 'Training Senior Citizens Caregivers', 'Thukher Card', and 'Thukher Social Club'.Moreover, The Intergenerational Communication Initiative empowers senior citizens to transfer knowledge and experiences to schools and universities.Dubai occasionally notes classism.Law No. (7) of 2012 concerns social benefits, including periodic benefits, emergency benefits, liquidated benefits, soft loan benefits and temporary housing benefits.Moreover, the Financial Empowerment program aims to empower financial independence by offering training and career opportunities.Although Dubai pays occasional attention to the religism and racism, and no attention at all to sexism, several related policies can be found at the national UAE level, such as National Tolerance Programme, The International Institute for Tolerance, Combatting Sexual Harassment Law, and Federal Decree-Law No. 02 of 2015 on Combating Discrimination and Hatred.
Toronto adopts more than seven policies to implement the inclusive city.Their goal is to build a collective sense of belonging and contribute to individuals and groups to participate in the city's political, social, cultural, and economic life (City of Toronto, 2018a).The policies pay central attention to sexism and regularly note ageism, ableism, and geographic discrimination.Several policy initiatives address sexism, such as the trans youth of colour committees, Rainbow Health Ontario, and Guidelines for Accommodating Gender Identity and Gender Expression.The 'Toronto Seniors Strategy 2.0' aims to provide equitable access for seniors to city services and programmes, while the 'Multi-Year Accessibility Plan 2020-2025' aims to build an inclusive and equitable society that values the contributions of disabled people.Moreover, when it comes to geographic discrimination, the 'Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020' has been developed to ensure that each of 140 neighbourhoods can succeed and thrive.Some attention is given to classism, racism and religism.Two strategies relate to classism, namely 'Resilience Strategy' and 'TO Prosperity: Poverty Reduction Strategy'.Those policies were put in place to tackle growing inequities, including the quality of jobs, income level, housing stability, food access, transit equity, and access to services.The 'Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism' aims to confront racism in response to signals received from various black communities.The 'Toronto For All' initiative aims at evoking awareness and addressing discrimination based on religion and ideology.

Analysis and debate
This section is divided into two parts.First, the three selected cities will be compared regarding their branding activities and adopted policies vis-à-vis creativity and inclusion.In the second part, we examine the tensions between creativity and inclusion.Consistent with our theoretical framework, this research found that most but not all place branding policies are implemented, and that the creative and inclusive city partially overlaps and diverts.

Branding vs. policy initiatives
Four findings stood out when comparing place branding strategies and adopted policies in the three cities (Table 6).First, we find substantial concordance in how the three cities brand themselves and what they undertake in terms of policy adoption.The colour green prevails in Table 6, supporting our finding that overall urban governance delivers what is promised.As mentioned in the literature review, strategic shifts and urban transformation can be triggered through place branding policies and act as enablers of policy change (Anttiroiko, 2014;Lu et al., 2017;Oliveira, 2015).That said, we do find that when cities move from branding to implementation, they do not always fully implement everything they promise.We spotted mismatches between branding and enacted policies, on two counts in Dubai and Toronto and on one in Amsterdam.
These mismatches are highlighted in red in Table 6.In Toronto, the city conspicuously brands itself in combating religism and racism; however, the city does not deliver sufficiently in concomitant policy initiatives.A possible justification is that, although Toronto acknowledges religious, ideological, and racial issues in its branding, its action plans exclusively address discrimination against specific groups such as Aboriginals and blacks.This finding is consistent with Anttiroiko and De Jong (2020), who argued that in varied and polarised environments, such as many US cities, approaches to inclusion are frequently structured along lines of racial identity and leads to particular types of inclusionary initiatives.Amsterdam presents itself as an elderly-friendly city, but the city is not fulfilling its promises in adopting policy initiatives regarding ageism.A possible explanation can be that economic interests prevail while the economic contribution of the elderly is minimal.Dubai brands itself as well-connected, but it underperforms in adopting policy initiatives to reduce geographic discrimination.Dubai is A. Alsayel et al. still a car-dependent city might help us understand this result, as its subway system is still operating relatively well compared to other cities in the UAE and Middle East region.Another intriguing mismatch in Dubai is that it delivers more policy initiatives on income distribution and wealth issues than one would suspect based on its branding.A probable explanation is that the Dubai government offers light forms of income support for the financially underprivileged but no policies that alter structural forms of income inequality.This finding is consistent with those of Cugurullo (2016) and Alawadi (2017), who found that the process of urbanization in Dubai is mainly focused on economic initiatives and social support for residents, with environmental issues either not emphasised or even neglected.
All boxes coloured in orange reflect a possible mismatch between branding and policy initiatives.Our indicators show that more attention might be paid to particular indicators of creativity or inclusion in branding than in policy initiatives or vice versa.However, since the difference is only one bullet, we recommend a more in-depth study.A final finding is that Dubai and Toronto appear to systematically follow Florida's theoretical definition and operationalisation of the creative city.This has guided their policymaking process to the extent that they appear to tick all the creative city model boxes.The picture is bleaker when it comes to inclusion: none of the cities comprehensively addresses all dimensions of inclusion.

Creativity vs. inclusion
Prior studies have found that cities struggle to be fully inclusive on all counts, or to be both creative and fully inclusive at the same time, and that there may be contradictions when the creative city and inclusive city labels are used simultaneously (Anttiroiko and De Jong, 2020;Florida, 2017;Hall, 2004;Leslie and Catungal, 2012;Peck, 2007).This subsection addresses existing mismatches between creativity and inclusion in the three cities (Table 7).We find that creativity receives central or regular attention in branding and related policies.Toronto even pays central attention to all elements of creativity.The lowest scores of occasional attentions we find related to the adoption of policy initiatives vis-à-vis tolerance in Dubai and for branding as to cultural buildings and cultural places in Amsterdam.
By contrast, we find that several aspects of inclusion receive only occasional or no attention at all.Dubai appears to undervalue religism, racism, sexism, classism, and location issues.A likely explanation is that Dubai approaches inclusiveness in a manner consistent with local

Creativity
Creative class  2010), who predicted that various obstacles might be encountered when implementing creative or inclusive place branding strategies in cultural and economic conditions divergent from those in the USA.It also speaks to Nathan's (2005)warning that there are risks involved in transferring the concept of creativity to cultural geographies where different perceptions prevail concerning the tolerance of unique lifestyles.Nevertheless, the wish to realise creativity has driven Dubai toward decidedly higher levels of creativity and inclusion than surrounding Emirati and Arab states.Amsterdam does not have so much an absence of inclusive policies, but it does suffer from low intensity as to policies that reduce the negative impact of ageism and ableism.Amsterdam's focus on economic success probably leads it to partially disregard the needs and interests of people unable to generate innovation and revenue, such as the elderly and disabled people.This result is in line with Scott's (2006) assumption that any attempt to obtain urban creativity in the lack of a broader concern for inclusion in the urban society is radically incomplete.Toronto does not necessarily run short of branding and policies regarding inclusiveness, but it shows only average attention to ableism, religism, racism, income and wealth issues and location issues.A possible explanation may be that the city already initiated its creative city agenda in 2001, while the inclusive agenda has been added only recently to support the creativity boost.Nevertheless, considerations like those in Amsterdam (the elderly and disabled are not money-makers) may also come into play.
Finally, we find that all cities only pay some attention to classism as a form of exclusion.This result confirms previous assumptions that higher levels of inclusiveness on issues of relevance to creativity, such as sexism, religism, racism and discrimination based on ethnicity, may coincide with an increase in socio-economic exclusion (Florida, Kotkin, 2014, 2020and Anttiroiko and De Jong, 2020).Inclusion clearly is a monster with many heads.

Conclusions
This contribution examined how three different cities (Dubai, Amsterdam, and Toronto), considered world leaders in creative and inclusive branding and policies, deal with possible tensions between creativity and inclusiveness.We formulated a theoretical framework that has enabled us to observe and compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of place branding and policies on creative cities and inclusive cities while embracing their multi-dimensionality.We found that although cities sometimes promise more than they deliver, the attention is given to branding and actual policymaking often matches.By and large, we conclude that Toronto underdelivers in issues of religism and racism, while Amsterdam is not fulfilling its promises in adopting policy initiatives regarding ageism and ableism.Van Hoof et al. (2018) reported similar underperformance when they studied the implementation of policy programmes aimed at enhancing age-friendliness in The Hague and Cracow.Under-delivery was either the result of insufficient maturity among urban government to flesh out such policies or of other governmental bodies or organs frustrating their implementation.Dubai underperforms when it comes to adopting policy initiatives to restrict geographic discrimination, and it delivers more than it promises in issues of income and wealth.
More significant is that cities appear to be cherry-picking about what aspects of inclusion they wish to adopt and which not.In many regards, there is a fit between creativity and inclusion, but not on all counts; whenever there is discordance, creativity always prevails over inclusion, whereby economic needs and interests come first.These findings mirror those of Anttiroiko and De Jong (2020), who took Helsinki, Barcelona, Portland, Pittsburgh as case studies.As here, their four cities have one thing in common: inclusion is part of their city plan and strategic urban economic development.At the same time, each of them possesses context-specific characteristics.In varied and polarised environments, such as many US cities, approaches to inclusion are frequently structured along racial lines, with a solid relationship to identity politics, which leads to particular inclusionary initiatives.
Moreover, aspects of inclusion receiving the most attention turn out to be the ones that add to creativity or are at least not in conflict.Dubai embraces aspects consistent with local cultures such as ageism and ableism and ignores elements inconsistent with traditional norms such as classism, religism, sexism, and racism.Amsterdam adopts aspects that contribute to economic growth, such as sexism.However, the intensity of the attention paid to inclusion-oriented policy initiatives that do not generate economic income, such as supporting elderly and disabled people, is low.Toronto shows no absence or low presence of any type of inclusive city aspect; however, it is comparatively weaker in ableism, religism, racism, and discrimination based on income, wealth, and location.
Our study thus confirms the existence of tensions between aspects of creativity and inclusivity, especially concerning age, disability, location and income and wealth.Inclusion based on religion, ideology, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality correlates positively with creativity.Therefore, as creative cities, Amsterdam and Toronto enthusiastically adopt inclusive branding and policies on these grounds: there is an apparent economic gain to be realised.This is less obvious regarding age, disability, and location, which can be considered more or less indifferent to creativity, innovation and economic growth.We also observe cultural patterns in the adoption of branding and policies related to aspects of inclusion.Dubai, for instance, deviates from both Amsterdam and Toronto in paying central attention to ageism and ableism, while other elements receive less attention (albeit more than in other Middle Eastern cities).This finding draws attention to the cultural specificity of creativity and inclusion, especially the tolerance of gender issues and unique lifestyles.Conceptions of creativity and inclusion as developed in the North American context by Richard Florida resonate most comfortably in Toronto, followed by Amsterdam and most minor in Dubai.There are inherent cultural limitations in the transferability of morally laden concepts that should be considered when analysing and offering advice in a policymaking context.
A final conclusion relates to branding and policies to reduce classbased exclusion.Here, we confirm claims made by Florida (2017) and Kotkin (2014Kotkin ( , 2020)), who both argue that creativity tends to aggravate rather than reduce differences in income and capital.This also coincides with pessimism seen among others who argue that creative cities cause a higher level of economic inequality (Chatterton, 2000;Donegan and Lowe, 2008;Rosler, 2010;Wilson and Keil, 2008), and with optimistic authors who argue that social inclusion may lead to creative cities (Landry, 2012;Madanipour, 2011;Pratt, 2011;Sasaki, 2010).
In sum, the creative city boosts tolerance, innovation, economic growth, and inclusion on specific grounds, but this may turn out to be a short-term gain.In the long term, the widening gap between the tolerant and successful creatives on the one hand and the disgruntled and undervalued underclasses on the other consumes the stability of the socio-economic tissue on which current creative economic progress is based.Hence, policymakers should also be brave enough to make a creative city seriously more inclusive by addressing classism and issues outside their cultural boundaries.This dilemma may well engage brains in the urban studies community for several years to come.
The main contribution of this article is, in our view, its comprehensive conceptualisation and operationalisation of the creative and inclusive city by adopting the 3Ts (Florida, 2002), the 5Cs (Yum, 2020) and the exclusion grounds matrix (Anttiroiko and De Jong, 2020) as well as its subsequent empirical application to three cities.The latter is also its main research limitation: only three cases were studied, and the evidence was based on (albeit comprehensive) document analysis.The A. Alsayel et al. findings of this study seem to be solid for the three examined cities in this contribution as well as other cities in North America and Europe for cities mentioned in other sources mentioned above.More broadly, research is also needed to determine if the exact same mechanisms apply and are replicable in cities in developing countries with much lower levels of prosperity.Furthermore, adopting branding strategies and policy initiatives as reflected in policy documents may only partly reflect the reality on the ground.Future research can tell how creativity affects aspects of inclusion more in-depth through interviews with stakeholders and by examining a greater variety of cities.At that stage, issues of political inclusion and participation in decision-making processes can be investigated more in-depth and potential fixes for the abovementioned dilemmas are more likely to emerge.

Table 2
Measurements., festivals and other assets to enhance its position as a Creative City regionally, nationally, and internationally" (Creative Capital AdvisoryCouncil, 2011, p. 1).Toronto recognised the creative city's profile as great cultural diversity, a high percentage of adults with postsecondary education and high proportions of economic activity in the knowledge industries.It promotes itself as a creative city by announcing that it has more than 190,000 cultural jobs, and Toronto's cultural industries generate about $9 billion of GDP each year. institutions

Table 3
Attention level of inclusive & creative city branding and policy initiatives.
"who have always been, and always will be, the bedrock of the city" (ExecutiveCouncil of Dubai, 2018, p. 7).Regarding agism and ableism, central attention goes to the theme: 'Experience: The preferred place to live, work and visit'.Dubai attempts to promote itself as "A City with the Best Educational, Healthcare and Housing Services Catering to Everyone's Needs"(ExecutiveCouncil of Dubai, 2018, p. 13).The inclusion of religious and ideological groups and diversity in race and ethnicity is occasionally mentioned under the theme: 'THE SOCI-ETY: An Inclusive & Cohesive Society'.The theme aims to position Dubai as "A Tolerant, Inclusive and Multi-Cultural Society Embracing the Civic Values of Dubai"(ExecutiveCouncil of Dubai, 2018, p. 11).Regarding distinctions based on geographic criteria, occasional attention can be found under the theme: 'THE PLACE, A Smart & Sustainable City'.The theme emphasises Dubai's ability to create 'A Smart, Integrated and Connected City'.By contrast, inclusion is not addressed based on gender, sexism, income, and wealth.
Toronto Strategic Actions (2019-2022) mentions that it will implement all Florida's recommendations in terms of arts, culture and 'creative capital gains'.More specifically, Strategic Action 2: 'Invest in Culture' concentrates on creating a more vibrant cultural sector and improving the city's liveability.Three main strategies aim to attract the creative class and accelerate creative industries: the 'Start-up Eco-System Strategy: From Concept to Commercialisation', the 'Toronto Newcomer Strategy', and its 'Workforce Equity and Inclusions Plan'.Eleven policies aim to reinforce the creative infrastructure, focusing on building and maintaining facilitates that enhance and stimulate creativity in the city, especially rest infrastructure.Examples are the Toronto Nightlife Action Plan, the Parks & Recreation Facilities Master Plan, and Green Streets Implementation Strategy.Finally, Toronto adopts five main policies related to a creative culture, including the 'Economic Development & Culture Divisional Strategy 2018-2022' and 'Cultural Investment Strategic Priorities for 2020-2024'.

Table 6
Branding vs. adopting policy initiatives.
, in which ageism and ableism matter very much, while other aspects are deemed inconsistent with traditional Emirati norms and values.This obviously has consequences for certain groups of residents in Dubai, i.e., migrants with low education, non-Muslims, and people living outside wealthy neighbourhoods.This finding is reminiscent of Sasaki ( ◍: Occasionally.◍◍:Sometimes.◍◍◍:Regularly.◍◍◍◍:Central.A.Alsayel et al.culture