A local productive arrangement from the perspective of cultural regulation theory: the case of Porto Digital encompassing Portomídia

Abstract This study describes how the process of cultural regulation occurs in the expansion of the center for information and communication technology Porto Digital, turning local a pole of creative economy called Portomídia - Center of Entrepreneurship and Technology of the Creative Economy. Under the prism of cultural studies, based on cultural regulation theory, we analyze the present articulated meanings to expand the scope of this technological system. We developed an embedded case study to evaluate the local productive arrangement Porto Digital with different levels or units of analysis involving assessments on cultural regulation in the areas of institutional, economic and subjective power. These analytical categories were based on the analysis of the influence of economic power (class system) and institutional power (rules and regulations) on the configuration of this cluster of creativity-intensive enterprises. In turn, subjective power manifests itself in the entrepreneurial act as a fundamental political action for the expansion of the creative pole.