Creative milieus in the metropolis’ periphery: from the massification of Lisbon’s city centre to the liveliness of ‘Margem Sul’

The importance of creative activities in urban revitalisation and regeneration processes is well documented, as well as their role in territorial development, with particular attention to specific milieus or ambiances which enhance creativity and cultural liveliness, mostly in the historical or functional centres of urban areas. However, the peripheries of metropolitan areas have been quite neglected in these studies. This chapter analyses the creative dynamics visible in the peripheries of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, which face deep socio-economic restructuring. Focusing in particular on the case of the Barreiro area, which illustrates the deep transformations and the huge territorial development challenges faced by these peripheral metropolitan zones, the authors analyse some recent creative projects based on the mobilisation of local creative entrepreneurship as the source of new co-production of knowledge, highlighting the importance of the endogenous potential and path trajectory in the nurturing of sustainable long-term dynamics, from a local development point of view.