Using as a survey the 'creative quarters' that proliferate in the city and taking in the background the more popular literature on the subject, this article uses some lessons of Henri Lefebvre by an approach of urban political economy, with the intention of demonstrating that the 'creative quarters' can be regarded not only as a spontaneous urban pot-pourri of buildings, courtyards, streets and a dense network of social and economic relations, but also as terrain subject to the interests of major social forces, economic and political. From the report of two milanese 'creative quarters’ emerged how the specialization and the functional diversification of urban organization have become a means by which the developer can exert a significant influence in the transformation of urban space.
Keywords: Urban polical economy, postmodern city, creative quarters, developers.