This paper explores the discourse of regional competitiveness through the lens of citizenship and what can be understood as desired regional inhabitants. The concept of citizenship will be used as an analytical tool for studying power structures that is connected to processes of forming regional spaces and subjectivities.  We investigate the notions of citizenship present in the highly influential theories concerning the ‘creative class’ first introduced by Richard Florida. Departing from a general framework of governmentaliy we understand the regional development as a regime practice with particular rationalities and technologies. We argue that the general rationality of globalization and regional competition produces certain representations of citizenship and that regions deploy different techniques in order to attract what they perceive as desired citizens.

We then proceed by illustrating how the rationalities present in the theories of the creative class are manifested within regional development plans in the Nordic countries and how they get concrete effects in terms of citizenship. In a concluding section we turn to discussing the implications in terms of inclusion/exclusion, equality and democracy