The creative cities discourse has long-overlooked the impact of the new creative economy regime on rural areas, often legitimazing arguable urban-biased policies. This paper illustrates how two small towns, in Asia and in Europe, have attempted to build creative settlements, setting up agendas for sustainability transition. This has implied a strategy to reposition the local economy around notions of culture and creativity, deconstructing mainstream pro-growth discourses. It has been also accompanied by the experimentation of forms of engagement of local communities. The aim is to explain the challenges encountered during this process, and to distil, from this experience, the potential factors that might hinder a real process of transition towards sustainability in the long run. It will conclude that employing effective creative-led strategies, to overcome 'smallness' and 'marginality' in a sustainable way, should be based on the strengthening of local planning capacities, and the development of effective network governance arrangements.
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