Issues in European
urban cultural strategies
The phase of “globalisation” in evident crisis in Western Europe since
the mid-2000s has been a process of:
• economic restructuring (growth of construction, retail,
finance, tourism, commercial sports, the creative industries)
• intensification of flows (of capital, media messages, people)
• commodification
• standardisation
• de-territorialisation
• erosion of local distinctiveness and loss of cultural bio-diversity
• attractiveness of standardised metropolitan models for
stadia, concert halls, rock and pop arenas, contemporary art
museums
Some processes of urban change,
and their implications for cultural
policies
The standardisation and corporatisation of city centres
The ‘anywhere’ shopping mall
Urban sprawl
The dull new public realm of ‘anywhere’ out-of-town
shopping centres
Urban sprawl and cultural activities
Citadels of entertainment, from film to fitness
(Marc Augé, Non-Places)
Urban sprawl and cultural activities
The sad centrality of the car park
Threats to participation in cultural activities and local distinctiveness
Less cultural time for people in work:
the problem of work-life balance
The fast city and the values of slowness
(see www.slowmovement.com)
Pensiero meridiano and pensée de Midi
Threats to participation in cultural activities and local distinctiveness
Information overload and its consequences
Threats to participation in cultural activities and local distinctiveness
‘Night-time economies’: the dream of a convivial café
culture, and the reality of the ‘alcoholic agora’ (and its
costs)
Residents v. revellers in many city centres
Some issues in urban cultural policies today
An uneasy coexistence of policy rationales from
different historical periods
1) the intrinsic and civilising value of
access to the arts and sports (1940s-1950s)
2) the transformative potential of ‘cultural democracy’ and active
participation in cultural activities
3) the arts and sports as tools for economic development and
place marketing (1980s-1990s)
4) cultural actions to change the behaviours of individuals and
communities (2000s)
sues in urban cultural policy today
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COUNTRIES IN:
DEFINITIONS
CENTRAL-LOCAL RELATIONS
ROLE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR
STRUCTURE OF ARTS AND SPORTS ECONOMIES
MARKETS FOR CULTURAL CONSUMPTION
NATIONAL POLITICAL OBJECTIVES
An uneasy coexistence of policy rationales from diff
URBAN CULTURAL POLICIES IN EUROPE IN THE “AGE OF
RECONSTRUCTION”
(late 1940s- mid-1960s)
•
NARROW DEFINITION OF ‘CULTURE’
•
‘DEMOCRATIZATION OF CULTURE’
•
RESHAPING OF CITY CENTRES FOR THE CAR
•
DISCONNECTION BETWEEN cultural POLICY AND
URBAN POLICY
issues in urban cultural policy today
URBAN CULTURAL POLICIES IN THE ‘AGE OF
PARTICIPATION’ (late 1960s-early 1980s)
GROWTH OF STATUS/VISIBILITY
WHY?
GROWTH OF LEISURE TIME AND DISPOSABLE INCOME
GROWTH OF POLITICALLY ORGANISED DEMAND FOR
CULTURE/CULTURAL EXPRESSION
GROWTH OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT POWERS
THE SHIFT IN CULTURAL POLICY OBJECTIVES SINCE THE
MID-1980s: THE RISE OF THE ‘AGE OF CITY MARKETING’
• PRESSURE ON THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES
OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES
• NEED TO RESPOND TO ECONOMIC
CHANGE
NEW STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
INVESTMENT IN GROWING SECTORS (tourism, creative industries, commercial
sports)
•
IMAGE TRANSFORMATION
•
INTERNATIONALIZATION
•
URBAN RENEWAL
CULTURE AS A TOOL FOR CITY MARKETING
The cases of Glasgow and Frankfurt
IMPACTS OF URBAN CULTURAL POLICIES
IN ‘THE AGE OF CITY MARKETING’
• RELATIVELY MARGINAL IN TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT AND
WEALTH CREATION (with some exceptions)
•
STRONG IN TERMS OF REGENERATION OF THE
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
•
IMPORTANT IN TERMS OF IMAGE TRANSFORMATION
TWO DILEMMAS OF
URBAN CUULTURAL POLICIES
CONSUMPTION v.
PRODUCTION/PARTICIPATION
CONTAINERS v. CONTENTS
Some issues in urban cultural policies today: the rhetoric
of high quality architecture, and the reality of blandness
“I have learnt from my mistakes, and I can now repeat them almost exactly”
(Peter Cook)
Some issues in urban cultural policies today
The crisis in local (public, private and Foundation)
funding
The problems generated by focusing funding on
consumption activities, (iconic) buildings and city
centres
The problem of social exclusion: the importance of
access policies, ‘soft boundaries’ and public space
networks
Urban cultural strategies and social inclusion
The danger of reverting to culture for the few
Strategies for community engagement
‘New commissioning’
Participatory budgeting
Invitation policies
Importance of the ‘porosity’ and permeability
of cultural institutions
CHANGE
Urban cultural policies in the context of
the economic downturn
Reductions in cultural funding by local authorities and Foundatons
The ‘triple’ (credit, energy and climate) crunch
(New Economics Foundation)
A new focus on production and skills
Creative cities for the world (Charles Landry):
beyond destructive forms of urban competitiveness
New priorities:
reducing the negative impacts of unemployment
finding new uses for redundant buildings
fostering a climate of resilience, exploration and innovation
Ethnic competition for diminishing welfare
resources
The ‘undeserving poor’ as one of the
‘enemies within’: benefits cuts and cultural
representations
The redefinition of ‘fairness’
Hostility to artists, intellectuals, journalists and independent
researchers questioning populist simplifications and
presenting uncomfortable truths
The rise of anti-politics and populism
Corruption scandals, the complexity of multi-level
governance and the difficulty of making Europe
economically competitive stimulate anti-politics
Identification of ‘enemies within’ (the ‘feral youth’ of the
August 2011 urban riots in England, Roma communities,
‘Islamic fundamentalists’, and newly identified supposedly
priviliged, lazy, unpatriotic elites
Contrasting of such internal enemies with ‘virtuous citizens’
The multi-ethnic and multicultural city
National approaches to managing
ethnic diversity are being
questioned
Corporate multiculturalism (UK,
Netherlands)
The search for alternative concepts e.g. integration and community
cohesion
The multi-ethnic and multicultural city
National approaches to managing
ethnic diversity are being
questioned
Civic cultural integration (France)
The transcultural city:
from town twinning
to the Universal
Forum of Cultures (UFC), held in
Barcelona in 2004, Monterrey
in 2007, Valparaiso in 2010
and Naples in 2013
The next UFC will be in
in Amman in 2016
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
The debate around the concept of
‘interculturalism’ and its applications
Definitions
Cultivating ‘cultural literacy’:
creating new local glossaries
European initiatives: the EU’s Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008)
and the Council of Europe’s
Intercultural Cities research project (see www.coe.int)
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
The Intercultural City, by Phil Wood and Charles
Landry, London, Earthscan, 2008
The fragility of intercultural projects in the
recession
The rise of anti-immigration parties and movements
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Some issues raised by the project:
Creating an Intercultural Civic Identity and Culture
Creating intercultural architecture and urban design
Reshaping collective memory to include “the other”
Transforming mentalities through public awareness and
education initiatives
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Thinking culturally (and artistically) about urban policy
‘Cultural planning’ as ‘the strategic and integral
planning and use of cultural resources in urban and
community development’ (Colin Mercer)
‘Cultural planning’ as a possible answer to some of these challenges
The remote origins of cultural planning
In ancient Greece, Rome and the Italian
Renaissance
The revolutionary contribution of
Patrick Geddes: botanist, sociologist, biologist, planner
1) planning is not a physical science but a human science: Folk, Work and
Place
2) survey before plan
3) the importance of ‘civic renewal’
The emergence of the modern concept
and practice of cultural planning in the US
In the 1970s and 1980s
Robert McNulty and Parthers for Livable Places
(now Partners for Livable Communities)
Australian experiences:
the work of Colin Mercer
the Integrated Local Area Plans (ILAPs)
The adoption of cultural planning approaches in
other parts of the world
Some criticisms of cultural planning:
often cultural plans are reduced to arts plans
and creative city strategies to creative industries strategies
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Some interpretations of cultural planning
‘Cultural planning’ as thinking culturally (and artistically) about public policy: a
culturally sensitive approach to urban and regional planning and to
environmental, social and economic policy-making
‘Cultural planning’ as ‘the strategic and integral planning and use of cultural
resources for urban and community development’ (Colin Mercer)
‘Cultural planning’ as ‘cultural plumbing’
Cultural planning and the development of citizenship
‘Cultural planning’ or ‘planning culturally’?
‘Cultural planning’ or ‘culture-based local development’?
Artist-led cultural planning
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Learning from the processes of cultural production:
importance of collaborative working
e.g. cittadellarte, Biella, Italy
(www.cittadellarte.it)
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Cittadellarte and its offices:
Education
Ecology
Economy
Work
Politics
Spirituality
Communication
Architecture
Food
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Collaborative projects in urban lighting:
Luci d’artista, Turin
Lyon
Valon Voimat (Forces of Light) festival, Helsinki
Light Night, Leeds
See Zenobia Razis Reflections on Urban Lighting
Comedia, 2002
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Learning from the processes of cultural production,
which tend to be:
innovation-oriented, experimental, not narrowly
instrumental
need to open up policy systems to young talent, and to set up pilot
projects and R&D budgets removing obstacles to creativity
understanding the difference between ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
critical, questioning, challenging:
welcoming conflicts and contradictions as a creative
resource - e.g. ‘Cities on the Edge’ project, Liverpool
European Capital of Culture 2008
Projects on the Third Reich legacy, Linz European
Capital of Culture 2009
Mafia Museum, Salemi, Sicily
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
cultured, and critically aware of history, local
distinctiveness and of traditions of creativity and
cultural expression:
*documenting local distinctiveness (also through
cultural cartography)
*creating a local ‘image bank’
* drawing inspiration from traditions of creativity and
innovation
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
A ‘cultural planning’ approach to
place marketing
Chris Murray Making Sense of Place
(Comedia, 2001)
Revealing and discovering, not designing and
selling, place identities
Going beyond product marketing
Celebrating complexity and layering
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Some data from Murray’s research
Local people - friendly 163
Local people - other references 15
Local culture - diversity 157
Local culture - homogeneity 495
The present 223
The past/heritage 1,134
Uniqueness (non-specific) 218
Uniqueness (specific) 61
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Researching and mobilising local cultural resources
A definition of local cultural resources:
• Arts & media activities & institutions
• Sports and recreation
• The tangible & intangible heritage
• The local ‘image bank’
• Places for sociability
• Intellectual and scientific milieux and institutions
• Creative inputs into local crafts, manufacturing and
services activities
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Researching and mobilising local cultural resources
A definition of the urban ‘image bank’:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Media coverage
Stereotypes, jokes and ‘conventional wisdom’
Cultural representations of a city
Myths and legends
Tourist guidebooks
City marketing and tourism promotion literature
Views of residents, city users and outsiders
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Understanding urban mindscapes and imaginaries
One gestalt of the urban imaginary?
The politics of symbolic contestation
The production of official urban mindscapes
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
The importance of mapping
• entrepreneurial opportunities & desires, not just needs
• obstacles & constraints, not just opportunities
• gatekeepers, gateways, networks & collaborations
• local talent & creative & innovative milieux
• different moral, aesthetic, philosophical,
organizational and policy concepts and styles
• The importance of making innovative links between
different types of cultural resources – e.g. food and
crafts, or dance and sport
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Can implementation problems be overcome?
Training needs
Institutional arrangements for effective partnerships
Emerging professional specializations:
the ‘cultural cartographer’
the intercultural mediator
the ‘culture and social policy’ specialist
the creative enterprises support specialist
the ‘culture and place marketing’ specialist
the ‘culture and property development’ specialist
the cultural planner
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
The strategic main lines of urban cultural policies
cultural policy proper (sectoral policies on sports, recreation,
play, arts, museums, libraries, media, other aspects of the
cultural industries)
Cultural planning approaches to:
youth policy
place marketing and tourism promotion
physical planning
local economic development
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
The European City/Capital of Culture initiative:
achievements and limitations
Evidence of the ECoC’s popularity
ECoC funding trends and problems
Important impact of ECoCs in terms of ‘symbolic’
urban regeneration
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
1)Narratives of change following industrial decline and
economic restructuring:
Glasgow 1990
Porto 2001
Genoa 2004
Lille 2004
Liverpool 2008
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
2) Heritage cities linking heritage with contemporary
creativity
Bologna 2000
Bruges 2002
Salamanca 2002
Graz 2003
Sibiu 2007
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
3) Economically strong cities wanting to enhance their
cultural status
Graz 2003
Luxembourg 1995 and 2007
Stavanger 2008
Linz 2009
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
4) Cities using the ECoC title to counteract marginality
Lisbon 1994
Weimar 1999
Helsinki 2000
Cork 2005
Pécs 2010
Kosice 2013
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
5) Cities celebrating multiculturalism as an asset
Rotterdam 2001
Essen for the Ruhr 2010
Marseille-Provence 2013
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
The primacy of politics, the autonomy of culture
or a creative solution in between?
There are often conflicts between local politicians and ECoC creative
teams, and between City Councils and ECoC companies
The ECoC year is in some cases the exception to the normality of neglect of
culture by local politicians
Sustainability is difficult if politicians don’t make long term investments
Many different agendas: who owns the ECoC event? The City Council? The
EU? The cultural sector? Local citizens? The private sector?
What are the ingredients of successful partnerships?
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Some operational issues
ECoC teams need training in international cultural co-operation
The value of a closer partnership with the European Commission
‘International’ is not the same as ‘intercultural’
The difficulties of a year-long event
Being serious about monitoring and evaluation, but without overassessing and over-evaluating
A 360 degrees approach to evaluation?
Economic impacts
Social impacts
Artistic/cultural impacts
Environmental impacts
Educational impacts
A 360 degrees approach to evaluation?
Media impacts
Image and local identity impacts
Creative milieu impacts
Gathering the views of different stakeholders and
social groups
See work by Impacts 08 group on Liverpool 2008
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
The ‘European City of Culture’ and ‘European Capital of
Culture’ scheme
Is the ECoC an important event?
Evaluation issues
Is the ECoC a festive and transformational event?
Who owns the ECoC event?
Is the ECoC about culture or about something else?
How can the impetus generated by an ECoC event be
sustained?
How ‘European’ is the European Capital of Culture?
Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres
Can the crisis be an opportunity for innovation?
The continuing problem of the relatively low political
status of culture
The limitations of evidence-based advocacy
The need for political mobilisation
Culture as a ‘soft option’ for public expenditure cuts
Towards new forms of elected urban cultural
leadership and strategic partnerships in which the cultural sector plays a key role (e.g.
Culture Montreal)?
Towards new European NGOs to campaign for investment
in urban culture?
Progressive responses to the crisis
Growth of ‘festivals of ideas’ revitalising local publc
spheres of debate
Emergence of transnational festivals (e.g.
Transeuropa) exploring European alternatives
Progressive responses to the crisis
Pop-up, informal, guerrilla demonstration projects,
often in derelict buildings and sites, prefiguring
alternative futures
Bottom-up, collaborative cultural planning based on
the mapping and analysis of local cultural
resources as the opposite of populism
Need for international cultural strategies at city and
regional level
Professor Franco Bianchini
Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology
Leeds Metropolitan University
UK
E-mail [email protected]
or [email protected]