The meaning of culture in a globalised world

The meaning of culture in a globalised world

The phase of ‘globalisation’ now coming to an end has been a process of:

• economic restructuring (growth of construction, retail,finance, tourism, commercial sport, the creative industries)• intensification of flows (of capital, media messages, people)• standardisation• erosion of local distinctiveness • growing popularity of standardised metropolitan models(also for small and medium-sized cities)

Some processes of urban change, and their implications for European cities

The standardisation of city centres: towards ‘anywhereville’?

The ‘anywhere’ shopping mall

Related concepts:

cloned townsStarbucksificationmallingthe geography of blandnessthe throwaway, disposable city

From Charles Landry The Art of City Making

Urban sprawl

The rhetoric of environmental sustainability, the tyranny of car dependency and the ‘obese city’

Non-places or places for social interaction? New cultural programming strategies and partnerships

The rise of out of town ‘citadels of entertainment’

The sad centrality of car parks in ‘shedland’

The rise of out of town ‘citadels of entertainment’

Possible responses:

The Cittaslow movementThe ‘Keep Louisville Weird’ campaignThe UK’s localism and ‘Big Society’ agendasTax relief for independent shopsUrbanism plans to protect distinctiveness

Less leisure time for people in work: the problem of work-life balance

The fast city and the values of slowness(see www.slowmovement.com)

Other processes of change

Information overload and its consequencesNew roles for public libraries?

‘Night-time economies’: the dream of a convivial café culture, and the reality of the ‘alcoholic agora’ (and its costs)

Conflicts between revellers and residents in city centres

Some issues in urban cultural strategies today

An uneasy coexistence of policy rationales from different historical periods

1) the intrinsic and civilising value of access to culture (1940s-1950s)

2) the transformative potential of ‘cultural democracy’ and active participation (1970s)

3) culture as a tool for economic development and place marketing (1980s-1990s)

4) cultural actions to change the behaviours of individuals and communities (1990s)

Some issues in urban cultural policy today

‘Newism’ and the neglect of the (tangible and intangible) heritage, and the rhetoric of historical continuity

Some issues in urban cultural policy 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)

CHANGE

Urban cultural policies in the contextof the economic downturn

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 unemploymentfinding new uses for redundant buildingsfostering a climate of resilience, exploration and innovation

Urban cultural policies in the contextof the economic downturn

Decline of community facilities

Impact of reductions in availability of benefits

Less money for culture-led regeneration projects

Lower priority to artistic and creative practices in schools

An ideological attack on culture?

Lower cost of premises for cultural activities

More opportunities for experimental artistic interventions

Less bureaucracy and red tape: a more positive attitude to risk?

Possible new funding partnerships

New ‘sub-cultural’ and internet-based forms of participation

Growing cultural hybridity

New types of cultural institutions, beyond dividesbetween culture and commerce, production and display

Silo Mentality

The problems generated by focusing funding on consumption activities, flagship buildings and city

centres

Multiple deprivation in many other inner urban and peripheral areas

Social exclusion: the importance of access policies, ‘soft boundaries’ and public space networks

Urban cultural policies and social inclusion

Strategies for community engagement

‘New commissioning’Participatory budgetingInvitation policies

Importance of the ‘porosity’ and permeability of cultural institutions

Urban cultural policies and social inclusion

The growth of immigration and multi-ethnicity

National approaches to managing ethnic diversity are being questioned

Corporate multiculturalism (UK, Netherlands)

The search for alternative concepts -e.g. integration and communitycohesion

The growth of immigration and multi-ethnicity

Civic cultural integration (France)

National approaches to managing ethnic diversity are being questioned

The debate around the concept of ‘interculturalism’ and its applications

Definitions

What makes a city intercultural?

The value of conflict

Does immigration make towns and cities more standardised or more distinctive?

Cultivating ‘cultural literacy’: creating new local glossaries

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

The debate around the concept of ‘interculturalism’ and its applications

The temptation of ‘theming’ ethnic quarters

Exploring shared histories and heritage

Holistic cultural/social/health centres: the Peepul Centre, Leicester

European initiatives: the EU’s Year of InterculturalDialogue (2008) and the Council of Europe’sIntercultural Cities research project (www.coe.int/interculturalcities)

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Comedia’s international action research project “The Intercultural City: Making the Most of Diversity”

The Intercultural City, by Phil Wood and Charles Landry, London, Earthscan, 2008

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Creating an Intercultural Civic Identity and Culture

Creating intercultural architecture, urban design and public art

Reshaping collective memory to include “the other”

Transforming mentalities through public awareness and education initiatives: initiatives in Berlin, Rotterdam and Tuscany

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Some issues raised by the project:

Counteracting Ethnic Segregation in Urban Spaceand Public Life

The strategic siting of cultural infrastructure: examples from England, Austria and Portugal

Countering ethnic stigmatisation through place marketing: Hyson Green, Nottingham

From multicultural to intercultural festivals: examples fromRotterdam, Edinburgh , Berlin and Manchester

Diversifying the airwaves

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Some issues raised by the Intercultural City project:

Urban ‘cultural planning’ as a possible response to aspects of the present crisis

The work of Partners for Livable Places (US),Colin Mercer (Australia), Comedia (UK)

‘Cultural planning’ as ‘thinking culturally (and artistically) about public policy’ or as

‘the strategic and integral planning and use of cultural resources for urban and community development’ (Colin Mercer)

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

holistic, interdisciplinary, lateral:

importance of collaborative working e.g. cittadellarte, Biella, Italy

(www.cittadellarte.it)

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Learning from the processes of cultural production, which tend to be:

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Cittadellarte and its offices:

EducationEcologyEconomyWorkPoliticsSpiritualityCommunicationArchitectureFood

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Collaborative projects in urban lighting:

Luci d’artista, TurinLyonValon Voimat (Forces of Light) festival, HelsinkiLight Night, LeedsSee Zenobia Razis Reflections on Urban LightingComedia, 2002

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Towards collaborative approaches toplace marketing

Chris Murray Making Sense of Place (2001)Revealing and discovering, not designing and selling, place identitiesGoing beyond product marketingCelebrating complexity and layering

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Some data from Murray’s research

Local people - friendly 163Local people - other references 15

Local culture - diversity 157Local culture - homogeneity 495

The present 223The past/heritage 1,134

Uniqueness (non-specific) 218Uniqueness (specific) 61

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

need to reassess ideas of ‘success’ and ‘failure’

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Learning from the processes of cultural production, which tend to be:

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

Proposal for Mafia Museum, Salemi, Sicily

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Learning from the processes of cultural production, which tend to be:

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 local traditions of creativity and innovation

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Inspiring initiatives in small and medium-sized European cities

Festivals as catalysts (Mantua, Modena, Rennes)

Contemporary architecture and public art in historic environments (Graz, Nimes, Munster)

Making historic layers more legible (Burgos)

Innovative transport systems (Perugia, Grenoble)

Linking art and new technology (Karlsruhe)

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Cultural policy issues in small and medium-sized European cities

(based on the work of Bas van Heur)

Small cities as ‘less than’ big cities: a self defeating narrative

Creativity as “the search for innovative moments in existing local economies”

Greater focus on quality of life, the natural environment and older people

Is social conservatism necessarily the other side of the coinof social cohesion?

The importance of urban alliances and networks (cittaslow, HERO,Alpine Space, Eco Kommun

Differences between ‘cultural planning’ and ‘cultural policy’: the two approaches are complementary

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

The strategic main lines of a local cultural policy

Cultural policy proper (sectoral policies on arts, museums, libraries, media, other aspects of the cultural industries)

Cultural planning approaches to:

youth policyplace marketing and tourism promotionphysical planninglocal economic development

The relationship between sectoral/vertical andIntegrated/ horizontal functions

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Researching and mobilising local cultural resources

A definition of local cultural resources:

• Arts and media activities and institutions• Sports and recreation• The tangible and 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?Klaus Siebenhaar’s marketing strategy for Berlin The politics of symbolic contestation The production of official urban mindscapes

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

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• the uses of time• different moral, aesthetic,philosophical,

organizational and policy concepts and styles

• The importance of making innovative links between different types of cultural resources

Can implementation problems be overcome?

Training needs

Institutional arrangements for effective partnerships

Emerging professional specializations: the ‘cultural cartographer’,the intercultural mediator and the cultural planner

The fragility of existing cultural planning experiments

The need for international cultural strategies

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Can implementation problems be overcome?

The continuing problem of the relatively low politicalstatus of culture

Culture as a ‘soft option’ for public expenditure cuts

Towards new forms of elected urban culturalleadership?

Towards new European NGOs to campaign for investment in urban culture?

Rethinking Policy & Planning approaches to creative spaces in urban & rural centres

Franco Bianchini

Professor of Cultural Policy and PlanningFaculty of Arts, Environment and TechnologyLeeds Metropolitan UniversityUK

E-mail f.bianchini@leedsmet.ac.uk orBianchin@aol.com