Culture and the City

Creativity, Tourism, Leisure

Deborah Stevenson, Amie Matthews

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781317980834
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

This edited collection will examine the way in which cities are imagined, experienced and shaped by those who reside within them, those who manage or govern them, and those who, as visitor, tourist or traveller, pass through them. Attention will be paid to the influence that these various inhabitants have on city life and living and the dialectic that exists between their sometimes collective and sometimes divergent, perceptions and uses of city space. In conjunction with this, the collection will explore the ways in which local culture and cultural policy are used by public and private interests as the framework for changing the image and amenity of the city in order to raise its profile and attract tourists.

The book contributes to discussions of the increasingly high profile place that cultural programs have in urban regeneration initiatives and explore the tensions, conflicts and negotiations that emerge in urban spaces as a result of policy and culture coming together. Papers will be sought from researchers around the world with a view to examining the nexus between tourism, leisure and cultural programming from a number of perspectives and with reference to a range of international case studies.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events.

Introduction
Culture, policy and the city: tracing its dimensions

 

 

 

Creativity and culture now occupy prominent places on the urban policy and re-profiling agendas of cities in developed and developing nations around the world. In Europe, North America and Australia, in particular, strategies focused in part on fostering cultural activity and the (often called) creative industries have emerged to be amongst the most important local policy initiatives of recent years while the notion of the ‘creative city’ has become something of a city imaging cliché. Indeed, the proliferation of blueprints for locally focused cultural planning/creative city approaches to city building and urban branding has been quite remarkable. The urban cultural development priorities of the European Union and UNESCO also highlight the importance that is being placed on fostering local creative and cultural activity in order to revive cities and urban economies, achieve social inclusion, and brand places as ‘different’. Initiatives can range from the so-called ‘Europeanisation’ of the inner city via the establishment of cultural, education or entertainment precincts through to the high profile ‘cultural capitals’ schemes of a number of national and supra-national bodies, including UNESCO and the European Union. In addition, Richard Florida's well known treatises on the value of cultural infrastructure and the ‘creative class’ to building successful cities and urban economies have been highly influential, including being positioned by some as an approach that can help address the urban consequences of the global financial crisis.

At its most sophisticated, cultural planning is construed as being considerably more than an urban policy framework for the arts. Indeed, it is regarded by many as an innovative and holistic approach to the design, governance and economic development of the city. It is simultaneously an urban, leisure, tourism and cultural policy phenomenon. However, what is known about cultural planning tends variously to be very descriptive, narrowly focused on culture and the arts, or part of the promotional agenda of consultants and city boosters. That said it is possible to identify two aspects that tend to dominate. The first is the positioning of a raft of cultural activities, resources and infrastructure as important elements of the local economy, and in this context, themes, such as creativity, knowledge and innovation are often mobilised. And it is important to note that here a distinction is usually made between the cultural and creative industries, with the one being an attempt to conceptualise the production and consumption of culture as sites of struggle and contestation, while the other is concerned with markets, competition and comparative advantage. The second aspect dominating contemporary cultural planning approaches emphasises the social, personal and cultural benefits that are derived from participation in, and the provision of, arts and cultural resources and products. Here there is often a focus on the liveliness and vitality of urban space and its precincts and notions of cultural sustainability and resilience are often invoked in this context but so too are discourses of personal fulfilment and health.

Probing some of the themes and tendencies associated with the linking of culture and the city is one of the tasks of this collection which seeks to move beyond description and advocacy to examine key initiatives in a range of political, institutional and geographical contexts. Contributions to the book focus in particular on such issues as creativity, leisure and tourism and the interrelationship between the ways in which cities are perceived, lived and shaped by those who occupy and use them, and the tensions, conflicts and negotiations that may emerge as a result of disparate understandings and constructions of city culture. A central aim of this collection is thus to provide insights into the ways in which urban culture and policy are used by public and private interests. This undertaking commences with the first chapter in the book by Kate Shaw and Ruth Fincher which examines the formal and informal place-making processes of international students living in the Australian city of Melbourne. By positioning these students (who can be understood as a potentially ‘cosmopolitan’ or ‘creative class’) as both producers and consumers of local space, the chapter interrogates the tensions that emerge between the creative city model as it exists in theory and policy, and the creative city as it is lived, shared and negotiated. The authors argue, for instance, that although several of Melbourne City Council's strategic plans are informed by and invoke the idea of the ‘creative city’, a more nuanced and engaged approach would be to focus on place-making and the multiplicity of meanings that are associated with a single place.

Tina Schilbach's investigation into cultural policy in Shanghai, China also points to tensions between the official and unofficial dimensions of place and creativity. Drawing on the case of the German cultural organisation, the Goethe-Institute and its attempts to achieve official recognition and institutional independence in Shanghai, the chapter provides a detailed account of the conflicts and compromises inherent in this attempt to implement a global, cosmopolitan culture in the post-communist city. At the heart of these tensions is an approach to cultural governance that is on the one hand increasingly open and transnational while at the same time seeks to control the local consequences of this openness. According to Schilbach, the result is a policy approach that is caught between being ‘bold’ and ‘incoherent’.

The third chapter in this collection, by Nathaniel Bavinton, draws on in-depth research conducted in the deindustrialising Australian city of Newcastle to examine the complexities of the night-time economy model of cultural and urban regeneration and the problems associated with its often un(der)considered applications. Consistent with the chapters preceding it, this chapter also demonstrates that there are practical (and perhaps ethical) problems with applying ideal (and often-times formulaic) strategies to localised communities and cultures, particularly when these one-size-fits-all approaches are expected to respond to entirely different economic and cultural imperatives. Indeed, Bavinton raises important questions about the desirability of standardised cultural interventions especially when there is a simultaneous concern to maintain or develop a unique city image.

The issues of place image and localised cultures are also picked up by Maki Tanaka in her chapter on the negotiation of tourist space in the Cuban city of Trinidad, which is the location of two UNESCO World Heritage sites — its historic centre and the nearby Valley of the Sugar Mills. Tanaka examines how the city, which has become a major tourism destination also maintains a vibrant local culture that is lived outside the officially sanctioned spaces of the tourist gaze. According to Tanaka, a process of spatial differentiation emerged in Trinidad in response to the development of designated tourist spaces and although this differentiation is at times problematic it also plays an important role in fostering local cultural autonomy and pride. Being a ‘Trini-tario’ has become a form of identification that results from negotiating the simultaneous status of being both a ‘local’ and a ‘resident’ of a World Heritage site.

Following these empirically focused investigations is a contribution from Bernadette Quinn that, with a special focus on the Irish context, provides a thoughtful and timely review of recent international developments in research and policy relating to urban arts festivals, tourism and city planning. In particular, Quinn identifies some troubling imbalances in the way in which urban policy frameworks deal with arts festivals suggesting that narrow economic development, tourism and urban regeneration ends are being privileged over local and artistic priorities. For Quinn, this is a failure of policy that can only be addressed by adopting a more coherent approach which starts by identifying the commonalities and potential collaborations that exist between the arts festivals and the tourism sector. Although not focused on ‘joined-up policy’ per se, the final chapter of the book, by Deborah Stevenson and Amie Matthews also highlights the competing (and at times complementary) priorities inherent in contemporary cultural planning approaches, including those that emerge between the arts, entertainment, tourism, and the night-time economy.

Most of the chapters of this book were initially published in a special issue of the Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, and we would like to thank the journal Editor Rhodri Thomas for his encouragement of the project. We would also like to thank the contributors for their professionalism and the high quality of their papers, and those who gave their time to referee the papers for providing thoughtful and rigorous comments. It is our hope that this collection contributes in some way to an engaged but critical discussion of the uses of culture in the creation of sustainable urban spaces. This is a task which has become particularly urgent at this time of unprecedented urbanisation and significant economic, social and environmental change.

Deborah Stevenson and Amie Matthews

University students and the ‘creative city’

Kate Shaw^a and Ruth Fincher^b

^aFaculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; ^bDepartment of Resource Management and Geography, University of Melbourne, Melbourne Australia

In the last decade, city governments throughout the world have pursued various prescriptions for a ‘creative city’ with varying degrees of success. In Melbourne, strategies have included a revitalised arts policy, liberalisation of liquor laws, an increase in ‘al fresco’ dining and the encouragement of celebrity architects in the design and development of new buildings and precincts. Although Richard Florida's notion of a ‘creative class’ actually originated with university students at Carnegie Mellon, and in some ways centres on students, the role and place of students in Melbourne has not been taken into account in any substantive local policy initiatives or place-making strategies. Educated young people are major players in the ‘creative cities’ of urban geography and planning literatures, especially those of multi-local orientation who might be expected to bring ‘cosmopolitan’ attitudes and treat social differences as a source of creative potential. Drawing on the situation in contemporary central Melbourne, in which a large population of international university students is indeed located in what the capital city council considers a ‘creative city’, this paper explores the extent to which the students themselves are engaged in the production of space. Through analysis of their uses and views of city spaces, the kind of city to whose formation they are contributing is revealed.

Resumen

Durante la última década los gobiernos locales en todo el mundo han seguido diversas prescripciones para una ‘ciudad creativa’ con diferentes niveles de éxito. En Melbourne, las estrategias han incluido una política artística revitalizada, liberalización de las leyes sobre bebidas alcohólicas, un incremento de las cenas ‘al fresco’ y el fomento de arquitectos famosos en el diseño y desarrollo de nuevos edificios y recintos. Aunque la noción de Richard Florida (2002) de una ‘clase crativa’ realmente originada con estudiantes universitarios en Carnegie Mellon y, de alguna forma centrarse en estudiantes, el rol y el lugar de los estudiantes en Melbourne no ha considerado ninguna iniciativa de política local significativa o estrategias ‘place-making’. La juventud formada son los principales jugadores en las ‘cuidades creativas’ en la literatura sobre geografía urbana y planificación, especialmente aquellas de orientación multi-local de los que podría esperarse que trajeran actitudes ‘cosmopolitas’ y que tratasen las diferencias sociales como una fuente potencial de creatividad. Inspirándose en la situación del Melbourne contemporáneo, en la que una gran población de estudiantes universitarios internacionales están localizados en lo que el Ayuntamiento considera una ‘ciudad creativa’, este trabajo explora el alcance en el que los propios estudiantes están comprometidos en la producción del espacio. A través del análisis del uso y visión que hacen de los espacios de la ciudad, se revela el tipo de ciudad que están contribuyendo a formar.

Résumé

Au cours de la dernière décennie, les autorités administratives des villes à travers le monde ont engagé diverses initiatives pour une ‘ville créative’ dont les niveaux de succès s'avèrent variés. A Melbourne, les stratégies mises en places ont inclus la politique de revitalisation artistique, la libéralisation des lois sur les boissons alcoolisées, la promotion des possibilités de dîner en plein air et l'invitation aux architectes célèbres pour concevoir et développer les plans de constructions de nouveaux bâtiments et des enceintes. Même si la notion d'une ‘classe créative’ de Richard Florida (2002) est en fait une invention des étudiants universitaires de Carnegie Mellon et, d'une certaine manière, est centrée sur les étudiants, les initiatives de la politique locale ou les stratégies d'aménagement des lieux de rencontre n’ont jamais pris en compte substantiellement le rôle et la place des étudiants à Melbourne. Les jeunes éduqués sont les meilleurs contributeurs aux ‘villes créatives’ de la géographie urbaine et de la littérature de planification, surtout ceux dont l'origine présente une orientation de diversité et susceptibles d'apporter des attitudes ‘cosmopolites’ et de percevoir les différences sociales comme source du potentiel créatif. En se référant à la situation qui prévaut actuellement au Centre de Melbourne, où une grande partie de la population d'étudiants des institutions universitaires se trouve dans ce que le conseil municipal de la capitale appelle’ville créative’, cet article examine le point sur lequel les étudiants eux-mêmes s'engagent dans la création d'endroit urbain. En analysant leur emploi et les leurs points de vue sur les endroits urbains, le genre de ville dont on contribue au développement se fait voir.

Introduction

In this paper, we look at the ways in which formal and informal place-making processes are involved in the production of the ‘university precinct’ of our case study.

Figure 1. Area of focus of the study, defined by the distribution of student accommodation around RMIT University and the University of Melbourne.

The study area (Figure 1) is the northern fringe of the Central Business District (CBD) in Melbourne. Two major universities are located here, together with a large student resident population. The City of Melbourne's strategic plan is informed by a kind of ‘c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• 1. Introduction Culture, policy and the city: tracing its dimensions
• 2. University students and the ‘creative city’
• 3. Cultural policy in Shanghai: the politics of caution in the global city
• 4. Putting leisure to work: city image and representations of nightlife
• 5. Dressed up and sipping rum: local activities within the touristic space of Trinidad, Cuba
• 6. Arts festivals, urban tourism and cultural policy
• 7. Situating leisure in the cultural economy
• Index