This book is an investigation of the arts in American cities and analyzes how cultural policy studies scholars and policymakers have been thinking about this connection . In particular, I look at the urban cultural policy discourse through the lens of space , unpacking how academia and citiesâ administrations have accounted for and acted upon the geographic configuration of the arts and their spatial relations. The emphases on the spatial dimensions rests on the consideration that space gives the arts their material form and expression in society. To better understand and further improve the spatial dimensions, I ask: How do the arts connect with place? And what are the spatial attributes of this connection in the city?
The aim of the book is threefold. First, I bring together what has previously been a scattered literature and connect conversations on the arts and the city developed around the world. In so doing, I seek to disentangle concepts that often overlap or are used without carefully considering their different theoretical foundations and offer a perspective of how each of them addresses the connection of arts and place . Second, I propose a framework for a deeper analysis of the spatial dimensions of this connection that can help to better understand its complexity. Third, I intend to create awareness about what has been done in American cities. Municipal administrations have engaged in many activities and American cities have a lively relationship with the arts, but academic inquiry on the aspects of this relationship is still limited. Therefore, I encourage the development of an American presence in the academic debate at the international level.
This chapter provides an overview of the debate within which this examination takes place starting with an illustration of cultural policy research and urban policy studies focused around the creative city . After the contextualization of the discussion, this chapter structures the theoretical framework of the book that aims to contribute to the debate using the lens of thirdspace to help think spatially about urban cultural policy . The chapter concludes with an overview of the book that describes the intended audience, the overall organization and the structure of each chapter.
1 Cultural Policy Research
Cultural policy has been defined by scholars in several ways (DiMaggio, 1983; Gray, 2010; Mulcahy, 2006). Some emphasize the connection with government intervention on matters of arts and culture (Gray, 2010; Mulcahy, 2006) and some emphasize the regulatory aspect (DiMaggio, 1983). Margaret Wyszomirskiâs (2002) definition is one of the most comprehensive, based on the idea of a dynamic processâthat is, the idea that a variety of agents contribute to the scope of the cultural sector. Wyszomirski defines cultural policy as âa large, heterogeneous set of individuals and organizations engaged in the creation, production , presentation, distribution, and preservation and education about aesthetic heritage , and entertainment activities, products and artifactsâ (p. 186). I emphasized how in the United States, cultural policy is the embodiment of multilevel governance , involving different levels of government and a variety of actors from civic society (Redaelli, 2016). The Handbook of Public Policy (Peters & Pierre, 2006) includes cultural policy in the section that illustrates substantive policy areas. It also presents an essay by Kevin Mulcahy (2007), who contributes to the definitional debate by illustrating the âecological complexity â of the field, which involves several agencies and is often ânot just the result of direct financial support , but a wide variety of interventionsâ (p. 268).
Cultural policy , as an object of research, has been a multidisciplinary endeavor (Paquette & Redaelli, 2015; Pyykkonen, Simanienen, & Sokka, 2009; Scullion & Garcia, 2005). As a result, the different theoretical frameworks scholars have developed to grasp the object of study depend in part on their discipline(s) of study. The field has drawn upon the social sciencesâfor both quantitative and qualitative researchâand from the humanities âusing history, and cultural studies. Political science, sociology, and economics are the disciplines that have mainly shaped the research in social sciences. Political scientists have carried out work focusing both on the unitary states (Cunningham, 1992; Larson, 1983) and on comparing different countries (Cummings & Katz, 1987; Zemans, Kleingartner, Wyszomirski, & Watanabe, 1999). An overview of sociological approaches is provided by the volume How to Study the Art Worlds (van Maanen, 2009), whereas Paul DiMaggio and Walter Powell (Powell & DiMaggio, 1991) developed a groundbreaking approach to analyze the similar structures that organizations acquire when an organizational field emerges because of the establishment of new professions. The economic approach has been synthesized and developed by two major booksâEconomics and Culture by David Throsby (2001) and A Handbook of Cultural Economics by Ruth Towse (2003)âthat have brought attention to topics such as pricing, marketing, tax concessions, and cost-benefit analyses. A pioneering work by James Heilbrun and Charles Gray (1993), The Economics of Arts and Culture, offered an American perspective in articulating an economic approach to arts and culture, articulating the microeconomics of demand and supply, the markets of art , the dynamics of public/private support , and the role of the arts as a profession and as an economic engine in the local economy.
There is also an important strand of cultural policy studies that is shaped by questions and frameworks central to the humanities . Justin Lewis and Toby Millerâs (2008) Critical Cultural Policy Studies: A Reader collects articles written by major authors in the field of cultural policy . The reader provides a critical approach moving away from elitist conceptions of culture and technical approaches to public policy scholarship. âWe acknowledge the importance of both theoretical and empirical work, but veer away from both the elitism of high-culture elevation and the technicism of supposedly objective public-policy scholarshipâ (Lewis & Miller, 2008, p. 8). A historical approach is offered by the book Cultural Policy (Miller & Yudice, 2002), which suggests the engagement to social movements that makes the critical aspect relevant to the wider society.
Another example of strand of cultural policy studies framed by the humanities , is Dave OâBrienâs (2013) Cultural Policy: Management, Value and Modernity in the Creative Industries . This monograph offers a synthesis that brings together the threads of cultural studies , political science, and sociology and emphasizes how public value is key theme in bringing together these debates. The...