In her most recent postgraduate lecture session at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Kate Oakley, a leading British researcher, policymaker, analyst and commentator on the knowledge economy, discussed some of the problematic issues cities face when adopting policies to promote and grow the cultural industries.
Do you support the industries where they currently lie no matter how unevenly distributed they are? Do you attempt to concentrate them in a particular precinct through enticements? What is more strategically effective for industry growth? What has greatest impact on the city as a whole? How do you cater for the needs of the cultural entrepreneur? Can the cultural industries and the often-associated information technology and knowledge-focussed sectors offer a new beginning for cities struggling to overcome failing industrial age practices?
Kate and her colleague Charles Leadbeater undertook a study of four cities in Britain to see how each was dealing with those issues. Kate dealt with Brighton and Sheffield in England whilst Charles looked at Glasgow in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales. They began their study by talking to the network-connected in each location.
They found four cities with substantial differences. In Kate’s case, Brighton had an identifiable creative element but little local government interest. Its two universities had a history of involvement in the creative industries with one featuring a large fine arts department. Sheffield on the other hand was a heavy manufacturing centre in decline, no recent traditions in the arts, but a local council keen to explore and support possibilities. Brighton had significant public awareness of the cultural industries, Sheffield had little. Brighton had a distributed base of creative working talent. Sheffield had established a building to be the focus of its CI strategy but had not branded it.
Both cities are still in the early stages of dealing with the broad economic and social issues that accompany such a shift in focus. Of note however are the recurring problems of the need for more skills development opportunities and the indistinct linkage between cultural entrepreneurs and policy makers.
For many cities, big urban regeneration projects are often focussed around the arts. The promise of a cultural industries-led economic revival based around some standout example of a city’s commitment to this process is enough to see major infrastructure change given regional or national priority. A cynical view may consider this as a way of attempting to gain style and panache overnight, and in so doing putting a place on the tourist map.
Kate used the term Guggenheim Effect that refers to the development of the extraordinary Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Designed by Frank O. Gehry, this structure draws little or nothing from mainstream Spanish or Basque culture. It becomes a curiosity rather than a showcase and developmental hub for the local cultural industries, and with its creation comes the obliteration of whatever stood in its place.
Many cities approach regeneration in less extravagantly obvious ways. However in undertaking these programs they impose their view of appropriate culture on existing precincts. In some cases choosing areas close to city centres already inhabited by creative individuals and groups, publicly sponsored infrastructure change ‘improves’ locations to such a degree that locals are forced out by economic pressures. The culture of the place is seen to be retained by preserving architectural facades or building new structures to old styles. This process of gentrification is happening in a great number of cities across the world. Not everyone wins in the regeneration game.
Cities looking to recast themselves through major public policy initiatives centred around the cultural industries must be prepared to face this social conflict head-on because it can’t be avoided. How they plan for and manage it will be a real test of their commitment to cultural values and social justice for all their citizens.
Would you see this post about Rottardam and comment:
http://sajshirazi.blogspot.com/2005/04/powerful-paradigm.html
Thanks.
Posted by: Shirazi | April 19, 2005 at 01:24 PM