Evaluating Cultural Regeneration: The Role of Place and Community

Jeanne Moore & Andrea AbbasUniversity of Teesside

Research projects and Acknowledgements

Pilot project on cultural activity for excluded groups in the Tees Valley.

Researcher Susannah Moon. Funded by evaluation projects for

AV Partnership; ESF Cultural Skills Programme; University of Teesside Research Fund.

Focus of this paper

This paper uses pilot material to explore the role of place and cultural places in cultural regeneration for excluded groups and artists working with them.

It explores the different ways that place and culture can coexist, flourish and collide.  

“The social construction of space is the actual transformation of space, through people’s social exchanges, memories, images, and daily use… into scenes and actions that convey meaning” (Low, 2000: 125)

Aims of pilot study

This pilot research sought to examine the potential impact of arts delivery and cultural skill development on participants and local communities. It aimed to develop a battery of evaluative and investigative tools that can examine the relationship between arts and cultural delivery and cultural regeneration and social inclusion. In broad terms, this research sought to explore the cultural aspects of social inclusion and exclusion; what kinds of activity, involvement, participation and physical environment can shape this experience.

Middlesbrough and Teesside Middlesbrough is an old industrial

town and port with high unemployment, following the decline of heavy industry in the area.

Very high levels of social deprivation, with three wards being amongst the most deprived areas in England.

Significant levels of ill-health and poor educational achievement. There is a history of low levels of investment in health, education and social care.

Focus on regeneration. Culturally active with local artists

working in the community.

The link between culture and regeneration Cultural places can play a key role in

regeneration and in shaping sustainable communities.

Catterall (1999) argues that ‘culture…can make communities. It can be a critical focus for effective and sustainable urban regeneration.’ (cited in Arts Council 2004; p. 19).

But what is culture? :arts, sports, libraries, museums, heritage, archaeology, archives, architecture, crafts, children’s play, reading, parks, tourism, countryside recreation (DCMS, 2000). Problematic term?

What role does place have? The UK Government’s Sustainable Communities Plan

suggests the key requirements of sustainable communities include a sense of place, the creation of ‘ thriving, vibrant, sustainable communities in which people live with pride’. (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2003).

Both Urry (1990) and Sheilds (1991) have stressed the importance of cultural places in constructing cultural activities and social relations.

One of the ways that cultural policy tries to encourage group identities that breach the boundaries of age, class, ethnicity and gender, is by fostering place identity.

Culture and space (Low, 200); Hayden (1995); Bourdieu (1977).

Cultural regeneration, identity and sense of place

It is believed that changes to the physical environment and cultural landscape can foster a sense of place and belonging which, if lacking, contributes to social exclusion. Some evidence has been collected to support the claims for social benefits that might advance inclusion (Long & Welch, 2003: 34). Low argues that a key element of sustainable cultural facilities is in the way they form part of a local sense of place and contribute to a cultural place identity (Low, 2000).

Successful examples of culture-led regeneration do in fact engage with a pre-existing collective sense of local identity (Bailey et al 2004).

Culture for whom?

Cultural participation is underpinned by pervasive barriers for low-income groups which includes a lack of interest and seeing arts events as something for ‘other people’ (Moore, 1997).

Davies (1994) argues that service providers could improve access and take up by addressing these cultural barriers and attempting to change attitudes (Harland et al, 1994).

Different routes to culture It seems clear that certain groups experience financial,

practical, physical and social barriers in accessing cultural services and most mainstream cultural places can be argued as being exclusive to some extent (Green et al, 1990; Moore, 1997; 1998).

Women’s employment and motherhood impact heavily upon their time for cultural activities (Kay, 2000). For young adults social class, gender and educational attainment remain closely linked to cultural consumption (Abbas & Shildrick, 2002; Harland et al, 1994; Willis, 1990).

However, there has been little research that examines the ways in which varying cultural programmes/activities lead to different social impacts depending on the sub-group involved (DCITA, 2002; Moore, 1997; Sport England, 2000).

Places for whom? Recent reports suggest that not all social groups

benefit from cultural projects. Cultural places can exclude and not contribute

to social inclusion inherent in regeneration debates (e.g. Snape et al, 2003).

Bailey et al, 2004 cite Zukin, 1995- 293-4 ‘spaces are experienced by the many different people who inhabit them. What is culture to one group may be repression to another…Public spaces create a variety of public cultures and…the overarching public culture of the city is dialogue among them’.

Lack of critical focus

Place is noted as important in current debates on regeneration and culture, but little work seems to critically examine some of the underlying tensions inherent in place and identity.

What can environmental psychology and transactionalism bring to our understanding of cultural places?  

Theoretical questions for main research

The socio-cultural aspect of the environment has been consistently mentioned in relation to the transactional approach (c.f. Bonnes et al, 2003; Ittelson et al, 1974; Stokols and Altman, 1987

Individuals are viewed ‘as striving agents with capacity to construct, construe and experience their environment in various ways’ (Bonnes et al, 2003. p. 16).

What can a transactional approach bring to an understanding of culture and place and identity? (c.f Lalli (1992) ) In other words, how do cultural and place identity interweave?

Space and culture (Low, 2000)

"... the urban public space reflects the cultural order not through a one-to-one correspondence between spatial arrangements and meaning, but through a complex culture-making process in which cultural representations are produced, manipulated, and understood by designers, politicians, users, and commentators within changing historical, economic, and socio-political contexts. These spatial\cultural representations express the power relations between different groups and reflect ongoing patterns of cultural change." (Low, p. 50) 

Methodology

This paper draws from three funded studies of cultural projects.

The AV Digital Arts Regional Festival ‘celebrating new digital technologies with a commitment to inclusion and participation’ in Teesside, Sunderland and Newcastle.

The ESF Cultural Skills Development Programme seeks to provide the necessary skills and knowledge to work in the creative and cultural economy.

University of Teesside funded project on evaluating cultural regeneration.

Method

Interviews about culture, activities, creative interests, local places and identity. Thematic analysis.

Shown photos of local cultural places and asked for views

Disposable cameras: photos of local places with reasons/notes

This presentation illustrative of key points. Full paper will be available soon.

Sample from pilot study

The data examined here includes 17 interviews with young people age 14-17 (6), asylum seekers and refugees (6) and artists (5) that work in the local community in the Tees Valley. It further includes x questionnaires and interviews from the AV Festival in Middlesbrough.

All English speaking.

What is culture?

Hassan who is from Iraq: The culture mean ….that background for the for the people, like for … the Iraq peoples culture for example we say its…the civilisation of Iraq, we start to 7 thousand years ago to today, its all culture, em it describes the population for this place or … em culture means er everything everything that’s like err show the err show mmmm culture is show if peoples is educated. 

David, 26 from Zimbabwe  Erm… culture is identity… culture is what defines you…

culture is what makes you who you are. Right. Culture… is… you know…where you were the best… or

maybe to be a bit err… err… you… culture is where the roots of your tree take the nutrients… because with out the culture then the leaves would just wilt and fall off. Culture to me is… you know… the basic of your existence… and then… culture… defines you. So that s how I see culture and it is very very important. With out culture then… you are just like… a branch without a trunk… with out some roots… you just… like er… nothing basically. With out culture there is no definition of life.

Joe is from Zimbabwe Culture….. yes. Culture becomes the….. sum total

of….. the sum total of the life of the people, like people have ways of doing this, of ways of eating, ways of dressing, ways of talking, being in ways of…..communicating, you see all that becomes your culture your way of life….. of which other people can identify you with. They so, oh this is an African culture, this is a Zimbabwean culture, they see what I am, what I do…..like if people have marks on their bodies, they know them people and it is their way of identifying them, so all people have a culture.

Morris (Zimbabwe, 22) Oh. Erm, A lot of things. It means my background,

where I came from, my roots. I would see that my roots would possibly form my culture. It’s something which I would say you grow up in, something that you have grown up within.

Whereas Mary, a 16 year old did not know what culture meant at all.

Int: Right okay, so what does the word culture mean to you?

Mary: I don’t know what the word means.

Mark (17) Life around you, like animals and stuff in the country side……Culture is like…..or no culture is…..I think its that, and like other people where they have different cultures from where they are from.

Excluded?

David: Those people have got everything at their disposal, but they don’t utilise all that. I am talking about people from here, from the streets of Middlesbrough, who are just abusive, who are just miserable. And here I am carrying my bible, going to church on a Saturday, yeah, and Monday comes and I won’t be able to go to work, why, because I haven’t been granted asylum status here.... from 30 pound you have to do your grocery shopping, you mean you have to give something to your family back home. I can’t just stay in the house all the time I like to go and watch movies, I have to pay for that, and then the home office say you cant be involved in anything that is financially rewarding because we are giving you money to live. Well what kind of life style is that?

Steve:  You see the more you feel….. you….. part of the community,

the more you feel you contribute to it…..do you know what I mean.

If you feel that you are not part of it then you tend not to contribute…..and then you tend to want to go away from it and go to where you feel part of. I for one now want to feel part of Stockton cause this is the only town I know of in the UK. I look at…..and this is why….. er…..I am now about two month in to my…..about 2 months into being granted asylum statues.…so that I can stay here and work here, and contribute to this town. This is were I was welcomed and the place where you are welcomed you stay…..and so I have stayed longer in the community as I want to be a part of it. So for me its more integration, and more opening for jobs, and welcoming more people into the community.

 I: Which groups in Middlesbrough do you think are disadvantaged and is there any groups that you haven’t worked with but liked to work with in the future?

Bob (artist) There’s loads of groups that are disadvantaged cos the same problems keep coming up. Projects can run and they may have twelve kids in it and one of them or two of them, the impact of the project on them will change most of them see, see that position. But it’s not gonna solve the problems for everyone, but two people out of that project might make a difference in their decision. ..the other ten won’t be that’s not a failure of the project cos it’s still exposed them to the arts, but umm…it’s not kind of umm…a magic wand, some people think art’s a magic wand and that’s not the case.

Bob (artist):

Loads of different youth groups they don’t even get outside of Middlesbrough. Don’t know what’s beyond the hills, being at the seaside, worked for a school in Dormanstown, Dormanstown and some of the kids had never been to the seaside it’s like twenty minutes walk, and they were all ten year old and they’d never seen the sea you know some of their parents would never have been to the theatre or seen, not that that would change their lives but just exposed to different levels of culture and umm and never seen the sea when you live like twenty minutes walk from it. If the parents not think that it’s important enough to see the sea like it’s shocking.

People can come and there is a place for them in the group. ..young people who’ve been … who are on the verges of very dangerous behaviour really through prostitution or drug use and getting into trouble with the police …So how much can you say they have self excluded themselves or what I don’t know … but they also terribly vulnerable as well they’ve lost a lot of their self esteem and they don’t feel that society has a place for them so I suppose that yes they are very excluded if they are not in the main streaming.

(Julie, artist)

Views on local cultural places:The Transporter Bridge

I Yeh. What do you think of those kind of places?

Frankie (18): That represents Middlesbrough like, that.

I Which one? This.Frankie: Yeh the bridgeI Yeh, in what way? Frankie: Cos there’s

only us who’s got one of them like that.

The bottle

I: What about those?David: Yeh that’s where they have the

buckets over there.I: Everybody has what?David: Everybody has buckets,

there they are there.I: BucketsDavid: Yeh smoking gange.I: Oh right I see, is that what they are

doing is it?David: Yeh. It’s all over near the

bottle isn’t it.I: Oh right. So is that where you go?David: No I don’t like going over there

 

I: So what do you think about Middlesbrough as a place to live? (Jake, 17) I like it I always say I would never leave here. Really. Yeah, I love it. I: What do you like about it? It’s just a part of you. I don’t know, I just like the area. It’s not the

greatest of places I know that but it’s just, you’re used to it, ain’t you.

Is there any bits that you don’t like about it? There’s loads isn’t there……there’s always trouble down my end, I

live between Grovehill, which is rough, and Slatersgill which is very rough, and Tollsbey which is…..there’s always fights there every night. So you just get kids all the time who never go to school, and they just nick people’s cars.

 I: Do you think Middlesbrough town centre is a pleasant place to spend time in?

Mary (17) Sometimes. Is there anything bad about it? All the druggies hanging about the place. Yeah, does that put you off at all? Sometimes. So when would you sort of come down when would you not be put off? I like coming down during the day. Okay. Erm…..is there anyway Middlesbrough could be improved for you? Yeah stop the gypsies from coming in and hassling you to

buy stuff off them or they put a curse on you if you don’t.

The light sculpture I: Have you seen the new sculpture at all? Mary (17) That one? I: Yeah. You can send a text to the place and it lights up. I: Oh yeah. My mam does it. I: Oh right. At night it looks dead good. I: Yeah. I: Do you think that kind of thing changes the way you feel about

Middlesbrough? Well it makes it look better. I: Yeah, do you think they should be more stuff like that? Definitely. I: Yeah, what sort of things would you like to see like that? (Long pause) well it would be better…..if…..like……there was less rubbish all

over the floor…..it makes it look untidy.

Parks

 What parks do you go to? ( Jake, 17) park, Stewarts

park. What do you think of places

like that? They look nice now they’ve

done them up, they look good.

Does it make you feel differently about Middlesbrough now that they have done them up?

Yeah, cause everything is nice now, so its good.

Bob (artist) How important is Middlesbrough to you? It’s very important, these Finnish people that we’ve

been working with, these Finnish people, six Finish poets we brought them over last September and I gave them a tour of Teesside. It was really interesting that they were struck by the awesome, awesome beauty of Teesside. It was ugly and beautiful at the same time, a post-industrial landscape, Ridley Scott, and there’s something really awesome about that. Kind of a cold spine at the same time. So it’s just awesome.

Using a sense of place in creative work Dougie (writer) I teach about industry and our history and

that we’re bridge builders. That they built Sydney harbour bridge with people from Middlesbrough and we’re artists in our own right and know how to be creative, building structures like that and have pride in their own environment, things like that as well.

In the millennium year we had a very big project that was ehm that was that we wanted to focus on …the rivers of County Durham.. ehm they err and this links to idea of sense of place. We are very… we are… we are very rooted here we are very … we love being here we feel, we love this part of the world we love the people the place the history, geography, you know all of that its very important to us…

Images of local places (Hassan)

Hassan:

Places I don’t like:HartlepoolChemical works.

Local places (Hassan)

Hassan:“Places I like. Stuarts park,Seaton Bank,lake and birds!”

Local places (John)

John: “A place for

prostitutes. Very young hanging around with asylum seekers, mostly from the Middles East… This is one place I would avoid.”

Local places (John)

“The Arc, the Stockton showpiece theatre centre. It definitely is the place to be. I am particularly happy because I performed there once and will do again during refugee week. I really like this place.”

Local places (John)

“I always do not approve of the youth indulging in drinking… I lament the damage they are inflicting on the youth… I also get concerned when drinkers get rowdy.”

Finding a place: through creative

activity? John  I: What do you gain from being involved in those groups

(musical groups)? John: Oh right…..erm…..I think as I said…..its…..getting a

place, getting involved something…..various activities…..to get to know people…..were you offer something or what ever you can…..so by getting involved on these programs I…..get to know people, different mixes of people and to mix with them….Because sitting in a home, doing nothing I think, I think of my children, I think of my wife, I think of what happened to me , and all the many things that could happen and it err…..affects you mentally if your not doing anything. So by getting involved you sort of relax, relax your mind and even though its not physical you feel better.

I: How important are these (being involved in cultural groups) things to you?

 Mathew (Zimbabwe): They are very important….. firstly I am able to show other people my identity. In terms of who I am, in terms of….. what I can do in, actual fact in erm…..within the community when you show out yourself you integrate more because many other people around me are beginning to appreciate other cultures so its important for identity, for integration erm….. or just to be known, to be known in terms of what you can do, it keeps me happy, it makes me feel good that’s the most important thing I can think of.

I: What do you get from being a part of Diaspora Now (a musical group of PSA and refugees)?

David: Erm… in terms of identity, a sense of belonging, because if you actually share the same thoughts, the same views with other people, then you can say you are compatible. And if you are to ever express yourself and be heard by some people than it makes me feel, you know it makes me feel… complete, because I can express myself, and so… I can say the things I want to say, and say the things I want to say them. …It makes me feel full filled and er… satisfied myself in terms of… my legal skill that I have got and to be able to just write something and to be able to just bring it to my life.

Conclusions

This paper suggests there is a need to understand the nature and diversity of socially excluded groups and the different relationships they have with local places.

It further suggests that the relationships between artists and the places they live and/or work in are an important aspect of understanding the role of art and cultural activities in any future regeneration policies.

Placing culture

Finding a place: self-expression; cultural expression and acceptance

Socio-cultural aspects of places shaped by individuals, goal-oriented and purposeful.

Not necessarily directly through the physical environment but cultural activity and participation

Reflections on place & culture

Cultural aspects of place theory, transactionalism and place identity neglected.

Can creativity be a route to inclusion?

What role does culture and cultural places have in place identity?

What lessons are there for cultural regeneration?

Intertwining of place and culture in people’s minds. Cultural activities can be related to particular places or distinct groups of people.

Make specific attempts to allow space for people to bring new cultural activities into Tees Valley with the goal of making the visual public sphere more representative.

Greater involvement and consultation Different routes to cultural inclusion