Current trends andperspectives

Some aspects of the present crisis,and their implications for public spaceand public social life

The dangerous temptations of right and left-wing populism, anti-intellectualism and ‘anti-politics’

Public expenditure cuts are reducingthe already meagre budgets for economic, social and environmental innovation

But innovation is more and more required: European cities are stuck for solutions to their economic, environmental and social problems

The increasing power of the elites of the super-rich

Growing socio-economic polarisation and inequality

Spatial segregation and the emergence of‘gated communities’

The shrinking of the State (including the welfare state) and the advocacy of the ‘Big Society’ (David Cameron)

Ethnic competition for diminishing welfare resources

The ‘undeserving poor’ as one of the ‘enemies within’: benefits cuts and negative cultural representations

The redefinition of ‘fairness’

The attack on artists and intellectuals:the arts, universities and public service broadcasting as targets

The rise of anti-politics and the emergenceof charismatic leaders who are not professional politicians

Corruption scandals, the complexity of multi-level governance and the difficulty of making Europe economically competitive stimulate anti-politics

Divisive ethno-nationalism and the attack on immigrants:The risk of growing fear of ‘the other’

Islamophobia as an integral part of populist projects

Shift to the right in political discourse

The importance of the grassroots cultural activities of the populist and xenophobic right (e.g. of the Northern League in Italy), exploiting the vacuum left by secularisation and by the crisis of Social Democratic parties and movements

The rise of illegality and organized crime:

exploitation of immigrantspeople traffickinglinks with the legal economy and ‘respectable’politicians

The emergence of lawless neighbourhoods and cities

Some issues in urban strategies today

An uneasy coexistence of urban cultural 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): examples from Colombia

The standardisation and corporatisation of city centres

The ‘anywhere’ shopping mall

Urban sprawl

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

The dull new public realm of ‘anywhere’ out-of-town shopping centres

Urban sprawl

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

Lower cost of premises for cultural activities

More opportunities for experimental artistic interventions

Less bureaucracy and red tape

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

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

Multiple deprivation in many inner urban and peripheral areas

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

Community artists: from revolutionaries to trainers?

Urban cultural policies and social inclusion

Strategies for community engagement

‘New commissioning’Participatory budgetingInvitation policiesSocial interaction, not community cohesion

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 debate around the concept of ‘interculturalism’ and its applications

Definitions

What makes a place intercultural?

The value of conflict

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

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

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

Counteracting Ethnic Segregation in Urban Spaceand Public Life

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

Intercultural architecture, public art and urban design

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

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

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? The politics of symbolic contestation The production of official urban mindscapes

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

The transformative power of outdoor

cultural activities

H. Lefebvre’s notion of la fête

Are festivals “festive”?

The danger of “instrumentalisation”

The widening of people’s mental and spatial horizons

Festivals as public debate fora

Researching the role of outdoor arts in developing or strengthening new creative milieux and urban visions

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

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 urban cultural foreign pollicies

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

The limitations of evidence-based advocacy

The need for political mobilisation: the real ‘Big Society’

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