Cultural Clusters and the Post-industrial City: Towards the Remapping of Urban Cultural Policy

Abstract

This paper explores and discusses the fairly recent phenomenon of cultural clustering strategies in the Netherlands. Amongst other things based on ideologies of 'enterprise culture', the quest for urban imagery and positioning strategies, the changing spatial fabric of cities and a search for economic and cultural revitalisation, for the past 5-10 years, the formation of cultural clusters has turned into something of an urban cultural development hype. However, what at first glance appears as a common model, often accompanied by boldly expressed slogans concerning the new role of culture and creativity in the physical and economic revitalisation of cities, in more detail unfolds as an ambivalent and conflict-ridden mixture of cultural, economic, social and spatial interests and sentiments. From a short-term perspective, such an eclectic blending of interests and sentiments might be considered as a good opportunity for urban cultural developments within a 'post-modern' urban development regime. However, from a long-term perspective, there is the danger that the divergent sentiments and interests start to undermine and constrain each other, in the end resulting in adverse effects, mutual distrust and a standstill of developments. Following a detailed investigation of five cultural clustering projects in the Netherlands, and based on Zukin's account of the exchange of cultural and economic values in the contemporary city, the paper argues that, in order to get out of this potentially self-defeating situation, and to enable a more sensitive but also strategic involvement of the cultural sector in the governance of cultural cluster projects, it is necessary to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the complex dynamics involved. Central to this is a locally specific appreciation of the changing interaction between culture (place) and commerce (market) in today's mixed economy of leisure, culture and creativity. This implies both a critique and advancement of existing theories concerning the role of culture in urban development and the development of a more detailed comparative perspective on urban cultural policy projects, thus moving beyond overgeneralised perceptions of the developments concerned.

The Role of Universities in the Regional Creative Economies of the UK: Hidden Protagonists and the Challenge of Knowledge Transfer

“…Similarly, a review of the research on the CCIs, reveals many studies which analyse, for example, the cultural and creative production system Pratt 2004;Adkins, Foth et al 2007;Pratt 2008;Bakhshi and McVittie 2009;Abadie, Friedewald et al 2010;Potts and Cunningham 2010, Taylor 2011), the role played by networks and informal relations (Banks, Lovatt et al 2000;Delmestri, Montanari et al 2005;Adkins, Foth et al 2007;Antcliff, Saundry et al 2007;Dahlstrom and Hermelin 2007;Potts, Cunningham et al 2008;Currid and Williams 2010;Lange 2010;Lingo and O'Mahony 2010), the importance of places and clusters Drake 2003;Mommaas 2004;Neff 2005;Bathelt and Graf 2008;Gwee 2009;Pratt 2009;Collis, Felton et al 2010;Thomas, Hawkins et al 2010) and the conditions and drivers of creative labour (Banks 2006;Comunian 2009). The role of HE institutions within this new CCI landscape in the UK has received some attention (Crossick 2006;Powell 2007;Taylor 2007;Comunian and Faggian 2011) but little with an explicitly regional and urban development focus.…”

Presentación

“…Este giro local y emprendedor de la política cultural (Menger, 2010) ha tenido en los grandes equipamientos culturales uno de sus principales instrumentos, bien por su capacidad de impulsar procesos de regeneración urbana Moomas, 2004), bien por potenciar la imagen de las ciudades (Plaza, 1999;González, 2011). Al mismo tiempo este giro local ha generado una tendencia a la estandardización de la política cultural, acomodo acomodándose a unas pautas arquitectónicas y estéticas globales (Evans, 2003) y a su tendencia a generar espacios globalizados (Evans, 2003;Muñoz, 2010).…”

The Promise of the Affordable Artist's Studio: Governing Creative Spaces in London

“…Urban spaces labelled as 'creative', and their relationship to the delivery of economic, social and cultural policies, has been a subject of much scrutiny (Pratt, 2009, Jayne, 2005, Catungal and Leslie, 2009, Mommaas, 2004. The use of place-marketing strategies based, for example, on the exploitation of cultural attractions, mega-events and 'cultural quarters' to redevelop urban spaces has been a visible process, both in the West (Garcia, 2004a, 2004b, Evans, 2003, Balibrea, 2001, Rantisi and Leslie, 2006 and further afield (Lee, 2006, Yue, 2006, Hui, 2006.…”