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This paper reviews the uses of cultural policy and planning as tools of urban regeneration in western European cities. Following a brief assessment of the evolution of European cultural policy in recent decades, the paper studies the origins and development of the European City/Capital of Culture programme and explores the experience of cities considered to have succeeded in re-imaging and regenerating themselves through cultural activity and special events. The paper ends with a reflection on the notion of cultural planning and its potential as an integrated alternative to urban cultural policy, and offers recommendations for further development within the UK context.
Este caso explora el desarrollo de estrategias de turismo cultural en el entorno urbano de Glasgow (Escocia) tras la obtención del título de Ciudad Europea de la Cultura en 1990. Contrastando con la imagen tradicional de Escocia, centrada en la promoción de paisajes, castillos y el ambiente medieval de Edimburgo, la ciudad de Glasgow es un símbolo de la era industrial (la llamada ‘Segunda Ciudad del Imperio’ durante la era Victoriana) transformada actualmente en un centro de cultura contemporánea con una posición creciente en el sector de las industrias culturales. Pese a su relevancia como centro industrial y de negocio, la presencia de Glasgow en la promoción turística de Escocia y, por extensión, del Reino Unido, fue prácticamente inexistente hasta fines de los años ochenta. Una razón importante se encuentra en la terrible reputación de la ciudad en el periodo de crisis industrial que marcó el Reino Unido desde fines de los cincuenta y estuvo particularmente acentuada en Glasgow durante los sesenta y setenta. Pero otros motivos están relacionados con la reticencia, por parte de promotores turísticos y visitantes, a variar la imagen establecida de Escocia y se explican a partir del análisis del difícil desarrollo de técnicas de turismo cultural y urbano en los últimos veinte o treinta años. La experiencia de Glasgow, ciudad que utilizó el título de Ciudad Europea de la Cultura como catalizador para transformar su imagen y atraer a un nuevo tipo de turista a Escocia, ofrece un caso de estudio ejemplar.
The potential of arts activity as a tool for urban regeneration has been widely discussed since the early 1980s. In parallel, notions of cultural/urban tourism and arts/city marketing have gained great popularity among marketers, city planners and cultural policy-makers alike. Major events are seen as effective catalysts for city regeneration processes, as they are able to merge tourism strategies with urban planning and can boost the confidence of local communities. However, arts programming has yet to achieve a position that allows it to be perceived as a relevant contributor to the success and legacy of large-scale urban events. This paper explores the contradiction between the celebrated potential of the arts in urban regeneration processes and their poor position within major events. In so doing, the paper compares the experiences of three cities, each host to major events with strong arts and cultural components: Glasgow 1990 - European City of Culture; Sydney 2000 - Olympic Games and Olympic Arts Festivals, and Barcelona 2004 – Universal Forum for Cultures. Keywords | City marketing, urban regeneration, cultural tourism, arts programming, events, legacy
Research question and objectives For the last twenty years, the effort towards transforming industrial cities into post-industrial economies has been accompanied by a growing interest in cultural policy as an element of urban governance. Culture has been used as a tool for urban regeneration, an approach refined in the US over the 1970s and early 1980s (see Porter, 1980) and consequently developed in Europe in cities such as Glasgow - European City of Culture in 1990 - and Bilbao - opening of the Guggenheim Museum in 1997. Despite the generalised use of cultural initiatives as catalysts for urban regeneration, it is not frequent to find parallel developments in city-specific cultural policies. This has often meant that the high levels of investment required to produce hallmark cultural events and infrastructures are not accompanied by long-term legacy planning nor by coherent strategies to secure a balanced spatial and social distribution of benefits. This paper explores the experience of Barcelona and looks at the design, production and promotion of the latest hallmark event in the city – the Forum Barcelona 2004. The main aim is to examine whether the city's official cultural strategy has had an impact on the definition, production and/or long-term viability of such a large-scale event. The paper has the following objectives, Methodologies and Theoretical Perspectives Research for this paper has involved the review of Barcelona city policy documents, event strategic documents and promotional materials produced between 1997 (first announcement of the Forum) and May 2004 (opening of the Forum). This is complemented with interviews with representatives from the Forum, city authorities, cultural policy makers, journalists and selected cultural and community groups in the city. Finally, a follow-up of reactions and commentary by public opinion leaders has been developed through reviewing national press coverage about the event from 1999 to May 2004. In order to generalise some of the findings, this material has been compared with data collected in other cities that have hosted major events with strong cultural components. These are Sydney (Olympic Arts Festival, 2000) and Manchester (Cultural programme of the Commonwealth Games, 2002). Comparisons are also established with data from the cultural programme of the Olympic Games in Barcelona (Cultural Olympiad, 1992). The gathering and analysis of data is informed by the work of Franco Bianchini, Charles Landry and other researchers associated with the UK think-tank Comedia (Bianchini & Parkinson, 1993; Bianchini, 1990; Landry et al, 1996; Landry, 2000). The research is also informed by the policy discussions in Barcelona (Diputació de Barcelona, 2000) and at a European level (Council of Europe, 1993). This research has also benefited from the theoretical frameworks discussed by Jordi Borja and Josep Subirós (1989), Eric Corijn (1996) and Graeme Evans’ report to the DCMS (Evans et. al., 2004). Main Findings and Conclusions At this point, emerging findings suggest that the rationale for the Barcelona Forum has been linked to the city's main cultural strategy, which has resulted in a greater dedication to planning for long-term legacies and a balanced distribution of benefits throughout the city. This compares favourably with the experience in 1992, when Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games and organised a parallel cultural programme or ‘Cultural Olympiad’ which did not satisfactorily address issues of sustainability and accessibility. However, some challenges remain for the Forum, since its remit is far broader than that of the city’s cultural strategy. As such, many aspects of this event are not framed by a defined policy. Without a clear guideline to address the effects of the Forum in terms of land use and its implications for social justice, it is unlikely that the event provides the fair distribution of cultural benefits it promises at this stage. One question that remains unanswered is whose culture is going to be represented and/or favoured during the event and its aftermath. The Barcelona case reveals that, although some progress has been made since the mid 1980s, urban cultural policies tend to have too narrow a remit. As argued by Bianchini (1999), urban cultural policies are often focused on narrow concepts of culture – fundamentally, the arts. Moreover, they are often subdivided by art-form, which limits the possibility to guide or inform major event hosting processes, typically involving a broad and multiform approach to culture. In order to ensure that urban cultural policies maximise the role they should and could play in contemporary cities, fundamental revisions need to be made to the terminology currently in use. Their remit needs to be expanded in a way that addresses the multifaceted nature of urban culture. In line with the debate around ‘cultural planning’ (Bianchini, 1999), this will require a more holistic and flexible understanding of cultural policy that informs both the current notion of an arts and cultural sphere, and the economic, political, social, educational and environment spheres. Selected references Bianchini, F. and Parkinson, M. (Eds.) (1993). Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration. The West European Experience. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Major events can act as powerful catalysts to embrace and communicate cultural diversity. This realisation has been critical to the development of a cultural and socially relevant discourse for the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. In both cases, the celebration of human sporting achievement is combined with an emphasis on the value of the event as a meeting point for nations and cultures. The latter is most clearly manifested in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, which, in the case of the Olympics, are the single event gathering the largest simultaneous global media coverage in the world. Because of their phenomenal worldwide impact, these Ceremonies are considered key in the presentation of the culture or cultures of the event host community. However, time and spatial limitations – accentuated by the growing complexity of broadcasting requirements – tend to result in overly simplistic cultural messages which, in their search for the spectacular, give priority to standard and often tokenistic displays over more meaningful and representative discourses. Without denying the value of the Ceremonies in promoting particular cultural agendas, this paper argues that some of the most relevant and effective mechanisms to communicate diversity lie within smaller scale cultural and educational programmes of major events. In providing evidence for this argument, the paper explores the case of Cultureshock, the cultural programme for the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. One of the key challenges of Cultureshock was to renegotiate and enhance perceptions of the Commonwealth in contemporary society and young people in particular. In so doing, one difficulty was to overcome the traditional identification of the Commonwealth with Britain’s colonial and imperial past. A further difficulty was to balance the interest to celebrate the diversity of Commonwealth cultures with the need to embrace other diverse communities based in Manchester whose countries of origin are outside the formal boundaries of the Commonwealth. The paper reviews the approach taken to communicate cultural diversity within the general marketing and public relations strategy for the Manchester Games. This is compared with the strategy to promote Cultureshock both at a national level and among local communities. The paper discusses the approach taken to define ‘cultural diversity’ in the context of the cultural programme and contrasts it with the way this notion is used within other Games materials and presented in the Opening Ceremony. The paper also studies the relationships between Cultureshock programmers and Manchester’s ethnically diverse cultural organisations, and assesses the main outcomes and limitations of the experience. The paper ends with a reflection about the role of cultural programmes in negotiating, defining and communicating cultural diversity and outlines some of their main strengths and challenges by comparison to other popular elements of major events. References are made to the case of the Cultural Olympiad - cultural programme of the Olympic Games - and the Forum Barcelona 2004, the latter of which has the potential to redefine the way a major event can communicate diversity.
Traditionally known as the ‘Second City of the British Empire’, Glasgow’s history as a world leading industrial centre, subsequent depressed post-industrial economy and currently growing cultural hub at a UK and European level is one that poses many questions about the value of the term ‘second city’. Since 1999, with the advent of devolution and the official designation of Edinburgh as capital of Scotland, Glasgow may resent its status as ‘second city’ more than ever before. This paper enquires about the meaning of this term when applied to Glasgow’s case. Is Glasgow second to Edinburgh, to London, to what? What is Glasgow’s role at a Scottish, UK, European and/or world level? This paper reviews the evolution of cultural representations of Glasgow in the media, through tourist promotions and in government discourses over the last twenty years. A comparison is made between the way the city is represented at a local, Scottish national, UK wide and international level. This revision starts with the announcement of Glasgow’s title as 1990 European City of Culture in 1986. At the time, Glasgow was undergoing a major urban regeneration process very much inspired by the experience of US cities such as Baltimore, Minneapolis and Denver. The revision ends with a reflection on the current position of Glasgow as a leading cultural centre in Scotland and its potential to increase its presence and influence at a UK an European level. The paper considers the changing representation of traditional arts institutions in Glasgow – these comprise most Scottish national cultural organisations including Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet and the Scottish National Orchestra, the internationally renowned Glasgow School of Art and the Citizens Theatre among others. This is compared with the representation of emerging institutions and practices in what has been defined as the cultural or creative industries, including design, fashion, music and film. Finally, the paper studies the representation of other distinctive aspects of the city that contribute to or question the use of the term ‘second city’. These include references to Glasgow’s value as a shopping destination (the second largest in the UK after London West End, according to Greater Glasgow Tourist Board) and a conference centre (the fastest growing conference destination in Europe, according to the Union of International Associations). The review of these representations reveal a remarkable change in the media and tourist discourses of traditionally termed ‘second cities’. While up to the 1990s it was common to identify countries and/or nations with their major capitals almost exclusively (UK = London; Scotland = Edinburgh), Glasgow’s experience shows a radical departure from this trend. This is notably marked with its nomination as ‘European City of Culture’ after an uninterrupted succession of capital and major cities such as Athens, Florence, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. After Glasgow, other ‘second cities’ have occupied the spaces traditionally reserved to first cities. This has been the case of Barcelona and Bilbao in Spain and Manchester and Liverpool in the UK, among many others. The paper concludes with a brief remark about the need to develop a broader enquiry into the value of keeping the term ‘second city’. In a globalising world, where the traditional boundaries associated to nation-states are dissolving and being replaced by the ever-growing role and influence of individual cities and regions, what changes need to occur to really understand the current role of cities? What new measures and terminology do we need to compare them and categorize them according to the emerging trends?
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