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Cities and Culture project
The long term legacy of Glasgow 1990

Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow

Expert Forum

On 6 June 2003 the Centre for Cultural Policy Research invited a group of cultural policy researchers to take part in a workshop to discuss and debate key issues involved in researching cities and culture with particular reference to the Centre's Glasgow 1990 project.

This group of researchers have, in association with the CCPR, agreed to constitute a 'Forum of Experts on Cities and Culture'. This forum is to act as a growing network of scholars developing work on this topic, exchanging information about research frameworks and methodologies and providing advice and feedback on respective projects. The forum is in its very early stages. The CCPR will continue to update information on its evolution, in particular, by providing links to the projects and institutions with which forum members are related.

Forum members

Professor Giandomenico Amendola is a professor of Urban Sociology in the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Florence, where he is also responsible for CITYLAB, the Interdisciplinary Laboratory on Social Vulnerability and the City Emergency. Since September 2001, he has been president of Associazione Italiana di Sociologia (the Italian Association of Sociology). His research is currently investigating the city emergency and the effects of the spread of fear on the contemporary city. He is author of La città postmoderna: magie e parure della metropoli contemporanea (1997) and Scenari della città prossima ventura (2000).

Dr Franco Bianchini is Reader in Cultural Planning and Policy, Director of the Cultural Planning Research Unit, and Programme Leader for the MA in European Cultural Planning at De Montfort University, Leicester. His books include Culture and neighbourhoods: a comparative report (with L.Ghilardi, Santacatterina, Strasbourg, 1997), The creative city (with C. Landry, 1995), Cultural policy and urban regeneration: the West European experience (with M Parkinson, 1993) and City centres, city cultures (with M Fisher et al, 1988).
He has acted as advisor and researcher on cultural planning strategies and projects in various European countries, on behalf of organisations including Arts Council England, the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the European Task force on Culture and Development. He has lectured on urban and regional cultural policy and planning issues - including on questions of economic and social impact assessment - in countries including Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, Poland, Spain, Greece and Italy. He was chosen by the European Parliament to serve on the international panel of experts responsible for recommending the city to be selected as European Capital of Culture for 2005. His recent research interests encompass such topics as the relationship between participation in cultural activities and social inclusion/civic participation (see his chapter - with J Bloomfield - in N Stevenson (ed.) Culture and citizenship (2001), the role of intercultural practices within innovative urban strategies, the emergence of new professional specializations in area-based cultural policies, and alternative approaches to place marketing.

Dr Jude Bloomfield is Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of East London, and a freelance writer and researcher on urban cultures and European citizenship. She is a research associate with Comedia and the International Cultural Planning and Policy Unit at De Montfort University, where she teaches on the MA in European Cultural Planning. She is co-author, with Franco Bianchini, of Planning the cosmopolitan city in the 21st century (forthcoming) and a research report on Multiculturalism in the performing arts in europe for IETM (forthcoming 2003).

Professor Eric Corijn is a philosopher and cultural sociologist. He teaches at universities of Brussels and Antwerp and is responsible for POLIS, a joint masters degree on European Urban Cultures, between the universities of Brussels, Tilburg, Manchester and Helsinki. Professor Corijn is Head of the Centre for Urban Research COSMOPOLIS, City, Culture & Society.

Dr Monica Degen is a research fellow in Geography at the Open University. In 2001 she was awarded a PhD for the thesis: Regenerating Public Life? A sensuous comparison of Barcelona and Manchester from the Sociology Department at the University of Lancaster where she specialised in cultural sociology with an emphasis on urban studies. Her thesis examined the social production of regenerated public places through the prism of the senses in two marginal city centre neighbourhoods in Manchester and Barcelona. By combining ethnographic research with social theoretical frameworks it compared how a global process such as regeneration transforms the sensuous mapping of public places and how this reflects on the public life of the area.
She is currently involved in a research project ‘Habitable Cities’ which aims to explore the value of urban green spaces for people and wildlife. The project has allowed her to expand her work around the relationships between spatial practices, embodiment and material environment and the links between spatial imaginations and citizenship. She is co-editor of Spatial Hauntings (Space and Culture 2001) and Fifty key thinkers on the city (Routledge, forthcoming). She has published articles on social theory in Space and Culture and the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (forthcoming).

Professor Graeme Evans is Director of Research, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, The London Institute. He was previously Director of the Centre for Leisure & Tourism Studies and Convenor of the Cities Research Group at University of North London, and Director of the London Association of Arts Centres. He is author of Cultural planning: an urban renaissance? (2001). Recent publications include ‘Shaping the cultural landscape: local regeneration effects’ (with Jo Foord), in M Miles and T Hall (eds.), Urban futures: critical commentaries on shaping the city (2003) and ‘Hard branding the culture city - from Prado to Prada’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2003). He has undertaken longitudinal impact studies of the National Lottery for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with recent reports on the 'Social impact of lottery funding' (2002) and ‘The UK lottery and the arts - the first seven years’, published in Circular No.14 (2002). He has undertaken numerous feasibility studies, cultural plans and assessments of arts projects, including The Lighthouse Centre for Architecture and Design, Glasgow. He has been a member of Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) Enabling Panel since 2001.

Dr Justin O’Connor is Reader in Sociology and Director of the Manchester Institute for Popular Culture at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research interests include histories and theories of cultural change in modernity and, more specifically, on contemporary urban cultures and their relationship on the transformations of the post-industrial city. He has also researched extensively on the issue of cultural industries at the urban and regional level. This research is both academic and related to specific policy initiatives. He has been involved in the establishment of the UK’s first cultural industries development agency, based in Manchester and of which he is co-chair. He also co-founded the Forum on Creative Industries (FOCI), the UK’s leading network in the field, involving academics, consultants and policy makers. His research has a strong European dimension, with a number of projects concerned with cultural industries, cultural quarters and cultural policy in Europe, including Russia and Bulgaria. He was also lead academic advisor to the Urbis in Manchester, a new museum of the modern city. Finally, he is UK programme leader on the MA European Urban Cultures, a unique joint masters involving four European universities.

Professor Ronan Paddison is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Glasgow. His main research interests lie in the political geographies of cities and regions in which he has published widely. His more recent publications include work based on local neighbourhood participation in Glasgow and Edinburgh, the ‘institutional turn’ in metropolitan areas. He has published on city marketing and is currently working on the local politics of tourism and urban development. Among his recent books is the edited volume Handbook of Urban Studies (2001). He is Managing Editor of Urban Studies and of Space and Polity.

Professor Ivan Turok is Professor of Urban Economic Development and Director of Research in the Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow. His research interests are in the fields of urban and regional development and policy, with particular expertise in economic development, local labour markets, urban regeneration and local partnerships. He has just completed a four-year study of economic competitiveness, social cohesion and local governance in Glasgow and Edinburgh as part of the ESRC Cities, Competitiveness and Cohesion Programme. In recent years he has acted as an adviser to the OECD, European Commission, UK government and Scottish Executive on various aspects of economic development, city development and employment policy. Recent publications include: I Turok et al, Twin track cities? Linking prosperity and cohesion in Glasgow and Edinburgh (2003) and 'Cities, clusters and creative industries: the case of film and TV in Scotland', European Planning Studies (forthcoming 2003).