culture as an economic factor in the development of the city geoffrey brown geoffrey@euclid.info

Culture as an Economic Factor in the development of the city

Geoffrey Brown

geoffrey@euclid.info

What is culture ? “A whole way of life”

A certain level of knowledge and understanding

Particular products with aesthetic or symbolic meaning

Cultural Industries: a Definition

“…those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.”

(UK Government, Department of Culture, Media and Sport)

From definition to question…

‘Cultural industries’: products turned into commodities generating value

Economic value derives from their cultural value

QUESTION: how can one be turned into the other ?

Culture as commodity production

Mass reproduction & distribution – combination of technology, business and culture

Books, performing arts, visual arts Newspapers, journals, prints, photography,

printed music Recorded music, film, radio TV (video, photocopies, printing) Digitalisation & new communication technologies

(a new convergence ?)New technologies and new business models

constantly transform the existing field

Industrial Economy Structure

Origination

Production Distribution

Consumption

Cultural Industry StructureOrigination

Production Distribution

Consumption

Cultural industries as new economy

Fordism to post-Fordism – mass production to flexible specialisation:

National space to global / local spaces New economy – innovation, creativity,

flexibility, reflexivity, responsiveness CIs no longer a remnant of the old but

a template for the new

Changing Role of the Artist Diminished role for state patronage. Cheap technology makes art easier. More artists, more art. ‘Consumers’ (experiencers) become

more demanding (and discerning?). The public participates, becomes

creative. Creativity is not seen as magic, ‘art’

becomes a common human activity.

CIs are growing…

Education; leisure, disposable income New technologies of creation, distribution and

consumption Increased consumption of cultural goods as

part of lifestyle Increased cultural component of material

goods Increased cultural component of service

products Information and communication now meshed

with symbolic

How do they link to cities ? Cities as nodes in global network Creativity, innovation,

competitiveness: CIs CIs – articulation of large and small

companies Clusters, networks, projects – ideas,

information, support, trust Tacit knowledge, traditions,

institutions, ‘atmosphere’, local identity

They thrive on easy access to local, tacit know-how – a style, a look, a sound – which is not accessible globally. Thus the cultural industries based on local know-how and skills show how cities can negotiate a new accommodation with the global market, in which cultural producers sell into much larger markets but rely on a distinctive and defensible local base

(Leadbeater and Oakley, 1999: 14)

Creative cities CIs rely on the urbanity of cities – diversity,

breakdown of tradition, spaces of mix and encounter – all lead to constant innovation

Cities are also “collectivities of human activity and interest that continually create streams of public goods – that sustain the workings of the creative field” (Scott, 2001)

This is an ‘urban ecology’: “those meanings that adhere to the urban landscape of the producing centre” act as a “source of input to new rounds of cultural production and commercialisation” and a “further enrichment of the urban landscape” (Scott, 2001)

Culture and regeneration Regeneration mostly viewed as physical

regeneration Big regeneration projects are about culture and

consumption Cultural consumption generates business, enhances

property markets, and has strong image effects Limits to this – sustainability, local impact, and

wider benefits to the city Content frequently ‘art’, of ‘international quality’ Used instrumentally (as part of policy / strategy)

with little feeling for the actual content

Cultural industries & regeneration

CIs are about sustainable production; involve engagement with ‘culture’ across a much broader spectrum

Need to complement ‘consumption-led’ regeneration

Issues for the support of CIs – business support infrastructure, training & education, marketing & information, finance, etc.

Increasing urgency of question of urban space

CIs and space

Space for creative production – diversity of provision not just high end users

Private spaces with a public function – spaces of innovation and experiment

CIs need space and place Should be as much an issue of ‘public goods’

as space for subsidised art Urban ecology increasingly threatened by

property-led regeneration Creative cities being short changed by short-

term profit

A challenge…

The energies and creativity that have sustained cities in difficult times and provided the foundation for regeneration are being threatened by a one sided regeneration that is killing the spaces and places of creativity

Thank you !

Geoffrey Brown geoffrey@euclid.info

EUCLID www.euclid.info www.culture.info