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From Margin to Centre: The Role of Alternative Cultures in the Creative City : From Margin to Centre: The Role of Alternative Cultures in the Creative City Dr. Justin O’Connor Manchester Institute for Popular Culture Manchester Metropolitan University


Culture central to the contemporary City : Culture central to the contemporary City Culture-led regeneration The ‘creative city’ Creative industries and the City


Culture-led Regeneration : Culture-led Regeneration 1980s, city governments: contracting industrial base, increasing globalisation erosion of the key traditional competitive functions of cities. culture as the ‘new fix’.


New role for culture : New role for culture global image attraction of ‘footloose capital’ highly mobile and highly skilled personnel cultural tourists culture also about real investment in the urban fabric.


property led approach : property led approach subsidised visual and performing arts, museums and heritage new build and refurbishment of 19th and 20th century industrial structures anchored private sector investment into entertainment, leisure and shopping facilities; cafes and restaurants; new type of up-market accommodation, offices and apartments.


Problems : Problems Regeneration viewed as physical regeneration at the expense of a more holistic vision. The big regeneration projects about culture and consumption Cultural consumption generates business, enhances property markets, has strong image effects, but has limits.


Property-led development : Property-led development Tends to involve high capital investment often at the expense of the local Blandness, homogeneity Social exclusion (real and symbolic) Privatisation of public space City centre at expense of suburbs


Property-led Regeneration : Property-led Regeneration Sustainability Extent of Local Impact – economic and social Question of wider benefits to the city - content frequently ‘art’, of ‘international quality’ – whose culture, whose image? Used instrumentally with little feeling for the actual content. Emphasis on cultural consumption rather than Production Can be destructive of spaces of creation and production


The Creative City : The Creative City Culture-led regeneration attempt to re-image the city giving it a greater global profile. Real creative vision involves much wider and deeper set of transformations. Re-imaging must involve renegotiation of local identity - not just marketing exercise.


Creative City : Creative City About building partnerships, inspiring visions, leadership, accepting painful change About re-imagining the city, telling a different story about what it was and what it could become.


From Cultural to Creative Industries : From Cultural to Creative Industries Adorno – Culture Industry: culture as mass production for mass society. Political economists: Cultural Industries Different conditions of production and consumption: commodity and flow; public and private. Need for innovation and authenticity; Artists and intermediaries; Risky business – dealing with unpredictability ‘rationalising the irrational’.


Cultural industries as new economy : 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 CI’s not longer a remnant of the old but a template for the new


Cultural to creative industries : Cultural to creative industries ‘Creative industry’ DCMS 1998 mapping document DCMS: individual creativity and exploitation of intellectual property rights, ‘creative industries’ to forefront of ‘new economy’. Key role of information and knowledge services within the new global system, services based on creativity and innovation.


Creativity goes mainstream : Creativity goes mainstream ‘Creativity’ moved beyond classical cultural industries Traditional attributes of (modernist) ‘artistic’ production - innovation, intuition, ‘out of the box’ thinking, rule breaking, rebellion – now crucial part of new economy as a whole.


Why are they growing? : Why are they growing? Education; leisure; disposable income New technologies of creation, distribution and consumption Consumption of cultural goods as part of lifestyle Cultural component of material goods Cultural component of service products Information and communication now meshed with symbolic


Cultural consumption : Cultural consumption 1960s: ‘Expressive revolution’: transformation of western culture Value shifts – collective to individual; from restraint to self-expression; from duty to self-realisation. Creativity - reflexive construction of identity Risk; responsibility for ‘life choices’


On ‘production’ side : On ‘production’ side Break the 9-5 Doing it for yourself Learning by doing (make it up as you go along) Fluid boundaries of work and play Portfolio careers Reason and Intuition A new habitus


Why Cities? : Why Cities? Policy agenda was driven at this city level rather than by national governments. CIs held possibilities for de-industrialising cities – where innovation, entrepreneurialism, and local vision were key. They could contribute to: Employment Image Sense of vibrancy and cultural richness Wider creativity and innovation Role of subsidised art and culture


Why Cities? : Why Cities? Global economy about networks and flows – of capital, information, goods and services, people, ideas, images Cities key nodes and command centres in global networks.


Why Cities? : Why Cities? Produce and process knowledge and information; Harness R&D to new business opportunities; Generate new skills and entrepreneurial energy; Provide complex division of labour and institutional mix of dynamic post-industrial city.


CI and cities : CI and cities Creativity, innovation, competitiveness Flexible, responsive, user-driven Complex mix of large and small companies; Clusters and networks– ideas, information, support, trust


‘commodified cultural production’ (Scott) : ‘commodified cultural production’ (Scott) high levels of human input: clusters of small companies operating on a project basis; dense flows of information, goods and services; benefits from economies of scale in skills sourcing and know-how; complex divisions of labour (driven especially by new ICT developments) tying people to places


Why some cities not others? : Why some cities not others?


Why some cities not others? : Why some cities not others? Embeddedness Tacit knowledge Traditions Institutions ‘Atmosphere’ Local identity Urbanity


Art Worlds : Art Worlds Artistic milieus: artists Also intermediaries, impresarios, agents, gallery owners, lawyers, craftspeople, technicians, specialist material suppliers etc. ‘cool places’, ‘atmosphere’, ‘buzz’, ‘scenes’ could not just be created - organic quality.


Independents : Independents Freelancers and micro businesses – part of a localised ‘scene’, ‘active consumers’, ‘near to the street’, insider’s knowledge of the volatile and localised logic of cultural consumption Creative milieus: active consumers became active producers of cultural products; spaces, people, networks, exemplars, experiences, institutions – part of the creative assets of a city


Independents : Independents new sense of cultural identity and purpose, New mix of cultural and commercial knowledge New mix of emotional investment and calculation, of creativity and routinisation, of making money and making meaning operating in risky environment, using networks of trust and of information


Independents : Independents New habitus Has to be learned - but tacit rather than formal learning. Tacit, embedded knowledge is also part of the creative assets of a city


Leadbeater and Oakley : Leadbeater and Oakley 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.


Creative Urban Ecology : Creative Urban Ecology ‘meanings adhere to the urban landscape’ - used as factors in the production of cultural commodities meanings re-assimilated into the ‘urban landscape’, acting as ‘a source of inputs to new rounds of cultural production and commercialisation’, and ‘a further enrichment of the urban landscape’


Scott : Scott Cultural production and consumption transform the landscape of the city through its ‘shopping malls, restaurants and cafés, clubs, theatres, galleries, boutiques’.


Scott : Scott This ‘revitalisation of the symbolic content’ of cities draws in city governments, link these transformations with ‘ambitious public efforts of urban rehabilitation in the attempt to enhance local prestige, increase property values and attract new investments and jobs’.


Scott : Scott ‘Their survival can be further assured where policy makers at production locals are able to work out effective systems for the provision of co-ordination and steering services directed to the amplification of these agglomeration economies’.


Creative City, Narratives of regeneration : Creative City, Narratives of regeneration Scott links specific support for CIs with a wider management of the urban ecology - the symbolic infrastructure of the city. Also a mobilisation of local urban identity - ‘creative cities’ – a narrative, usually by the city development agencies of local identity as a cultural resource.


Creative Milieux (Peter Hall) : Creative Milieux (Peter Hall) chaotic, structurally unstable, many sided entities; undergoing social and economic transformation; usually wealthy but with abundance of creative talent drawn from social outsiders, often migrant currents; outsiders needing, like the cities themselves, to react against something, ‘kick over the traces’.


Hall: Cities and Civilisation : Hall: Cities and Civilisation These creative cities were ‘societies troubled about themselves’; they were in a state of tension, of ‘transition forward to new and unexplored modes of organisation… societies in the throes of a transformation in social relationships, in values and in views about the world’; creative cities and creative milieux ‘are places of great social and intellectual turbulence: not comfortable places at all’.


Alternative Cultures : Alternative Cultures romanticism – the rebellious outsider bohemia - the ‘glamorous outcasts’ (Wilson) modernism and the avant-garde, struggle against the existing order of things. 1960s counter-culture, via popular culture entered into the mainstream of contemporary culture


In from the margins : In from the margins 50 and 60s popular culture - more positive and democratic spin to Adorno. Culture not the big corporate but the small independents. ‘rationalising the irrational’ emphasised the role of independents in the production of culture Innovation from below, from rebel, the outsider, the rule breaker. 1980s - this culture in from the margins, finds place at the centre of culture, and of the city.


Urban Transformation : Urban Transformation Emergence of ‘alternative spaces’ (Zukin - SoHo) Movement of artists and cultural intermediaries resulted in the cultural re-valuation of a run down area of the city - from junk to cool. ‘re-landscaping’ urban renewal not led by planners, but bottom up – micro transformation based on cultural vision. symbolic not physical transformation of the city. Zukin - property developers beneficiaries of this ‘re-landscaping’


Re-Landscaping : Re-Landscaping Wider sense of urban identity City as a theatre of identity Wider sense of what the city is, what it might be. Alternative spaces: - Spaces of imagination and new narrative of city,


Manchester Case : Manchester Case Successful use of culture to transform image and urban landscape Transformation of an older identity, reworked through popular culture


Historical background : Historical background Manchester – shock city of industrialisation Challenge to London’s economic, political and cultural dominance Response to challenges – plugged into global transformations 1930s in decline – though still ‘city of Empire’ 1960-80 - collapse


Manchester : Manchester Culture-led Regeneration Olympic Bid: 1987, 1991 New Partnerships, New Visions IRA bomb 1996 New Opportunity, new networks


Museums and Art Galleries : Museums and Art Galleries Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Museum, Urbis, Imperial War Museum North, Museum of Transport, Pump House People’s History Museum, Manchester Jewish Museum, Whitworth Art Gallery, Cornerhouse, Cube, Castlefield Gallery, Lowry Centre and a number of smaller attractions (over 10 public art galleries and over 19 private galleries)


Theatres : Theatres 13 theatres including the Royal Exchange Theatre, the Palace Theatre, the Opera House, Library Theatre and the new young people's theatre, The Contact


Classical Music : Classical Music The Bridgewater Hall, Halle Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Goldberg Ensemble, Phappha, Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester Music Service, European Opera Centre.


Sports Faculties : Sports Faculties The Manchester City Stadium, Velodrome, Aquatics Centre and facilities for tennis, hockey, athletics and squash.


Statistics : Statistics £395 million’s (€ 561M) worth investments in the cultural infrastructure of the city since 1995 10,483,942 recorded visits were made to major cultural attractions in 2000/2001 22,585 people employed in the cultural sector in the city 4,553,000 visitors stayed overnight in Manchester in 1999, contributing € 500M million to the economy


City Narrative : City Narrative Original Modern City: reworked narrative of past and future (Peter Saville) Shift of emphasis from industrial to urbanistic innovation Drew on long standing narratives (first global city, entrepreneurial, open to change) Drew on popular culture as symbolic of wider vibrancy and creativity


Taylor: A Tale of Two Cities : Taylor: A Tale of Two Cities ‘It is this restless flux of the utopias of organised labour and the utopian dreams of urban fortunes, won through free trade and enterprise, that defines the parameters of local mancunian “structure of feeling” – a culture that sees itself as connected up to a larger world and a larger set of possibilities, rather than simply an industrial city caught within a narrow labour metaphysic.’


Taylor: A Tale of Two Cities : Taylor: A Tale of Two Cities ‘The dominant image of the Mancunian of the 1990s, of the street-wise “scally” (scallywag) doing business across the world or profiting from local initiatives in the entertainment business (the pop groups of the 1980s “Madchester” or the Olympic bid in 1992), we would argue is no overnight invention.’


Manchester Music : Manchester Music Sex Pistols 1976: Alternative Space Rave culture: Hacienda – Madchester: Time Magazine and Olympics The Smiths: reworking the myth/ past slipping away/ ambiguity – love and hate


Uses and Abuses : Uses and Abuses Generated arts infrastructure Chains not small retailers Cultural Consumption rather than production CIs not supported Popular culture under threat from commercialisation (e.g. small venues) Selective use of popular culture: the excluded and the ignored – literacy and education


1. Creative Production and Space : 1. Creative Production and Space CIs need space and place As much an issue of public policy as space for subsidised art Urban ecology increasingly threatened by culture-led regeneration Private spaces have a public function – spaces of innovation and experiment Creative cities about hard economic choices


2: Beyond Cultural Policy : 2: Beyond Cultural Policy Support for creative production: Not artist centred – range of key actors and skills About the non-human – things organise us Systems – about structures and autonomous processes Sometimes about economic muscle and regulation


3 The Dark Side : 3 The Dark Side ‘Benign narrative’ of culture and economics Creative Milieus mobilised as economic policy. Creativity and culture about conflict, ‘unpopular culture’, the ‘dark side’: does not always sit well with policy makers.


4 Urbanity and modernity : 4 Urbanity and modernity ‘creativity’ linked to the (urban) public sphere and to transformations of lifestyle and social structure. ‘Creative Milieus’ involve cultural and political questions Can you have creativity and innovation (modernisation) without the more difficult modernity that goes with it?


5 Florida’s ‘Creative Class’ : 5 Florida’s ‘Creative Class’ Is it a class in any meaningful sense? Is it simply about new forms of consumption and gentrification? Does it benefit a new elite at the expense of the urban population as a whole? Does it benefit the city at the expense of the country?


6 Creativity : 6 Creativity Creativity based on modernism not ‘traditional’ cultural values – golden mean, middle way, balance, slow acquisition of skills, discipline etc. These values stripped away by discourse of ‘creativity’ Endless innovation – mirror of capitalism (‘all that is solid melts into air’)


6 Creativity : 6 Creativity Creativity as absolute human right or ideology? What, could creativity be a bad thing?


7 Threats : 7 Threats Instrumentalisation of culture Collapse of culture into economic policy Homogenisation, globalisation and erosion of local production New work culture Modernity: danger and opportunity!


Final thought…. : Final thought…. Cities are divisions of labour and an imaginative work How do these work with each other?