Culture-led Urban Development Processes: Theory and Policy

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Culture-led Urban Development ProcessesTheory
and Policy

• Pier Luigi Sacco
• Department of Arts and Industrial Design
• IUAV University, Venice

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The role of culture in post-industrial economies

• In pre-industrial economies, culture is mostly an
  activity ruled by the gift economy of mecenatism
  rather than by market transactions
• In industrial economies, culture increasingly
  organizes into cultural industries developing
  their respective consumer markets
• In post-industrial economies, culture tends to
  become the basic platform for the construction of
  individual and collective identity models and
  tends to assume the character of a public good

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Clustering in the industrial economy

• Clusters are characterized by vertical
  integration spatial concentration is ruled by
  the belonging to a common value chain/industry
• Traditional cultural clusters (cultural
  districts) are just one example among many.
• More generally, industrial districts (Marshall)
  locations characterized by a shared industrial
  atmosphere (ie an intangible knowledge-based
  asset related to the specific type of production)
  which gives comparative advantage

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The limitations of vertical integration

• Considerable economies of scale, scope,
  transportation, etc
• But at the same time mental lock-in product
  orientation takes over the whole social and
  economic organization and limits innovation
• Innovation tends to be incremental rather than
  radical
• When competitive pressure forces relocation, the
  social structure collapses
• The increasing demands posed by social and
  economic development make this organizational
  model unsustainable (increased demand for novelty
  and variety both on the supply and demand side)

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Clustering in the post-industrial economy

• Competition drives toward products/experiences
  with high intangible value added that require
  radical, knowledge-intensive innovation
• Increasing tendence toward horizontal integration
  (strategic complementarity between different
  industries/value chains which share a common
  need/orientation toward radical innovation)
• The industrial atmosphere is no longer
  characterized by a common product orientation but
  by a common orientation toward the production and
  circulation of knowledge

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Clustering in the post-industrial economy(II)

• In this new context, culture is not just a bundle
  of sectors/industries among others but becomes
  the platform for individual and societal
  capability building for the production and
  circulation of knowledge
• Individual and collective cognitive competences
  as the basic intangible infrastructure of the
  post-industrial economy
• Activation costs and the virtuous circle of
  competence capability building ? qualified
  demand ? willingness to pay ? qualified supply ?
  menu enlargement and social salience ? capability
  building

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Progressive/advanced cultural clusters

• The increasing confluence of cultural and
  non-cultural productive activities and their
  relation to social sustainability
• Culture as an activator of innovation the
  strategic importance of cultural access
• Culture as a social integrator experiencing the
  unusual, bargaining over differences
• Culture as a networking platform
  de-instrumentalizing interaction
• Culture and well-being an answer to the
  Easterlin-Inglehart puzzle

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The distortions of the standard approaches

• Florida attraction of talent/creativity ?
  instrumentalization (the key is looking for
  coolness)
• Porter competitive restructuring ?
  over-engineering, technocracy (the key is
  building technology/science parks)
• Sen capability building ? parochialism (the key
  is focusing on our community)

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Building a general framework

• Looking at the places where advanced cultural
  clustering is successfully taking over, it
  becomes apparent that the attraction/restructuring
  /capability building dimensions need to be
  integrated in a wider framework encompassing all
  them wide spectrum local development models.
• Examples of relatively wide spectrum cities
  Lille, Newcastle/Gateshead, Tampere, Lund, Linz,
  Valencia, Turin, Rome, Montreal, Austin,
  Denverplus a quantity of emergent ones.

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The twelve factors

• Quality of cultural supply (QCS)
• Quality nof the production of knowledge (QPK)
• Quality of local governance (QLG)
• Development of local talent (DLT)
• Development of local entrepreneurship (DLE)
• Attraction of external talent (AET)
• Attraction of external firms/investment (AEF)
• Management of social criticialities (MSC)
• Capability buidling of the local community (CBC)
• Local community involvement (LCI)
• Internal Networking (INW)
• External Networking (ENW)

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Local development and intangible assets

• Every euro of GIP that is generated by the local
  economy may entail positive or negative
  intangible multipliers ? externality effects on
  human, social and symbolic capital
• Selling out the cultural identity of a city vs
  consolidating/building up identity
• The viability of a local development model must
  be evaluated against its impact on the twelve
  dimensions/the five capital assets (tangible
  natural and physical intangible human, social,
  symbolic/cultural)

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The Strategic Matrix
Quality Quality of Cultural Supply (QCS) Quality of Cultural Supply (QCS)
Quality Quality of Local Governance (QLG) Quality of Local Governance (QLG)
Quality Quality Production of Knowledge (QPK) Quality Production of Knowledge (QPK)
Development Development Local Entrepreneurship (DLE) Development Local Entrepreneurship (DLE)
Development Development of Local Talent (DLT) Development of Local Talent (DLT)
Attraction Attraction of External Firms (AEF) Attraction of External Firms (AEF)
Attraction Attraction of External Talent (AET) Attraction of External Talent (AET)
Networking Internal Networking (IN) Internal Networking (IN)
Networking External Networking (EN) External Networking (EN)
Sociality Management Social Criticalities (MSC) Management Social Criticalities (MSC)
Sociality Capability Building and Education of the Local Community (CBE) Capability Building and Education of the Local Community (CBE)
Sociality Local community involvement (LCI) Local community involvement (LCI)
Natural Capital Physical Capital Human Capital Social Capital Symbolic/ Cultural Capital
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The process

1. Initiator (public or private town hall, bank,
   association of entrepreneurs, group of non-profit
   organizations)
2. Strategic plan
3. Building a coalition of actors
4. Meetings with stakeholders
5. City conferences
6. Creation of a development agency
7. Implementation of action plan
8. Periodic feedback conferences/meetings, revision
   of the strategic plan

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Cultural planning as a strategic spectrum
filling process some cases

• Vancouver excellence in QCS, QPK, AET, AEF, DLT,
  MSC
• But basic gaps in QLG, LCI, CBC, INW, ENW
• As a consequence dual identity of the city ?
  an economically affluent cultural ground zero
  (DTWS) and a culturally rich economic ground
  zero (DTES)
• Initiator Vancity Capital (Bank), stage 4
• A city that is an emerging capital of the movie
  industry but that almost never plays itself
• Invisible culture the Granville Island paradox
• The challenge making cultural life move to the
  surface and become an intrinsic element of
  collective identity communitarian strategies of
  capability building and cooperation (symbolic
  capital)

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Cultural planning as a strategic spectrum
filling process some cases

• Venice excellence in AET, QPK, ENW
• But basic gaps in QCS, QLG, AEF, DLT, MSC, LCI,
  INW
• As a consequence dissolving identity of the city
  ? a growing stereotypization of the city that
  gradually transforms into a customer-oriented
  entertainment park
• A city that plays fake
• Initiator Regione Veneto (regional government),
  stage 2
• The challenge reinventing the citys cultural
  life through a global rethinking of the social
  use of space a bottom-up creative rejuvenation
  aimed at making of Venice the diamond head of a
  Veneto advanced cultural clusters economy
  (social capital)
• From (impossible) preservation to production
• (Veneto almost exclusive concentration on DLE
  now forcing QCS, DLT, LCI, CBC)

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Cultural planning as a strategic spectrum
filling process some cases

• Belo Horizonte excellence in AEF, QPK
• But basic gaps in QCS, DLT, DLF, MSC, LCI, INW,
  ENW, CBC
• As a consequence weak identity of the city ? one
  of the countrys major concentrations of
  productive, human capital and cultural heritage
  that fail to integrateinto a coherent picture
• A city that is a sum of disparate parts
• Initiator a coalition of actors (Fondazione
  Torino, IEPHA, Instituto Estrada Real with
  funding from Italian Ministries of Employment and
  Foreign Affairs), stage 2
• The challenge creating a system of cultural
  central places (starting from the reinvention of
  Praca da Liberdade) that produces bridging forms
  of social capital (socialsymbolic capital)
• The parallel development of manufacturing and the
  knowledge economy

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Cultural planning as a strategic spectrum
filling process some cases

• The Faenza experiment 3-years planning
• Excellence in QPK, QLG, MSC, LCI, INW
• But basic gaps in QCS, AET, DLT, ENW, CBC
• As a consequence freezed identity of the city ?
  Faenza, the city of ceramics, a nice, friendly,
  innocuous town( beware of the Impruneta
  effect preserving the city of terracotta)
• A town that sees future as an extension of the
  past
• Initiator group of local non-profits
  (Laboratorio cultura), town hall, stage 6-7
• The challenge providing a culture shock to the
  city and enlarging as much as possible the local
  competence base (humansymbolic capital)
• Faenza Festival of Contemporary Art Futuro
  Presente/Present Continuous, The Community Arts
  Hub, Torricelli 2008

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Where are we going? Culture 2.0

• Culture-based local development processes entail
  the construction of a knowledge-oriented society
  and economy in a much more radical sense than
  originally expected
• We move away from an organization that
  functionally separates cultural producers and
  audiences, and move toward the creatin of wide
  communities of practice
• Web-based cultural arenas play a most significant
  role in this respect
• Cultural policies have to be strategically
  re-thought as policies for competitiveness,
  strongly complementary to innovation policies
• Big problem the tension from intrinsic
  motivation and instrumentality in the production
  of cultural contents the call for a new paradign
  of economic rationality