Elsevier

City, Culture and Society

Volume 2, Issue 3, September 2011, Pages 123-130
City, Culture and Society

The cultural contradictions of the creative city

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2011.08.002Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper is concerned with both what creative cities are imagined to be, as well as what they actually are. This is a challenge for policy makers. Overall, the paper seeks to create a platform for a more nuanced and subtle approach to creativity, culture and cities: one that is situated and not universal. It seeks to map out an approach that is concerned not simply with the growth possibilities, but also redistributive strategies. In so doing it questions whether can we conceive of creative cities as a truly progressive field of policy and practice, in direct contrast to what we judge to be the socially regressive form they take at present. The paper is divided into three main parts. The first locates the creative city within the discourse of place marketing, but flags up the tensions between the universalism of place marketing, and the particularities of culture and creativity. The second critically examines notions of liberalism and creativity as they underpin the creative city. The final part takes the actually existing creative city and highlights many of the negative and regressive elements of policies that promote them. The paper argues for the need for more nuanced approaches, and for more attention to the (lack of) redistributive outcomes in existing creative city debates.

Highlights

► Maps out an approach that is concerned not simply with the growth possibilities, but also redistributive strategies. ► Locates the creative city within the discourse of place marketing. ► Flags up the tensions between the universalism of place marketing, and the particularities of culture and creativity. ► Critically examines notions of liberalism and creativity as they underpin the creative city. ► Highlights many of the negative and regressive elements of policies that promote creative cities.

Introduction

This paper is concerned with both what creative cities are imagined to be, as well as what they actually are. We point out that in many ways the concept of creative cities fits in neatly with neo-liberal globalisation strategies, but at the same times presents them a ‘human’ or ‘cultured’ face. If this were an explicit aim we would disagree with the basic strategy, but argue that it was at least logical on its own terms. However, countering this view, we would suggest that our focus of argumentation perhaps might be better turned onto what sort of trade off, and for whom, does the normative concept and settlement favour? This paper takes the debate even further, into the realm of cultural production as well as cultural consumption. This is something has been advocated previously (Pratt, 2004), although it is an approach that is itself beset with problems. In the current paper we want to add an equally critical perspective to this approach as well. Overall, the paper seeks to create a platform for a more nuanced and subtle approach of creativity, culture and cities, one that is situated and not universal; and, one that is centrally concerned not simply with the growth possibilities, but also with redistributive strategies. In so doing we see the opportunity to make creative cities a truly progressive field of policy and practice, in direct contrast to what could be judged to be a socially regressive form at present.

In this paper we explore these tensions to escape from the limitations of ‘cookbook’ approaches to creative cities based upon narrow branding, or place marketing, logics and we consider instead a more nuanced approach that is sensitive to local cultures and difference (Pratt, 2010). The UNESCO (2001) declaration on cultural diversity is a challenge to normative approaches to creative cities: arguably most such strategies are enemies of diversity and promote sameness, for reasons that we explore in this paper. One potential vehicle for operationalisation of the principles of the declaration on diversity is the UNESCO creative cities network. Contrary to the one size fits all mentality of the creative city ‘manual’ (the normative place marketing model) the UNESCO network is focused on local partnership building and the notion of examining shared experiences and challenges across cities. The UNESCO network also alerts us to the variety of types of creative cities; a point that we will return to later.∗Whilst this paper is critical of much current practice, or outcome, in the field of creative cities its argument and intent is compatible with both the aspirations of the UNESCO Creative Cities Programme (Bandarin, 2011), and the UNCTAD Creative Economy report (UNCTAD 2010). The point made here is that policy makers and citizens cannot afford to be ‘starry eyed’ about the creative city , rather they need to engage with both the challenges and opportunities that it may bring. Resolutions of the issues, and conflicts, will require creative policy making to match the complex diversity of social, economic and political actors that constitute the actually existing creative city.

The paper’s title is a self-conscious borrowing of Bell’s (1978) theme: the contradictions between a particular economic and a specific cultural logic. It represents a tension that could easily characterise those of the creative city, a notion not dreamt of at the time. The paper has two objectives: first, to highlight philosophical freight (liberalism, creativity and culture) that concepts of creative cities carry; and second, to offer a clearer way of thinking about creative cities in situated ways that review actually existing creative cities as opposed to idealist and aspirational forms. Of course it is an irony that Florida (2002) draws heavily on Bell’s (1973) earlier work to frame the notion of creative class. We do not want to follow Bell here, except to acknowledge that he raises a pertinent question, one that is directly challenges Florida’s wider conceptual framework, one that merits further investigation.

Williams (1976, p. 87) famously commented that culture was one of the most complicated words in the English language; one might add that creativity and liberalism share some difficulties. The argument in this paper seeks to address the current assemblage that is represented by the interweaving of the ideas of culture, creativity and liberalism and their association with the city. There are two themes of the argument here. First, the concern that notions of the creative city are commonly freighted with a number of co-assumptions about romanticism and neo-liberal economics, as well as particular interpretations of social and moral liberalism. Our point here is to highlight these assumptions, and suggest other possibilities. Second, we want to take the creative city at face value and explore what the nature of life and livelihood is in the actually existing creative city; and by implication to contrast this with the more general rhetoric in favour of creative cities.

It is hoped that the argument advanced here will open up some space to think about the creative city more clearly, and more incisively, than has been done previously. More generally we want to argue against a universalist notion of creativity and the creative city, and in favour of a socially, cultural and economically embedded and situated one. Moreover, we want to highlight the asymmetry of power relations (and hence distributional consequences) that are embedded in all representations (plans, images and marketing) of the city, in favoured strategies, and economic sectors, but are particularly strongly found in creative cities. However, we also want to stress that at the same time that such asymmetries are denied by the apparent universal gloss of liberalism and creativity that are commonly characterised as a universal and undifferentiated positive in creative city debates.

The general tenor of debates about creative cities has added a particular twist to the older neo-liberal discipline of foreign direct investment (FDI). Simply this foregrounds a particular logic, and an associated set of expectations of how and in what ways a city must sell itself, its people and its culture, to attract exogenous investment (see for example, Hall and Hubbard (1998) and Kearns and Philo (1993)). One outcome of this is the hard branding strategy that creates cultural icons that are generally acknowledged to attract decision makers and (cultural) tourists to cities (Evans, 2001, Evans, 2003). The innovative work of Florida, drawing upon Glaeser’s (1998) arguments about human capital mobility, has sought to frame the types of city form that will attract the ‘creative class’ which is the object of desire of cutting edge firms (and urban managers). The picture is now familiar: liberal values of social and political governance and a particular type of cultural consumption space. Put in this way, we may pose the question: who would be unhappy with this? Not surprisingly, there has been a rush from many cities to put in place these components, and hence compete to be ‘the most creative city’.

As has been pointed out elsewhere (Pratt, 2008a), there is another debate about the cultural and creative industries in cities that has addressed cities as new sites of cultural production, and implies a different set of assumptions and desiderata as to what comprises the ‘creative city’. Moreover, there are yet other debates that frame creative cities as problem-solving cities, based upon novel forms of governance (Landry, 2000). Instead of simply counter-posing the two strands of creative city argument we seek, in this paper, to explore a wider terrain, and to examine the actually existing creative city (of production and consumption) that is quite different to that of the ideal type creative city of popular debate. Our aim is to both re-energise debates about the possibilities and limits to (production based) creative cities, and to offer a more nuanced reading of the creative city that might work as a corrective to what are by default neo-liberal celebrations of a particular manifestation of ‘creativity’.

The paper is divided into three main parts. The first locates the creative city within the discourse of place marketing, but flags up the contradictions of the universalisms of place marketing, and the particularities of culture and creativity. The second critically examines notions of liberalism and creativity as they underpin the creative city. The final part takes the actually existing creative city and highlights many of the negative and regressive elements of policies that promote them. The paper argues for the need for more nuanced approaches, and for more attention to the (lack of) redistributive outcomes.

Section snippets

‘Nice’ cities: For shiny happy people1

Before delving into critique we want to take the normative viewpoint, but we want to push it to its limits, and examine its consequences (rather than aspirations). The normative view is expressed by a city ‘off the architect’s drawing board’ as represented in a city marketing video. This is the expression of modernity, rationality and progress, with a cultural inflection (with cultural hard branding used as product differentiator). This gives up a vision of the best of all possible worlds. In

Where the liberal gloss wears thin

There is a tension between the neoliberal project of industrial development at the lowest cost, and cities competing to provide resources to host highly skilled labour whom will act as bait for FDI. Florida’s creative attempt to ‘square the circle’ is achieved though playing the trump card of creativity (very much like previous urban strategies and the use of quality of life indicators). Culture and creativity has gained a further resonance in that it has been posited as the driver of all

Creativity, liberalism and culture

This section will question the deployment of notions such as creativity and moral liberalism as universals, and the challenges presented by the lay admixture of liberalism, creativity and culture. Our objective here is to problematise atomism and universalism and substitute them with a more nuanced situated perspective. We draw influence from writers such as, Young (1990) writing about concepts such as justice which have been similarly characterised who have pointed out that the imposition of

Be careful what you wish for: The creative city

It is precisely this debate that can be found to animate – in various ways – a number of recent explorations of the internal tensions between creativity, organisation and knowledge (see Boltanski and Chiapello, 2005, Lazzarato, 2007, McRobbie, 2003 and Thrift (2005)). There is no space to detail these debates here (but see Gill and Pratt (2008)), but it is sufficient to note that they range from notions that art and creativity represent work’s ‘other’ and hence a space of individual freedom, to

Consumption

The aspirations and generally perceived positive elements of the notion of the creative class and the creative city have been well documented; but as has been suggested above, these accounts are inevitably partial; they are predicated upon the displacement of an existing population, or down-grading their demands and needs. A well-documented process of the influx of higher income and/or different cultural capital is the core of the generalised process of gentrification (Lees, 2000). Of course, a

Production

An alternative to the focus on consumption spaces and places has been to re-examine the role of cultural production in cities, and to develop polices to encourage it (Pratt, 2008a). It is true that there is now a literature that provides clear evidence of the economic, social and political contribution of cultural industries to cities (Scott, 2000), that maps the scale and import of the cultural production economy in cities (rivalling many ‘traditional’ sectors such as financial services (GLA

Is this the future that was anticipated?

Views of the hoped for sunny uplands of creative work abound in the literature; as noted above, there is an emerging literature on the realities in particular the structures and organisation or creative work, and what the experience of creative work is really like. What is generally lacking are urban level analyses; there is good reason for this: it is an as yet emerging, and fast changing field of economic activity. Some snapshots of the creative sector as a whole can be gleaned from sectoral

Conclusions

The aim of this paper has been to take a critical look at the notion of the creative city. We took our lead from Bell and framed the argument around the contradictory nature of the creative class and thus the creative city. Bell’s internal contradiction was a central problem in post-industrial societies; it is a debate that has resurfaced under different formulations in more recent debates (see for example Boltanski and Chiapello (2005) and Gill and Pratt (2008)). This paper took its conceptual

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    A previous version of this paper was presented at “The International Symposium on City, Culture and Society – Reinventing the City for Cultural Creativity and Social Inclusion” organised by Osaka City University, Urban Research Plaza (URP), Osaka, December 15–17, 2010. Thanks to all participants for feedback.

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