*CITERES-âCNRS and Polytech Tours, University François Rabelais, Tours, France ... focuses on the traditional or 'high' arts, such as opera, classical music, dance, and so .... Analysis of culture as the instrument to meet the social, economic and .... arts, such as galleries, museums and concert halls (i.e. Bilbao bounce for a ...
Workshop AttractVil 28-‐29 November 2012, Albi, France
CULTURE AS A DRIVER OF THE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT? GENERAL LANDMARKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-‐SIZED TOWNS
Abdelillah Hamdouch*, Ksenija Banovac*, Christophe Demazière* and Marc-‐Hubert Depret** *CITERES-‐CNRS and Polytech Tours, University François Rabelais, Tours, France **CRIEF and University of Poitiers, Niort, France Corresponding Author: Abdelillah Hamdouch (abdelillah.hamdouch@univ-‐tours.fr) INTRODUCTION At the beginning of 2000s, the role of culture in the economy was widely regarded in terms of its potential contribution to tourism. However, this standpoint has begun to be reviewed, especially after the appearance of Florida’s publications on creative class (2002). Culture has thus, gained increasing recognition as a factor of development (Bayliss, 2004). In fact, for cities to enhance their competitiveness, the use of culture as a driver for urban growth has become a feature of the policy agenda (Bayliss, 2007). Nevertheless, “there are still many who are sceptical or are simply unaware of its potential and importance” (CSES and ERICarts, 2010: 2). “Definitions of culture vary along a continuum. At one extreme, a narrow conception of culture focuses on the traditional or ‘high’ arts, such as opera, classical music, dance, and so on. At the other extreme, broad definitions of the term define culture as a ‘way of life’ which embraces the way we eat, live, socialise, holiday and so on” (Darlow, 1996: 293). Group of urban planners and urban sociologists gathered around the project “Empowering territorial development: cultural drivers for social cohesion -‐ INSINTRIC”, defined two basic approaches existing in the scientific literature that observes the relation between culture and territorial development. The first instrumental approach is focused on the competition and the market position. The key elements of this extrovert standpoint are culture tourism, creative clusters, and more precisely, creative and cultural industries. The second intrinsic approach, on the other hand, focuses more on the social transformation and it is introvert in character. Its key elements are educational, traditional, democratic and social components of culture (INSINTRIC project proposal, 2010). In analysing the culture economy across Europe, KEA project (2009) defined three angles through which culture as a concept can be approached: (i) culture as ‘art’: “this definition uses the agrarian metaphor to describe the work completed with the ‘mind’. This definition is highly subjective as it includes a quality evaluation of what art is or is not” (p. 44); (ii) culture as a set of attitudes, beliefs, customs, values and practices which are commonly shared by a group; (iii) culture as a tool to qualify a sector of activity: the cultural sector. Here culture comprises activities that involve some form of creativity in their production, that are concerned with the 1
generation and communication of symbolic means, and whose output potentially embodies at least some form of intellectual property (p. 44). In terms of the contribution of culture to the economy, “it has gradually been acknowledged, in particular, with the development of the cultural industries. Culture contributes directly to the economy as it provides products for consumption, namely the cultural goods and services embodied in books, films, music sound recordings, concerts, etc.” (KEA, 2009: 31). Is cultural diversity a competitive asset for the local development? Are small and medium-‐sized towns capable to pull benefits from development of cultural sector? Are there opportunities to position themselves for the competition on the broader market? What are the weaknesses and strengths of the cultural sector for the local development? The aim of the paper is observe the growing role of culture within the local socio-‐economic development, with a special look in small and medium-‐sized towns in Europe. The first part of the paper presents evolution of instrumental and intrinsic approaches to the conceptualization of culture-‐relating notions. Both approaches are complementary and need to be taken into account while analysing the cultural contribution to the local development. The second part observes more in detail culture as catalyst of urban regeneration and sustainable development, on one hand, and economic benefits of cultural and creative sectors for the local economy, on the other. Finally, we observe the articulation of culture on two spatial levels, the one of the European Union and the other of the small and medium-‐sized towns. We finish our paper by presenting the case of Obidos in Portugal which is considered to be a successful model of implementation of cultural strategies. The other case of Halle an der Saale in Germany is to present the mistakes and problems which may occur when policy-‐makers try to force local development of some cultural sector without consideration of lacks of relevant development factors. 1. EVOLUTION OF CULTURE-‐RELATING CONCEPTS It seems that the intrinsic approach has its origin in the vision of culture as a tool for personal development allowing the man to become more “human”. In that respect, culture is seen as a tool for development of societies as to improve social cohesion, reduce crime and set some common social frameworks. On the other hand, instrumentalist approach is much more related to the economic literature that sees culture as an opportunity for growth and better socio-‐economic performance. However, we stress that contemporary definitions of culture in scientific literature are far more complex than this dual standpoints. In order to better understand the emergence of the contemporary scientific debate between intrinsic and instrumental approaches to culture, it is necessary to look for evolution of thoughts on the concept. 1.1. Early anthropological and economic literature The earliest anthropological literature defines culture in its larger sense as a phenomenon including knowledge, beliefs, art, moral, laws, customs and any other capabilities and habits 2
acquired by a man as a member of society (Tylor, 1881). More recent anthropologists such as Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn (1952) concentrate their work around listing the main features of culture. Thus, the list encompasses more than 160 elements among which are religion, law, culinary practices, habits, aesthetic, etc. Jean Pierre Martinon (1997) continues in the same direction saying that in fact all segments and aspects of social life are culture, as well as everything that is considered as an organisation and a symbolic regulation of social life (Martinon, 1997). For André Siegfried (1953) culture is also a concept that has to be observed from the individual, personal aspect. In that sense, being cultivated does not necessary mean being educated, but embracing whatever the tradition of previous centuries has given to a man (Siegfried, 1953). In the early economic science literature, cultural activities were seen as non-‐productive occupations (Smith, 1776) and as non-‐economic activities since their consummation does not apply the law of decrease of marginal utility (Marshall, 1890). However, at the beginning of 1960s, John Kenneth Galbraith (1960) gave a new insight by saying that artists are important and need to be integrated in the production process. The reason for such statement came from the observation of consumer’s behaviour in poor and rich societies: in poor societies, consumers prefer practical quality of product in order to satisfy their basic needs, while in rich societies, they also want the product to be beautiful. And exactly at that last point, Galbraith saw the important role of artists. Cultural economy was introduced by William Baumol and William Bowen (1966) and their cost disease concept. What started as a basic model for understanding the economics of the performing arts and its relation to other service-‐intensive industries, soon developed and upgraded to more efficient tools of analysing and forecasting the interrelatedness of the entire economy and the evaluation of cultural impact, i.e. aggregate and sectorial multipliers or input-‐output model (Besharov, 2005; Sparviero and Preston, 2010). 1.2. Recent development of some concepts In their observation of evolution of arts and cultural planning in the UK, Evans and Foord (2008) list main dominant concepts and their main representatives since 1900s: • City as work of art (1900s-‐1910s): Authors Burnham and Howard; Models of Paris, Vienna, Garden City • Cultural zoning (1910s-‐1950s): Authors Bartholomew and Abercrombie; Civic cultural centres, city functional and post-‐war master-‐plans • Cultures of communities (1960s-‐1970s): Authors Jane Jacobs and Jennie Lee; Community arts facilities, heritage movement, community planning • Flagship facilities (1970s): Authors Moses and Lane;
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Lincoln and JFK centres, Sydney Opera House, Quicy Market Boston, Arts Centres movement. Culture in development and regeneration (1980-‐1990s): Author Zukin (culture of cities) Progressive cities/mayors; Barcelona, Baltimore, Glasgow; Culture and regeneration, cultural industries strategies, festival marketplaces, European cities of culture Creative city (1990-‐2000s): Authors Landry, Bianchini, Florida, Scott and Mercer; Capitals of culture, cultural resources planning, creative class, creative quarters Sustainable communities (2001 to date): Compact city, high density, new urbanism, design quality; culture and quality of life, liveability, place-‐shaping, creative clusters, living places.
The above mentioned group of INSINTRIC researchers (2010) bring together some concepts from spatial planning and development analysis, sociology and anthropology used in the study of territorial development in order to identify the cultural key drivers of territorial development. They highlight five domains of scientific work relating culture to territorial development: • Analysis of culture as the instrument to meet the social, economic and political objectives of the city. Urban cultures are seen as ways of life and expression of social and institutional relations and values, social citizenship and social cohesion. • Economic instrumentality of culture. The role of culture in competitiveness strategies, but with an accent on the social relations, institutions, social groups and agencies that feed this ‘marketization’ of urban societies: relation of place competitiveness to social cohesion. • Besides the relation of creativity and innovation for the economic development of cities, some works point at the importance of cultural-‐creative dynamics within fragile neighbourhood and minority communities. Thus, there are some analyses on social and institutional innovation to overcome fragmentation. • Relation of culture to acts of citizenships, more precisely, creation of new spaces for public debates. • Traditional forms of social organization have been replaced by transnational forms of socio-‐spatial citizenship. This includes activities and policies to cope with diversity in socio-‐economically marginalized parts of the town. On the basis of these identified theoretic framework, the group identified and conceptualize several socio-‐spatial types referring to place-‐building and territorial development using features 4
of economic development, social organization, socio-‐political governance, cultural processes, citizen practices, place building practices and imaginaries, institutional frameworks and politics. Some of those socio-‐spatial types are driven by competitiveness and knowledge, while others are driven by solidarity and identity building (Table 1). Table 1: Profiles of socio-‐spatial types referring to place-‐building and territorial development Driven by competitiveness and knowledge integration of institutional organization and Industrial districts/Learning regions governance; social learning and flexible (Prato and Bilbao) production systems link of localities, quarters or clusters to wider-‐ The Knowledge City (Barcelona and scale spatial networks (i.e. boosting knowledge Sofia) economy activities or building a wider knowledge society) Driven by solidarity and identity building small sized-‐bottom up initiatives challenge real The Social Region and Integrated Area estate redevelopment strategies that are threat Development to the social cohesion, or turning a minority or sub-‐cultural identity into a community pride bottom linked way to build region-‐wide Socially cohesive territories and Socially institutions and provide resources that boost cohesive spatial networks initiatives in various sectors of their regional communities building bridges between identity-‐seeking Polis of Citizens groups within metropolises of diversity seeking cohesion through making creative The Socially Creative Milieu communities through arts and culture Source: Project “Empowering territorial development: cultural drivers for social cohesion – INSINTRIC”, 2010.
2. CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT Scientific literature on cultural contribution to local development largely covers the subject of gentrification of an area via cultural renaissance of territories. Culture has become a key factor in development strategies after the recognition of “a fundamental problem of consumption-‐led strategies [which] has also been an apparent incompatibility between economic and social objectives, leading to conflicts between city centre and periphery, tourists and residents, economic development and quality of life goals” (Bayliss, 2004: 819). Moreover, the European Commission has defined very clearly three key roles of culture for local development: 5
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Cultural activities have the potential to attract tourists, so their impact on the local economy can be direct (creation of income and employment) and indirect (through tourist spending on hotels, restaurants, as well as quality of life that attract tourists and investors); Cultural goods and services are local products that can be exported and consumed outside the area of production. For example cultural and creative industry can do particularly well at the local level and benefit from clustering; Cultural activities also have a social impact, such as via different social regeneration projects to include marginalized groups, or projects to ensure better cohesion between the rich and poor areas, or via projects with the objective of improving the communication between different ethnic groups (KEA, 2006).
In the following chapters, we analyse two main aspects of cultural contribution to local development that have been widely observed in literature. Firstly, we are interested in the presence of culture-‐led strategies in the processes of urban regeneration and sustainable development, where in fact culture has been seen as their catalyst. Here, culture is not only a tool to redesign or remake urban areas in order to change their look or even to make them attractive to population or businesses, but also as an important tool in service of empowerment and social cohesion. Secondly, we focus on economic benefits as outcomes of cultural activities. In that respect, we continue with the presentation of the main characteristics of cultural economy and cultural and creative industries (CCI). 2.1. Approach to urban regeneration and sustainable development: culture as catalyst Many recent works (Darlow, 1996; Scott, 1997; Montgomery, 2003; McCarthy, 2005; Cameron and Coaffee, 2005; Cohendet, Grandadam and Simon, 2009; Marling, Jensen, and Kiib, 2009) stress above all, the benefits that culture can offer to local development. More in particular, there is a great interest in the contribution of culture to revitalisation of urban areas and creation of sustainable communities. Cameron and Coaffee (2005) list three models of gentrification that are based entirely on culture: (i) the creation by artists of a milieu for the production of art; (ii) the commodification and private consumption of this artistic milieu; (iii) public-‐policy engagement and link to regeneration, is on the public consumption of art, through public art and artistic events, and particularly through the creation of landmark physical infrastructure for the arts, such as galleries, museums and concert halls (i.e. Bilbao bounce for a declining industrial city) (Cameron and Coaffee, 2005). It is generally accepted that the implementation of culture within strategies for development will result in positive outcomes such as: (i) greater opportunities for socialization and contact across different sections of the population, and encouraging greater understanding between groups and increased social cohesion; (ii) participatory arts activities can reposition both the external and internal identity of places; (iii) local cultural activities can also contribute to community empowerment, planning such activities can counteract the exclusion of the local residents from the decision-‐making process, whilst strengthening community institutions and voluntary groups by developing their funding, managerial, administrative and organisation
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skills; (iv) personal growth through the use of local cultural activities: benefits for children and young adults (Bayliss, 2004). In observing the potential link between culture and planning for sustainable development, Darlow (1996) identifies quality of life in the broader sense (that is, taking non-‐economic factors into account, such as air quality, accessibility and social interaction) as their bridging principle. Darlow’s conclusions go in line with Bayliss’s arguing how arts programmes “enhance social cohesion, improve local image, promote interest in the local environment, build private and public sector partnerships, enhance organisational capacity, and explore visions of the future, all of which may also be central goals for a more sustainable society” (p. 296). Finally, “the culture and attitudes of the inhabitants and key players within a city will have a profound effect on the level of creativity that is allowed to develop. Therefore, creativity is necessary for sustainable development because it allows cities to respond to changing circumstances and to develop innovative solutions to urban and environmental problems” (Darlow, 1996: 296). “Culture-‐led approaches to regeneration can lead to economic diversification, involving stimulation of innovation and creativity, high-‐quality employment, retention of income in a locality and promotion of partnership working. They can also contribute to ‘place marketing’ through image enhancement, which in turn encourages inward investment within a context of globalised competition. In addition, such approaches can bring increased participation in the arts and cultural activity which can encourage cooperation, cultural understanding, and social integration and cohesion, particularly in cities where the population is relatively diverse and fragmented. Such effects may also be linked to reduction in crime and more sustainable development” (McCarthy, 2005: 298) Nevertheless, some authors warn about the negative outcomes that might appear such as the mentioned incompatibility between economic and social priorities in the strategy creation. Firstly, unskilled workers have no access to increased employment in the sunrise sectors, employment in the traditional sectors doesn’t grow, and jobs created in the consumer service sector are often characterized by part-‐time work, low pay and poor level of job satisfaction. Secondly, the use of culture to sell places can marginalize indigenous local and regional cultures and identities because of the preference for safe art and big names that attract commercial sponsors and large audiences (Bayliss, 2004). Thirdly, gentrification of an area because of its cultural reputation can displace indigenous communities and businesses. Regeneration strategies based around the cultural renaissance of city centres can exclude low-‐income groups living in marginalized inner-‐city areas and peripheral housing estates. In fact, a potential conflict arises in terms of the tendency for cultural policies to focus on the need to revitalise the city centre, so the centre becomes a focal point for cultural renewal, at the cost of peripheral areas. Last but not least, one of the key problems of urban renewal through the arts and culture is the danger of gentrification of certain areas, “pricing out many groups and effectively becoming a cultural ghetto which is off limits to the use of the local community” (Darlow, 1996: 299). 2.2. Pushing culture further: economic benefits of cultural and creative sectors Publications on the economy of culture using the variety of terminology are astonishing. These include notions such as cultural industries, copyright industries, content industries, experience 7
economy, creative business sector, art centric businesses, cultural and communication industries, media industries and knowledge economy (KEA, 2009). However, the framework that has been accepted widely in Europe and that takes into account different approached in European countries is distinguishing “a cultural sector as constituted of traditional art fields, and cultural industries, whose outputs are exclusively ‘cultural’ and the creative sector which gathers the remaining industries and activities that use as an added-‐value for the production of non-‐cultural products” (KEA, 2009: 53). i. Cultural activities are encouraged at a local level because of their ability to attract tourists. On one hand, culture generates the revenues and employment for the territory. “The organisation of a festival or an art fair, the running of a museum or an opera, entail expenditure in a local area (administrative and creative staff, technicians, media services, insurance services, etc. ) that are directly linked to these activities” (KEA, 2009: 145). On the other hand, culture generated revenues through cultural tourism (such as tourists’ spending on hotels, restaurants, transport, etc.). “More intangible impacts are the reinforcement of the image of a city and the improvement of its quality of life that trigger interest from tourists and investors (soft location factor)” (KEA, 2009: 145). ii. Culture goods and services are produced at a local level even when exported and consumed outside their territory of production. “Cultural industries constitute a sector which is performing particularly well at a local level. The economic function of culture is even more relevant at this level since the nature of cultural goods’ and works of art’s production benefits from operating through cultural clusters on a limited territory” (KEA, 2009: 145). 8
Figure 1: Delineation of the cultural and creative sector Source: KEA, 2009, p. 56 “Many complex interactions between the cultural and the economic are set in motion” (Scott, 1997: 325). Culture is now both an economic sector embedded in diverse growth industries that can contribute to increased employment and area regeneration, and a resource crucial to the re-‐ imaging of cities and regions as places for tourists, investment and mobile skilled labour (Bayliss, 2007). Report made by KEA (2009) distinguishes two roles of culture in local economic development: 9
As summarized by Scott (1997), the three main economic goals of cultural policies are: (i) creation of employment and encouragement of economic activities via consummation of cultural infrastructure; (ii) territorial regeneration meaning the improvement of image and reputation; (iii) attractiveness of the territory to business, inhabitants and tourists (Scott, 1996). As mentioned, the concept of cultural economy was introduced through works of Baumol and Bowen (1966). They illustrate the cost disease with a two-‐sector model economy. In one sector there is annual productivity growth and in the other sector productivity is stagnant. The growth sector can be through to represent a manufacturing industry in which labour-‐saving technology is constantly being improved: the no-‐growth sector represents an arts activity in which technology is constant, the classic example being a string quartet that always requires four musicians. The two sectors share a common market for labour. With wages based on output, the rising productivity in the growth sector results in a rising wage in both sectors. Since the wage goes up and productivity remains constant in the arts sector, its cost of production rises relative to the manufacturing sector. With the further assumption of process proportional to costs, the relative price of output in the arts sector will increase relative to the other, which is a cost disease (Besharov, 2005). In more recent works, cultural economy overgrew its basic definition introduced by Baumol and Bowen and it refers to a diverse collection of sectors displaying many different kinds of technologies, transactional arrangements, employment profiles and products. However, there are some common characteristics: • The technologies and labour processes usually involve considerable amounts of human handiwork (clothing industry) and advanced flexible computer technologies (multimedia industry); • Production is organised in dense networks of small and medium-‐sized establishments; • These networks tend to exert huge demands on local labour markets and to require an enormous variety of worker skills; • Agglomeration gives them rise above all in the mutual learning and cultural synergies; • Agglomeration facilitates the emergence of institutional infrastructures that ease the functioning of the local economy (Scott, 1997). Success of the cultural economy depends not only upon the ability to “tap deeply into local sources of value-‐adding externalities and innovative energy” (Scott, 1997), but also to be able to reach and stay on wider national and international markets. The most visible aspect of the contribution of culture to local development is the link between culture and tourism (KEA, 2009). Firstly, the existence of historic buildings and authentic heritage sites are important to tourist when they make a decision to visit a destination. Efforts to restore and preserve heritage represents “a key competitive tool to promote attractiveness to certain locations to people from all over the world” (p. 147). Secondly, cultural diversity combined with the attractive landscapes and gastronomy is “a strong advantage in the competition with other tourist destinations” (p. 147). Finally, well developed tourism infrastructure (i.e. roads, transport, communication, accommodation) are also among the important factors of better attractiveness of certain territories (p. 147). 10
Quinn (2005) demonstrates the inter-‐relatedness of culture and economy through festival tourism. She observes three main dynamics. Firstly, festivals emerge as a social tool through which people can express their identities, connect with their place and communicate with each other. Secondly, sustainable tourism relays on the assurance of renewable economic, social and cultural benefits to the community, and thus social, cultural and economic well-‐being of people. “By extension, a key principle underpinning the development of festivals for tourism purposes must be to consolidate and enhance the role that festival practice play in sustaining communities” (p. 290). Finally, festivals can create and intensify awareness of particular art forms, and thus enhance an expanding venue infrastructure and create demand for new services and products (Quinn, 2005). 3. ARTICULATION ON DIFFERENT SPATIAL LEVELS Scott (1997) makes a comparison arguing how “the geography of culture, like the geography of economic activity, is stretched across a tense force field of local and global linkages, with production occurring predominantly in localized clusters, while final outputs are channelled into ever more spatially extended networks of consumption. Accordingly, if some local/regional cultures are under serious threat at the present time, others are finding widening and receptive audiences” (Scott, 1997). 3.1. The European Union The European Agenda for Culture (2007) is the basic document addressing the issue of culture in the European context. The Agenda is highlighting three strategic objectives as follows: (i) the promotion of (inter-‐)cultural diversity, (ii) promotion of culture as a catalyse for creativity in the framework of the Lisbon Strategy for growth, employment, innovation and competitiveness, (iii) the promotion of culture as a vital element in relations within the EU (European Council, 2007). It is particularly significant that the Agenda emphasizes the need to “promote the establishment of training facilities management, trade, and entrepreneurship, specifically adapted to professionals in cultural and creative industries”. As well as “to promote an environment that enhances the development of cultural and creative industries, especially those of SMEs, through better use of existing programs and initiatives and by stimulating creative partnerships between cultural sector and other sectors, taking into consideration the context of local and regional development” (European Council, 2007). Published in 2010, Green Paper on the CCI aims at collecting opinions on the preconditions for the cultural and creative industry in Europe. In the document, the cultural diversity, the technological shift and globalization are identified as the main drivers of the development. In addition, the clear recognition is given to the importance of local and regional development and to exploitation of local potentials, especially creative clusters that are seen as a tool for a stronger global presence, increase of exchange and mobility. The Green Paper also stresses that “the CCI often contribute to stimulation of local economies in decline, to favour the emergence of new economic activities, to create new and sustainable jobs and increase the attractiveness of regions and cities in Europe” (COM 2010, 183:3: 16). 11
In that context, it is necessary to mention different programs and actions within the EU, which have the objectives of promoting cultural heritage and diversity. The EU’s Culture programme (2007-‐2013) includes projects and initiatives for the enhancement of shared cultural heritage through the development of cross-‐border cooperation between cultural actors and institutions. The European Capitals of Culture is an initiative that highlights the richness and diversity of European cultures, but also it is an opportunity to regenerate cities, to raise their international profile, to enhance their international visibility, to boost tourism and to enhance their image in the eyes of their own inhabitants. The Culture Programme also awards prizes in cultural heritage, architecture, literature and music; but also the European Heritage Label that highlights sites that symbolise and celebrate the integration; deals and history of the EU. Nevertheless, one of the biggest initiatives at the European level are the Structural Funds which are an important mechanism of the EU to financially support social and economic development. According to the study CSES and ERICarts (2010) in the programming period 2007-‐2013, out of total amount of 347 billion EUR, 6 billion EUR (1.7%) have been allocated for culture based project. The programs supported by the Structural Funds focus on three priorities: (i) improving the attractiveness of Member States, regions and cities; (ii) encouraging innovation, entrepreneurship and the growth of the knowledge economy; (iii) the employment creation (CSES and ERICarts, 2010). More precisely, in the Structural Funds programming, the culture is considered as essential for the attractiveness of Europe and its regions to investment, business and high-‐skilled population. Cultural activities and equipment play an important role in the development of cities, especially in terms of the rehabilitation of old industrial areas. Moreover, cultural heritage is seen as important in the development of rural areas, including rural tourism. Finally, the contribution of culture to sustainable, high quality and integrated-‐to-‐other-‐sector tourism has been recognized (CSES and ERICarts, 2010). According to the Green Paper (2010), the CCIs “develop at the local and regional levels, where networking and clustering function. […] CCIs often contribute to boosting local economies in decline, contributing to the emergence of new economic activities, creating new and sustainable jobs and enhancing the attractiveness of European regions and cities. Indeed, regional and local development strategies have successfully integrated CCIs in many areas: promotion of cultural heritage for business use; development of cultural infrastructure and service to support sustainable tourism; clustering of local businesses and partnership between CCIs and industry, research, education and other sectors; setting up of innovation labs; development of cross-‐border integrated strategies to manage natural and cultural resources and revitalize local economies, sustainable urban development” (COM 2010, 183:3:16, p. 13). At the European level, there is no reliable and comparable statistics to analyse precise results of the contribution of the CCIs to economic and social development. However, the network ESSnet-‐ Culture is in process of gathering results across the EU that will enable a comparison between the Member States. In 2006, the KEA European Affars, Media Group and MKW Wirtschaftsforschung GmbH conducted the first study of direct and indirect contribution of CCIs to Lisbon Agenda at the national level, which can be summarized as follows: 12
• The cultural and creative sector generated a turnover of more than 654 billion EUR in 2003 (more than automobile industry in 2001 or ITC industry in 2003); • The cultural and creative sector contributed to 2.6% of the EU GDP in 2003 (more than real estate, textile industry or rubber industry the sale year); • The added-‐value of the sector increased by 19.7% from 1999 to 2003; • The growth of the cultural and creative sector in Europe from 1999 to 2003 was 12.3% higher than the growth of the general economy (KEA, 2009). In 2011, Eurostat published a “Pocketbook” on cultural statistics in Europe that presented a statistical overview of the economy and cultural activities in the EU. According to that analysis, in 2009 at the level of the EU-‐27, about 3.6 million people worked in the cultural sector, which is 1.7% of the total employment. The percentage of employment in cultural sector was particularly high in the Nordic countries and particularly low in Portugal, Romania and Turkey (Table 2). Table 2: Number of jobs in the cultural sector and its share in total employment in selected countries in 2009 COUNTRIES
TOTAL EMPLOYMENT
CCI EMPLOYMENT
SHARE OF CCI IN TOTAL EMPLOYMENT
EU-‐27 FRANCE UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY SPAIN SWEDEN
217.828.000 25.704.000 28.923.000 38.797.000 18.888.000 4.499.000
3.638.500 437.3000 597.100 847.200 243.400 105.300
1,7% 1,7% 2,1% 2,2% 1,3% 2,3%
Source : Eurostat (2011), Cultural statistics, p. 68.
In addition to national statistics, in the EU there are regions and cities where the share of the CCI in total employment and the growth dynamics are higher and differ significantly from their national average. For example, according to the study of CSES and ERICarts (2010) that refers to the results of the GLA London on creative sector, in 2002 London had over 15% of its workforce employed in the ICC. Thus, the employment in the creative sector was higher than in the financial sector, which puts London among one of the biggest creative clusters in the world. There are also other examples across the EU. In 2006, Berlin had 10% of the active population in the creative sector, while Milan, Rome and Madrid have reached the figure of 10% already at the beginning of 2000s (CSES and ERICarts, 2010). Different dynamics in the ICCs are illustrated in the map of the European Cluster Observatory in 2009 that compares the share of jobs in the creative industry clusters (Figure 2). 13
Figure 2: Share of the employment in the creative clusters in total employment of the EU in 2009 Source: European Cluster Observatory (2009) in the Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Services LLP (CES) and ERICarts Institute for the European Commission’s DG Education and Culture (2010), The contribution of culture to local and regional development – Evidence from the structural funds, Kent: UK, p. 19.
Among the results of KEA European Affairs on various aspects of the economics of culture, particularly interesting appears to be figures on productivity and profitability1 . At the national level, results show that the creative and cultural sector in Europe is as competitive as other industry sectors – in some cases even more (Table 3).
1 “Productivity is the ration between value-‐added and employment costs. This indicator shows how much
value is created for every Euro spent on employment costs (wages, salaries and social costs). Profitability is measured by the operating margin of companies active in the cultural and creative economy. This indicator shows what percentage of the turnover is left after the deduction of operating costs” (KEA, 2009: 103).
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Table 3: The evolution of the productivity and profitability of the CCIs in EU selected countries for the period 2000-‐2003. Evolution of productivity (2000-‐2003)
COUNTRY EU-‐25 FRANCE UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY SPAIN SWEDEN
2000 1,45 1,62 1,47 1,40 1,5 1,56
2001 1,45 1,56 1,36 1,54 1,44 1,51
2002 1,48 1,59 1,29 1,52 1,43 1,37
Evolution of profitability (2000-‐2003) 2003 1,52 1,59 1,38 1,55 1,43 1,49
2000 9,3% 11,7% 8,7% 9,6% 9,2% 10,9%
2001 8,9% 10,8% 8,9% 9,6% 8,3% 10,1%
2002 10% 11,1% 8,7% 7,2% 8,5% 9,5%
2003 9% 10,8% 8,7% 8,7% 8% 9,9%
Remark: “Productivity is the ration between value-‐added and employment costs. This indicator shows how much value is created for every Euro spent on employment costs (wages, salaries and social costs). Profitability is measured by the operating margin of companies active in the cultural and creative economy. This indicator shows what percentage of the turnover is left after the deduction of operating costs” (KEA, 2009: 103). Source: KEA European Affars, Media Group and MKW Wirtschaftsforschung GmbH (2009), The economy of culture in Europe, p. 104, online [URL]: http://ec.europa.eu/culture/key-‐documents/doc873_en.htm
Regarding the trade of cultural goods, Eurostat’s statistics present the import and export of books, newspapers, musical instruments, works of art and collection items. In 2009, the EU-‐27 exported more cultural goods to the rest of the world than it imported, recording a trade surplus of around EUR 1.9 billion. The main products exported and imported were books and works of art (mainly paintings). Countries with the highest ratio of exports compared to imports were in Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany. The biggest export destination countries were Switzerland and the United States (Eurostat, 2011). 3.2. Opportunity for small and medium-‐sized towns The approach to culture as a driver of local development of small and medium-‐sized towns in the scientific literature is treated as ambiguously as the conceptualization of the notion from the beginning of this paper. In general, the importance of culture for the development of small and medium-‐sized towns has been recognized (Knox and Mayer, 2009; Selada et al, 2011, URBACT, 2011). However, the most appropriate approach for the practical implementation of activities varies from one case to another. In presenting the variety of successful cases in Europe and United States, Know and Mayer (2009) conclude that culture in small towns create important opportunities for engagement among citizens, visitors, neighbours, friends and families. It also enhances the ways in which citizens collaborate and create community solutions through diverse leadership. It helps shaping a community’s identity and finally, it contributes to the development of a new economy (Knox and Mayer, 2009). In addition, “the attraction and retention of talent, namely of the creative 15
class, to small urban centres and rural areas could be a solution for their economic revitalization, reversing de-‐population and desertification trends” (Selada et al, 2011). Following the division of approaches to instrumental and intrinsic perspectives, Knox and Mayer conclude that intrinsic approach based on community theories and social transformation is more suitable for small and medium-‐sized towns (Knox and Mayer, 2009). On the other hand, in their observations of culture to unleash the potentials of smaller towns, instrumentalists put an accent on the creative industries that go beyond the economy of culture, that are not limited to arts and culture, but they extend to fields where “creative individuals, managers and technologists meet together, i.e. ICT, fashion, design, video, photography, cinema, computer games, architecture, visual arts, advanced services, etc.” (URBACT, 2011: 6). In fact, “creative issues in local economic development are also a functional pattern outside the context of the main urban hubs and core cities. Consequently, creativity as source of innovation should act as a cross-‐cutting approach to re-‐think economic and social development of medium-‐sized and small towns given the new opportunities related to accessibility, community life, culture and creativity-‐based business models” (URBACT, 2011: 6). The findings of URBACT (2011) on the potential of creative clustering show how creativity can lead to a significant jump in terms of social and economic development of small and midsize towns. The reason behind it is the standpoint that one of the important drivers for towns is pulling optimal benefits for their development from globalization processes. “In a globalised era size is not the key question but the capacity to absorb (by a local economy) global innovations” (URBACT, 2011: 28). Thus, creative clusters are seen as spatial articulations where “talent and individual creativity are the key factors of production, and where the idea of business is crucial to. […] Finally, if industry (which can simultaneously be art, science and business) [becomes a cluster], it can reveal a growing pattern faster the industrial average” (URBACT, 2011: 19). Having all that in mind, the appearance of various public policies promoting the creation of creative clusters is not surprising. Selada, da Cuhna and Tomas (2011) describe two basic approaches to public policy of creative clusters: “Public policy initiatives oriented towards the promotion of creative clusters can be based on a business-‐oriented approach or/and a people-‐ oriented approach. On one hand, a business-‐oriented approach focuses on the creative production milieu, proposing measures and conditions favourable for the development of creative businesses as generators of jobs and wealth, such as subsidies or tax incentives. On the other hand, a people-‐oriented approach is centred on the creative consumption milieu, being oriented towards improving the qualities of the cities as a way of attracting creative talent which, in turn, induces additional investment by companies and the emergence of start-‐ups enhancing job growth and rising income” (Selada et al, 2011: 5). Implementing it at the level of small and medium-‐sized towns, the presence of amenities becomes one of the key factors to attract creative population seeking for an original atmosphere. Selada et al (2011) list four categories of such endogenous assets: (i) natural amenities (warm climate, distinctive and picturesque countryside with topographical diversity such as valleys, rivers, lakes, mountains and forests), (ii) historical and cultural amenities (architectonic and archaeological heritage such as castles, churches, aqueducts and bridges, and intangible heritage such as memories, testimonies and legends), (iii) symbolic amenities (community spirit, 16
neighbourliness and sociability, identity, authenticity, civic associations) and (iv) built amenities (health and social services, hotels, restaurants, bars, meeting spaces, museums, art galleries, studios, events, etc.) (Selada et al, 2011: 7). Secondly, local development policies are important to assure favourable conditions, infrastructures or support programmes (i.e. specific financing, land and services availability). “Low density urban areas attract mostly talented young families, midlife career changers and active retired people. […] Nevertheless, younger people are also increasingly seeking rural areas due to the low cost of housing, the better quality of life and the presence of quality schools, which is clearly facilitated by the use of ICT (Selada et al, 2011: 7). Furthermore, there is a strong tendency for persons with artistic and creative skills to look for places for their work, which can also become an opportunity for towns to offer to such person better conditions than larger urban areas (Selada et al, 2011). Finally, the potential for development of towns lays in the embeddedness and connectedness of creative industries to the existing economic tissue. “Creative industries provide innovative inputs for other areas of activity in local economies such as agriculture, handicrafts, furniture, textiles, tourism and gastronomy, promoting their development and prosperity” (Selada et al, 2011: 8). In addition to this, “several sub-‐sectors of creative industries, such as architecture, design, advertising or software sell the majority of their products and services to other businesses” (Selada et al, 2011: 9). In terms of successful stories, the most of professionals and scholars are using the case of Bilbao in Spain and its Guggenheim effect to present how culture can become the main driver of local economy at the small spatial scale. However, across Europe there are many other towns that are also pursue their own paths by using culture as one of the key drivers. The URBACT study (2011) list several examples of smaller towns across Europe that successfully implemented various cultural aspects into their local development strategies: • Obidos, Portugal (concept of modern rurality); • Reggio Emilia, Italy (a new media cluster); • Mizil, Romania (re-‐thinking mature industry and fix people in town); • Barnsley, UK (re-‐using old industrial sites for creative activities, creative-‐based models); • Enguera, Spain (eco-‐tourism, social inclusion, place branding), • Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary (revitalization of ceramics industry and creative education); • Viareggio, Italy (cultural heritage and creativity); • Jyvaskyla, Finland (concept of the human technology city). The lessons that have been drawn from those cases are summarized by Selada et al (2011: 21) as follows: • Creativity can function as a driving force for the development of small and medium-‐sized urban centres and even of rural areas; • This assumption is not generically applicable to all low density areas. These places are characterised by the presence of endogenous natural, historical, cultural and symbolic amenities, where a high quality of life and a strong community spirit prevail;
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• •
• •
Public policies have an important role to perform, through effective leadership and the launching of development strategies with strong civic participation; It is necessary to create a set of constructed amenities not only oriented to tourism and cultural consumption, but essentially to cultural production (i.e. cultural infrastructure, urban regeneration operations, innovative education and training programmes); Important pre-‐conditions proximity to an important urban centre, good physical accessibility, development of ICT; Development of creative strategies needs to be anchored in historic precedents (path dependency), in the symbolic value of place and space and in cultural heritage and there is a need to build on competitive advantage based on distinction/niche markets and a diversity of creative clusters, the links between ideas/design and manufacturing, as well as the diverse histories/heritage.
In the following chapter, we present the case of Obidos in Italy as the successful model of a town engaged in cultural strategies as drivers of local economy. Then, we confront the case of Halle an der Saale in Germany as a town that seems to fail in attracting cultural businesses. 3.2.1. Obidos, Portugal Located in the north of Lisbon, Obidos is a town of 10.900 inhabitants whose economy has been traditionally based on agriculture and tourism. Today, it is an example of creative, eco and healthy town due to an implementation of a development strategy focused on tourism, culture and economy that has taken place since 2002. The aim was to improve the regeneration and diversification of the local economy, anchored in a powerful marketing strategy – the ‘Creative Obidos’ brand. The most visible part of this approach is the organization of public events that attract a significant number of visitors and tourists to the historical town. “These events have drastically changed the perception of the ‘museum town’ and have reflected a strong organization capacity along with the involvement of the local community and associations” (Selada et al, 2011: 12). The organization of these events implied a set of different areas that embrace creativity: content production, entertainment and acting, music, graphic design, marketing and advertising, multimedia, artistic creation and cultural research. Overall, the town is pursuing its strategy “Obidos Criativa” that comprises several landmarks such as the Technology Park, ABC incubator focused on creative entrepreneurs, new school programme, impressive cultural agenda and a re-‐branding of its history (URBAC, 2011). Selada et al (2011) analyse characteristics of the development strategies of Obidos within five main axes: 1. Governance: • Strong leadership; • Creative strategy driven by the local authority; • Cultural thematic events in the historic centre; • Clear strategic vision and a target plan; • Management model based on municipal companies; • Support infrastructures and specific schemes for creative companies and talents; • Promotion of public-‐private partnerships; 18
2.
3.
4.
5.
• Limited inter-‐municipal cooperation; • Participation in national and international networks. Natural and built environment: • Distinctive and diversified landscape; • Predominantly rural region with small rural villages and a major urban centre; • Unique natural landscape that includes beaches and a lagoon; • Remarkable historic, cultural and religious heritage from different eras and styles; • Traditional architecture alongside contemporary projects. Social and symbolic capital: • Renowned iconic image as a medieval walled town; • Local identity rooted on its historic past, secular traditions and rural lifestyles; • Consecrated intangible and symbolic heritage; • Diverse civil and commercial associations; • Improvement of wellbeing and quality of life. Economic activities and cultural facilities: • Tourism and related services as the main economic activities; • Very relevant agriculture sector; • Significant industry of food processing, construction and furniture; • New infrastructures for creative entrepreneurship and technology based businesses; • Several cultural infrastructures and an intense cultural agenda; • An assortment of knowledge infrastructures, namely specialized schools and training centres. Connectivity: • Town in an intermediate region; • Located in Portugal’s Central Region and near important urban centres; • Well connected with the major metropolitan areas; • Good physical connectivity mainly by car; • Short distance from one International Airport; • Increased digital connectivity.
3.2.2. Halle an der Saale, Germany Halle is a medium-‐sized town in East Germany, located close to Leipzig and that until the German reunification had a strongly developed traditional industries such as machine engineering, chemical industry and mining. Since the reunification, the town declined in its population from 300.000 in 1990s to 240.000 today. Nevertheless, Halle has a long tradition as a cultural city and is offering a wide range of activities such as several theatres and museums of national importance, opera, or Handel music festival (in honour of G.F. Handel who was born in Halle). It has two universities as well as the tradition in the print media (mainly newspapers) which influenced the choice of Media City as a strategy for local re-‐development at the beginning of 2000s (Rosenfeld and Hornych, 2010). The objective was to enhance number of firm and employees in new media industries of the town through the combination of various policy measures. During the first period from 1999 to 2004, more than 50% of the existing media firms 19
were set up and about 1.900 persons were employed. However, in the years after 2003, a decline began, leading to decrease in turnovers and defragmentation of firms to less than 10 persons. In presenting the case of Halle an der Saale, Rosenfeld and Hornych (2010) give insights into the difficulties and problems which may occur when policy-‐makers try to support the local development of media industry without being able to compensate the shortages of relevant location factors. The reasons for failure of media industry in Halle, according to authors are as follows: i. The development remained highly dependent on public support and has stagnated. ii. The competition on local subsidies has increased, the volume of production contracts was not further enlarged, and the business incubator was fully occupied by already existing firms. iii. Local networking had small impact. iv. The supply with human capital from universities was oversized and thus fragmentary. v. The potential of local customers in the region was small from the beginning, and there was no strong sector existing in the area. vi. The biggest firms were not interested to cooperate with local partners and did not rely on their surrounding environment. CONCLUSION Through the analysis of some theoretical and empirical studies, we explored the contribution of culture and its potentials for local development at smaller spatial levels, namely small and medium-‐sized towns. We presented the evolution of two main approaches to conceptualization of culture (instrumental and intrinsic) that influence the way of creation of cultural policies and activities. In terms of local development, on the one hand, cultural activities have been seen an important social factor that through social regeneration projects includes marginalized groups, it ensures social cohesion between the rich and the poor areas and it improves the communication between various groups of the society, especially when it comes to empowerment and citizenship. On the other hand, culture has been approached as a potential for local economy due to its ability to attract tourists. Thus, its direct benefits are the generation of revenues and employment for the town in the case when cultural events entail expenditure that are connected to these activities (i.e. provision of various services). Also, culture generates indirect benefits in terms of revenues coming from cultural tourism in the case when tourists spend on hotels, restaurants or transport. Another cultural opportunity for local development that has been covered in the scientific literature is the fact that cultural industries constitute a sector which is performing particularly well at the local level. Thus, cultural goods and services are locally produced and consumed but can also be exported for consummation outside the area of production.
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Nevertheless, as demonstrated in two cases of Obidos in Portugal and Halle an der Saale in Germany, the implementation of cultural strategies needs to take into consideration several key factors. Firstly, the presence of endogenous natural, historical, cultural and symbolic amenities is crucial for the maintenance of a high quality of life and community identity. Geographic position, proximity to larger urban centres and good infrastructure and service provision are part of this set of pre-‐conditions as well. Secondly, public policies have an important role to perform, namely through leadership and encouragement of participation. Initiatives for identity building and fight against social inequalities and exclusion would assure the long-‐term perspectives. Thirdly, entrepreneurship oriented not only to traditional tourism and cultural consumption, but also to cultural and creative production is a key element of the successful link between culture and economy. Finally, the development of CCIs and creative clusters should be anchored in historic precedents, so-‐called path-‐dependent, in order to avoid the common mistake to force replication that is not suitable. As argued by Selada, da Cuhna and Tomas (2011), towns need to build on competitive advantage based on niche markets, diversity, link between ideas and production and heritage (Selada et al, 2011). REFERENCES Baumol, W. and Bowen, W. (1966) Performing Arts. The economic dilemna, Cambridge, MIT Press. Bayliss, D. (2004), Ireland’s Creative Development : Local Authority Strategies for Culture-‐led Development, Regional Studies, vol. 38, n. 7, p. 817-‐831. Bayliss, D. (2007), The Rise of the Creative City: Culture and Creativity in Copenhagen, European Planning Studies, vol. 15, n. 7, pp. 889-‐902. Besharov, G. (2005), The Outbreak of the Cost Disease: Baumol and Bowen’s Founding of Cultural Economics, History of Political Economy, vol. 37, n. 3, p. 413 – 430. Cameron, S. and Coaffee, J. (2005), Art, Gentrification and Regeneration – From Artist as Pioneer to Public Arts, European Journal of Housing Policy, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 39-‐58. Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Services LLP (CES) and ERICarts Institute for the European Commission’s DG Education and Culture (2010), The contribution of culture to local and regional development – Evidence from the structural funds, Kent: UK. Cohendet, P., Grandadam, D. and Simon, L. (2009), Economics and the ecology of creativity: evidence from the popular music industry, International Review of Applied Economics, vol. 23, n. 6, pp. 709-‐722. Commission européenne (2007), Résolution du Conseil du 16 novembre 2007 relative à un agenda européen de la culture, 2007/C 287/01, online [URL] : http://eur-‐ lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:287:0001:0004:FR:PDF Commission européenne (2010), Livre vert, libérer le potentiel des industries culturelles et créatives, COM(2010) 183/3, online [URL] : http://ec.europa.eu/culture/documents/greenpaper_creative_industries_fr.pdf Darlow, A. (1996), Cultural Policy and Urban Sustainability: making a missing link? Planning Practice and Research, vol. 11, n. 3, pp. 291-‐301. Eurostat (2011), The cultural statistics in Europe pocketbook, Bruxelles. Evans, G. and Foord, J. (2008), Cultural mapping and sustainable communities: planning for the arts revisited, Cultural Trends, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 65-‐96. 21
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