The contribution of cultural and creative industries to a more sustainable urban development. The...

8/10/2019 The contribution of cultural and creative industries to a more sustainable urban development. The case studies of

1/23

The contribution of cultural and creativeindustries to a more sustainable urban

development.The case studies of Rotterdam and Tampere

MARIANGELA LAVANGAAmsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt)Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)


2/23

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-

Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Netherlands License. To view a copy of this

license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/nl/ or send a letter to

Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105,

USA.

Photo (cover page): Mariangela Lavanga,Finlayson Tampere, 2004

Draft paper for the ACEI (Association of Cultural Economics International) Conference

- Vienna, 6-9 July 2006

Panel:De-constructing the Creative City. Understanding Creative Economies to Make

them More Sustainable. Discussant: David Throsby

Chris Bailey, Northumbria University: The Role of Regeneration and Public Policy in

the Creative City Agenda.

Mariangela Lavanga, IULM University: The Role of Creative Industries and Cultural

Quarters for a Sustainable Urban Development.

Roberta Comunian, University of Leeds: The Role of Complexity, Networks and

Interactions in the Creative Economy.


3/23

3

Introduction

The recent changes in the technological, social, political and economic phenomena have

strongly affected the role and structure of urban life; thus the need for urbanregeneration and revitalization strategies has emerged. Cities compete with one another

even harder than before when they continuously attempt to redefine their economic role

as past activities fade away (Hall, 1998). Consequently, the quality of the metropolitan

environment for the location of (potential) residents, businesses and visitors has become

extremely important, with an evident shift from hard to soft locational factors.

Paradoxically, the globalisation process seems to enhance the role of the local in

societal development. Swyngedouw (1992) coined the term glocalisation. Theglocalisation process is described as the interlink between the local level and the global

one. Also Castells (1996) pointed out that the paradoxical relationship between local

and global clearly emerged from the strong link between the basic features of the

knowledge economies and the network society, combining the space of places and the

space of flows. Small differences between cities can become crucial for their role in

global processes and urban development, as the interaction between processes occurring

at great distance and the characteristics of the local constitutes the new great arena of

economic, social, cultural, ideological and political development.

In particular, the cultural sector is playing an increasingly significant role in the future

evolution of cities. With the disappearance of local manufacturing industries and

periodic crises in government and finance, culture is more and more the business of

cities... The growth of cultural consumption (of art, food, fashion, music, tourism) and

the industries that cater to it, fuels the citys symbolic economy, its visible ability to

produce both symbols and space (Zukin, 1995). There has been a sort of cultural turn

(Crang, 1997) in the economy, where the cultural dimensions are used to explain new

economic processes and issues. As Scott (1997) argued as we enter the twenty-first

century a very marked convergence between the spheres of cultural and economic

development seems to be occurring.

The debate on the role of culture as a catalyst for urban (re)development and as an

integral part of widely-based regeneration strategies has become very strong and active.

An innovative and dynamic cultural sector is increasingly perceived as an indicator of

the flexibility and creativity of a city as a whole, providing an invaluable source of


4/23

4

human capital, services and ideas. The integration of culture in urban regeneration

projects has been emphasised, as well as the impacts of culture on the diversification of

the local economy, the quality of life, citys image and competitiveness; innovativepolicies are being developed in favour of the new cultural industries; and last but nor

least, the cultural policies started to integrate and stress cultural diversity and social

inclusion issues among their priorities, reflecting the potential cultural projects have to

raise community involvement and empowerment, community pride and identity.

This paper has three main purposes. First, it considers the factors that have led city

authorities to place an increasing emphasis on culture policies. Second, it examines

arguments that have been advanced about the effectiveness of cultural projects as toolsof urban (re)development. Third, it presents the comparative analysis of two European

cities: Tampere in Finland and Rotterdam in The Netherlands.

The role of culture in urban regeneration

A substantial body of literature on the relationships between culture, creative industries

and city, culture and place, the creative city, has been recently developed (Bianchini

and Parkinson, 1993; Landry and Bianchini, 1995; Scott, 1997; Hall, 1998; Landry,

2000; Florida, 2002; etc). Urban cultural policy has become an increasingly significant

component of economic and physical regeneration strategies in many West European

cities. Some common trends in the evolution of urban cultural policies can be identified

(Bianchini, 1993a). One of the key trends is the decline in working time and the

increase of disposable income spent in leisure activities. This led city governments to

increase the expenditure on culture and create specialised bureaucracies and policy-

making bodies, to enhance their provision of cultural services to cater for growing, more

sophisticated and differentiated public demand. This process has been favoured and

encouraged by national policies for the decentralisation of powers from central to

regional and local government, by the emergence of grassroots and social movements

raising new kinds of cultural demands (blurring the distinction between high culture

and popular culture), and by the need of adaptation to the social and economic

transformations caused by the process of economic restructuring of the 1970s and early

1980s.


5/23

5

During the 1950s and 1960s urban cultural policies were relatively unimportant, non-

controversial areas of local policy-making. They were based on the narrow

identification of culture with few connections between the urban cultural resources andother areas of the urban policies. In terms of the strategic objectives of cultural policy,

the most important trend is the shift from the social and political concerns prevailing

during the 1970s to the economic development and urban regeneration priorities of the

1980s. The 1980s saw a flourishing of studies on the economic importance and impact

of the cultural sector in different cities. Heilbrun and Gray (1993) illustrated that the

research made in 1983 by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the

Cultural Assistance Center in the New YorkNew Jersey Metropolitan Regionrepresented the best economic impact study ever realised (The Arts as an Industry:

Their Economic Importance to the New York New Jersey Metropolitan Region ,May

1983).

The term cultural industries firstly used in 1984 by the Greater London Council

started to be very popular among city authorities including the performing arts (theatre,

dance etc.), music (classical, popular, folk), the visual arts (painting, sculpture, craft and

the decorative arts), the audio visual and media sector (film, television, photography,

video), architecture, publishing and digital technology. They also include those sectors

where the creative input is a secondary but crucial means of enhancing the value of

other products: design, industrial design, fashion and the graphic arts (including

advertising). Since then, almost every national government has adopted its own

definition, broadening or narrowing the range of activities object of their cultural

policies, and still an uncertainty as to where the boundaries of the cultural industries

sector lie. Apart from the emerged problems of definitions and comparisons among

different cultural policies, it is important to stress the reasoning behind the use of the

term cultural industries: successfully or not, it has not been an attempt to supplant the

term culture but to stress that these activities are not simply charities or services

requiring public assistance, but they are a productive sector in their own right, feeding

in a number of different ways into the wider local and regional economy.

Since the late 1970s many European cities, confronted with the common challenge of

planning for urban renewal and urban regeneration have increasingly used culture and

urban cultural policies within urban revitalisation strategies to support the transition to a


6/23

6

post-industrial city, to re-new the image of the city and to improve the quality of life of

the all the (potential) urban users.

In 1987 the Municipality of Rotterdam issued the policy memorandum RevitalisingRotterdam which is behind the policies developed in that period aiming at increasing

the urban quality of life, with strong investments in the cultural sector, urban design and

public space. Rotterdam started to improve its image, traditionally one of a dull

industrial centre dominated by petrochemical works and the port, through cultural

initiatives, including the creation of a museum park and the organisation of new

festivals. A great impetus for the city image arose from the construction of the Erasmus

Bridge, opened in 1996, and from the recent appointment of Rotterdam as EuropeanCity of Culture (ECC) in 2001, with the motto Rotterdam is many cities stressing the

multi-ethnic character of the city.

Another well-known example of achieving substantial changes in image through the use

of cultural policy is the case of Glasgow, a city severely hit by the decline of

manufacturing industry during the recessions of the 1970s and early 1980s. The city

was able to gain substantial benefits from a cultural upgrading strategy including

environmental improvements initiatives, the opening of the prestigious Burrel

Collection in 1983, the launch of the successful Glasgows Miles Better advertising

campaign, and the organisation of a coherent annual programme of cultural festivals.

Glasgows efforts culminated in its nomination as European City of Culture in 1990,

the first city to use the event for urban regeneration purposes.

In the last decade, we can observe an increasing cultural competition among cities.

Cities nurture a strong interest in becoming creative, in hosting big cultural institutions

and major cultural events (e.g. festivals, the ECC event, Olympics Game, etc.), in

developing strategies for cultural industries and in planning cultural quarters or

cultural districts or cultural clusters1.

1Cultural industries, typically labour-intensive, operate through a specific spatial logic: they are highlydependent upon each others proximity, with a natural tension to clustering as this provides them withcompetitive advantages through economies of agglomeration and scope, creative exchange andnetworking (Porter, 1998; Scott, 2000). Mainly in the United Kingdom, many cities established culturalindustries strategies, using them as the rationale to develop initiatives such as Sheffields Cultural

Industries Quarter, Birminghams Media Zone, Cardiffs Chapter Arts complex.


7/23

7

Emerging conflicts: tourists vs. citizens priorities, cultural consumption vs.

cultural production oriented models

In the last decade, we can observe an even stronger and marked convergence betweenthe spheres of cultural and economic development, an intensification of the study and

debate on the relationships between cities, culture, creativity and economic

development, and the rise of theories on the creative city, the creative class, the cultural

districts or clusters.

However, there has been prevalence for cultural activities with the potential to generate

short-term economic returns, using culture as an instrument for other ends (e.g.

economic and social). Cultural events, in particular, are often used as a way to attractmedia attention and tourists, rather than a means to raise community involvement and

empowerment, to provide a focal point for community pride and identity, and finally to

enhance their legacy through more balanced and locally focused cultural programmes.

Economic feasibility is not enough as an argument for urban cultural regeneration as it

doesnt take into account the cultural impacts and legacies. We can observe a lack of

strategies that allow culture to become an integral part of a more sustainable urban

development, thus the need to consider the multidimensional nature of the impacts of

culture on urban development - the impacts on the economic, social, physical and

cultural spheres.

Urban development based on culture is a complex process which presents controversial

economic, social, physical and cultural issues which Bianchini (1993b) has identified in

the forms of several key dilemmas. These include the audience dilemmas (residents vs

tourists - participation, ownership and representation), the spatial dilemmas such as

tensions between city centre and periphery, and the risk of gentrification; economic

development dilemmas such as cultural consumption versus cultural production2; and

2 In cultural policy there is often a clear distinction between consumption and production-orientedstrategies. The former develops and promotes urban cultural attractions and activities as magnet fortourism, retailing, hotel and catering. The latter provides strategic support for publishing, film, electronicmusic, TV, design, fashion and other creative industries. The formula for success in cultural-led urbanregeneration and in cultural quarter development is not defined by any single strategy. It may involve agreater or lesser degree of intervention by the local government; it could be the result of planning for there-use of derelict land and buildings (top-down approach), or a more spontaneous self-reinforcingdevelopment around some catalyst function or organisation (bottom-up approach); it could have a strongcultural consumption orientation (e.g. a museums quarter), or a cultural production orientation (e.g. a

audio-visual cluster), or both cultural consumption and production orientation.


8/23

8

cultural funding dilemmas in the choice to support ephemeral activity such as events,

festivals, and so on or permanent activity, primarily in infrastructures, long term vs

short-term effects..To move towards a more sustainable urban development, it becomes necessary to find a

balance in the nature of cultural investments so that all the pillars of sustainable

development are maintained and enhanced. Bianchini (1993b) identified in a cultural

planning approach the potentials to recognise and consider the problematic related to

the urban development process based on culture, enabling to reconcile cultural and

social priorities with the economic ones. Central to this approach is the perception that

cultural policies, if integrated and co-ordinated with other urban policies, can have aleading position within urban development strategies. The cultural planning is not a

sectorial approach focused on the development of separate cultural sectors or forms;

two-way relationships have to be developed between the cultural resources and any type

of public policy.

Many city governments have tried to make the cultural policy-making process more

responsive to the demands, aspirations and ideas of citizens, community groups and

local business, with a new emphasis on partnerships between public, private and

voluntary sectors. In that context, the preservation of the local identity and the sense of

place become very relevant as element of the social cohesiveness. In conclusion, urban

development based on culture is a process characterised by a complex interaction of

different agents and specific socio-economic aspects. It is a process which is rooted in

the cultural development of a city. It is not about creating flagship infrastructure or

attracting the creative class, but it is about creating support, networks, in order to

encourage entrepreneurialism and risk, to build trust and reinforce the local identity.

From investment in hard infrastructure (cultural infrastructure), cities should move

towards investment in soft infrastructure (social and creative networks).

The case study of Rotterdam

Introduction

With some 660.000 inhabitants, Rotterdam is the second largest city in The

Netherlands. Since the Middle Age, Rotterdam developed into an important pole in

international trade becoming one of the biggest ports in rapid expansion in Europe.


9/23

9

Notwithstanding the strong economic recession in the 1970s, a clever policy to support

investment and socio-economic regeneration allowed Rotterdam to maintain its position

as world port. However, today, transport and distribution activities in the port, thoughstill very important, generate fewer and fewer jobs in the region. The economic benefits

of the expansion of the port accrue mainly to inland regions, where transport and

distribution activities increasingly locate. With this in mind, the economic strategy of

the municipality is directed to the broadening of the economic base of the city, investing

in sectors recognized as growth clusters, such as the audiovisual industry. These

changes have been accompanied by a progressive enhancement of the image of the city:

from a port and industrial city to a more convivial and dynamic one, with an increasinglevel of quality of life. However, the city faces relevant social problems. Compared with

the rest of The Netherlands, Rotterdam has lower education levels for high-skilled (pre-

university) people, and a more serious situation with low-income groups. This is due to

the peculiar social composition given by the dominant port activities, and to the strong

presence of ethnic minorities. Though a wise social policy has tended to avoid

concentrations of problem areas, some places of the city are severely deprived and

called for a stronger effort. Among these, some that has been struck by the progressive

shift of port functions out of the urban core, and other historical neighbourhoods at the

West and North of the city centre. These neighbourhoods have been variously targeted

by innovative revitalisation policies favouring the functional mix and the involvement

of private investors in social projects. The City Council is active in promoting itself,

either directly or through its development arm, the Rotterdam City Development

Corporation (OBR), a powerful actor in many redevelopment and housing projects

which integrates among others the municipal departments of Economic Affairs and

Exploitation of Real Estate. Recently, the Economic Development Board Rotterdam

(EDBR) has been created. The EDBR is a platform comprised of more than thirty

stakeholders from the business community and the educational, scientific and cultural

sectors, together with the directors of the Rotterdam Development Corporation (OBR)

and the Port of Rotterdam.


10/23

10

Architecture and urban regeneration

Rotterdam is a city in continuous movement and change. Its impressive reconstruction

after the bombing during the Second World War, which destroyed almost the entirehistoric inner city, has been followed by continuous investments in new building and

infrastructure. The spatial emptiness left by the bombs and an attitude towards

innovation and experimentation could explain the importance that architecture has for

the city of Rotterdam. The Rotterdam architect Rem Koolhaas, one of the most famous

in the world, has been recognised as crucial for the development of a cluster of

architectural firms in the city, representing a stimulus for the so called generation of

Superdutch architects in the second half of the 80s. As Kloosterman and Stegmeijer(2004) argue, the creation of a cluster of famous architectural firms in Rotterdam is

inherently linked to Rem Koolhaas who directly - and above all indirectly though

publications and the setting up of the OMA as training institute - gave form to and

distributed innovative architecture.

The cultural strategy of the city

The policy memorandum Revitalising Rotterdam, issued in 1987, started to look at

culture, leisure and tourism as elements of an appealing ambience, part of the vision of

the complete town, aimed at increasing the urban quality of life. The new urban

development plan, formulated in the second half of the 1980s, was based on a broader

debate concerning the future of the city and inspired by developments in Baltimore, one

of the first cities to adopt a waterfront regeneration program based on culture and leisure

activities. In this period, Rotterdam was dealing with a rise of unemployment, a strong

sub-urbanisation of the higher-income families to the peripheral district following the

urban crisis of the 1970s, the consequent social unbalance in the city centre and a

deteriorating investment climate. Policies were developed to promote high-grade

services for citizens and visitors and to raise the spatial quality through, for example,

architecture and the reorganisation of public squares. Architecture has then been used as

a form of advertising for the city, able to transmit a catching, idiosyncratic image of

urban vitality and integral part of the incorporation of cultural investment and policy

into urban growth strategies (eg. the Kop Van Zuid area). Among the development

priorities, were mentioned the renovation of the old city districts, the transformation of


11/23

11

former harbours and the upgrading of the waterfront into an attractive place to live,

work and relax, a greater concentration of diverse museums and the creation of a

museum quarter3

(masterplanned by Rem Koolhaas) in a existing park area (theMuseumpark), improvements of existing products and incentives to business tourism.

Many festivals and events were organised, aiming at exploiting the potential for

stimulating artistic experimentation, improving the overall attractiveness and image of

the city, stimulating the urban economy, attracting tourists, improving the cultural

infrastructure, and in some way facilitating the accessibility of deprived groups to

culture.

Recently, the city displays an increasing commitment in creating opportunities forresidents, especially young people, investing in education and in fostering

entrepreneurialism. The cultural plan for the period 2001-2004 was focused on the

involvement of the education sector in the cultural life of the city, the use of the citys

cultural diversity as a tool for social inclusion, the enlargement of the audience and the

supply of more demand-oriented products, the use of culture as tool of urban

development and the stimulation of the private sector to play a more important role in

the cultural climate of the city. As a consequence of the introduction of the cultural

planning approach in the Cultural Memorandum 2001-2004 of the Dutch Ministry of

Education, Culture and Science, many policy-makers displayed an increasing interest in

the role that culture and the arts can play in the urban development and planning. The

new cultural plan 2005-2008 of Rotterdam concentrates on six main priorities: more

attention for the cultural heritage of the city; a renovated attention for the enlargement

of the audience; strengthening the involvement of the educational sector; strengthening

the role of culture as tool for social inclusion and spatial-economic development;

investments in cultural infrastructure; strengthening the position of individual artists in

order to promote their independence and entrepreneurship.

3The museum quarter is one of the first examples of a consciously developed cultural cluster (Mommaas,

2004). The project developed during the 1990s, as part of a deliberate attempt by local government to

strengthen the urban profile of the city. It has no clear central management at all, apart from irregular

meetings between participants and local government taking a responsibility for the collective maintenance

and promotion of the sites. The museum quarter hosts the Museum Boijmans, the Nederlands

Architectuur Instituut (NAI), the Kunsthal and the Natuur Museum.


12/23

12

The recent appointment as Rotterdam Cultural Capital of Europe for the year 2001

(R2001) represented the highest and most visible momentum for the cultural strategies

adopted by the city during the 90s. With the motto Rotterdam is many cities, themulticultural city was intended to be promoted: an attempt to bringing into contact the

cultures of ethnic minorities with the rest of the city with a focus on supporting and

developing youth culture. Rotterdam was the first city in Europe to use the event mainly

for social objectives: improving social cohesion and community development,

increasing the local cultural participation, ensuring a long term cultural development.

However, there seems to be little integration between the new face of Rotterdam and its

residents, as the low levels of participation of the indigenous population to the eventsheld in occasion of the R2001. Moreover, the impacts of the R2001 on tourism have not

been so big as the expectations. Rotterdam is still predominantly a workers city, where

middle and high-income groups are only a small minority.

Cultural industries and creative class

During the 90s, cultural industries in The Netherlands showed an enormous growth in

terms of occupation with respect to the other economic sectors. Such a growth is

concentrated in major cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague,

reflecting recent theories on cultural industries and their tendency to cluster. The

Municipality of Rotterdam, through the OBR, started several projects to stimulate

cultural production: in particular in the audiovisual cluster within the Schiecentrale and

in architecture and design within the Van Nelle Fabriek. Schiecentrale is a former

powerhouse located in the Lloydkwartier, an old port area involved in a process of

urban regeneration. Through the supply of working spaces at reasonable prices and the

clustering benefits, almost 80 creative industries set in the area with a total of 500

people employed. Studios for audiovisual artists have also been created in such a way to

increase the links between creativity and economy. Interaction seems now increasing

with the foundation of Het Initiatief (The Initiative), an organisation which reunites

different types of firms and freelancers of the cluster.

At the same time, the Municipality is actively involved in the attraction of the creative

class and the fostering of the creative economy. Richard Florida has been invited in

2005 to the CityLive2005Conference organised by CityCorp (a partnership of 6


13/23

13

Rotterdam-based housing associations) and EDBR to stimulate the debate concerning

the improvement of vitality in the city centre and the increase in urban attractiveness.

The goals set in developed vision Rotterdam: City of the future by the EDBR arebased on three themes - Working together, Learning together, and Living together

which would stress the increasing role of the creative and knowledge economy in the

city of Rotterdam.

The Tampere case study

Introduction

Tampere is the largest city (200,000 inhabitants) and the main economic hub of Finlandoutside the Helsinki Region. Today, citizens from over 100 nationalities are living in

Tampere. The city is located on the Tammerkoski Rapids between two large lakes,

connected by a canal overlooked by old factories, paper mills and smokestacks. Granted

the status of city in 1779 by Gustav III, King of Sweden for purposes of industry and

commerce, Tampere became at the verge of the XIX century one of the largest

industrial centres in the Nordic countries, nicknamed the Manchester of the North.

Today, the contrast between the perfectly refurbished redbrick industrial heritage and

the water environment makes a point of uniqueness of the cityscape. That working-class

heritage of the city is reflected not only in its architecture but also in a peculiar public

realm that highlights social responsibility, care for the environment and equal

opportunities for education.

Today new and rapidly growing business sectors have been developed in Tampere,

especially three large manufacturing clusters in mechatronics, health and bio-

engineering, and information and telecommunication technologies (ICT). The loss in

traditional sectors has been more than compensated by new jobs in the new economy

industries, engineering, telecom and services. In 2001, the biggest employer was the

Municipality, followed by Tampere University Hospital, the Nokia and the two

universities (University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology). Tampere

is often quoted as an international best practice case in fields of urban management,

inclusion and innovation in government, interactive relationship between citizens and

administration and the capacity to attract innovative firms and nourish research and

development in the region (e.g. the eTampereInformation Society Programme).


14/23

14

Nowadays, Tampere is characterised by a population growth, an increase of jobs in the

new economy, the expansion of innovative activities and the strengthening of its image

and identity. These factors develop themselves into a self-reinforcing process; the goodimage supports the enhancement of the appeal of the city, which in turn attracts new

experts, new companies, starting new development processes, which again strengths the

image and so on. Tampere is highly regarded by Finnish people as a city with a high

level of quality of life and an attractive cultural life. Tampere, it is argued, is just the

right size (not too big and not too small), providing a human-scale size, easy networking

and a diverse enough social composition without the hectic environment and the high

costs of living of Helsinki.

Cultural policy in Tampere

In Finland, public financing for the cultural sector has always been part of the Finnish

governmental policies. The community generally strongly recognises culture as an

important part of the public expenditure policy. Fiscal incentives for donations and

financing to the cultural sector are quite low, and not so much support for cultural

activity from the private sector can be highlighted. From 1918 onwards, support was

granted through expert committees, the first Finnish-style arms length bodies. The

municipalities gradually increase their financial autonomy and already since the 1920s

the joint financing responsibility of the state and the municipalities became one of the

pillars of the modern Finnish cultural policy (Mitchell and Heiskanen 2003). In the last

decade the role of the state and municipalities in direct support is decreased a policy

change mirrored by a growing trend to provide capital investments for building,

facilities and specialised training for creative professional workers. The EU policies

have reinforced the latter development and linked public cultural policies more closely

to urban and regional development and social cohesion policies.

The City of Tampere strongly supports the cultural sector; this is shown by the size of

the municipal budget allocated to culture (including sports): 7% (almost 70 million

euro), against the average 4.5-5% of Finlands largest cities. The main goal of the

Cultural Affairs Office is to provide cultural recreation and a sense of security for

people and organisations as well as to highlight the principles of equality, diversity,

tolerance and international interaction. The municipality is issuing materials in its own


15/23

15

websites in four different languages, and the Cultural Office issues a weekly

multicultural news bulletin in three languages on the local TV-channel.

Cultural activities and cultural consumers

Tampere is not a capital city like Helsinki or a heritage city in the traditional sense like

Turku, the former capital of Finland. However, its industrial image has not prevented

the city from developing itself into an active cultural centre. The citys cultural policy

serves well the ambitions of the local community, which are the highest share of

attendants to cultural life and events. Tampere is re-known to be a festival city, the

theatre capital of the country, and an important educational centre in arts and culture,hosting also several museums and the biggest city library in Finland, the Tampere

Municipal Library (1,2 million visitors every year).

Much of its cultural life of the city is clustered in its city centre on both sides of the

canal, where all the main attractions and institutions are at walking distance; however,

there are spaces with a distinct cultural function, like the Finlayson/Tampella area and

the Tullikamari or Cultural Centre of the Old Customs House. The most visited

museums are housed in the Museum Centre Vapriikki, whose premises used to be a

large industrial and engineering facility within the Finlayson/Tampella area. Local

people are the most important share of the audience in the Museum Centre, but visitors

come from all over the country, and in particular from the Helsinki area and from

southern Finland.

In addition to museums, theatres and festivals activities, Tampere invested a lot in the

creation of the largest concert and congress centre in Scandinavia, the Tampere Hall.

The construction of the centre, undertaken with the municipal budget to meet the

demand coming from the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra for a suitable working space

facility, is an example of how the community is involved in decisions regarding cultural

services, often taking the initiative to enhance the capital assets of the city. The

Tampere Hall is owned by the city, but run independently as a limited company. The

financial sustainability of this big cultural centre lies on the fact that it was conceived as

a multifunctional building in impressive modern architecture, well-endowed with

restaurant and caf facilities; concerts, large events, conferences, and seminaries are


16/23

16

organised at the same time in different halls by two separate administration departments

which respectively run the cultural programs and the convention centre.

The cultural renovation of the Finlayson/Tampella area

In Finland, old industrial sites have almost always have city centre locations. In the

Tampere case, the Finlayson/Tampella4old industrial area marks the urban spaces of the

city centre. For more than a century, the Finlayson area was a town within the town,

closed to outsiders. The structural change in industry in the 1980s meant a gradual

transformation of the use of the Tampella industrial site and the start of the planning of

the areas redevelopment at the end of the decade (Tamminen, 2002). As industrialactivities faded, the city of Tampere explored opportunities to make use of the

Finlayson/Tampella area as a way to regenerate and expand its city centre.

The project of the redevelopment of the old industrial area was carried out in

conjunction with a general plan for the city centre, in order to enhance its attractiveness

as a residential location and a place for business and commercial activities, to improve

the urban landscape, and finally to make the industrial sites an integral part of the city

centre from the point of view of function, traffic and urban design. The aim was to

create a stimulating urban quarter containing all kinds of city-centre activities without

destroying the cohesiveness and uniqueness of the existing structures in the area.

The planning of the Tampella site started with an architectural competition, which

closed in 1991. The competition was won by the proposal entitled Shouts or

Whispers? (by architects Keijo Heiskanen and Professor Erkki Helamaa) for its

successful integration into the existing urban structure, the areas flexible

implementation opportunity due to a particularly defined urban structure, the successful

waterfront boulevard solution and the location of high-rise buildings sufficiently far

away from the old urban environment. The first stage of the site planning work was

4 Completed in 1837 in the northern side of the Tammerkoski Rapids, Finlaysons six-storey factory

building was the first building designed for large-scale industry, an innovative example of industrial

architecture and the most significant monument of Finnish industrial history. Today it is a protected

building. Finlayson was a closed town within the town, with a whole range of institutions inside: factory

owner's mansion, officials and workers housing, a hospital, a church, a school, a community hall and a

home for the elderly.


17/23

17

completed at the end of 2000. The Museum Centre Vapriikki, which moved to the

Finlayson/Tampella area in 1991, contributed enormously to the revitalisation of the

area and to the improvement of its image, while being at that time its only non-industrial activity. The occasion to create a real museum quarter in Vapriikki,which

today is the largest museum complex in Finland, came out after a fire which destroyed

the Technical Museum 15 years ago. A further boost for this museum quarter came

when the city received 10 M Euro investments from the government to prepare itself for

the European Summit in 1999.

Institutions such as the Media Museum, the Aamulehti newspaper, the Tampere

Polytechnic School of Arts and Media, were offered convenient working space andmoved in the Finlayson buildings, starting the cycle of regeneration of the area.

Today, Finlayson is becoming a versatile centre for communication technology and

multimedia, housing more than 80 companies (among which a sizeable concentration of

designers, media, advertisement producers) with over 3,000 employees, a theatre

complex, restaurants and cafs, the eTampere Information Society Programme and the

Tampere Region Centre of Expertise Programme for Media Services. The range of

mixed uses and activities in an area, which supports and reinforces each other, are not

limited to the pattern of the normal working day, providing also the basis for an

evening and night economy. The intensity of activities repeats the historical intensity

of the industrial past. Although the new identity diverges from the former one, the

notion of production is continuing through the development of forms of cultural

production (Nevanlinna, 2002).

Concluding remarks

The cultural sector has the potential to contribute to a more complex process of urban

(re)development: it provides communities with a higher although not precisely

measurable quality of life in terms of immaterial benefits, also in the urban public

realm, and it is also able to generate material benefits for the economy and the society

as a whole, directly and indirectly through the creation of a fertile social and cultural

humus able to conceive new productive ideas, to experience new modes of exchange

and production, to intercept new needs. However, it is necessary that a city find a

balance in the nature of investments so that all the pillars of sustainable development are


18/23

18

maintained and enhanced: the cultural capital, the social capital and the economic

capital in a reasonable spatial organisation.

Today the city of Rotterdam invests both in hardware (cultural infrastructure) and insoftware (creative networks and the stimulus to creativity). For what concerns the

creative industries, Rotterdam adopted strategies for the development of creative

clusters and the attraction of the creative class. The city has a museum and cultural

quarter in the city centre mainly oriented to cultural consumption and the decentralised

Schiecentrale creative cluster mainly oriented to cultural production. Although culture

has played an important role in the regeneration process of the late 80s, cultural

investments and the new city image have not displayed strong links with the localcommunity. The city policy focused much more on the investments to improve the bad

image in order to attract residents, tourists and investors, rather than on fostering the

local identity and social cohesion and integration. The residents still represent a small

part of the cultural consumers. The main cultural attractions are concentrated in the city

centre; however, community-based initiatives are increasing in decentralised areas (eg.

the Local Cultural Centres) in order to improve cultural participation and cultural

diversity. In conclusion, the planning efforts of the next years have to put a greater

emphasis on the socio-cultural aspects.

The cultural sector in Tampere stands out as a good representation of its local society:

responsible, diverse, dynamic and human-scale. The cultural institutions were born

almost when the factories closed down, linking and reflecting the citys past history to

its present image. Not enjoying the same fall-out of state support and subsidies as the

cultural institutions in the Helsinki Metropolitan Region, the community is proud of

what it is able to achieve out of its own initiatives - not overestimating its potential nor

underestimating the cultural needs of its community, but rather making a balanced use

of its own resources in an integrated and sustainable urban strategy.

This sustainable attitude visible also in the other areas of Tampere local economy and

urban society reflects the way Tampere is able to strategically adapt its self to each

phase of the social, cultural and economic development as a pioneer, recognising

various changes and adjusting to them, while creating its own way to the urban

(re)development.


19/23

19

The residents represent the main proportion of cultural consumers; a substantial

percentage of the municipal budget is allocated in the cultural sector, with a special

focus on cultural accessibility, on art education and youth centres. The culturalinvestments allowed the (re)definition and reinforcement of the city identity and its

participative and inclusive character. At the same time, cultural investments produced

benefits in terms of improvements in city image and increase in the number of tourists.

Both processes reinforce themselves in a virtuous cycle.

The new uses within the Finlayson/Tampella area had strong impacts on the structure,

functions and appearance of Tampere, contributing to the steering of the development of

the city as a whole over the decades to come. The integrated development of newfunctions and innovative uses in the old industrial area has supported the recovery of the

identities of the post-industrial city. Citizens seem to have adopted the transformation of

the Finlayson/Tampella area as an extension of the old industrial city. Former workers

are very proud that their old workplace becoming a museum area, a meeting point and

new business for the community. The new activities in the area attract both citizens and

tourists. What used to be walled industrial areas, restricted to the industrial community,

have been transformed into urban spaces with a more public and open character.

Although until last year Tampere had not developed specific strategies for the creative

industries, their fundamental role have been recognised. As a natural evolution of the

eTampereprogramme, the city announced at the end of 2005 the launch of the Creative

Tampere programme (2006-2011) in order to develop the creative economy. The

programme deals with three main topics: a) technology, b) business, c) environment and

culture. The closing date of the programme has been set on 2011, the year Tampere

could be European Cultural Capital. The foundations of the programme are very strong

and are reinforced by the success of the eTampere ended in 2005. The eTampere

initiative has generated functional cooperation between businesses, the public sector,

associations, providers of training and research institutes. These stakeholders will also

produce the content for the Creative Tampere programme and the reception has been

enthusiastic throughout. Some of the methods of operation created in eTampere may

also continue as part of the new programme eTampere has also produced the

necessary international visibility and credibility for the city as well as networks that will

be of use when the Creative Tampere projects kick off (Harri Airaksinen, Director of


20/23

20

the Business Development in the City of Tampere e creator of the Creative Tampere

programme).

Tampere is an exemplary case of integration between culture, local communityinterests, identity and economy: a strategy which triggers an urban (re)development

process into which the global forces get embedded without hampering local activities to

be rooted in the local community.

The relations between image and identity are well described by the approaches adopted

respectively by the cities of Rotterdam and Tampere; these approaches are also reflected

in the strategic dilemma highlighted by Bianchini (1993) in relation to the process of

urban development based on culture. On one hand, investments to improve the cityimage in order to increase the urban attractiveness; on the other hand, investments to

strengthen the local identity, social cohesion and quality of life. The case studies of

Rotterdam and Tampere shows to what extent investments related to the improvement

of the city image - although they can produce short term benefit - need to be integrated

with investments aimed to strengthen local identity to be able to produce long term

benefits and trigger a more sustainable urban development process.

References

Amin, A. and Graham, S. (1997). The ordinary city. Transactions IBG, 22: 411-429

Amin, A. and Thrift, N. (1995). Institutional issues for the European regions: from markets and

plans to socioeconomics and powers association. Economy and Society, 24 (1): 41-66

Andersson ke E. (1987). Culture, creativity and economic development in a regional context

(Strasbourg: Council of Europe)

Bailey, C., Miles, S. & Stark, P. (2004). Culture-led urban regeneration and the revitalization ofidentities in Newcastle, Gateshead and the North East of England. International Journal of

Cultural Policy, 10 (1), 47-66

Becattini, G. (Eds.) (1989). Modelli locali di sviluppo (Bologna: Il Mulino)

Bianchini, F. & Parkinson, M. (Eds.) (1993). Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration: the West

European Experience. (Manchester: Manchester University Press)

Bianchini, F. (1993a). Culture, conflict and the city: issues and prospects for the 1990s. (In F.

Bianchini & M. Parkinson (Eds.), Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration: the West

European Experience. Manchester: Manchester University Press)


21/23

21

Bianchini, F. (1993b). Remaking European cities: the role of cultural policies. (In F. Bianchini

& M. Parkinson (Eds.), Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration: the West European

Experience. Manchester: Manchester University Press)Borg, J. Van Der, Russo, A. P. & Lavanga, M. (2005) The Impacts of Culture on the Economic

Development of Cities (Final Report. Rotterdam: Euricur)

Castells, M. (1996). The Rise of the Network Society. (Oxford: Blackwell)

Crang, P. (1997). Cultural turns and the (re)constitution of economic geography. (In R. Lee & J.

Wills (Eds.), Geographies of Economies. London: Arnold)

Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class: And How Its Transforming Work, Leisure,

Community and Everyday Life. (New York: Basic Books).

Hall, P. (1998). Cities in Civilisation: Culture, Innovation and Urban Order. (London:Weidenfeld and Nicholson)

Heilbrun, J. & Gray, C.M. (1993). The Economics of the Art and Culture: an American

Perspective. (New York: Cambridge University Press)

Hesmondhalgh D. and Pratt, A. C. (2005) Cultural industries and cultural policy. International

Journal of Cultural Policy, 11 (1): 1-13.

Kloosterman, R. C. (2004). Recent employment trends in the cultural industries in Amsterdam,

Rotterdam,, The Hague and Utrecht: a first exploration. Tijdschrift voor Economishe en

Sociale Geografie, 96: 243-252.

Kloosterman, R. C. and Stegmeijer, E. (2004). Delirious Rotterdam? Path-Creation and The

Emergence of a Cluster of Architectural Firms in Rotterdam. Draft paper for the City

Futures International Conference, Chicago, 8-10 July.

Kostiainen, J. & Sotarauta, M. (2002). Finnish city reinvented: Tamperes path from industrial

to knowledge economy. Special Working Paper Series on Local Innovation Systems, MIT-

IPC-LIS-02-002, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Industrial Performance Center.

Landry, C. & Bianchini, F. (1995). The Creative City. (London: Demos).

Landry, C. (2000). The Creative City. (London: Earthscan Publishers)

Lavanga, M. (2004a). Creative Industries, Cultural Quarters and Urban Development: the Case

Studies of Rotterdam and Milan. (In G. Mingardo & M. van Hoek (Eds.), Urban

Management in Europe Vol. II: Towards a Sustainable Development. Rotterdam: Erasmus

Universiteit Rotterdam)

Lavanga, M. (2004b). The evolution of Rotterdam cultural policy: the 1980s and the 1990s, the

European Cultural Capital 2001 and what next?!. XING - Ein Kulturmagazin, 1, 36-39.


22/23

22

Lavanga, M. (2006). Citt e Cultura. Politiche per uno sviluppo urbano sostenibile basato sulla

cultura (Cities and Culture. Policies for a sustainable urban development based on culture).

Ph.D Dissertation, IULM University, Milan.Manshanden, W., Rutten, P., Bruijn, de P. And Koops, O. (2005). Creative Industrie in

Rotterdam (Delft: TNO Ruimte en Infrastructuur).

Marlet, G. And Woerkens, van C. (2004). De Creative Klasse in Rotterdam (Utrecht: Stichting

ATLAS voor Gemeenten).

Mitchell, R. & Heiskanen, I. (2003). Finland. (In Council of Europe/ERICarts, Cultural Policies

in Europe: a Compendium of basic facts and trends. Strasbourg: Council of Europe)

Mommaas, H. (2004). Cultural clusters and the post-industrial city: towards the remapping of

urban cultural policy. Urban Studies, 41(3), 507-532Musterd, S. and Ostendorf, W. (2004). Creative cultural knowledge cities: perspectives and

planning strategies. Built Environment, 30: 189-193.

Nevanlinna, A. K. (2002, September). Industries lost, identities recovered (Proceedings of the

6thInternational Conference on Urban History, Edinburgh)

Nystrom, L. (1999). City and culture: cultural processes and urban sustainability. (Stockholm:

Swedish Urban Development Council)

Pyke, F., Becattini, G. and Sengenberg, W. (Eds.) (1990). Industrial District and Inter-Firm Co-

operation in Italy (Geneve: International Institute for Labour Studies)

Porter, M. (1998). On Competition. (Boston: HBS).

Pratt, A. C. (2004). Creative clusters: Towards the governance of the creative industries

production system?. Media International Australia, 112: 5066.

Richards, G. & Wilson, J. (2004). The impact of cultural events on city image: Rotterdam

Cultural Capital of Europe 2001. Urban Studies , 41 (10), 1931-1951

Sacco, P. L. & Pedrini, S. (2003). Il distretto culturale: mito o opportunit. Il Risparmio, 51 (3),

101-155

Scott, A. J. (1997). The Cultural Economy of Cities. International Journal of Urban and

Regional Research, 21 (2), 323-340

Scott, A. J. (2000). The Cultural Economy of Cities. (London: Sage)

Storper, M. and Harrison, B. (1991). Flexibility, hierarchy and regional development: the

changing structure of industrial production systems and their forms of governance in the

1990s. Research policy, 20 (5): 407-422.

Tamminen, P. (2002, April). Redevelopment of Old Industrial Sites as a Resource for Urban

Development (Proceedings of the FIG XXII International Congress, Washington, D.C)


23/23

Throsby, D. (2001). Economics and Culture. (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press)

Towse, R. (Eds.) (2003). A Handbook of Cultural Economics. (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar)

Trimarchi, M. (2005). Limpatto economico della produzione culturale (In F. Severino & M.Trimarchi (Eds.), Sette Idee per la Cultura. Patrimonio e Innovazione. Milano: LABItalia)

Wynne, D. (Eds.) (1992). The Culture Industry: the Arts in Urban Regeneration (Aldershot:

Avebury)

Zukin, S. (1995). The Cultures of Cities. (London: Blackwell)

The contribution of cultural and creative industries to a more sustainable urban development. The...

Documents

Transcript of The contribution of cultural and creative industries to a more sustainable urban development. The...