Klaus Kunzmann: the creative city and its discontents

Department of Culture and Creative Industries, City University London,

21 October 2014: 17:30-19:00: Room AG21 (St John Street entrance)

CCI are pleased to welcome Prof Klaus Kunzman who will talk about Creativity and Urban Development: Culture, competitiveness, social inclusion and sustainable development.

The creative paradigm has excited policy makers, policy advisors and academic researchers alike.  They expected that making superficial use of the creative paradigm in urban marketing campaigns would raise the profile of a city, as well as its international competitiveness and status.

However initial hopes viewed the ‘creative city’ as a ‘silver bullet’ promoting and building cultural flagship projects and hosting cultural events did not meet the expectation of city managers and citizens. Similarly the promotion of cultural and creative industries did not really contribute to structural change of ailing local economies. In the end the creativity paradigm has been little more than window dressing.

Whilst the challenges are similar from city to city, experience shows that strategies and policies to address the challenges have to be based on local and regional conditions of governance, which reflect the diversity of regional planning cultures.

This presentation will illustrate the multiple challenges of urban politics in the creative age. It will also show some creative pathways in bridging the four fields of political action in cities with examples drawn from both Asia and Europe. This lecture will also be CCI’s contribution to the Inside/Out festival. an example of outreach and engagement with the community.