Rethinking Creative Cities at RC21 in Leeds

The Centre for Culture and the Creative Industries was well represented at the RC21 conference in Leeds on September 11-13th, dedicated to ‘Rethinking Urban Global Justice: An international academic conference for critical urban studies’.

Prof. Andy C. Pratt in collaboration with Dr. Marianna D’Ovidio organised a double-panel ‘Towards a just creative cities’, which focused on engaging a critique on creative city debates which have instrumentalised artists, ignoring the strong political engagement and their practice transforming the way our societies work and function.

Convenors were invited to reflect on mechanisms and conditions that enable the creation of a just creative city, and as one of the panellists, Jenny presented a contribution entitled ‘Cultural polis in African contexts: A civic perspective on urban cultural governance’, drawing on her recent experience with Arterial Network’s African Creative Cities pilot programme (2017-2018).