CULTURE URBANFUTURE

:

GLOBAL REPORTon CULTUREfor SUSTAINABLEURBANDEVELOPMENT

SustainableDevelopmentGoals

United Nations

Cultural Organization

2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

CULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIESPOLICY AREAS(HANGZHOU, CHINA)

CULTURE ENTRY POINTS

REGIONAL ANALYSES

THEMES

RECOMMENDATIONS

PEOPLE ENVIRONMENT POLICIES

Enhance the liveability of cities and safeguard their identities

Ensure social inclusion in cities through culture

Promote creativity and innovation in urban development through culture

Build on culture for dialogue and peace-building initiatives

Foster human scale and mixed-use cities by drawing on lessons learnt from urban conservation practices

Promote a liveable built and natural environment

Enhance the quality of public spaces through culture

Improve urban resilience through culture-based solutions

Regenerate cities and rural-urban linkages by integrating culture at the core of urban planning

Build on culture as a sustainable resource for inclusive economic and social development

Promote participatory processes through culture and enhance the role of communities in local governance

Develop innovative and sustainable financial models for culture

SEP 2015

DEC 2015

OCT 2016

1 HUMAN-CENTRED CITIES

2 INCLUSIVE CITIES

3 PEACEFUL AND TOLERANT SOCIETIES

4 CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE CITIES

5 HUMAN-SCALE AND COMPACT CITIES

6 SUSTAINABLE, RESILIENT AND GREEN CITIES

7 INCLUSIVE PUBLIC SPACES

8 SAFEGUARDING URBAN IDENTITIES

9 SUSTAINABLE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

10 ENHANCED RURAL-URBAN LINKAGES

11 IMPROVED URBAN GOVERNANCE

12 FINANCING SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

OCT 2015

UNESCO GLOBAL SURVEY ON THE ROLE OF CULTURE

STUDY AREA 1 As a new generation of cultural entrepreneurs emerges, culture increasingly provides a stage for community participation and renewed links between governments and citizens.

STUDY AREA 2 Although it decayed due to demographic and social transformations, the ‘medina’, a dense, mixed-use urban model specific to Arab cities, offers lessons for the future sustainability of cities.

STUDY AREA 3 The practice of urban conservation has unlocked new approaches and instruments to achieve urban and environmental sustainability, emphasizing local knowledge, creativity and well-being.

STUDY AREA 4 Urban conservation and regeneration practices are emerging through the reuse of former industrial buildings and Soviet era public spaces, as well as revitalization projects for historic cities.

STUDY AREA 7

STUDY AREA 8

STUDY AREA 3

STUDY AREA 2

STUDY AREA 1

STUDY AREA 4

STUDY AREA 5

STUDY AREA 6

HERITAGE AND CREATIVITY

SustainableDevelopmentGoals

United Nations

Cultural Organization

GLOBAL REPORT ON CULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

GLOBAL REPORT CULTURE: URBANFUTURE

NEW URBAN AGENDA

STUDY AREA 5 As heritage conservation is perceived to be a low priority within development agendas, the needs of the poor require particular attention in urban regeneration, building on the region’s innovative use of pro-poor policy frameworks.

STUDY AREA 6 In light of increasing land speculation and widespread privatization of urban areas, public spaces have been a particular focus of urban conservation and regeneration efforts.

STUDY AREA 7 A new vision of sustainable urbanism is emerging, one that combines heritage, contemporary design and environmental awareness, and favours polycentric, dense and mixed-use cities.

STUDY AREA 8 While urban conservation and regeneration have historically been government-led, they now involve a growing variety of civil society and private partners, resulting in innovative partnerships.

URBANFUTURE

NGLOBAL REPORTon CULTUREfor SUSTAINABLEURBANDEVELOPMENT

SustainableDevelopmentGoals

United Nations

Cultural Organization

Published in 2016 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France

© UNESCO 2016

ISBN 978-92-3-100170-3

This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be boundby the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en).

The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of anyopinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities,or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO anddo not commit the Organization.

(*) Images marked with an asterisk do not fall under the CC-BY-SA licence and may not be used or reproduced without the priorpermission of the copyright holders.

Cover and back cover photo: Women dancing at the Shirvanshah Palace, Baku (Azerbaijan) © REZA/Webistan*

Graphic design & cover design: Grace Hodeir/RectoVerso, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine (France)

Printed by UNESCO, in Paris (France)

This publication was supported by the Kingdom of Spain and the Hangzhou Municipal People’s Government.

Urban areas must be ‘rehumanized’, both in terms of scale and in enhancing a sense thatfacilitate belonging. Systematic, comprehensive and culturally sensitive urban development models are required to promote inclusive processes ofaccess, representation and participation in culture.

The role of culture for sustainable urban development goes beyond its value as a commodity or a resource to attractinvestments and boost branding. Decision-makersshould build on culture for inclusive development,overcoming inadequacies of indicators andmeasurement of impacts, citizen participation andgender inequality.

Cultural vitality is necessary to city life as itpermeates all spheres of living and lies at thefoundation of freedoms, the public exchange ofideas and societal well-being.

The role of local governments is crucial to create and support spaces for dialogue and action;plan, design, implement and monitor policies andprogrammes; develop infrastructure; and ensure thatthe values of heritage, diversity and creativity arerecognized, particularly in contexts where these maybe neglected or threatened.204

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Article:Nancy Duxbury, Jordi Baltà, Jyoti Hosagrahar and Jordi Pascual.Culture in urban development policies: an agenda for localgovernments

Perspectives:Jenny F. Mbaye. Centre for Culture and the Creative Industries,City University of London (UK). Culture as a resource forsustaining urban life and livelihoodsSofia Avgerinou Kolonias. National Technical University ofAthens (N.T.U.A.) (Greece), President CIVVIH ICOMOS andICOMOS Board Member. A multidimensional view of heritage asa factor of sustainable urban developmentRandall Mason, University of Pennsylvania (USA). Creativeplacemaking as urban policy

Case studies:Pekalongan (Indonesia). Craft as an honourable occupationGuatemala City (Guatemala). Broadening creative horizons foryouth through audiovisual training Saint-Louis (Senegal). Generating economic benefit throughconservation effortsSeville (Spain). Strengthening intercultural dialogue andcommunity participation in urban regenerationKolomna (Russian Federation). Revitalizing the knowledge andskills of traditional practices for local development

IN THIS CHAPTER

Havana (Cuba)© Julian Peters Photography/Shutterstock.com*

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CULTURE IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT POLICIES: AN AGENDA FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTSNANCY DUXBURY, JORDI BALTÀ, JYOTI HOSAGRAHAR AND JORDI PASCUAL1

Four decades on from Habitat I, while the economic,environmental, political and social dimensions of

development have been acknowledged and – to a greateror lesser extent – understood by the internationalcommunity, today the cultural dimension of developmentis still too often misunderstood or undervalued, or seenas an optional extra to be added when the hard work of‘real’ development is done. While Habitat II in 1996recognized culture as an integral part of people’s well-being, and local development and equity were linked withacknowledging diversity in cultural heritage and values,culture was not fully integrated in its delivery. In parallel,especially since 2000 – from local to international scales– culture has been gradually recognized as a key issue inlocal/urban sustainable development (Pascual, 2009;duxbury et al., 2012; duxbury and Jeannotte, 2012;UNESCO, 2012; Hosagrahar, 2013; Hristova et al., 2015;UNESCO, 2015; dessein et al., 2015; Hosagrahar et al.,2016). The Global Taskforce of Local and RegionalGovernments (2014), for example, acknowledges theneed to explicitly include culture in the paradigm ofsustainable cities:

Culture will be key in the success of sustainabledevelopment policies, as driver and enabler ofdevelopment and people-centred societies. A holistic andintegrated approach to development needs to takecreativity, heritage, knowledge and diversity intoaccount. Poverty is not just a question of materialconditions and income, but also of lack of capabilitiesand opportunities, including in cultural terms.

It is time to improve (and update) the wording of culturein sustainable urban development, as well as to opera-tionalize this narrative.

The contemporary urban crisis calls for a new model ofurban development in the form of the ‘New Urban Agenda’to be approved at Habitat III. In addition to decreasingvulnerability and environmental footprint, this new modelmust ‘rehumanize’ urban environments, both in terms ofscale and in enhancing a sense of belonging. Furthermore,it must increase social cohesion, counter segregation(social and spatial) and uneven distribution of wealth, andaim for equitable distribution and access to urbanresources and greater integration and connection amongresidents. Within this context, it must recognize thatcultures are dynamic, intrinsically diverse andmultifaceted, incorporating a range of expressions andvalues embodied in tangible and intangible heritage,contemporary arts, collective and individual activities, andparticular features that characterize distinct ‘ways of life’.

With these goals in mind, more systematic and compre-hensive ‘culturally sensitive urban development models’are required (United Nations Task Team on Habitat III,2015). To this end, the role of cultural practices and valuesin sustainable development must be explicitly recognized,supported and integrated into planning and policy in asystematic and comprehensive way.

CULTURE HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN A CONSTITUTIVE FORCE OF URBAN dEVELOPMENT. TOdAY, AN

IMPRESSIVE VARIETY OF INNOVATIVE PRACTICES TO INTEGRATE CULTURAL ASSETS INTO URBAN

dEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES ARE OBSERVEd THROUGHOUT THE WORLd.

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Pekalongan (Indonesia)Craft as an honourableoccupation

Pekalongan, a port city in centralJava (Indonesia), has longbeen known as a centre for batik, an elaborately decoratedcloth (usually cotton) produced with a wax-resist dyeingtechnique. This textile has traditionally been crafted by handin family workshops and small-scale cottage industries. Forthose growing up in Pekalongan at the beginning of thetwenty-first century, however, apprenticeship in a batikworkshop was not an attractive option: young people withaspirations for advancement set their sights on other pro-fessions such as computers or sciences.

City leaders decided that Pekalongan’s future viability laynot in a search for new industries, but in reinvigorating thecraft for which it was already well-known: batik. An historicbuilding was dedicated as a museum of batik. A mayoraldecree provided for batik to be integrated as local contentinto the public school curricula, in conformity with the existingnational educational framework.

Beginning with only one school in the 2005-2006 academicyear, it only took three years for the programme to reach allof Pekalongan’s 230 schools, from kindergartens to sec-ondary schools. Young people have gained a new appreci-ation of the skills and knowledge required for the craft anda renewed respect for its practitioners, together with an in-creased interest in the possibility of making a career in batik,which is now once again viewed as an honourable occupa-tion. Specialized training is provided at vocational schools,whose students may gain the skills to enter batik-making asa career. The Polytechnic of Pekalongan has established athree-year diploma course in batik, thus producing special-ists with higher degrees.

The Long Term City Development Plan 2005-2025 is guidedby the vision: ‘Pekalongan, city of batik: advanced, indepen-dent and prosperous’. The vision sees the art, craft, cultureand economy of batik as Pekalongan’s greatest potential,‘the main locomotive and main driving force turning thewheel of development of Pekalongan City’. Today, youngPekalongan residents are increasingly confident that theycan aspire to reputable work and a reasonable income withouthaving to join the migration to Indonesia’s larger cities.

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1Based on the work done by the Committee on Culture of the United Citiesand Local Governments (UCLG), including the policy paper ‘Why must culturebe at the heart of sustainable urban development’ (duxbury et al., 2016).

CONCEPTUAL MYTHS AND OPERATIONALCHALLENGES

Conceptual and operational issues persist on culture’s rolewithin the context of sustainable urban development policyand planning. The relationship between culture andsustainable development is not thoroughly understood,and the integration of culture within broader holistic urbanplanning and development continues to be an issue. Inorder to integrate culture into urban development in moresystematic and comprehensive ways, these challengesmust be explicitly addressed.

There are some main misconceptions around culture withunderlying assumptions about the place of culture in thesustainable development of cities. The followingarticulates the myths and aims to counter them, providingconstructive and positive counter-narratives.

MYTH 1. Everything about cultural traditions andpractices is good and must be conserved and safeguarded.Local or national sustainable development must respectcultural beliefs, practices and traditions and cannot changeany aspect of them. It is legitimate to use culture to justifybehaviours and practices that infringe upon human rights.Local circumstances and traditions of groups are moreimportant than individuals.

COUNTER-NARRATIVE. The 1948 Universal declarationof Human Rights is, indeed, universal. Culture is an integralpart of human rights (Art. 27) and human rights areindivisible and interdependent. Therefore, no one mayinvoke culture to infringe upon the human rights ofindividuals, guaranteed by international law, nor to limittheir scope.2 Cultural practices that infringe upon thehuman rights of individuals must be modified to conformto the Universal declaration of Human Rights. Culturalrelativism of human rights is not acceptable.

2 See: 2001 UNESCO Universal declaration on Cultural diversity (Art.4),also: Gender Equality: Heritage and Creativity (UNESCO, 2014b)

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POLICIES Integrating culture into urban policies to foster sustainable urban development

Cities are a demonstration of the life-force that culture plays in the historictransformation of our societies, and assuch a key engine in their urban devel-opment and social sustainability. Weshould nurture culture, and move beyondinstrumentalizing it as a disposable tool,to embrace two distinctive aspects thatessentially make up its DNA: meaningand values, and transmission. Together,they are a powerful resource that sustainsurban life and livelihoods.

Meaning and values are the essence ofcreative products and other cultural ex-pressions. They give life expression andsignificance. Meaning and values areexpressed and measured in a variety ofways, but reducible to no single one.The forms are diverse: intellectual propertyresources, tangible and intangible com-modities, products of traditions andsavoir-faire, crafts and innovations. Thesustainability of culture is thus only tobe achieved by maintaining a fine balancebetween monetary and social values ofbranded and lived spaces and products,the local and the global, and the indige-nous and worldwide. In a holistic way,culture nurtures and nourishes, sustainsand makes resilient, cities, regions andtheir populations.

As a transmitter, culture holds and trans-ports identity, meaning and memory,within and beyond territorial boundaries.

Culture is a means of the political, social,economic and spatial expressions ofcities; it informs urban morphologiesand patterns of cities, as well as theneeds, practices and usages of thosewho reside, transit and inhabit the urbanfabric. One cannot have a city - let alonehuman life that thrives - without culture.Here is the challenge and opportunityof culture: change and transformationhave to respect cultural values and touse the means of cultural transmission.Culture is the key to the city, and itsgovernance.

Culture is simultaneously content (valueand meaning) and a container (a formof transmission). This dual and interlinkedrole is the means of valuing choices andpromoting innovation that underpins thenotion of urban citizenship. Culture bothis and holds social permutations andhuman development, as well as thetransformations of the built environment,with cities being one of its most accom-plished forms.

Culture then is the tree and the fruit ofsustainable urban development. We thusneed to move beyond labels and brandedconcepts – ‘smart cities’, ‘creative cities’,‘eco cities’ and more recently ‘self-confi-dent’ cities – as cities of culture remindus of the essential role played by genuinelypeople-centred urban policies, broad-based and transversal in their approach.

CULTURE AS A RESOURCE FOR SUSTAINING URBAN LIFE AND LIVELIHOODSJenny F. Mbaye Centre for Culture and the Creative Industries, City University of London(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

PERSPECTIVE 36

Guatemala City (Guatemala)Broadening creative horizonsfor youth through audiovisualtraining

Based in Guatemala City (Guatemala), a city of over 1 millionpeople and the site of mass rural to urban migration in recentdecades, the Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales e Inves-tigaciones para la Paz (IRIPAZ) has worked to promoteGuatemala’s cultural diversity through audiovisual media.With the support of UNESCO’s International Fund for CulturalDiversity (IFCD), IRIPAZ launched the ‘Intercultural socialcommunication through audiovisual creation’ project, a two-phase initiative with a distinct focus on digital technologies.

During the first phase of the project, students, many fromindigenous communities, learned how to operate digitalcameras, studied graphic design programmes such as Pho-toshop and Illustrator, explored video editing through FinalCut Pro and After Effects, and mastered digital music pro-duction with Logic Pro. Now in its second phase, the ICREALab project (as it is now known) is educating students in cul-tural entrepreneurship skills – such as crowdfunding strate-gies – geared towards the audiovisual industry. As a resultof the project, more than 100 young people have receivedtraining in cultural entrepreneurship, with many going onto found their own audiovisual production companies. Fur-thermore, thanks to a partnership with the University of SanCarlos in Guatemala City, a professional certification pro-gramme has now been established for young cultural man-agers. By creating new opportunities for young, indigenouscultural entrepreneurs, the ICREA Lab project is greatly con-tributing to economic development and social cohesion inGuatemala City and beyond.

Prepared by UNESCO

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MYTH 2. Culture is an obstacle to development. If youemphasize heritage, traditions or the inclusion ofdisadvantaged people, economic development cannot beas fast as it should be. Economic development is thepriority, and all frameworks, resources and efforts shouldbe devoted to that. Culture is secondary to more importantpurposes.

COUNTER-NARRATIVE. Culture can either facilitate orobstruct development agendas. The role of culture forsustainable development depends on ensuring culturalrights for all: ensuring every woman, man and child canaccess, take part in, and contribute to cultural life.3

development only understood in economic terms isneither effective nor sustainable. Culture is the spherewhere ideas, behaviours and practices can be discussedand expressed in a pluralistic and democratic society,constituting crucial foundations for the humane, inclusive,holistic and long-term development of cities.

MYTH 3. The culture of a place is fixed and timeless.There are essential features in the identity of the city andin the behaviour of people at local level that cannot bequestioned. Local identities are inherited and changeless.

COUNTER-NARRATIVE. History clearly shows thatidentities of local communities change over time. Culturalpolicies, based on human rights, can be understood as anopportunity to jointly analyse the past, acknowledge thecomponents that have shaped it, and involve all citizensliving in a place to build new meanings together. Thehuman rights framework allows alternative ideas toemerge, flourish and be discussed. Culture belongs to allpeople that live in a place. Identities are always being built.Identity has ceased to be a predetermining factor in acommunity, but its construction has become a key factorin communal projects. It is important that this process ispluralistic and democratic.

MYTH 4. Culture is a luxury not everyone can afford. Atthe local level, there are other priorities: fresh water,decent jobs, adequate housing, education, etc. Culturecan only be considered once other more important socialneeds are addressed.

3 See: Shaheed, 2014

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Navala village (Fiji)© Don Mammoser/Shutterstock.com*

Saint-Louis (Senegal)Generating economic benefitthrough conservation efforts

With a history spanning over threecenturies, Saint-Louis’s typical houses,system of quays, street layout, river-bank, and Faidherbe Bridge contribute to the city’s uniqueidentity. The city was once the capital of Senegal and Mau-ritania and played a predominant cultural and economic rolethroughout West Africa. Since 2000, the Island of Saint-Louis(Senegal) has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritageproperty.

The local population has an enduring ambiguous relationshipwith the city’s colonial-built heritage, due to the absence ofendogenous cultural materials in the building constructionand its links to memories of a period of enslavement. Thegrowing importance of the economic role of heritage inSaint-Louis through tourism, however, has nurtured greateraffirmation of the heritage amongst the local populationwho increasingly attach importance to its value as an economicresource. Tourism has provided the prospect of establishinga proactive public policy that combines conservation, heritageenhancement, involvement of the local communities and in-come generation. The heritage challenge concerning theconservation and development of the heritage of Saint-Louisis intertwined with that of inclusive economic developmentand hinges on the optimal use of resources and develop-ment potential of the city's heritage sites. Capacity-buildinghas been an important part in the heritage conservationpolicy led by the State and municipality with the support oftechnical and financial partners to create a larger group oftechnicians capable of addressing conservation needs at theproperty. As part of the rehabilitation of the territorial as-sembly by the Walloon Region (2002-2008) a ‘field school’helped to reclassify over 30 workers and technicians in her-itage skills (lime, masonry, painting, roofing, carpentry, iron-work, treatment of termites, design and monitoring ofrestoration projects). A second initiative, implemented bythe Spanish Cooperation, trained almost 100 young peoplein heritage skills over a two-year period. As a result of theyouth rehabilitation programme, some young people havestarted businesses and others have found jobs in localbusinesses.

Source: Arterial Network, report for Study Area 1

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COUNTER-NARRATIVE. Unless culture is taken intoaccount explicitly as a key enabler, sustainable develop-ment will not take place. development interventions cansucceed or fail depending on how compatible theyare with local culture (UNESCO, 2012). According toMeyer-Bisch (2013), culture is the right to experienceknowledge, beauty and reciprocity, which cannot beregarded as something additional once every individual’sfundamental needs have been fulfilled. It is a core elementof human dignity, that which makes us human. Cultureincludes the circulation of knowledge, and therefore ofmeaning. It is located at the very base of the ecosystemiclinks between ecology, economics, politics and the socialfabric.

MYTH 5. Culture is something that should be left to themarket. Cultural goods and services are just commodities.Cities should only invest in cultural infrastructure andevents if there is an economic return (e.g., tourism, citybranding).

COUNTER-NARRATIVE. Culture must be recognized asa core element in local urban policies. Cities that seeculture solely as a commodity or a resource to attract

investments and boost branding are recognizing a limitedrange of cultural manifestations. Cultural vitality is anabsolute necessity to city life because it permeates allspheres of living and lies at the foundation of freedoms,the public exchange of ideas and societal well-being. Thesedimensions infuse meaningful sustainable development,which is experienced at local level and requires localspaces for public debate and decision-making.

CHALLENGES TO OPERATIONALIZINGCULTURE IN LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

Operational challenges derive from underlying conceptualuncertainties, as outlined above, from resistance faced inimplementing local cultural policies and plans, as well asfrom limited expertise in designing and implementingsuitable programmes. They are embedded in perspectivesand approaches of professional practices, as well as inorganizational cultures, bureaucratic processes andhistoric norms. Operationalization issues can becharacterized into four general categories:

1. Limitations due to legislative frameworks, targetedpolicies, bureaucratic silos and administrative reluctance:

• Legislative frameworks, cultural policies andprogrammes have traditionally been tailored to theneeds of particular sectors (e.g. performing arts, visualarts, music, heritage, literature, etc.). How can sector-specific approaches be reconciled with broad-based,intersectoral, people-centred cultural policies?

• Policies and programmes for ‘urban sustainability’are primarily about environmental issues and creatinga ‘greener’ city. How can urbanization and physicalplanning better integrate culture into urbansustainability policy frameworks and programmes?

• There is institutional reluctance on the part of‘twentieth-century’ sustainable development actors,guardians of the ‘three-pillar system’, to explicitlyincorporate cultural dimensions.

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The idea of sustainability, malleable to accommodateevolving perspectives has created a space in which differentstakeholders in the planning process are able to cometogether and develop a practical future vision (different fromthe status quo) that creatively combines vibrant, livablecommunities with a lighter footprint on the planet and adeeper connection to place and people.Timothy Beatley, University of Virginia (USA)

Through years of observing and studyingcities and historical urban landscapes,we realize that the intangible, social andproductive relationships formed throughthe passage of time are key to the cities’secrets and evolution. Economic andsocial relationships and the city’s functionsconstitute the mechanisms of their historicevolution and contemporary reality.

The urban space is a multidimensional,financial and social creation and, withinthe milieu of today’s complex and rapid-ly-changing realities, we need a multi-thematic and multidisciplinary approachin order to understand and interpret it.Corresponding claims exist in dealingwith current problems in the cities andtheir planning, mainly concerning therole of culture and urban heritage man-agement within the framework of sus-tainable development.

The goals, methods and tools to protecturban heritage must correspond to themore recent approaches of preservationand of sustainable development. Hu-mankind is now realizing that, apart fromthe three pillars of sustainable develop-ment (economy, society and environment),

culture must become its fourth pillar. Αmain condition for any intervention is tomaintain the tangible and intangiblevalues of historic cities and of their settings,not only on an urban but also a regionallevel. The integration of historic citiesand urban areas in the social, culturaland economic life of our era, social justiceand the residents’ quality of living mustalso be guaranteed.

Now, more than ever, cities and urbanareas encompass important factors whichcan contribute to the progress of humanityand guaranteeing the cities’ resilience.Multifaceted crises of recent years havebrought about new urban challenges,such as social problems, combined withcases of exclusion and misery for largegroups of people, and cases of delin-quency and violence. Within this context,the contradictions and the devaluationof cities and urban areas bring back thediscussion on the need to reorganizethe urban productive base. This shouldbe grounded on the quality of publicspace, the cultural and social identity oflocal societies, their culture and heritage,the need for large-scale cultural works,and the return of creativity.

A MULTIDIMENSIONAL VIEW OF HERITAGE AS A FACTOR OF SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENTSofia Avgerinou Kolonias National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.) (Greece), Presi-dent ICOMOS International Committee on Historic Towns and Villages (CIVVIH) and ICOMOSBoard Member

PERSPECTIVE 37

2. Complexity of the cultural sector and the culturalfeatures of communities:

• Misunderstandings of the word ‘culture’ and itsdifferent meanings or ambiguities: e.g. culture as wayof life and culture as art.

• The ‘complexity’ of the artistic world, with its greatdiversity of approaches and practices (often includingjargon-filled language), from the individual to thecollective, can produce a silo effect that is hostile topeople-centred cultural policies.

• Cultural diversity can be a source of social tensionwhen taken up by actors not fully committed toinclusive democracy.

3. Inadequacy of indicators, measurement and evalua-tion of progress and impacts:

• Culture cannot be measured and monitored likeother areas of sustainability since it has important non-quantifiable and invisible dimensions (UNESCO,2014). Yet some measurement or assessment criteriaare essential because cultural policies, like other publicpolicies, are subject to a democratic imperative oftransparency and effectiveness. How can monitoring

approaches focus on stages of improvement (qualita-tive criteria) rather than on quantitative criteria?

• How can culture’s contribution to strengthening andenriching local sustainability, resilience and holisticdevelopment be better evidenced?

4. Underlying issues of citizen participation, genderequality and enhancing inclusion:

• How can the democratic participation of citizens inthe formulation, exercise and evaluation of publicpolicies on culture be encouraged and stimulated?

• Are cultural policies and programmes sensitive toand promote gender equality? How can culturalpolicies be used to advance the empowerment ofwomen?

While challenges are still faced in each of these areas,practitioners are addressing intertwined issues andconcerns to advance professional practices, develop moreeffective tools and techniques, and improve performanceand outcomes of culture-sensitive urban planning anddevelopment.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR OPERATIONALIZINGCULTURE IN LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

There is a duality to the policy approaches that need to bedeveloped for culture. On the one hand, the importance ofworking in harmony with local culture and values is widelyacknowledged, leading to an array of local ‘transversal’experimentation to include culture in integratedapproaches for social inclusion or economic growth. Thekey transformations for local sustainable development inthe next decades will be located in the interrelation andintegration of civic domains, interlinking concerns such asheritage, housing, physical planning, inclusion, mobility,

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Seville (Spain)Strengthening interculturaldialogue and communityparticipation in urbanregeneration

Community participation lies at the centre of culture-basedregeneration strategies in the Andalusian capital of Seville(Spain). In 2010, the City of Seville implemented a 10-yearStrategic Plan with the aim of transforming the city into acreative node with a closely knit social fabric. The key objec-tives of the Plan are to promote Seville as a cultural hub, acrossroads between East and West, and a knowledge andeconomy-based city. As part of the Plan, the ‘Habitar Project2.0: Three cultures, a single neighbourhood’, works at regionallevel to promote local participation in the regeneration andrevitalization of vulnerable neighbourhoods throughout An-dalusia. The project involves the Andalusian neighbour-hoods of Polígono Sur (Seville), Almanjáyar (Granada), SanMartín de Porres (Cordoba), Saladillo and Piñera (Algeciras,Cadiz) and Chanca and Puche (Almeria), as well as the part-ner cities Tangier and Tetouan (Morocco), and is coordinatedby the Department of Development of the regional govern-ment of Andalusia with the support of the European Union.By placing inclusion and cultural diversity at the core of itsmission, the project seeks to enhance the sustainability andresilience of the neighbourhoods by nurturing dialogueamong communities and encouraging their participation inconservation and management processes.Source: IUAV, report for Study Area 3

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Large cities in the highly developed world are theplaces where globalization processes assume concrete,localized forms. These localized forms are, in good part,what globalization is about. We can then think of citiesalso as one key place where the contradictions of theinternationalization of capital either come to rest or toconflict. If we consider, further, that large citiesconcentrate a growing share of disadvantagedpopulations – immigrants in both Europe and the UnitedStates, African Americans and Latinos in the UnitedStates – then we can see that cities have become astrategic terrain for a whole series of conflicts andcontradictions.Saskia Sassen, sociologist

culture, nature, resilience and governance, ensuring fulland active community participation. In these approaches,the incorporation of cultural considerations will be key toensuring that the paradigm of sustainability is meaningfulto people, incorporating local histories and knowledge,resonating with local identities and truly building from theaspirations of local communities.

On the other hand, culture must also be addressed as adomain in its own right. Protecting cultural heritage(tangible and intangible), promoting creativity and

acknowledging cultural diversity require suitable policies,based on the relevant expertise. The distinctive featuresof cultural expressions, activities and a diversity ofperspectives must be appreciated and nurtured. Theplurality of cultures and cultural heritage must beconserved and safeguarded through more informed,intelligent and sensitive cultural policies. This requiresspecific investment in capacity-building, infrastructure,policy design, implementation and evaluation, andknowledge-sharing. All urban actors must be betterequipped to become effective advocates of culture as adimension of urban development. And cultural policiesmust be underpinned and supported by appropriategovernance frameworks, based on active participation. Itis vital for local governments to provide environmentsthat actively encourage public, democratic debate anddecision-making, where citizens can exercise their rights,expand their abilities, lead the present and decide on thefuture.

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POLICIES Integrating culture into urban policies to foster sustainable urban development

Kolomna (Russian Federation)Revitalizing the knowledgeand skills of traditionalpractices for localdevelopment

In Kolomna (Russian Federation), the recognition and revi-talization of pastila-making, a traditional fruit confectionery,has become a central component to strengthening culturalidentity and boosting the local economy. Kolomna pastilaproduction lay dormant for over a century until a recentstudy revealed that the manufacturing of the confectionarywas a well-established and integral part of the city’s culturallife in the eighteenth century.

The study catalysed efforts by the local community to rein-vigorate traditional pastila manufacturing techniquesthrough developing the skills of local artisans and thecultural institutions of the city. The non-profit partnership‘Museum City’ established a museum in 2009 and a pastilafactory museum in 2011, which raised awareness of thepractice amongst the community and wider public, and pro-moted sustainable tourism through local culture and prod-ucts. The revitalization of the practice has boosted jobcreation and has yielded benefits for the local economy, withtourism to the city increasing three-fold from 2008 to 2015.A renewed sense of community pride in the practice and itsplace-based significance has been nurtured, triggering com-munity interest to research and revitalize other cultural in-dustries to generate new development opportunities fortheir city.

Source: Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, report for Study Area 4

CASE STUDY 96

RUSSIANFEDERATION

UKRAINE

ESTONIA

LATVIALITHUANIA

BELARUS

Sustainable urban development must beimbued with a strong social conscienceand cultural richness; it must addresscultural heritage and diversity directly,not just implicitly. After all, cities areempty vessels if not filled with exchange,creative expression, cultural differenceand truly public space. How, then, canurban policy help provide for such culturalrichness as part of both heritage conser-vation and contemporary development?Decades hence, how will we look backat the urban heritage of the early twenty-first century? What aspects or qualitiesof cities are symptomatic of this era?

Massive urbanization, generic tendenciesof global urban development and theoverwhelming presence of tourism presentdeep threats to cultural sustainability.Positive stories include the resurgenceof public space as a catalyst for regener-ation and sites of protest; adaptive reuseof redundant infrastructure; vibrant artand cultural districts; valuing food culture;preservation of landmark buildings andlandscapes – these trends advance sus-tainability and enable urban policy inno-vations. They all fall under the umbrellaof ‘creative placemaking’.

What is creative placemaking and howdoes it contribute to this urban resur-gence? Creative placemaking (CP) is amode of urban intervention drawing onmany tools, traditions, scales and meth-ods. It is multivalent, multidisciplinaryand adaptive, consisting of a variablemenu of heritage conservation, ecologicalrestoration, artistic production and cul-tural programming, all shaped by broadparticipation and collaboration. It is afugitive concept in terms of policy andpractice – referring to many phenomena,yet none uniquely. It is deployed to re-verse decline and return human scale

and cultural richness to urbanism. Thesimple, profound goal of CP is increasedactivity.

Creative placemaking projects includerenovation and reactivation of old in-frastructure or leftover spaces; creationof new, formal public spaces (often onwaterfronts) that are programmed in-tensively; and ‘pop-up’ artworks, pro-grammes, events and pilots to test con-cepts. These projects invest heavily inpublic space and give art and culturesignificantly more visibility.

Creative placemaking draws critiques thatit relies on privatization and contributesto gentrification. Does it breed overde-pendence on the philanthropic sector?Do the ephemeral projects produce lastingimpact on communities?

There is great alignment, if not perfectoverlap, between CP and sustainable ur-ban development policies. CP takes ad-vantage of the most salient shifts inrecent urban policy: proliferation of pub-lic-private partnership models; influenceof citizen empowerment and participation;valuing marketable innovation as wellas measurable impact; and reliance onthe arts/culture sector as a driver of de-velopment.

It inhabits and enlivens an importantband on the spectrum of urban policiesand interventions by amplifying the con-tingency, flexibility and provisional natureof urbanism through public art, culturalexpression and participation. A broaderspectrum of policies, enabling moreforms of creative placemaking, begetsmore vibrant and culturally-rich urbanism.Surely this is one of the qualities wevalue most in making urban developmentmore sustainable.

CREATIVE PLACEMAKING AS URBAN POLICYRandall Mason University of Pennsylvania (United States of America)

PERSPECTIVE 38

CONCLUSION

The struggle for global sustainability is being played out incities, and local governments occupy a strategicallyimportant space. In the area of culture, the role of localgovernments includes: creating and activating spaces fordialogue and action; setting priorities and planning,designing, implementing and monitoring policies andprogrammes; developing infrastructure; and guaranteeingattention to the values of heritage, diversity and creativityin contexts where these may be neglected or threatened.Culture 21 Actions (the toolkit on ‘culture in sustainablecities’ promoted by United Cities and Local Governments)is an interesting framework for cities to elaborate a newgeneration of cultural policies (UCLG, 2015).

A new people-centred and planet-sensitive sustainabledevelopment agenda requires cities to adopt new culturalpolicies. They must be based on inclusive processes ofaccess, representation and participation of all citizens inculture. They must be people-centred, not sector-centred.We need to bring together all urban actors to worktowards operationalizing a new model of sustainableurban development that explicitly integrates culturewithin it. The arguments, expertise, examples and tools areincreasingly available; only stronger will and engagementare needed.

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Funchal, Madeira (Portugal)© T.W. van Urk/Shutterstock.com*

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