1,721,110 research outputs found
Il territorio dei beni culturali. Interpretazioni strategiche del processo di privatizzazione dei beni e delle attività culturali in Italia
No full textIntroduction: Crisis and Renewal of Contemporary Planning
No full textSince 2008, cities in the Western world have been under stress due to pressures that have been labelled as the 'crisis' and its 'consequences'. Despite the fact that several years have passed, international planning debates have not fully highlighted what we have learned from this challenging phase. How and to what extent have these stresses and changes affected planning activities and knowledge? How are current reforms of national and local planning systems influenced by the crisis beyond its discursive appearance? How can we cultivate critical approaches and how can we pragmatically translate critical knowledge into practice during and after a time of crisis? This article outlines the broad questions that were addressed, under different perspectives, by the authors in the theme issue. The article serves as an introduction by, first, briefly reviewing relevant positions in the planning and urban studies debates and explaining the relationships between urban planning and the crisis; second, by presenting the papers in the issue and highlighting planners’ roles, responsibilities and relevance in the crisis and in subsequent phases; and third, by calling for closer attention to the current signals of crisis in planning theory and practice, as well as by considering new responses derived from research
Bilbao Effects and Narrative DefectsA Critical Reappraisal of an Urban Rhetoric
No full textWorking paper, Cahiers de recherche du Programme Villes & Territoires, Paris, Sciences Po
The realization of the Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is probably one of the most recurrent success stories regarding the role of contemporary architecture in promoting urban regeneration, economic development and city branding. In the last fifteen years it has been referred to as a model for regeneration by many authors and, more importantly, it is still an ubiquitous narrative among urban decision makers. This paper analyses the most diffused and simplistic representations of this story. Secondly, it contextualizes the realization of the museum in the broader process of transformation of the city, explicating public and private investment mechanisms in urban regeneration. Thirdly it deconstructs this narrative showing the inconsistencies between the narration and actual processes of urban regeneration and local development. The reconsideration of this narrative regarding spectacular architecture leads one to notice that representing architectural aesthetics and cultural facilities as a determinant factor in regeneration does not respond to actual urban processes (in terms of actors’ motivation, public relevance and desirability of the effects), but, nonetheless, it has been the means for diffusing beliefs and behaviors among decision makers providing certain types of actor with apparently favorable conditions and inducing potential perverse and paradoxical urban effects
Understanding cultural diversity policy making by exploring its tools at the urban level
Full text linkCities are important grounds for cultural diversity, both in terms
of perception and impact of diversity, and in terms of political and cultural reproduction. Nonetheless comparative studies with an urban focus are limited, partly due to methodological difficulties. The paper proposes to explore a policy tool approach in order to detect and compare given characteristics of cultural diversity policymaking at the urban level and to compare them internationally.
Drawing on relevant examples of grant use to support cultural diversity
in four European and American cities, the paper discusses how cultural
diversity policy is conceived and fosters public action in the urban environment according to the policy tool adopted. This concept allows the technical and political dimensions of cultural diversity policy to be analysed and compared, and requires further attention both in the academic and policy debate
Localized commons in competing global cities: thinking over spectacularization of contemporary architecture and the urban landscape.
No full textIn recent years, cities have been using aesthetically striking urban interventions and giving birth to a sort of contemporary architectural collecting, in which the artistic quality and the media visibility of the pieces of architecture are not for their own sake, but they are interpreted as immaterial competitive factors. Spectacular architectural and urban projects have been intended as global banner for footloose investment, for localizing multinational headquarters, to attract international art-and-entertainment tourism. More recently the design of striving urban environment and workplaces was interpreted as a mean to attract and retain the creative class. The spectacularization of contemporary architecture and the disneyfication of urban space have sometimes not been addressing nor been experienced by local residents or low income users.
Despite the fact that these forms of collecting are indeed changing several cities, the global ones in particular, the attention to the decision making mechanisms and the rationalities implied in such processes is limited in the debate. The paper discusses most diffused global cities’ rationales (the city as a growth machine or as an entertainment machine; entrepreneurial cities; the Bilbao effect; star architects acting as artists; etc) and it observes a set of urban development processes involving spectacular architectures and star architects and their effects in Abu Dhabi, Paris and New York.
The unique local institutional and economic conditions allowed Abu Dhabi to deploy most of the rationales of the spectacularization of contemporary architecture and of instant urban development. However, the overall impact of the actual urban projects are critical not only in terms of equality and social justice, but also in the induction of the expected development effects.
In Paris, the main customer of contemporary signature architecture is the public sector, aiming at interpreting social interests and groups, and at granting proper architectural quality to represent the capital city and the nation. In the global economy, Paris is competitive in services and culture and recently realized important projects, but also made use of star architects for urban policies that were merely symbolical . Currently, the private and nonprofit sectors timidly start to use star architects.
Although publicly justified by economic competitiveness rhetoric, in New York City this architecture has been used by actors with different goals. Of course local authorities promoted the city’s image by incentivizing the presence of internationally renowned architects and promoting specific projects, but they are not the sole agents in urban development. Corporations want to distinguish their public image and to have competitive workplaces, especially in the creative and knowledge economy. Cultural institutions make fundraising more appealing and promotion easier through branding. Private developers enhance upscale property value.
The use of contemporary architecture as a competitive factor is criticized here and re-interpreted in terms of the composition of localized common goods and extended to similar policy fields concerning landscape, monuments, public art, land art and the like
Valorizzazione dei beni culturali e strategie di sviluppo locale: verso un approccio progettuale e territoriale
No full textNegli ultimi vent’anni il tema della valorizzazione degli immobili pubblici ha avuto un particolare rilievo nel dibattito italiano. Dalla fine degli Anni 2000, gli interventi pubblici avviati per rendere più efficiente la gestione dell’immenso patrimonio pubblico e generare entrate per le casse dello Stato sono stati accoppiati ad obiettivi di sviluppo economico locale. Le spiegazioni dei risultati insoddisfacenti finora ottenuti possono essere molteplici, ma due sembrano particolarmente rilevanti. In primo luogo, in questi anni un numero considerevole di strumenti di intervento si è stratificato senza attenzione alle incongruenze e incompatibilità tra essi; secondo, in Italia non è cresciuto un vero e proprio mercato di sviluppo e gestione immobiliare dei portafogli pubblici. In questo contesto, il capitolo evidenzia che tanto un approccio manageriale alla gestione degli immobili pubblici quanto un approccio nomo-dipendente (cioè che immagina che un ulteriore nuovo strumento di governo possa risolvere il problema) sembrano inappropriati. Anche sulla base di esempi concreti di programmi e progetti di valorizzazione di immobili con valore culturale nel Nord come nel Sud Italia, questo capitolo propone di considerare sei ragioni per cui sembra preferibile sperimentare un approccio progettuale e territoriale in pochi contesti selezionati. In questo modo si potrebbe infatti valutare criticamente le esperienze in corso per incrementare a scala locale l’efficacia degli interventi successivi e per comprenderne meglio il significato e gli effetti potenziali a scala nazionale. Pur concentrandosi sulla valorizzazione dei beni culturali, auspico che questi argomenti contribuiscano al dibattito relativo a un più ampio insieme di immobili e aree di intervento pubblico
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