A Smooth Ride? From Industrial to Creative Urbanism in Oshawa,Ontario

In mainstream media, policy circles and academic scholarship, economic discourses have highlighted the importance of knowledge, creativity and innovation for generating economic growth. This has been translated into an urban planning and policy agenda which favours the establishment of research parks, innovation clusters, and especially universities along with amenities to attract creative‐class workers. In much of this literature universities are invested with an almost magical power to spur economic growth, and the benign language of ‘transition’ is used suggesting a rather seamless progression from one urban economic engine to another. Through analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews related to the establishment of a new university in Oshawa, Ontario, this case study seeks to challenge the straightforward relationship that is assumed to exist between universities and local economic development. Like other lagging regions across the OECD attempting to repair their economies through creative and knowledge urbanism, Oshawa's recent achievements are tempered by growing concerns about poverty, homelessness and inequality. Planners and policymakers that mistake the complexities of economic restructuring for a smooth ‘urban transition’ put their cities and citizens at risk of creating new problems out of efforts to improve local conditions.     

文化政策主导下的创意城市建设

探讨了城市文化和创意城市的内涵,从创意产业、文化氛围、城市营销三个方面讨论了文化政策在建设创意城市中的作用,最后指出了在实践中运用文化政策应注意的问题.     

宋庄原创艺术集聚区发展方略

宋庄原创艺术集聚区是具有重要国际影响的中国文化创意产业集聚区.影响集聚区生存和发展的主要因素是地缘规划的协调性、租金价格的稳定性、原创环境的适宜性、艺术市场的规范性和文化经济政策的宽容程度.集聚区的规划和建设,须遵循拾掇、整合、更新和节约原则,尊重文化多样性,保护文化原生态,正确处理"五个关系".宋庄原创艺术集聚区的产生是一个市场自组织的过程,文化经济政策的制定应坚持有限理性原则.要引导适度优先发展文化创意产业,提高动员、吸引和留住艺术家的能力,健全和完善集聚区公共服务平台,使宋庄成为中国文化经济特区.     

The Limits to Artist‐Led Regeneration: Creative Brownfields in the Cities of High Culture

Despite the burgeoning literature on creative cities, seldom explored is the context of cities rich in cultural capital but more orthodox in their approach to preserving the autonomy of culture. This article discusses the status of artistic spaces occupying abandoned industrial premises (‘creative brownfields') in historic cities that traditionally shape their policies around prestigious cultural institutions (‘cities of high culture'). Based on comparative insights from St Petersburg and Lausanne, the article explores the relations and tensions between mainstream cultural governance and creative brownfields. While there is no lack of creative brownfields in these cities, their wider urban impact is found to be marginal; moreover, these sites represent dispersed instances of temporary occupations rather than situated clusters of creative actors. More than coincidental, this (lack of) spatialization is argued to result from a particular governmentality—that of high culture—which disregards, rather than promotes, spaces of alternative cultural governance. The article conceptualizes creative brownfields in cities of high culture as the ‘soft infrastructure' of cultural production, in contrast with those in ‘creative cities' as the ‘hard infrastructure' of urban production. The article also calls for a recognition of the local context of regulation and accumulation in understanding the cultural/urban interplay.     

封闭社区的形成机理与社会空间效应

在阐述中国封闭社区的兴起背景及其特征的基础上,重点分析了中国封闭社区产生的社会文化机理,并就中国封闭社区成为城市主导居住模式后,产生的城市公共空间私有化倾向、居住隔离与社会排斥加剧等社会空间问题进行探讨。认为封闭社区是中国社会转型期的必然产物,但这种居住模式的固有弊端严重影响着社会和谐,政府和规划者应该采取相应规划手段减少封闭社区带来的负面效应。     

创新型城市的文化识别研究

所谓"创新型城市",意味着城市在发展中产生出区别于自身历史的新质和区别于一般城市的特质;创新型城市必须具备独有的文化识别体系。城市文化是创新型城市建设的最广泛的基础。创新型城市的文化识别是城市文化主体自觉追求和活动的客观结果,创新型城市需要明确定位、全面展开,才有可能逐步实现。     

Avoiding the ‘SoHo Effect’ in Baltimore: Neighborhood Revitalization and Arts and Entertainment Districts

This article investigates how state‐sponsored ‘arts and cultural districts' and ‘creative placemaking' revitalization strategies affect urban neighborhoods, using the Station North Arts & Entertainment (A&E) District in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) as a case study. Through ethnographic participatory methods and 39 qualitative interviews, we studied the activities and attitudes of various stakeholders within Station North. Since its designation as an arts and entertainment district in 2002, a number of public–private partnerships have helped increase home values in Station North, suggesting that the ‘branding' of Station North has been successful. While the institutions involved in the district, including community development corporations and local universities, are careful to insist that they do not want to displace low‐income residents, many interviewees expressed concerns that these institutions exert influence outweighing that of longtime residents. While a certain level of gentrification has occurred with the arrival of new residents, we argue that the people who are most likely to be displaced from the arts and entertainment district in the future are, paradoxically, artists, especially those who wish to buy homes and settle in the district. After discussing the case of Station North, we consider broader implications of the use of arts for urban revitalization.