Marseille European Captial of Culture Ins and Offs: A case for rethinking the effects large-scale cultural initiatives (original) (raw)

Marseille, European Capital of Culture 2013 Ins and Offs: A case for rethinking the effects of large- scale cultural initiatives

Recent studies on urban change have emphasised the importance of culturally driven initiatives in the development of economic and social change. Concerns, however, have been raised in popular urban studies discourse that these strategies prioritise the economy and tourism over and above the needs of local residents and lead to the redefinition, and even the eradication, of local cultures. This paper looks at the case of the French city of Marseille as host of the European Capital of Culture programme in 2013. It analyses some of the cultural practices that arise at the intersection of a transnational cultural programme and localised cultural acts, and documents how some of Marseille's residents have responded to the European cultural event through cultural performances that address and highlight community concerns. Creative initiatives and urban renewal: Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013 In 2008, the city of Marseille in the south of France won the bid to host the 2013 European Capital of Culture programme (ECOC). One of the driving forces of Marseille's objective in the context of the European Union-led Capital of Culture programme was the focus on bringing creativity into the practice and policies of urban change. France's poorest city would now have the chance to generate culture over 12 months, in the form of creative performances and art, while attempting to induce high levels of economic growth through tourism and urban regeneration. In the lead-up to

European Capital of Culture as regional development tool? The case of Marseilles-Provence 2013

2011

In 2013 Marseilles held the title European Capital of Culture (ECOC). Like many other ECOCs, a key objective promoted by urban leaders was to use this initiative to bolster efforts to stimulate economic growth and create a wider urban region in order to better respond to the transforming global political economy. Yet, while similarities are apparent within the restructuring processes in cities and regions across Europe, this process happens differently in different cities at different times. Written two years before Marseilles' ECOC year, and drawing on fieldwork and interviews, this paper examines how a multi-level cultural policy initiative was seen and responded to by local actors in one European city region.

European Capitals Of Culture And Everyday Cultural Diversity: A Comparison of Liverpool (UK) and Marseilles (France)

2013

This monograph is the fruit of an attempt develop an analytical framework to compare everyday cultural diversity in two multi-ethnic urban neighbourhoods in France and the United Kingdom. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the European Capital of Culture programme was used as an analytical entry point to explore: 1) the local, national and European cultural policy contexts and their interaction with urban restructuring; 2) policy implementation at the local level; and 3) the ways in which the lives and practices of ‘ordinary people’ and cultural actors are affected by cultural policy implementation. The research explored whether actual understandings and implementation of the European Capital of Culture programme are alike in the two cities, places with similar histories, facing comparable social and economic challenges yet situated in different national policy contexts. This study draws out the ways in which European, national and city-level debates on the norms, principles and pol...

The most cosmopolitan European city: situating narratives and practices of cultural and social relations in Marseille

Identities, 2019

Marseille's identity as a cosmopolitan place was a key element in the city's application to be European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in 2013, where the city was represented as 'the most cosmopolitan' in Europe. The language of cosmopolitanism enabled city leaders to align Marseille with 'European' values of cultural diversity and to highlight the city as a place of diverse cultural production. Such claims have incited interest in a country where cultural and ethnic differences are often considered a challenge to the ideals of French Republicanism. Narratives of social and cultural relations in Marseille are in fact highly variable. This article uses a neighbourhood arts project as a case study through which to explore and situate understandings, representations and experiences of cultural and social relations in the city.

Re-inventing the centre-periphery relation by the European capitals of culture: case-studies; Marseille-Provence 2013 and Pecs 2010

Eurolimes, 2015

The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) Program was initiated in mid 80's, as a modality to promote the richness and diversity of European cultures. It soon became evident that the Program's impact went beyond the cultural and political aspects and that the designation was a marketing opportunity for cities to improve image on a national and European scale, a regeneration tool in itself. ECoC is today about cities reinventing their identities, re-narrating their history in a European context. The peripheral position, the unwanted heritage of the cities' past, soon became elements to be exploited and re-invented. The study is focused on two border cities that won the ECoC title and their ability to use the title as a regenerative tool, in order to foster their European identity, to favourably reorient their geography and to reposition themselves on Europe's map: Marseille-Provence 2013 (a Western Europe big city/region with an ex-colonial past and a peripheral position complex) and Pecs 2010 (a small Eastern peripheral city with a communist past). Applying qualitative content analysis on three types of documents: Application (Bid) books, official web pages and ex-post European Commission's evaluations, the article intends to identify the narratives used by these border cities to comply with the European dimension of the ECoC project.

Promoting Europe through ‘Unity in Diversity’: Avignon as European Capital of Culture in 2000

Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, 2010

This article examines the reception of European Union cultural policy through Avignon's experience as European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in 2000, focusing specifically on the EU objective of achieving "Unity in Diversity" through culture. Some recent studies argue that ECOC projects have served as media for conceptions of culture that are less essentialist and more centered on transformation and bordercrossing than those promoted by national and regional cultural policies of the past. Assuming that one of the primary obstacles to overcoming social divisions in urban centers is the alienation of the residents of low-income, peripheral neighborhoods, this article focuses particular attention on a website created to promote Gypsy heritage. Consideration of this case underscores the uneasy balance struck between the goal of redefining cities as attractive to potential tourists and residents and the goal of overcoming the "democratic deficit" affecting disadvantaged urban populations. The case of Avignon highlights obstacles within cities to the broad diffusion and acceptance of more cosmopolitan models of European culture centered on dialogue and exchange.

(Re)Programming Europe. European Capitals of Culture: Rethinking the Role of Culture.

In: Journal for European Studies, 2014

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) programme in 2010 as a success story for the cities and member states involved, the European Commission also registered a ‘lack of Europe’ in the programme. This is reflected in the scholarly literature, which has largely focused on the title’s effects on individual cities rather than on its effects on Europe. The startingpoint of this article is the demand of the European Commission for a stricter implementation of new guidelines developed since 2006 for enhancing the European dimension. After situating the history of the event and its idea of ‘unity in diversity’ within the wider context of thoughts on Europe as an ‘imagined community’, this article investigates how Europe is presented in earlier and more recent ECoC bidbooks and programmes. We argue that an observed slight shift in the programme’s content, from a competition-based marketing of local identity towards a more universal value discourse, could be read as a first step towards (re)formulating the European dimension. We suggest that this emerging value paradigm also illustrates how such cultural programmes as a kind of laboratory could contribute to a conceptual reflection on (and beyond) Europe.

Cultural mega-events in heritage-rich cities: Insights from the European Capital of Culture and broader policy perspectives

CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios, 2021

The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) is a well-known and long-standing European policy that annually awards the title of Capital to two or more cities that deliver cultural initiatives throughout one year of celebrations. The programme has been hosted by over 60 cities throughout Europe during the last 35 years. Some host cities have used the ECoC to develop large projects that contribute to urban rebranding and regeneration (e.g. the facilities on the new waterfront of Marseille, made for the 2013 ECoC) and, more frequently, projects that adapt existing facilities and places, or smaller scale and less spectacular interventions in the city fabric. As a wide variety of differing cities have hosted the event, the ECoC has contributed to urban transformations at different scales, often with particular reference to historic and heritage-rich settings, but also brings about long-term effects in terms of cultural facilities and venues, tourism appeal and even the intangible heritage narratives attached to places. Drawing on the HOMEE Research Project and on recent publications by the authors, this paper discusses the range of large-to-small-scale planning, the (re)generation of cultural facilities and places in historic cities and heritagerich areas to accommodate cultural mega-events and the effects they have on host cities over time. In the conclusions, the paper expands beyond the ECoC (in the direction of sport mega-events) to consider and highlight forthcoming challenges for urban policy-making and the planning of mega-events in Europe. 3

Comparing the Cultures of Cities in Two European Capitals of Culture

In the face of the major political and economic shifts in the governance of cities since the 1970s, urban leaders around the world have increasingly attempted to promote cities as 'cultural places'. This paper represents an attempt to theorise how this urban ‘cultural turn’ materialises differently, affecting understandings, representations and experiences of the city. Ethnographic fieldwork carried out with urban elites, cultural workers and urban dwellers in two European cities (Liverpool and Marseilles), is used within a comparative framework to illustrate how the similar-but- different positions of these two cities within hierarchies of political, economic, social and cultural power affects representations and organisation of ‘culture’. This comparative approach highlights general trends and specific variations in how contemporary processes of urban transformation affect understandings and experiences of place making, social difference and who and what is considered of cultural value.