The ‘creative township’ in the post-apartheid: globalisation, nation building or gentrification?

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the ambiguities of post-Apartheid public cultural policies in South Africa by focusing on the case of the Red Location Museum and Cultural precinct (RLMCP), a multisectoral project for socio-economic development, based on tourism, art, culture, heritagisation and urban regeneration, implemented in Red Location, one of the oldest townships of Port Elizabeth. In the post-Apartheid period, cultural policies have been employed as catch-all policies that could lead to urban renewal, desegregation and development. The case of the RLMCP drives home how efforts to use art and culture as leverages to transform townships into the core of the creative city and into the prototype of a new form of neighbourhood led to exclusionary representations and patterns; moreover, it is an example of how cultural policies enforce gentrification dynamics at the local level, in the name of restructuring urban governance and rescaling the city to the global dimension.

KEYWORDS:

• Culture-led project
• development
• gentrification
• creative economy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The findings outlined in this paper are the outcome of a period of research fieldwork that I conducted in Red Location in 2014–2015.

2. Former museum staff members interviewed by MM, 12/03/2015 and 16/03/2015.

3. The space where the RLMCP is built is often described as a previously empty space. In this way it is de-historicised; the past is devalued in relation to an enriching and empowering present.

4. The complex housing problem in Red Location last from many years and it is a highly contentious topic. For a more detailed account see Montanini (2017a, 2017b).

5. Former museum staff members interviewed by MM, 12/03/2015 and 16/03/2015. The issues of memory and history commodification in the RLMCP have been at the centre of many claims and debates. In this paper, I referred to the main reasons of contention. For a more detailed account see Montanini (2017a), Roux (2015), Smith (2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marta Montanini

Marta Montanini is research fellow at the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society of the University of Turin and internal consultant for ITCILO. She owns a PhD in Social and Political Change, obtained at the University of Turin. In the framework of the EUSA_ID program, she has been visiting fellow at the NMU (Nelson Mandela University) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Her research interests focus on urban studies, development theories, everyday politics, the politics of memory and postcolonial studies.