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ABSTRACT
The following is a cultural anatomy of the city of Galway in the west of Ireland. The paper traces the evolution of the cultural profile of the city over the past four decades. It places the city’s recent success regarding international accolades in the context of the creative city script. This work sets out to explore how the city, once famed for its cultural producers, has evolved into a site for cultural consumption; an evolution of a city of culture making to culture taking. Reference is also made to how local government has branded the city as a creative one by targeting cultural designations (such as UNESCO Creative City; European Capital of Culture). The purpose of the paper is to situate Galway’s cultural anatomy in the broader context of neoliberal urbanism, one that takes culture as ancillary amenity to attract tourists and investors. The paper finishes by positing a future path for a sustainable development for the creative/cultural sector and the city more broadly.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
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Notes on contributors
Patrick Collins
Patrick Collins is an economic geographer at NUI Galway. He has published in the areas of global and local development, concentrating on the global production networks and international investment patterns of large technology companies. More recently, Patrick has concerned himself with the development of the Creative Economy in Ireland and Europe with a focus on creativity in peripheral regions. Pat has contributed directly to a number of recent international designation bestowed on Galway including European Capital of Culture 2020 and UNESCO City of Film.