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Abstract
The relationship between cultural action and urban development has increasingly been analysed over the last two decades. Without dismissing the economic and urban renewal challenges supporting this dynamic, this article proposes to study another and yet decisive dimension of urban cultural action from the perspective of territorial development and management. It concerns a sensitive approach to urban development which values personal cognitive and emotional growth, individual emancipation and openness to the world through cultural and artistic practices. After presenting the changes in the paradigms of French local cultural action, the study focuses on various experiences undertaken in different urban areas (medium-sized cities and metropolis), showing a variety of strategies likely to foster this kind of urban development that goes beyond concerns for equipment and outreach. The vectors for such development, as well as the obstacles and resistance to change, are analysed, which helps understand why, although some evolutions are definitely present, they are still inconspicuous.
Notes
1 Referring here a common definition stating that the ultimate aim is the person and her/his personal fulfilment.
3 Inspections générales des finances et de la culture, L’apport de la culture à l’économie en France, Rapport, décembre 2013
4 It is no accident that the Agenda 21 for culture was drafted in Barcelona in 2004 by a network of local governments committed to the idea of culture as a cross-sectional field of development, involving the issues of citizenship, economic development and local governance.
5 The 2015 NOTRe law on territorial organisation (Article 103) and the 2016 law on Creation Architecture and Heritage (CAP) (Article 3)
6 La Gazette, “Les collectivités (re) découvrent les droits culturels (local authorities re-discover cultural rights)”, November 2017.
7 As exemplified by the very great number of Spanish and European publications these last twenty years.
8 Belgeo, “From urban renewal to metropolitan strategies ? Cultural flagship projects in restructuring industrial areas” (1-2014)
9 Interview 2013 – Toulouse Métropole, Municipal advisor
10 Interview 2018 – Toulouse Métropole, Administrative Officer
11 Interview 2018 – Toulouse Métropole, Elected representative
12 Interview 2013 – Albi, Cultural stakeholder
13 One of the nine French “Centre national de création musicale” (national centres for musical creation)
14 Interview 2018 – Toulouse Métropole, Administrative Officer
15 Interview 2014 – Tournefeuille, Administrative Officer
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mariette Sibertin-Blanc
Mariette Sibertin-Blanc is lecturer in Urban Planning, member of the UMR CNRS of LISST-Cieu and co-coordinator of the transversal team “Territorial differentiations and collective action”. Her research focuses on local cultural action and its articulation with the system of territorial development and governance. She regularly participates in the activities of the National Observatory of Cultural Policies. She is director of the Master “APTER” (Local Action and Territorial Projects) at the University of Toulouse 2.