Assessing a place in cultural planning: A framework for American local governments

Abstract

In the last 30 years, numerous studies have sought to define cultural planning. A common theme that emerges is the emphasis on the need to create a planning process for “placemaking” purposes. However, the definition of what a place is remains vague. Using administrative boundaries, this study draws a framework that formulates an operational definition of place that helps to connect spaces to empirical data about their cultural resources and residents. The focus on administrative boundaries is particularly relevant to understand American cities whose territories have a tangled morphology. Using Geographical Information System, this framework is then applied to assess the current situation in Madison, Wisconsin. The results suggest that the use of this framework could help policy makers to assess the texture of their territory in its administrative, cultural and social dimensions.

Keywords:

• cultural planning
• placemaking
• Geographical Information System
• cities
• local authorities

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Trudi MIller and Amod Damle for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Special thanks to Corinna Neebs for her work with GIS. Finally, many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions.

Notes

A review of the several definitions is beyond the scope of this article. However, in a previous study (Redaelli, 2008), I conducted a broad literature review merging the domains of the cultural industries and arts organisations that offered the underlying framework for the suggested working definition.

In the 2000 US Census, race and ethnicity were considered separately. The categories for race were: White, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, two or more races. On the other hand, the categories for ethnicity were Hispanic or Latino and Non-Hispanic or Latino. In this study, I look at the data about race.

For a description of the situation about the data sources available for conducting research about arts organisations in the United States, see Kaple, Morris, Rivkin-Fish and DiMaggio (1996) and Kaple (2002).

In Wisconsin, as defined by the US Census, the term “municipality” applies to cities and villages. Towns are categorised under “township”. However, in this study, cities, villages and towns are all considered municipalities or suburbs.