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ABSTRACT
The article analyzes the process of economic recovery and spatial regeneration following the 2007–2008 financial crisis in the Republic of Ireland. Focusing in particular on the place of the creative and media industries within these top-down logics of planning, zoning, and property development, the article points to the strategic mobilization of ‘culture’ since the crisis for various forms of continuous financial and spatial exploitation. Using the popular visualization of the ‘ghost estate’ phenomenon as a starting point, differing logics and affects of ruin emerge within the fore- and en-closed futures of crisis within the built environment. Governing bodies like NAMA continue to manage the ‘recovery’ in a state of continuous exception, ensuring that the processes of foreign direct investment and urban regeneration continue unchecked as the country careens deeper into a housing shortage. The article proposes using the same materials put forth by the corporations and planning bodies of the ‘creative city’ to analyze a point of violence and contention where public goods and culture become mobilized strictly for private profit.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Ghost estates appeared in mass media and artworks like Lorcan Finnegan's 2012 short film Foxes and Valerie Anex’s Ghost Estates photography series (http://www.valerieanex.com/index.php/ghost-estates/).
2. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General defines semi-state bodies thus: ‘Semi State Agencies are state owned enterprises, that are technically commercially run, which are beneficially owned by the Irish Government. It should be noted that not all of the bodies are companies.’ Semi-state bodies in Ireland have a long history, often appear indistinguishable from their industry partners, and are uniquely positioned to attract FDI. They include planning bodies, development agencies, industry boosters, arts funding and policy organizations, and a variety of other state enterprises. See: https://www.audit.gov.ie/en/About-Us/WHO-WE-AUDIT/State-Bodies/.
3. See the following article and infographic: https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0104/931057-nama-2017-review/.
4. Details about these programs can be found here: https://creative.ireland.ie/en/about; https://merrionstreet.ie/en/News-Room/News/Investing_in_Our_Culture_Language_and_Heritage_2018_%E2%80%93_2027.html. See also Slattery (Citation2017).
5. Richard Florida’s (Citation2005) ‘creative class’ thesis argues that cities should attract ‘creatives,’ workers including anyone from financial traders to tech workers to practicing artists, which will regenerate neighborhoods and create a trickle-down effect for workers. However, after more than a decade of scholarly refutations and real-life examples of inflated property values and blue-collar displacement in cities, even Florida (Citation2013) himself has admitted the limitations of this approach. For sustained analysis of Dublin’s ‘creative city’ initiatives, see Lawton, Murphy, and Redmond (Citation2014).
6. These precipices, as sites of the negotiation of the common and its futures, are sites of ongoing struggle. From Jobstown, to the water protests, to mobilizations and occupations against the housing crisis in Dublin and elsewhere, the Irish populace appears far more progressive than the government has managed to respond to. The demonstrations occurring in Dublin and elsewhere are spatial attempts to reclaim common futures from the financial and state powers that seek to enclose them for profit.
7. This webpage has disappeared with the site re-vamp, but an article by Eamon McGrane (Citation2014) details these efforts, advertising improvements to the ‘bottom line.’
8. Information gathered from company background check websites: https://www.duedil.com/company/ie/510939/o-carroll-mulhern-services-limited; https://www.solocheck.ie/Irish-Company/Blackthorn-Studios-Limited-515616.
9. See: https://www.screenireland.ie/filming/irish-funding-agencies; https://www.screenireland.ie/filming/section-481.
10. From the same article: ‘There are three main reasons for choosing Ireland as a location for establishing SPVs. Firstly, Ireland has an extensive double tax treaty network which is constantly expanding. Secondly, as a member of the EU and OECD it is not considered to be an “offshore” jurisdiction. Thirdly, Irish tax legislation provides for special tax treatment in relation to qualifying SPVs’ (Houlihan et al. Citation2016).
11. Predictably, the government anounced plans to manage this crisis by creating the National Regeneration and Development Agency, an exceptional semi-state agency modeled after the Dublin Docklands Development Authority but implemented on a nation-wide basis. This agency will buy up both public and private lands to develop for housing (F Kelly Citation2018).
12. The venture still intends to develop elsewhere on the Poolbeg Peninsula, pending permission from the Dublin Port Company, in a professed attempt to mimic Montreal to develop film production and a ‘VFX and video games cluster’ (Slattery Citation2016). The ‘visionary’ project was endorsed by the Dublin City Council, despite planning hiccups (Irish Film Citation2017). The Port Company, on the other hand, has unveiled plans to become involved in the creative production on the peninsula. See http://www.businesstoarts.ie/portperspectives/.
13. The Glass Bottle Site in particular has inspired protests since at least 2016 organized by a local community group called the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group.See https://www.facebook.com/IGBhousing/.
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Patrick Brodie
Patrick Brodie is a PhD candidate in Film and Moving Image Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. His current project investigates Irish media industries, infrastructure, and built space in relation to financialization in the post-crisis environment. His work has appeared in Nordic Irish Studies Journal, Spectator, HARTS and Minds, Pause Button, and Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies. He is a member of the Global Emergent Media Lab at Concordia University.