Culture, Technology and the City

Presentation to Beijing Research Centre for Science of Science,

Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, 11 October 2012

Professor Terry Flew, Journalism, Media and Communications, Creative Industries Faculty,

Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia (t.flew@qut.edu.au)

21st Century: the Century of Cities

• No. of people living in cities exceeded those living outside for first time in human history in 2007

• 70% of world’s population will live in cities by 2030• Urban populations of developing world 4x larger than the

developed nations• World cities: centres of finance, industry, information,

logistics and creative industries

Cities and globalisation

• Historically– Cosmopolitan places with diverse populations– Cities exert considerable influence on the regions

surrounding them– Cities exist within a “global system of cities” – hubs in

global networks

• Rise of the Internet has not diminished the importance of cities – informational cities in global space of flows (Manuel Castells)

There appears little evidence to support the claim that cities are becoming less important in an economy marked by increasing geographical dispersal … [they] assert, one way or another, the powers of agglomeration, proximity, and density, now perhaps less significant for the production of mass manufactures than for the production of knowledge, information and innovation, as well as specialized inputs … in terms of the territorial base of the economy, there can be no question that the city remains the economic motor of postindustrial society (Amin, 2003: 120).

Social shaping of technology

• need to analyse ‘the socio-economic patterns embedded in both the content of technologies and the processes of innovation’ (Williams & Edge 1996).

• ‘Technological development is constrained by cultural norms originating in economics, ideology, religion, and tradition’ (Andrew Feenberg)

• ‘technologies are … processes that structure the world in particular ways … we should not see technology and the social as separate domains’ (David Sholle)

‘A technology such as the computer is a product of social processes from the beginning. The particular construction of knowledge in institutions of science and engineering, the economic interests of companies, the cultural patterns of consumption, the spatial arrangements of communities and nations, the political motives of government policies are inscribed into the technology from the very beginning’ (Sholle, 2002: 7).

Culture and Technology; three levels of engagement

Culture Technology

Common sense level

The arts Devices

Level of social practice

Everyday life Communication practices

Structural level Language and governing cultural norms

Ways of interpreting and acting upon the world

• Need to get past the “two cultures’ of the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS), and science, engineering, technology and maths (STEM) – C.P. Snow, “The Two Cultures” (1959)

Ways the arts can shape innovation

1. Cultural innovation

2. Rich skills development

3. Creation of new knowledge

4. Commercial returns

5. Creative industries

6. Innovation within institutions and organisations – innovation systems

Culture and cultural studies

• “Culture is the description of a particular way of life, which expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behavior … Such analysis will … include analysis of elements in the way of life that to followers of the other definitions are not ‘culture’ at all; the organization of production, the structure of the family, the structure of institutions which express or govern social relationships, the characteristic forms through which members of the society communicate” (Raymond Williams, The long Revolution, 1965: 57–58).

Structures of culture

Time Event Technological development

Cultural/communications practice

18th-20th centuries Mass literacy (reading and writing)

Print media Books, newspapers, magazines

20th century (esp. 1950-2000)

Common global media events

Broadcasting Radio and television – one-to-many communication

21st century Global communities of content creators/distributors – highly decentralised

Internet and digital media convergence

Multiliteracies – one-to-one to many-to-many communication

Cities and creative industries

• ‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ infrastructure• Localisation economics (clustering)• Urbanisation economics (diversity)• Global city economics (continuous innovation)Type of city Form of

competitive advantage

Type of innovation Sustainability over time

Industrial city Localisation/clustering

Incremental innovation

Vulnerable to global demand shifts (low)

Large urban centre Density/diversity Product innovation Vulnerable to poor governance (middle)

Global city Centre of global decision-making

Radical product innovation

May become “dual cities” (high)

New York as a global creative city

Economists often talk of the agglomeration of labour pools, firms, suppliers, and resources as producing an ensuing social environment where those involved in these different sectors engage each other in informal ways … But this informal social life that economists often hail as a successful by-product (what they call a positive spillover or externality) of an economic cluster is actually the central force, the raison d’être, for art and culture.

The cultural economy is most efficient in the informal social realm and social dynamics underlie the economic system of cultural production. Creativity would not exist as successfully or efficiently without its social world –- the social is not the by-product –- it is the decisive mechanism by which cultural products and cultural producers are generated, evaluated and sent to the market (Elizabeth Currid, The Warhol Economy, 2007: 4 – emphasis added).

Social network markets

• High consumer productivity• Fast flows of information and new knowledge• Population diversity• High levels of skills and education• Willingness to adapt to change and adopt new ideas• ‘Because of inherent novelty and uncertainty, decisions

both to produce and to consume are determined by the choice of others in a social network’ (Potts et. al., 2008: 169).

Social network markets in the creative industries

• “The CIs rely, to a greater extent than other socio-economic activity, on word of mouth, taste, cultures, and popularity, such that individual choices are dominated by information feedback over social networks rather than innate preferences and price signals … other people’s preferences have commodity status over a social network because novelty by definition carries uncertainty and other people’s choices, therefore, carry information”

Potts et. al., 2008: 170.

Urban Policy and Innovation

• Untraded interdependencies (Michael Storper): conventions, informal rules, and habits that coordinate economic actors under conditions of uncertainty – region-specific assets

• Soft infrastructure (Charles Landry) : associative structures and social networks, connections and human interactions that link individuals and institutions

• Features of successful creative clusters (DePropris and Hypponen): ‘geographical proximity, face-to-face collaborations, co-location of specialized activities, low transaction costs, thick networks of social business activities, high levels of competence and specialization, innovation, and pools of skilled labour’.

Problems with cluster theories

• Too many clusters• Top-down approach• Generic solutions• Risks of ‘groupthink’• Need for external catalyst of consumer demand• Local or global markets?• Too producer-driven?

Creative Cities

The concept of a ‘creative city’ describes an urban complex where cultural activities of various sorts are an integral component of the city’s economic and social functioning. Such cities tend to be built upon a strong social and cultural infrastructure; to have relatively high concentrations of creative employment; and to be attractive to inward investment because of their well-established arts and cultural facilities (Throsby, 2010: 139).

At its best … a creative city strategy will pay attention to cultural infrastructure, local cultural participation and involvement, the development of a flourishing and dynamic creative arts sector, community-oriented heritage conservation, and support for wider creative industries that are fully integrated into the local economy (Throsby, 2010: 140).

Problems with creative cities models

• Generic urban cultural policy• Are the beneficiaries artists or urban professionals?• Amenities-based growth models ignore global economic

dynamics• Prosperity of cities drives provision of urban amenities,

not vice versa• Creative cities often socially divided cities

CREATIVE CLUSTERS

(PRODUCTION-BASED)

Bringing together creative clusters and creative cities approaches

CREATIVE CITIES

(CONSUMPTION-BASED)

Social network markets