Cultural capitals revaluing the arts, remaking urban spaces

The belief that the arts have the potential to transform a city’s image and urban landscape is a notion that will not fall out of favour any time soon with local city governments. The latest indications seem to point to a general consensus that the arts can make a valuable contribution to a city’s re-invention. One only has to look at the number of cities aspiring to become the next European Capital of Culture or the various incarnations of these competitions: the latest being represented by the UK City of Culture competition. Louise C. Johnson’s book Cultural Capitals Revaluing the Arts, Remaking Urban Spaces is a study that highlights the positive aspects of this trend, where she provides an “optimistic assessment” on how the arts can (1) activate individuals (as in the case of the formation of community arts groups campaigning for greater representation in cultural initiatives), (2) rebuild communities, (3) enliven the polity, (4) aid the physical regeneration of derelict spaces and (5) re-orient economies (p. 3). Johnson argues that while the arts agenda has increasingly become instrumental by addressing economic and social issues, this very same instrumentalism has also allowed the arts to “embrace individual quests for expression of self or place, personal or social healing, community building and urban imagining” (p. 239). Johnson is primarily interested in what she describes as “second order cities”, which she defines as cities that have experienced economic and/or social decline and are now looking towards the arts to boost their economies and transform their societies. Her book provides case studies of her four chosen cities of Glasgow, Bilbao, Singapore and Geelong, the second city of Victoria, Australia. She provides a historical background on each city and highlights how these cities are using the arts to transform themselves through the adoption of various types of cultural strategies. Through her investigation, Johnson is also interested in exploring the “social, cultural, political and economic sustainability” (p. 7) of these cities via their arts and cultural initiatives. Here she draws upon ideas offered by David Throsby and states that an arts agenda that is sustainable should ensure an equal distribution of economic and social benefits as well as limit any adverse impact on a city’s landscape or resources. At the end of each chapter, and in the conclusion, Johnson offers her opinion on the long-term sustainability on each city’s quest to become a Capital of Culture. Johnson’s book is clearly written and she has done extensive research, both primary and secondary, on the cities looked at in the book. In particular, her attention to the historical formation of the cities in her case study chapters provide a useful way of understanding how and why each city has adopted its own particular approach in its cultural strategy. As Johnson points out, although all her selected cities have experienced the effects of colonialism, each city has chosen to deal with the impacts of their colonial history in different ways. For example, one of the key impacts of Singapore’s colonial past was the formation of distinct cultural quarters such as Chinatown and Little India within Singapore’s urban landscape. A key cultural initiative now is the conservation and redevelopment of these quarters to preserve the city’s cultural heritage and serve the growing tourist market. Johnson’s examination of the political and social processes involved in