What makes a livable city? by |Global Citizens|
We are a three-member team of Cultural Management students, interested in Athens’ regeneration through culture and co-creation. Within the context of the workshop Athens’ Co-Creation City Branding Project, hosted by Betty Tsakarestou we took a journey around the world to explore initiatives, campaigns and cases that apply to vibrant cities and have a message to communicate to the world.
*Global citizens a.k.a. Eva Anagnostaki, Ourania Mavriki & Anastasia Rizou
We might have already become out of date as traditional cultural managers that exert their managerial skills in the cultural context, but we have come back as global citizens and it feels pretty good! Lately, it is widely discussed that the cultural manager has transformed into an international citizen who embraces diversity in his/her glocalized environment and is formed by culture — not the other way around (DeVereaux & Vartiainen 14).
This shift is, to some extent, the result of the “cultural citizenship” concept emergence. On the one hand, cultural citizenship recognizes, “the centrality of culture to human development” (Mercer 1). On the other hand though, the use of citizenship as central notion cannot be considered as accidental or negligible. Instead, we could say that it implies not only the switch to a more local approach on cultural issues, but also the great role that the cities play nowadays in both the socioeconomic and personal development.
Why cities though?
- NATIONS GOVERN, BUT CITIES RULE
According to the United Nations (UN), 54% of the world’s population now lives in the cities, and by 2050, this proportion will increase to 66%. Moreover, the major economic activity is taking place in significant cities around the world, making them the rulers of the game.
2. JANE JACOBS WAS SO AHEAD OF HER TIME
During the last decade(s), there is a back-to-the-city movement, aiming at innovation and economic development, as commented by Richard Florida due to the fact that the city adopts human diversity and resilience, values essential for today’s challenges of globalized world.
Read full article by Richard Florida: www.citylab.com/politics/2016/05/jane-jacobs-100th-birthday-cities-predictions-dark-age/481077/
3. IT´S CREATIVE CITIES’ TURN
The creative economy is rising and since the creatives are largely gathered in cities, they reinforce the urban environment as cultural and entrepreneurial hub (Sassen 32). Moreover, what Richard Florida defined as the “Creative Class”, nowadays thrives in the global economy pie.
Read full article: www.citylab.com/work/2015/12/the-global-creative-economy-is-big-business/422013/
4. DON’T ASK ME WHERE I COME FROM, ASK ME WHERE I AM A LOCAL
The national identity begins to blur and lose its credibility, mainly because its narrow sense of identity and its unilateral approach. Instead, the localism rises.
How could we evaluate then a city?
Here comes the citiness. According to Sasskia Sassen:
Citiness is a concept that refers to the essence of the city and includes both the desires of its citizens and a competitiveness factor.
In terms of a city’s evaluation, there is a bunch of indicators aiming to designate the top cities to live and work in*. The most important and credible sources of evaluating cities are: The Economist Intelligence Unit, Mercer, Reputation Institute and Monocle Quality of Life. Providing, each one, its own perspective of what a great city is really about, we ended up in a mix of concepts and values that constitute a great city.
Smartness, sustainability, livability seem to be in the core of a top city. Nonetheless, what should be noted here is our belief that cities should respect their unique assets and create their own blend of values, in terms of citiness.
Interestingly, the biggest challenge that smart cities have to face nowadays doesn’t have to do with technological or scientific hurdles, but it lies on placing the technology at the service of the citizens, respecting the local needs, potential and aspirations.
* You can see our full exploration of the mentioned metrics here from slide 1–15.
Having these thoughts in mind and lots of exploratory energy, we began our journey from the charming Africa, aspiring to unravel the story behind its -so called- urban regeneration!
So, let the journey begin from Africa!
Works cited
Mercer, Colin. “Towards cultural citizenship: Tools for cultural policy and development.” Available at SSRN 2153304 (2002).
The Cultural Manager as Global Citizen. Humanistinen ammattikorkeakoulu-HUMAK, Univesrity of Applied Sciences, 2008.
Sassen, Saskia. “Why cities matter.” Catalogue of the 10th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale (2006): 26–51.
Khanna, Parag. “5 Maps That Show Why Cities Rule the World.” TECH Insider. N.p., 18 Apr. 2016. Web.
Selasi, Tayie. “Don´t Ask Me Where I´m From, Ask Me Where I´m a Local.”TED. N.p., n.d. Web.
Florida, Richard. “The Global Creative Economy Is Big Business.” CityLab. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2016. <http://www.citylab.com/work/2015/12/the-global-creative-economy-is-big-business/422013/>.
