Cultural Planning: Economic Turn And Globalization

Introduction

Cultural planning can be considered as an approach that supports the ‘cultural turn’ that includes the positioning and marketing of the cities. The main aspect of cultural planning is to plan that how cities might work and survive in terms of new emerging economic turn and globalization. Cultural planning integrates the two different aspects, which are art and culture. Cultural planning is associated with the vitality, economies and ambience of the places for achieving the main objective. This essay will focus on discussing that what is cultural planning and how culture is a part of art and life of people. Paper will also discuss the strength, weakness, limitations and opportunities of the Penrith City’s Cultural Plan.

What is Cultural Planning?

Cultural planning is the very important element and potential aspect of the economic growth. Cultural planning can also be considered as the spinning wheel for cultural tourism. This is a new approach for regeneration of the cities and urban planning. This is a new approach of planning the cities by focusing on the cultural aspects. The idea of the ‘creative city’ heralded form the 1990’s that challenged the traditional ways of city planning, and the development planners turned towards art and culture as the tools for development. Therefore, cultural planning is considered as the approach that focuses on development of the city through developing the liveable and distinctive communities that can attract the huge amount of the capital and social investments. According to the term cultural planning is considered to be a coordinated way of that focuses on recognizing and developing the local cultural values customs, rituals, priorities, everyday life activities and beliefs (Stevenson, 2005). The changing definition of cultural planning has placed on the cultural heritage of the cities and economic benefits are recognized. The tangible and intangible aspects of the culture and arts are used to promote the place.

Changing Definition of Cultural Planning

All forms of creativity are integrated in cultural planning artistic and cultural aspects are integrated with economic and technological factors, which are mainly influenced by the changing definition of cultural planning. Cultural planning has been integrated in the influential cultural planning treaties that are specifically found in the literature of Australia (Stevenson, 2013). Arts have been used as the significant element in the revitalization of many cities and towns. The literature associated with cultural planning in Australia has been associated with reshaping the orientation, development, and popularity of cultural in the country. Charles Landry and John Montgomery in the year 2003 include the ‘creative city’ approach to the local cultural policy (Stevenson, 2013). Including culture and arts is not the only objective of cultural planning of a city, but it also focuses on developing the eco-system, and natural habitats. Planning also supports the cultural and lifestyle development for developing the cutting edge and artistic communities. With the cultural forms, the land and water resources are also integrated in planning. The studies have stated that culture is considered as the form of art and culture is also a process. The changing definition of cultural planning has also given rise to significant tension. The tension is “between the goal of continuing to support traditional arts activities and organizations at the same time as arguing against the privileging of these forms and objects of creative practice” (Stevenson, 2013, p. 13). The changing definition of cultural planning also requires focusing on intersectionality, as Australia is a country with great diversity. In the late 20^th century cultural planning has been considered as cultural renaissance (Evans, 2002).

Cultural Planning in Penrith Council Plan

The major strength of the plan is that it recognizes the arts and culture of the Aboriginal people of Australia and considers them as the original owners of the land. The community plan recognizes the strength of the communities it is focusing on. According to the study of Markusen (2006), “economic development planning is increasingly emphasizing on the human capital side of the growth equation, stressing on occupation in analysis and policy” (Markusen, 2006, p. 3). Therefore, the strength of the plan lies in emphasizing the growth based on the human capital. The plan considers that people in the community are the partners in the cultural development of the city. The growth of the creative city and cultural development is also based on the development and improvement of the important cultural centers and natural resources (like Nepean River).

Plan focuses on generating new jobs for the community people and significantly emphasizes on the development of the indigenous community. The weakness of the cultural planning could be evaluated in terms of lack of integration of technology in planning (Mills, 2003). The urban cultural planning need to implement the technology based strategies to meet the needs of the new urbanism movement. For the genius loci, of the Penrith City, new urbanism requires to create and restore the facilities of transport, housing, entertainment, education and economics (Mercer, 2006). The plan also offers the education and training opportunities for the local people, community groups, Aboriginal people and youth, which can be considered as the significant opportunity for financial development of the city. The opportunities can also be seen in the development of the infrastructure that can be considered as important for overcoming the political, moral and aesthetic shortcomings (Stevenson, 2013).

The inclusive approach that this plan has is the inclusion of the marginalized groups, such as youth, migrants, indigenous, senior citizens, disabled and refugees. This is the best want to articulate the human capital and fulfilling the creative needs of the public investment (Markusen, 2006). Hetrotopia integrates the culture and society and the lands and resources are considered as the physical, social and economic landscapes. The recent decades have displayed the obsessive tendency towards the creative urban development (Kliger & Cosgrove, 1999). Gentrification has become the process of developing the cities through the power of arts, generate consumption and attract more capital (Grodach, 2016). Creating the creative environment is specifically dependent on the arts and arts focuses on gentrification for the urban and neighborhood development.  The triangular conflict is seen between the economic, political and environment thoughts. The sustainability of the creative cities has to be included in the current model of development and this sustainability can be achieved through indigenous culture and their inspiring visions. Political conflicts of the industrial society can be seen as the useful principle for cultural planning of the city.

Conclusion

This essay is focused on the concept of cultural planning. Cultural planning is a view and significant approach towards the development of the creative cities that focuses on the arts and culture of the place. Cultural planning uses the culture and art as the essential element of development planning. Paper discussed the strength and weakness of the Penrith Regional City. This essay also discussed the various concepts associated with cultural planning. 

Bibliography

Evans, G., 2002. Cultural planning: an urban renaissance?. Routledge.

Grodach, C., 2016. Arts, gentrification, and planning for creativity. Carolina Planning Journal, 41, pp.22-29.

Kliger, B., & Cosgrove, L. (1999). Local cross-cultural planning and decision-making with indigenous people in Broome, Western Australia. Ecumene, 6(1), 51-71.

Markusen, A., 2006, November. Cultural planning and the creative city. In annual American Collegiate Schools of Planning meetings, Ft. Worth, TX.

Mercer, C., 2006. Cultural planning for urban development and creative cities. Unpublished manuscript. Accessed May 8, 2017. https://www.kulturplan-oresund.dk/pdf/Shanghai_cultural_planning_paper.pdf

Mills, D., 2003. Cultural planning–policy task, not tool. Artwork Magazine, 55, pp.7-11.

Stevenson, D., 2013. Cities of culture: A global perspective (Vol. 111). Routledge.

Stevenson, D., 2005. Cultural planning in Australia: Texts and contexts. The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 35(1), pp.36-48.