OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

Chapter 4
The cultural fabric of cities
Cities cannot be analysed today without looking at their cultural investments. The
preceding chapters have illustrated how many cities, faced with the disappearance
of their traditional activities and a resulting identity crisis, have made cultural events
or sites into a lever for affirming their identity. Such projects often carry symbolic value.
As with cities of the Middle Ages that made the height of their bell towers or steeples
the symbol of their independence, today’s cities will use the presence of a museum
or the revival of cultural activities as the emblems of their determination to redevelop.
The following two cases illustrate different approaches.
Birmingham
Situated close to the heart of Birmingham, the jewellery quarter is a symbol of
the city’s industrial past (Pollard, 2004). In recent years the city has attempted to reinvent
its image and to move on from its former reputation as the “city of a thousand trades”
to the new status of “Crossroads of Europe” (Webster, 2001). Many projects have
been undertaken, all reflecting some underlying principles: attracting relatively welloff
social groups by offering them stable property values, taking their aesthetic
sensitivities into account, and keeping to the minimum the inevitable displacement
of the poor that will result.
Since the 18 th century, Birmingham has been a centre of the jewellery business,
which started with the production of buckles and buttons, and then small chests and
jewellery boxes. An entire profession came into existence around St. Paul’s Square,
taking advantage of the absence of working space constraints. Throughout the 19th
century, this quarter thrived from growing demand and from business or technological
advances (discovery of gold mines, use of electroplating) and even legal innovations
(such as new gold content regulations allowing 9, 12 and 15 carats).
Shortly after the second world war the industry, which then employed nearly
70,000 workers, fell into a steep decline under the influence of several factors, including
competition from producers in Southeast Asia. Firms began turning out mass-produced
items of low value (nearly 70% of items had a gold content of nine carats), thereby
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