OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

INTRODUCTION
a basis for development through tourism. This was gradually joined by the
notion of improving the territory’s image through the establishment of cultural
venues or events, an approach that flourished especially when such investments
were accompanied by a major urban overhaul, as in the case of the Guggenheim
Museum in Bilbao.
In any case, the concept of linking culture and local development remains focused
on tourism, and it was in the end fairly fragile. Often the contribution of culture
was reduced to a few success stories, relating in general to historic sites or
festivals that could attract thousands of visitors. These success stories were
often exaggerated, and they tended to overshadow the less successful undertakings
where investments did not produce anything like the expected return. Moreover,
a mechanical way of thinking, based on the idea of multipliers, tended to
exaggerate their scope, and such activities did not always constitute real engines
of development, even if they helped a local population to subsist. Finally, to the
extent that this approach was divorced from other perspectives of development,
it attracted a certain odour of nostalgia or even of parochialism. It is no doubt
for these reasons that recognition of the role of culture in local development was
granted only sparingly and condescendingly.
- Yet in substance, local development cannot be reduced to establishing an
export base. It also requires proper organisation of the relationships between
players at the local level. The existence of an export base is not always a
guarantee of sustainable local development, and on the contrary some territories
have managed to redevelop after losing their export base. Approaches based
on projects, partnerships, quasi contracts, social capital etc., have shown that
local development also depends on the capacity of local stakeholders to identify
the strengths and weaknesses of their territory, to plan new projects, and to manage
their resources in common.
- In the end, and in a manner parallel to the trend found at the national level, it
appeared that the specific nature of local territories had an influence on the
output of these products and services that constitute the new cultural economy.
Those products often carry the “trademark” of territories where they were
produced, because they incorporate their artistic skills and know-how, hence
the notion of “idiosyncratic products”.
Culture, then, contributes to local development not only by bringing in tourists
but also by exporting products. As these products gradually won recognition, they
tended to concentrate in certain specific territories, generally cities or large
metropolitan areas. In the United Kingdom, nearly 27% of cultural jobs are
concentrated in Greater London, while in the United States most of them are to
be found in New York and Los Angeles (Scott, 2000) 2 .
18 CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005