Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 14-17th December 2016 Program Index

Kay Dickinson
A Logistics of Cultural Production
In the past decade, the corporatized ruling elite of the United Arab Emirates has increasingly looked for ways
to expand its globally-dominant logistics and port management expertise into cultural production. Its
economic free zones, a number of which are dedicated to media, film and education, are spaces where
investors profit from tax exemption, flexible, just-in-time manufacturing, and speedily arranged (and
dispersed) migrant labour. What are the political consequences of this new brand of offshoring, this logisticsled
cost-cutting, for the cultural sector? Given that, for instance, an estimated 89.8% of Dubai’s workforce
does not hold citizen rights to the land and that free zones forbid unionization, urgent issues arise
concerning how creative labour is managed geopolitically. At the same time, and given the demographic
forces in play, what scope within this landscape is there for resistance to the concomitant squeezing of
(cultural) workers’ rights and compensations – through artistic practice within these free zones and beyond?
Ece Kaya
Old Industrial Waterfront is the New Space of Consumption: The Rocks of Sydney
Urban transformation strategies have been developed in response to the deindustrialisation process and
economic restructuring that occurred between the 1950s and 1990s. Particularly during the 1960s and
1970s, significant geographical restructuring had arisen along with the major social changes. The
transformation of historical industrial buildings into centres for residence, entertainment and culture has
been accelerated. However, a significant reduction has been experienced in the habitability and the
population of the central city through attempts to stimulate urban transformation and redevelopment of
city centres. A new lifestyle, which has been created by the new middle and upper classes that have started
to develop in the central city, has gained popularity. These changes have contributed to a transformation of
the relationship between tourism and cultural practices. Everyday life has changed in deindustrialised cities
and urban tourism has arisen. Place marketing and spatial regeneration for urban development that involves
image construction through advertisement has been adopted as an economic development strategy for the
former industrial city centres. These areas became focal points that create the production of spaces. In the
tourism sector, instead of creating spaces just for consumption, spaces should be produced by using
intangible heritage. However, this reproduction will cause the destruction of traditions; places will be
consumed unless the reproduction of tourism spaces is kept distinct from commodification. When we look
at the uses of touristic spaces today, we can see that the consumption process that affects them also
delivers the reconstruction process. In Sydney, the transformation of The Rocks epitomises a process of
gentrification and tourism-led renewal that has resulted in the loss of its industrial narrative and a negative
influence on its community. Tourism has been considered as an opportunity that has aimed to reactivate and
market the area, and again the notion of abstract space, which gives rise to the effects of alienation,
commodification, fragmentation and homogenization, has come to dominate everyday life practices in The
Rocks. The refashioning of the area by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority (The SCRA), established in
1968, has attempted to represent the historic Sydney. However, in creating the tourist attractions, the SCRA
deliberately exhibited a preference for several aspects of the history. This paper addresses tourism as a
destructive power in historic city centres. It argues that the representation of the past became an imitation
and the interpretation of the particular history of the area is contested due to the ignorance regarding the
industrial history. How would the historic city centre sustain both tourists and residents, and conserve its
heritage?
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