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2.1The contribution of arts and culture to local development
Culture in general and the arts in particular have been traditionally recognised,
promoted and preserved in relation to their very intrinsic value, i.e. their status as a
symbolic creation at the heart of humanity and resulting from the expression of its
creativity. However, in the last decades a new complementary and interrelated
approach has emerged that increasingly recognises their instrumental value, in
particular their contribution to social and economic development: examples of this
are the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of
Cultural Expressions —which has among its objectives “to reaffirm the importance
of the link between culture and development for all countries, particularly for
developing countries, and to support actions undertaken nationally and internationally
to secure recognition of the true value of this link” (UNESCO 2005) -; the on-going
international discussions about the contribution of culture to sustainable
development, from the global network United Cities and Local Governments
(UCLG)
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to the Hangzhou declaration adopted in 2013 at the UNESCO’s
International Congress “Culture: Key to Sustainable Development”(UNESCO 2013).
Also the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has
acknowledged the role of culture in local socioeconomic development (OECD 2005)
showing the demand from its member States to explore the link between culture
and development. At the European level, culture has progressively been
mainstreamed in different policy fields in order to foster socioeconomic development
and to enhance integration among the mix of local identities that characterises the
Union. Culture-led development in Europe will be explored hereafter
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.
The role of culture in urban development has attracted the attention of scholars
since the eighties —from Landry to Throsby to Florida to Cunningham, to mention
only few of them. Two main approaches have emerged to explain it: the creative
industries approach —which highlights firms and system of firms as the generators
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UCLG elaborated the Agenda 21 for Culture, a reference document that highlights the links between
culture and sustainable development. It has been used by more than 500 cities and local governments and
will be reviewed in 2015. UCLG has also advocated culture as the“fourth pillar” of sustainable development.
ASEF. 2014. Enabling Cross-Overs. Good Practices in the Creative Industries. See also UCLG’s website: .
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See below: « Paradigm shift in local development policies » and « EU policies for culture-led
development ».
