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Regeneration is a term that is used to
refer to the stimulation of ‘deprived’ urban
environments through strategic economic development. Increasingly
there is seen to be a role for artists in regeneration
as the value of the arts in urban development is being
promoted by government, local authorities and other development
agencies. The main roles assigned to the arts in this
process include beautification and/or contribution to
an identity or an identifiable icon to encourage tourism
and investment in an area. The creative industries are
also proving to be effective in providing employment diversification
for local economies. Indeed, the contribution of the arts
and culture in regeneration is increasingly quantified
and promoted as evidenced by statistics currently on the
website of the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister. The
statistics indicate that:
creative industries have a turnover of
£60 billion per year and employ more than 1.4 million
people in the UK
the leisure industry provides over 10% of total employment
and brings in over £20 billion per annum in foreign
exchange
tourism employs 1.75 million people and has a turnover
of £53 billion. Tourism accounts for 1 in 6 of all
new jobs created in the last 10 years.
The government describes arts and culture
as a “growth sector” and part of a “new
economy based on services” . In the first section
of this essay, I aim to investigate what is so new about
these activities and why there is an increasing trend
towards using artists in regeneration programmes. In order
to address these questions I will consider the work of
David Harvey (1990) who investigates the implications
for urban areas of the changing modes of economic production.
Having explored the context for the emergence of the arts
and creative industries in urban development, I will then
consider what the impact of this in relation to regeneration
has been. This will involve consideration of the work
of Hans Mommas (1990) and John Urry (2000) who reveal
how new economic modes of production can actually contribute
to the problems of urban areas rather than remedy them.
Finally I will consider how alternative approaches might
be employed to ensure that the arts can be used in regeneration
in a way that benefits communities socially as well as
economically.
The second part of this essay translates the ideas from
part one into the context of Bermondsey, South London.
I will consider how the closure of factories in this area
has left people without jobs or social infrastructure
and how the government, through its regeneration schemes
using the arts and creative industries, has produced a
new image for the area which does not relate to residents
and has led to the exacerbation of social problems. I
will then move on to investigate how an arts project could
be developed to address this problem and have real benefits
for the community.
Part I
The first part of this essay involves thinking about why
‘regeneration’ is currently such a hot topic
and why the arts and culture are seen to play an increasingly
important role in the process of urban development. In
order to begin to think about this, it is useful to look
at the work of urban theorist David Harvey. In his paper
‘Time Space Compression and the Post Modern Condition’
(1990), Harvey illustrates how changes in modes of production
impact on local economies and local people.
Economies are always changing in response to technological
advancements. While these changes happen gradually over
time, particular ‘paradigm shifts’ are represented
throughout history. In his paper, Harvey describes the
paradigm shift characterising the change from Fordist
to post-Fordist modes of production. This shift represents
the change from economic processes based on production
lines and the mass consumption of standardised products,
to new 'information technologies' which involve more flexible,
decentralised forms of labour and work organisation. While
Fordist production initially represented reduced costs
and increased profits resulting from the complex division
of labour, a number of factors have now meant that this
type of production is no longer cost effective. Harvey
describes the two main changes, which have characterised
this shift as, the “decentralisation of production”
and the increasing importance of information and “image
production” (Harvey, 1990).
The decentralisation of production is described by Harvey
as a process of “vertical disintegration”.
He explains that this has occurred as a result of a new
“just in time” delivery system which, as a
result of new technologies, has meant that less product
needs to be kept on site as production is sped up and
turnover times are increased. It follows that, by increasing
turnover time, exchange and consumption can also be sped
up. Indeed, as Harvey tells us, “improved systems
of communication and information flow coupled with rationalisations
in techniques of distributing (packaging, inventory control,
market feed-back)” have made it possible to “circulate
commodities through the market system with greater speed”
(Harvey, 1990, p. 285).
The other characteristic of this shift from Fordist to
post-Fordist production is the emphasis on information
technologies and image production. A greater demand for,
and a greater ability to provide, diversification of product
choice has placed greater emphasis on marketing, packaging,
and design, on the 'targeting' of consumers by lifestyle,
taste and culture rather than by categories of social
class. The result of vertical disintegration is that less
space is required for production. In fact, in many cases,
it becomes more efficient to actually export aspects of
production so that all that is required to remain at ‘head
office’ is the part of the company which produces
information; creating an image and marketing the product.
So what are the implications of this shift for cities
and urban development and where does regeneration fit
in to all of this? The changes described above have had
significant implications for cities both in terms of the
change to local economies and the identity of areas and
the people who live within them. The shift from Fordism
to post-Fordism has meant that employers have withdrawn
from areas where large sites for production once existed
to take production to cheaper locations, leaving areas
with high unemployment and collapsed local economies.
It has also meant that people who used to work within
the Fordist system have been left with extremely specialised
skills that can not be applied in other positions. Both
these factors have contributed significantly to urban
deprivation. As a result of this shift, it has been necessary
to re-think these areas in relation to the new modes of
production, or to ‘regenerate’ them.
In ‘Time Space Compression and the Post Modern Condition’
Harvey describes how Fordist modes of production are being
replaced by those based on leisure, information and services.
Certainly, this is reinforced by the statistics produced
by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned in
the introduction to this essay. Such changes are currently
manifested in urban areas such as old port towns and industrial
areas which have been converted into centres for leisure
and tourism and creative industries. Glasgow and Liverpool
are high profile examples of this in process taking place
in large urban areas. Such changes can enable areas to
be promoted as attractive places to spend time and money
with consequent positive investment in local economies.
In addition to providing employment, the arts can also
contribute to regeneration though the process of ‘beautification’
or by creating an image or identity for an area. This
may be as simple as the creation of landscape features
such as promenades, benches and bollards, or involve the
creation of large public art works, such as Antony Gormley’s
Angel of the North, which becomes iconic to an area. Such
features can make for attractive destinations for visitors
and for other investment, thereby stimulating tourism
and economic development.
We have now established that the arts can play a role
in regeneration in two ways. The first is by replacing
old forms of industry, in the form of creative industries
and work in the cultural sector, to provide employment.
The second is to create an identity for an area that serves
to attract visitors and investment. The next part of this
essay involves thinking about the social impact of this
form of arts-led regeneration on local people. I will
argue that the aspects of arts-led regeneration we have
considered can lead to the gentrification of an area whereby
the perceived benefits of regeneration bypass those who
are local to the area.
The first issue to be considered as part of this argument
is the result of the new forms of cultural sector employment.
While we have established that the arts and creative industries
can play an important role in boosting deprived economies
by fitting into the space left by redundant forms of industry,
in very few cases is it those who lost their jobs when
former industry collapsed that gain new forms of employment.
As disused above, the Fordist mode of production required
a highly specialised workforce which reflected the production
line. In contrast, different and more broad skills are
required for new employment areas and, as a result, are
attracting new people rather than providing jobs for those
who already live there.
The second issue to be considered is the impact of using
the arts to create urban identities which are geared towards
attract tourism and other forms of commercial investment.
This is an issue considered by Hans Mommas in his paper
The Fatal Spectacle (1990). Mommas provides insight into
the implications of using arts-led regeneration to create
an identity for an area with the intention of attracting
visitors and investment. The main argument in his paper
is that the process of change towards an economy of arts,
culture and leisure has resulted in the creation of cities
which are purely designed to attract tourists and investments
at the cost of local needs. Mommas describes a “deliberate,
integrated ‘imagineering’ of the physical
and symbolic environment” (Mommas, 1990, p38). This
‘imagineering’, he tells us, is undertaken
by politicians who are trying to create a particular image
for a city in order to attract investment. This phenomenon
is attributed to the increasing global focus of cities.
He describes how increasingly the creation of images works
on a global level where cities are competing. This competition,
whereby cities are attempting to standardised what is
on offer yet create a market niche, results in “increasing
‘spectacularisation’ and integration of what
is on offer” rather than considering any real sense
of place or people (Mommas, 1990, p.40).
John Urry, in ‘The Landscape of Places and Images,
Reworking Identity for the City and Countryside’,
reiterates Mommas’ views on urban development. However
his paper also considers the implication of ‘image
production’ on the communities who live within the
areas in which this takes place. Referring to urban theorist
Sharon Zukin, Urry argues that “constructed landscapes”
and “commodified spaces”, that is places where
tourist go to ‘consume’ the product which
Mommas refers to as the “spectacularised city”,
pose problems for people’s social identities (Urry,
2000, p.23). This is because social identities have historically
been founded on place. Certainly in a time when large
proportions of an urban area were employed in a large
factory or port, a social identity was developed alongside
this. People worked together, created social networks
and had lives which revolved around their workplaces.
The fact that places are now being constructed around
the notion of consumption is resulting in a lack of social
identity for areas and the people within them.
So Mommas and Urry have indicated that while arts-led
regeneration has the ability to attract investment by
creating an image for the city, it can also have negative
implications for people’s social identities as the
images produced often will have little to do with the
people who actually live there. Ironically, this form
of regeneration can therefore lead to social isolation
and deprivation as a sense of cohesion is denied to local
people.
So while the arts and creative industries can have positive
effects in economically regenerating urban areas, this
approach can also lead to the socially problematic phenomenon
of gentrification. In such cases the benefits of economic
development bypass those who need them most as efforts
are focused towards attracting people from outside the
area and creating new jobs that do not match local skills.
So are arts and creative industries in fact a negative
factor in urban development? Malcolm Miles, in his book
Art Space and the City - Public Art and Urban Futures,
takes as his focus the role of public art in urban development
and sheds light on how the arts can be used effectively
to contribute to social regeneration and avoid gentrification.
In identifying variables to distinguish between arts-led
regeneration that has positive effects on a community
and that which doesn’t, Miles differentiates between
public art work that focuses on ‘process’
and that which prioritises ‘product’. Thinking
about this distinction in relation to the writings of
Mommas and Urry, we could align arts related activity
that is ‘product’ focused with the “politician
led” activity they describe which ‘spetacularises’
urban areas or produces “constructed landscapes”
and “commodified spaces”. In contrast, Miles
describes ‘process’ focused arts projects
as having, as central to their purpose, an aspect of community
participation and some sort of engagement with social
and political processes (Miles, 1997, p. 166). In such
cases arts projects, which may certainly have the same
effect of creating an identity for an area as those described
by Mommas and Urry (thus satisfying the demands of global
competition), involve working with particular communities
to develop and explore ideas of spatial and social identity
that are genuine rather than constructed.
A second distinguishing characteristic of Miles’
‘process’ focused public art, is that the
aims of these type of project relate to social gains rather
than commercial ones. This is not to say that such projects
will not have economic benefits – certainly such
projects can enable people to “communicate with
other people, build self-esteem”, acquire skills,
improved health and well being, and move outside situations
of social isolation (Miles, 1997, p.170) – in a
way that contributes to economic development. However
the pubic art Miles promotes is explicit about its ethical
standpoint and does not ignore local needs.
Part II
In order to demonstrate the arguments presented in the
first part of this essay, I have chosen to present a case
study which illustrates an area that is currently undergoing
a process of urban regeneration. I have chosen to look
at the area surrounding a now disused biscuit factory
in Bermondsey, South London. I will first provide a background
to the area, and then sketch out an idea for an artistic
intervention that could be delivered in a way that has
positive benefits for the community local to the area.
Until very recently Bermondsey in South London has been
regarded as an unsavoury area. This image resulted from
the decline in factory employment in the area and subsequent
unemployment and social deprivation. However the image
of Bermondsey is shifting. It is now not unusual to see
articles about Bermondsey as ‘the’ place to
live in media such as Time Out. Certainly, in recent years,
the arts and creative industries have begun to emerge
to replace now defunct forms of Fordist industry. The
area is now home to many artists’ studios as well
as larger cultural institutions such as Tate Modern and
the London Fashion Museum. These new ‘industries’
have been successful in attracting people to the area
and contribute to an image of the area as a burgeoning
cultural quarter. The immediate area surrounding the old
Peek Frean biscuit factory in Bermondsey has also received
an injection of arts infused regeneration with artists’
studios and galleries being established around it and
the factory itself being converted into creative industry
units. Economically, this represents significant change
for the area as the local economy begins to thrive. However,
in order to understand the social impact of these changes
it is useful to first understand not only how the factory
was central to local employment but also how it contributed
to the social identity of people in the area.
The firm Peek Frean established a biscuit making business
in South East London in the 1800s. Peek Frean produced
the first short-eating biscuits at prices within reach
of the public at large. It produced biscuit novelties
and the first British wheat crisp bread Vita-Wheat. However
the factory was more that just a place that produced biscuits.
An article entitled ‘How Biscuit Town began’
describes how “a complete little town [was] built
up for the production of P.F. biscuits”(p.5). ‘Biscuit
Town’ had bake houses and packing rooms but also
had its own package making shops, label printing department,
‘displays’ studios, tailoring department,
steam laundry, staff of builders, carpenters and engineers,
its own fire brigade, electric power house and internal
post office. It had a medical department which included
a doctor, dentists and a trained nurse. It also had a
staff restaurant, advisory committees and a Welfare Department
(p.5). At the time this represented the most efficient
means of organising production, but it also resulted in
the creation of a sense of community amongst employees
from the local area and provided a distinct identity for
the area.
However, as discussed in part one of this essay, technological
advancements eventually rendered this type of production
inefficient and led to closure of such establishment.
When the Peek Frean factory closed in the 1970s many people
who had worked in the factory all their lives, and had
developed skills particular to the production of biscuits,
were left without employment. The loss of the factory
would also have meant that many of the social functions
the company fulfilled were also lost. While, as discussed
earlier, a new image is emerging for this area, the images
that are being created and projected to ‘ideal’
residents and investors by the local authority and other
development agencies do not replace, for local people,
what has been lost by the closure of the Peek Frean factory.
Picking up on the ideas of Malcolm Miles, we can begin
to think about how an alternative identity for the area
could be developed, using public art, for local people
who have felt the impact of the Peak Frean factory closure.
As suggested by Miles, this should involve participation
of and dialogue with local people. This might involve
working with an artist to consult with the community about
memories and personal histories of the area. The project
may create material expressions of this process, for example
a statue of a local ‘hero’ or replicas of
factory equipment from Peak Frean, or some sort of publication,
however it may also just be about the process of creating
a dialogue within the community. As Miles suggests, the
focus should be on the process rather than a final product.
In developing such a project, my idea would involve working
with residents local to the area to build a community
archive which aims to: develop ‘local narratives’
against the grand narratives of international modernism
and multinational economic interests, defining the specificity
of the voices suppressed by mainstream culture.
I this case we can think of the ‘grand narratives’
as the image of Bermondsey, created by government and
others involved in ‘image making’ as a new
and groovy place to live and invest. In doing this, the
project should be community led with objectives which
have been developed collaboratively. As such, no exact
project framework will be presented here as it would be
wrong to impose this on the community. Instead the aim
would be to create a project which involves the community
in project planning and development (as facilitated by
an artist) so that it can develop organically and be locally
owned. However, I have listed below a number of principles
that will guide the development of the project in order
to ensure that it is a project that contributes effectively
to regeneration rather than gentrification.
Principles of the project:
Enable a long term artists’ residency
Many projects which involve an artist do so in a way which
does not allow real engagement between the artist and
the community in which he/she works. By providing an extended
period of residency the project will enable a sense of
trust to be developed whereby residents can feel that
the artists is committed to their environment and a greater
involvement and ownership in the project can result.
Build local capacity
Long term community sustainability depends on developing
human and social capital. It is important that every opportunity
is taken to develop local skills and capacity. This can
be achieved by involving local people in surveying their
own situation, running their own programmes and managing
local assets.
Employ a range of methods for enabling
community involvement
It is important to provide a range of entry points for
community involvement. It is a good idea to use a variety
of involvement methods. So while workshops will be appropriate
for some, others will feel more comfortable at meetings
and others in informal discussions on the street.
By following such guidelines, it will be possible to ensure
that a project will be developed that contributes to the
area’s regeneration in a way that is sensitive to
local needs.
Conclusion
In this paper I have looked at the role of artists in
regeneration and found that claims to the success of using
the arts in urban development must be qualified to reflect
the difference between economic and social regeneration
of areas. In the first section of this essay I discussed
how a shift in the economic mode of production from factory
based production to new information based industry has
been problematic for local economies which were built
up to sustain older forms of industry which reflected
complex divisions of labour. I then discussed how arts,
creative industries, tourism and leisure activities, (the
latter being, to a large extent, dependent on the former)
are being encouraged in areas formerly dependent on Fordist
modes of production to boost economies by providing employment
and attracting investment. From here I began to investigate
exactly who was benefiting from the changes encouraged
through this form of regeneration. I considered how the
jobs by these new industries are not filled by local people
but by people coming from outside the area. I also considered
how the images being created to attract investment, a
second characteristic of post-Fordism, do not contribute
to a local identity or cohesion for people living there,
but rather one that is aimed towards tourists and investors.
It was thus established that regeneration activities involving
arts and creative industries could actually contribute
to the problems people face in local areas through the
process of gentrification.
In attempting to redress the balance, I then turned to
the work of Malcolm Miles. Focusing on public art work,
Miles makes an important distinction between projects
which focus on ‘product’ and those that focus
on ‘process’. While the idea of 'product'
can be aligned with the type of identity creating activity
that is considered problematic by Mommas and Urry, projects
focused on ‘process’ prioritises community
participation and engage with social and political issues.
The results of such work can have significant impact on
communities which make real contributions to social as
well as economic regeneration.
In the second part of the paper I proposed the development
of a project which would stimulate community cohesion
and contribute to the creation of a local identity in
an area, thereby demonstrating how the arts can be used
in a positive way to contribute to the regeneration of
local areas.
Bibliography
Mommas, Hans (1990/01) ‘The Fatal Spectacle’,
Archis:41
Harvey, David (1990) ‘Time Space Compression and
the Post Modern Condition’ in The Condition of Post-Modernity,
Blackwell.
Urry, John (2000) The Landscape of Places and Images,
Reworking Identity for the City and Countryside, Werk,
Bauen& Wohnen.
Miles, Malcolm (1997), Art Space and the City - Public
Art and Urban Futures, Routledge.
The Steam Biscuit Manufactory of Messrs Peek Frean &
Co, articles from the Southwark Collection, London Borough
of Southwark.
‘How Biscuit Town Began’ in Biscuit Town.