Postgraduate Course: The Creative City in Theory and Practice (HIAR11084)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The term 'Creative City' was first used in the late-1980s by urbanist Charles Landry to describe an approach to city-building and governance informed by a logic of creativity, and focused on the promotion of culture and the 'creative industries' (advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, music, the performing arts, publishing, software, TV and radio, video games etc.). The idea has gained particular currency in relation to post-industrial cities, in which the creative industries have been encouraged to occupy the void left by the collapse of traditional industry. This course examines the theory and practice of the creative city, as formulated by both Landry and Richard Florida, as well as more recent work on the creative and cultural industries (Harvey, Hewison, McRobbie). Case studies will be largely derived from the UK, given the particularities of cultural and urban policy across the globe, however international examples will be referenced in order to situate the UK in its global context. Edinburgh itself will be a particular focus, and Scotland will be considered more widely as a case study of a nation with a particular investment in the concept of the creative city. |
| Course description |
Week 1: Introduction - How to Read the City?
PART 1: ORIGINS OF THE CREATIVE CITY
Week 2: The Post-Industrial City - Loft Living and Gentrification in Manhattan
Week 3: The Post-Industrial Economy - The Rise of the Creative Industries
Week 4: Peer-Review Presentations
PART 2: THE CREATIVE CITY
Week 5: The Creative Class and the Creative City
Week 6: Public Space and the Social Life of Creative Cities
PART 3: ART IN THE CREATIVE CITY
Week 7: Art Institutions and Culture-Led Regeneration
Week 8: Artists' Interventions into the City
PART 4: CASE STUDIES
Week 9: Liverpool - Biennial City
Week 10: Edinburgh - Heritage City
Week 11: Conclusions
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Will have aquired an in-depth knowledge of the theory and practice of the creative city, as well as related issues such as the creative industries, regeneration and gentrification.
- Will have learned to think critically about the urban environment and culture's role therein.
- Will have gained skills to analyse, read and critique the city, and to adapt art-historical methods to the study of the urban environment.
- Will have gained an awareness of key developments in urban and cultural policy since the 1980s.
- Will have begun to develop the capacity to research, structure and present their own arguments and methodological positions independently.
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Reading List
Florida, Richard L. The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
Hewison, Robert. Cultural Capital: The Rise and Fall of Creative Britain. London: Verso, 2014.
Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. London: Pimlico, 2000.
Landry, Charles. The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. London: Earthscan, 2000.
Lees, Loretta, Tom Slater, and Elvin K. Wyly, eds. The Gentrification Reader. London: Routledge, 2010.
LeGates, Richard T., and Frederic Stout. The City Reader. 5th edition. London: Routledge, 2011.
Miles, Malcolm, Iain Borden, and Tim Hall. The City Cultures Reader. London: Routledge, 2000.
Zukin, Sharon. Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change. Baltimore; London: John Hopkins University Press, 1982. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Writing, verbal presentation |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The class will be taught through weekly 2-hour seminars, some of which will involve fieldwork around Edinburgh. |
| Keywords | Creative Industries,City,Culture,Urban,Regeneration |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Harry Weeks
Tel: (0131 6)51 5450
Email: Harry.Weeks@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Remi Jankeviciute
Tel: (0131 6)51 5773
Email: Ramune.Jankeviciute@ed.ac.uk |
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