The Cultural Turn in Municipal Planning
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The Cultural Turn in Municipal Planning by Jason F. Kovacs A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Planning Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2009 © Jason F. Kovacs 2009 Author’s declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. Jason F. Kovacs ii Abstract Urban theorists and policy makers have begun to re-evaluate the importance of culture in urban development models. Culture is now widely viewed as a critical factor in the economic and social health of cities. Notions of creativity and the growing recognition of the role that culture-rich environments can play in attracting the “creative class,” are being partly expressed in the widespread adoption of urban cultural planning strategies. Cultural planning is commonly defined as the identification (mapping) and leveraging of cultural assets to support local community and economic development. It is also often explained as a “cultural approach” to municipal planning, an approach that entails effective cross-departmental and cross-sectoral collaboration in the implementation of strategic goals outlined within the cultural plan. A literature has been written on the potential of cultural planning by leading experts in the cultural policy field, especially from Australia and Britain. However, there has been a noticeable lack of critical research on this cultural development approach by scholars in Canada, where cultural planning is a relatively new and emerging municipal activity. This dissertation examines the policy and planning scope of the increasingly popular yet under- explored “municipal cultural planning” movement in Ontario, Canada. Research began with a thorough review of the cultural planning literature. Cultural planning deficiencies and research gaps identified in the international literature were subsequently addressed through an analysis of all ten existing cultural plans in Ontario’s mid-size cities. The analysis of plans was complemented by thirteen in-depth interviews with municipal staff responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of cultural plans. Aside from addressing the interpretations of and rationales for municipal cultural planning, the information derived from document analysis and interviews was used to address four important issues that have been either ignored or only addressed in a cursory way in the literature: the nature and actual extent of community consultation and cultural mapping in the cultural plan development stage; the accuracy of the growing arts policy labelling of cultural planning abroad as it applies to municipal cultural planning; the relationship between cultural planning and its conceptual roots in urban planning; and the outcomes of the cultural planning strategy. It was found that the development of cultural plans involved substantial community input, albeit not through the participatory “cultural mapping” process that is often claimed to be the preliminary step of cultural planning. In addition, it was observed that the increasingly common charge, particularly from Australia, that cultural plans are overly focussed on traditional arts sector concerns was not found to be the case with most cultural planning initiatives in Ontario. Further, while a strong urban development and planning-oriented basis has been used to differentiate cultural planning from traditional arts policy, the scope of cultural planning concerns in the sphere of urban planning practice was observed to be, with some noticeable exceptions, fairly superficial. However, this research also found that the strategic objectives outlined within cultural plans, which address a broad range of policy and planning activities related to cultural and community development, were generally being implemented and were effecting change. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor, Robert Shipley, for his guidance and support throughout my doctoral studies. I would also like to thank my committee members, Geoff Wall, Stephen Smith and William Poole, for their advice throughout the research and writing stages of my dissertation. I am very grateful for and I’d like to acknowledge the financial support I received from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation, and the University of Waterloo. Much of my research findings were informed by the insights into cultural planning practice that were shared with me by municipal staff members and others in the municipalities of Ajax, Barrie, Brantford, Burlington, Chatham-Kent, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Oakville, St. Catharines, Sudbury, and the Region of Waterloo. As such, I owe many thanks to my interviewees for their time. In addition, I would like to thank Edie Cardwell and Angie Rohrbacher in the School of Planning for their help over the years, and my MA supervisor and friend Brian Osborne for his continued guidance. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unwavering support over the course of my graduate studies. In particular, I would like to dedicate this work to my parents, June and Frank Kovacs, and to my late friend Jeevan Mykoo. iv Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. viii 1.0 THE CULTURAL TURN IN MUNICIPAL PLANNING .................................................. 1 1.1 The emergence of municipal cultural planning ................................................................ 1 1.2 Justification for the research ............................................................................................ 2 1.3 Research goal and objectives ........................................................................................... 4 1.3.1 Grounding the conceptual basis of cultural planning .............................................. 4 1.3.2 Investigating the development process of cultural planning in Ontario ................... 5 1.3.3 Examining the nature of what is being addressed in cultural plans ......................... 5 1.3.4 Situating planning within the municipal cultural planning framework .................... 5 1.3.5 Assessing the outcomes of cultural plans .................................................................. 5 1.4 Research design and methods .......................................................................................... 6 1.4.1 Interview approach ................................................................................................... 8 1.5 Thesis format and outline of chapters .............................................................................. 8 2.0 CAN CULTURE BE PLANNED? OR WHAT IS CULTURAL PLANNING? ............... 10 2.1 Combining the word “culture” with “planning” ............................................................ 10 2.2 Cultural planning: A proliferation of definitions and rationales .................................... 11 2.2.1 Cultural planning definitions and rationales: A survey of the literature................ 13 2.3 Cultural planning as defined in Canada ......................................................................... 21 2.3.1 Definitions of “municipal cultural planning” ........................................................ 21 2.3.2 Purpose of cultural planning in Canada ................................................................. 24 2.4 Research findings ........................................................................................................... 27 2.4.1 Analysis of cultural planning definitions and rationales in cultural plans ............. 27 2.4.2 Analysis of purpose statements, visions, and guiding principles ............................ 29 2.4.3 Responses to the question “What is cultural planning?” ....................................... 32 2.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 36 3.0 COMMUNITY MAPPING, CONSULTATION AND EXPERTISE: THE CULTURAL PLAN DEVELOPMENT PROCESS ...................................................................................... 38 3.1 From mapping to planning ............................................................................................. 38 3.2 Community consultation and “cultural mapping”.......................................................... 39 3.2.1 Cultural planning and mapping .............................................................................. 39 3.2.2 Existing Research .................................................................................................... 43 3.3 Cultural planning, community consultation and mapping in Canada ............................ 44 3.4 Research findings ........................................................................................................... 47 3.4.1 Responses to questions concerning cultural mapping and ..................................... 47 community consultation ................................................................................................... 47 3.4.1.1 Stakeholder engagement ...................................................................................... 50 3.4.1.2 Public, private and non-profit sector representation ..........................................