The ABM and Culture, Eventing and Tourism
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AREA BASED MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY CASE STUDY: CULTURE AND EVENTING Prepared for: Collin Pillay ABMD Programme Office eThekwini Municipality McINTOSH XABA AND ASSOCIATES PO Box 61221 Bishopsgate Durban 4008 [email protected] November 2007 Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 2 Context (the iTrump ABM) ..................................................................................... 2 3 Situational Analysis ................................................................................................ 4 4 Context (The INK ABM) ........................................................................................ 16 5 Situational Analysis ............................................................................................... 16 6. Learning Areas .................................................................................................... 34 7. Recommendations for a Realignment of Interventions ..................................... 37 1 Introduction Culture, Eventing, and Tourism are promoted by the iTrump and INK ABMs for a number of reasons. Both the iTrump and INK ABMs see culture, events and tourism as tools or rather the means to regenerate the urban environment, change the uses of public spaces into more productive enterprises that support new and varied kinds of cultural and recreational activities that purposefully link into and support local economic development initiatives. A wider and more profound ambition is that in the process of consulting with stakeholders, implementing policies, generating economic and social activities and making links with new partners, a respect for diversity is encouraged out of which a new sense of citizenship and identity within the localities and the metropolitan municipality as a whole will emerge. In short, the question of citizenship turns on the question of ‘how to make eThekwini an inclusionary city by dealing with an exclusionary history’ (Dobson, R. interview, June 2007). It is always difficult to define culture (Williams, R. 1983). In the most common uses of the word it refers to art, crafts, the exotic aspects of people’s way of life such as rituals, beliefs and practices, or notions of high culture such literature (the written word in the form of books, novels, plays, poetry), paintings, sculpture, film etc. But culture can also mean the everyday practices and ways of life of a people. This descriptive definition suggests that culture is something that humans create and change according to the circumstances and situations that they find themselves in. In this case study, the notion of culture refers to the everyday lives, and practices of people, but the emphasis is on the way in which changes are taking, or have taken place that give greater voice to people’s public ideas and practices and the way in which various strategies and tactics are employed within the framework of laws, rules and regulations of society that expands and builds that freedom. Thus, we speak of a cultural change engendered by the process of consultation that allows greater freedom to pursue livelihoods strategies. One may speak of a culture that is less confrontational and exclusionary of certain groups of people, that is more consultative and inclusionary, incorporating new people coming into the city to claim and assert their rights as citizens. Thus to be able to visit museums and art galleries, and create artefacts to be exhibited, or sell one’s wares on the street, albeit within the law, is not just a cultural expression, but also a public cultural practice. Area Based Case Study Report 1 Culture and Eventing 2 Context (the iTrump ABM) In the case of the inner city, the supporting of cultural events and tourism related projects by iTrump (Inner eThekwini Regeneration and Urban Management Programme) is fulfilling their mandate to regenerate the urban centre and to incorporate and promote new activities or uses around urban spaces. The components of this urban regeneration are: Installing new infrastructure Re-construction or redesigning of sites and places The components of promoting new activities and uses of urban spaces are: Being inclusive – accepting and incorporating new people into the city Providing the framework in which people can carry out new kinds of activities Trading Cultural activities Events – sport, leisure, recreation Maintaining and promoting health and safety Adherence to the rule of law 2.1 Culture and Urban Regeneration: Inserting a Culture of Engagement, Dialogue and Participation A single thread that runs through all the iTrump’s work on supporting cultural events and tourism in the city is engaging with stakeholders through a process of discussion and where necessary ensuring their participation. iTrump is the oldest of the ABMs in the city, but when it started in 2001 there were no established or clearly formulated rules or procedures that could be followed or models as how to proceed. On the first issues that the iTrump had to deal with were street traders. Street trading is not new to Durban, or unique, but in the late 20th century represented a complete change in the usage of the city. Although the measures that excluded black people from the inner city had long passed from the statute books (1986), it was only in the 1990s that black people, including foreign Africans, began to dominate the city centre both in terms of accommodation and making a living through informal trading. Informal trading mainly took the form of trading on the streets and often, in the past, evinced a confrontation between owners of formal retail businesses and informal street traders. There were other serious effects that manifested themselves: waste was left on streets which posed a health Area Based Case Study Report 2 Culture and Eventing hazard, the pavements became overcrowded, often spilling on to the streets and at times too many people trading with the same goods with hardly a difference in quality or price. However, the city council took the unprecedented step of not prohibiting trading on the street, but rather sought to control and regulate it, especially since its own commissioned research estimated that such trading made a significant contribution to the city’s local economy. It was left to the iTrump ABM to oversee a process whereby street trading could be regulated. The iTrump engaged in a serious consultative process with street traders. Undertaking a participant observation research process Speaking to street traders Getting them to organise themselves to represent themselves Negotiating over issues such as street permits, fees and allocation of trading sites. This process produced a regulated informal street trading arrangement, allowed for both pedestrians and street traders to use public access routes, and over time an acceptance by formal retail businesses that such people and their small, often survivalist trading, is here to stay. One significant outcome of this process was that street traders themselves were organised to deal with crime. The ABM assisted street traders to defend themselves by arranging workshops for them to be trained in making citizen arrests instead of the usual meeting out ‘an informal and rough justice’ by assaulting any criminal who was so foolish to attempt to rob a street trader. This action also ingratiated themselves with the formal retail traders who now accepted them as part of the business environment. Indeed over time a very productive and collegial relationship between formal and informal trader developed. What was the significance of the informal trader with a particular set of new activities in a public space? There were several important consequences: The colonial image of (highly regulated, colonial master-servant relationships) a ‘white’ inner or core city was challenged and overturned. A new form of activities was incorporated into the everyday cultural practices of the city, where informal traders are considered part of the cityscape. A sense of rights and responsibilities was introduced into the public discourse. A spirit of public voluntarism introduced by informal traders took root - the combating of crime through their own organised efforts. From the point of view of the ABM this was a turning point, a success in engagement, rather than confrontation. Their intervention into the debates about informal traders produced a significant model of how to interact with the new migrants to the city centre: Consultation, negotiation and participation became key strategies towards evolving a new policy on informal trading Area Based Case Study Report 3 Culture and Eventing A new segment of civil society was included into the city – in practical terms the street traders became a significant part of the planning process. Informal traders became an organised and institutionalised representative body that could speak and act on behalf of individuals. It produced a set of rights and responsibilities of a particular segment of the whole society A forum was initiated in which to consult and discuss problems and issues. In short, there was a turn away from colonial reference points of exclusivity to a cultural practice of inclusiveness. For the iTrump ABM such practices illustrated the main elements of a model that could be used to take on new projects for upgrading and regenerating the urban inner city. But it must be noted that while the iTrump ABM in principle assisted