Education and Urban Life: 20 Years of Educating Cities Published for the 10Th Congress of the International Association of Educating Cities (IAEC)

Education and Urban Life: 20 Years of Educating Cities Published for the 10th Congress of the International Association of Educating Cities (IAEC)

IAEC Executive Committee: Adelaide, Barcelona (Presidency and Secretariat), Budapest, Genoa, Lisbon, Lomé, Lyon, Rennes (Treasury), Rosario (Vice-Presidency), São Paulo, Tampere and Turin.

Editor: Eulàlia Bosch Production Coordinator: Mª Ángeles Cabeza

Translations: from Spanish and Catalan: Ita Roberts, David Oliver, Ross Parker, Rebeca Collier and Toni Leigh from French: Susan Brownbridge from Italian: Liam Casey from Portuguese: Antoni Picornell

Acknowledgments: to the members of the Executive Committee; the authors and city mayors who contributed to the book; the Barcelona City Council; UNESCO; UCLG; and the IAEC Secretariat team.

We are grateful to W.W. Norton & Company for authorizing the reproduction of the chapter “Drift” from The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in The New Capitalism by Richard Sennett.

Printed by: Arts Gràfiques Bobalà, SL Date: April 2008 ISBN: 978-84-9850-096-7 Copyright Deposit: L-495-2008 Contents

To the Reader ...... 7 Eulàlia Bosch

Introduction

The People’s City ...... 13 Pasqual Maragall Educating Cities: A Commitment to the Future...... 17 Pilar Figueras The Concept of the Educating City Today...... 23 Joan Manuel del Pozo Barcelona: A City Committed to Education ...... 33 Jordi Hereu

1. The New Challenges of Urban Life . Dialectical Utopias ...... 41 David Harvey Public Space ...... 47 Zygmunt Bauman Organising Heterogeneity: Migrations, Demographic Changes and Cultural . Consequences ...... 57 Blair A. Ruble The Media, the City and Education. Between Hyperactivity and Indifference ...... 69 Josep Ramoneda Competition and Cooperation. Justice and Peace ...... 77 Arcadi Oliveres Urban Culture: In Search of Authenticity ...... 85 Sharon Zukin City and Community Through Women’s Eyes ...... 99 Olivia Guaraldo Forever Young: The New Reality of the Elderly ...... 111 Antón Costas The New Challenges of Urban Life: Redefining the Concept of “Community” in the . Internet Age ...... 121 Genís Roca The Voice of Local Governments in World Governance ...... 131 Elisabeth Gateau 2. Education: The Present Is the Future

Communications, Knowledge and the City: An Intercultural Debate ...... 141 Néstor García Canclini Drift ...... 151 Richard Sennett The Library as City-State ...... 165 Alberto Manguel City as Archive: Contemporary Urban Transformations and the Possibility of Politics... 177 . Vyjayanthi V. Rao Schooling and/or Educating in the Changing City ...... 187 Maxine Greene The City and its Educating Paths: School, Streets and Youth Mobility ...... 193 Jaqueline Moll Education and the Just Society ...... 205 Juan Carlos Tedesco Governance and Education ...... 215 Joan Subirats Lifelong Education: A Political Option ...... 227 Philippe Meirieu interviewed by Joan Manuel del Pozo

3. Educating Cities: 20 years

Educating Cities. International Congresses ...... 241 Testimonials ...... 267 Belo Horizonte: A City that Educates! ...... 269 An Educating District of Budapest ...... 271 Córdoba, an Educating City ...... 275 The Way Things Are in Dakar ...... 277 The Educational Dimension of Local Government Policies in Genoa ...... 279 To What Extent Is the Capital of the Republic of Togo, in Western Africa, an Educating City? ...... 283 Montevideo: A Learning Space ...... 285 Non-Formal Education: An Initiative for the Residents of Rennes ...... 287 São Paulo, an Educating City ...... 291 Vallenar, an Educating City: An Ongoing Challenge ...... 295

Epilogue

By Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of Unesco ...... 299 To the Reader

Eulàlia Bosch

Eulàlia Bosch (Barcelona 1949) is a lecturer in Philosophy. One of her main focuses of professional interest has been and continues to be to explore the relationship between the educational institutions and the cultural life of modern cities. From IREF (Research Institute on Philosophy) she fostered the expansion of the program of aesthetic education, through the Mystery Creatures (1992) and The Magic Box (1993) contemporary art exhibitions. As director of the Educational Department of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona she made further inroads into this field by organizing exhibitions such as To Remember Is To Make Memory (1997) and The City of the Words (1998).

Currently, as a partner of Gao, lletres, she is engaged in organizing and advising exhibitions (Oteiza, San Sebastian, 2000), publishing books (I Send You This Cadmium Red: A Correspondence on Color between John Berger and John Christie, Actar), the creation of educational programs for Internet (www.lapedreraeducacio.org, 2005) and acting as artistic and educational advisor to museums, schools and social and cultural centers. She has published numerous articles as well as the books The Pleasure of Beholding (Actar, Barcelona, 1998) and Education and Everyday Life (Browlow Education, Victoria Australia, 2005). Education and Urban Life: 20 Years of Edu- mately tied to the concept of education itself, cating Cities is a publication through which is the leitmotif of the opening section of the the International Association of Educating book that goes on to address issues such as: Cities is celebrating not only its twenty years contemporary mutations in public space— of existence, but also the launching of new Zygmunt Bauman; migratory processes and projects that will help incorporate into its their cultural implications—Blair Ruble; the programs the social and political changes power of the media—Josep Ramoneda; the that have had such a profound impact at the unsustainable socioeconomic inequalities turn of the century. on an international scale—Arcadi Oliveres; the search for “authenticity” in the forms of The idea behind this anthology is to foster urban development—Sharon Zukin; the in- discussion and establish a common reference clusion of the gender perspective in build- point for people in positions of responsibility ing a sense of community—Olivia Guaraldo; in local governments and in institutions and cultural responses to an ageing population— groups involved in educational tasks, as well Antón Costas; the new social links generated as for teachers working at all levels of educa- by the Internet—Genís Roca; and the impor- tion. That is to say, the book aims to serve tance of local governments in world govern- as a meeting point for those responsible for ance—Elisabeth Gateau. guiding and regulating the life of cities and those involved in education on a day-to-day The overarching concept for the second sec- basis. These are two spheres which, all too tion is education, that relationship which ex- frequently, find themselves so estranged that ists between knowledge and the ways it is they not only fail to recognize each other as transmitted, between learning processes and natural allies, but, in their mutual ignorance, personal development, between accumu- leave a vitally important issue unattended, an lated knowledge and the uniqueness of each issue that is the basis of the existence and individual…in sum, between the privacy and development of democratic societies: the po- sociability that citizens necessarily require. litical education of their citizens. Education understood as the ability allowing us to constantly recreate our way of under- The book is divided into three major sec- standing the world and living in it. tions: In his revision of the classical concept of The first focuses on some of the processes of character, Professor Richard Sennett provides change that are affecting urban systems to- context for the contemporary motto “no long day and profoundly alter our social life. term,” that defines a state of mind present today in many people’s everyday lives. This As Professor David Harvey points out in the generalized perception of fragility presents opening lines of his article, we cannot sepa- an extremely difficult challenge. There are no rate the kind of city we want from how we qualities more distant from the learning pro- want to live our lives and the kind of people cesses and consolidation of knowledge than we want to become. This observation, so inti- instability, impermanence and immediacy. 10 To the Reader

In this section, articles cover subjects such as of these meetings shows the process of de- the intercultural debate taking place in cities veloping an idea that only twenty years ago today—Néstor García Canclini; the contem- seemed somewhat impromptu and today is porary function of libraries, indisputable re- behind multiple programs in close to 400 cit- serves of knowledge since antiquity—Alberto ies throughout the world. Manguel; the idea of city as archive—Vyjay- anthi Rao; the connection between school- This section also includes statements by the ing and education in contemporary cities— mayors of some of these cities that have de- Maxine Greene; the concept of the urban cidedly chosen to make the existing edu- medium itself as a basic educative space— cational component visible as part of their regular political action. Jaqueline Moll; the relationship between education and justice—Juan Carlos Tedesco; The book concludes with a text by the Direc- the links between education and political life tor General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, in the cities—Joan Subirats; and the inevita- in which he points out that education and bility of the ongoing learning processes— training are the most valuable assets of cit- Philippe Meirieu and Joan Manuel del Pozo. ies in the context of globalization. I hope this book will serve to spread this idea and sug- Last, but not least, the third section of the gest new ways of understanding education book provides a brief overview of the bienni- that are closely tied to the desire for fulfill- al congresses of the International Association ment to which all human beings aspire and of Educating Cities congresses. The history have a right. Introduction The People’s City

Pasqual Maragall

Pasqual Maragall i Mira (Barcelona, 1941) holds a Ph.D. in Econom- ic Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a Law degree from the Universitat de Barcelona. He was a driving force behind Convergència Socialista de Catalunya, one of the founding groups of the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC-PSOE).

He served as mayor of Barcelona for 15 years (1982-1997). In 1986, the city was selected to host the 1992 Olympic Games. Organizing that event resulted in a transformation of, and unprecedented notoriety for, the city.

During his tenure from 2003-2006 as President of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan government), his administration passed the referendum to reform the Catalan Statute of Autonomy on June 18, 2006. The People’s City

“What is the city but the people?” torship had so bloodily disrupted and sought William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (1608), to erase. Our parents were of the generation Act. 3, Scene 1 of the thirties, the generation of the Spanish Republic that, throughout years of upheaval and in a splintered country, trusted in the Twenty-five years ago—the span of a gener- paramount values of education and culture ation—my city, Barcelona, found itself im- to solve the problems of century-old regres- mersed in a process of urban reconstruction. sion and strained coexistence that burdened At the time, the city was emerging from a Spain in those times. It was the generation long period marked by the absence of de- of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (Free mocracy and self-government, by negligent Institution of Education), and of the Institut- city planning, by a dearth of public and pri- Escola (Institute-School) that—together with vate investments, and by a general lack of individuals such as Marta Mata, Catalan ambition and self-esteem. We were coming educator and Head of Education for the City out from under a dictatorship and everything, of Barcelona (1987-1995)—were, in and of or nearly everything, needed to be done. But themselves, living declarations of principles. we were not working in a vacuum, or starting from scratch. We did not have to build a city: We had to restore that generation’s values we had to rebuild it, remake it. Those were and make them the backbone of our efforts. the terms we used at the time, because we Our mission was to create an educated ur- knew that the city itself had the elements, the ban environment, respectful of the past yet tools and, in effect, the people who would eager to propel the city into the future; an make that renovation possible. We were, at environment that would heal the wounds in- the same time, heirs to the work of Mies van flicted on the city’s urban and social fabric der Rohe (1929 Pavilion), Gaudí, Functional- by non-democratic city planning; one that ism and Modern Baroque. would involve people and make them feel proud, once again, of belonging to the city; This all began in 1979, with the reinstatement one that would create a consensus among of democracy at a municipal level—the same the different voices; and one that could use year that the Catalan Statute of Autonomy was the creative force of the free market for the approved under the Spanish Constitution of common good. (At the time, members of 1978. At the forefront of this effort was a gen- Britain’s Labour Party said: “We don’t wor- eration of individuals including Narcís Serra ship the market, we use it.”). All of that led to and myself, Xavier Rubert de Ventós, Josep A. the creation of a modus operandi, a model. García Durán, Josep Maria Vegara and oth- It was a model that, in a sense, culminated in ers, born in the immediate post-Spanish Civil the hosting of the 1992 Olympic Games and War years. We were the children of a genera- was named just that, the “Barcelona Model.” tion whose lives had been marked by the Re- The model aroused widespread interest. In public and the war. Because of what we had the years leading up to 1992, we traveled to experienced at home, what our parents had numerous cities in Europe and in the United experienced, we felt committed to restoring States, to explain what we were doing, what the democratic tradition that Franco’s dicta- our aims were. 16 Introduction

I particularly remember one of these expe- of the city government, close to the families riences. We were in Boston, the most “Eng- and their children’s teachers. But also—and lish” of American cities. I was giving a talk at perhaps this was most important—we knew the Boston Athenaeum and used an expres- that cities educate. We knew that a city “with sion to sum up our intentions: “The city is its manners,” with intelligent architecture and people.” An elderly gentleman in the audi- urban planning serving everyone’s needs, ence pointed out, “That’s from Shakespeare!” with transportation and personal safety issues Without even realizing it, I was in fact quot- addressed, with the aim of putting decision- ing Shakespeare. Coriolanus, to be precise. It making power in the hands of the people, the is a tragedy based on the world of politics and neighborhoods and the community groups, politicians, a reflection on governing. When would most likely yield a stronger sense of the tribunes have Coriolanus arrested, with community than many educational programs, the support of the plebeians, Sicini states, however well-intentioned they may be. “What is the city but the people?” The idea that the city can, and must be, both That was our belief. We stood behind the idea a setting for education as well as an educat- of bringing power closer to the people. Later ing agent is the spirit behind “educating cit- on, the European Union would adopt what ies,” a concept that emerged almost twenty is known as “subsidiarity” among its main years ago. It is a project addressed to the city principles. Drawn from Catholic teachings, and, if I dare say so, the world at large. With it essentially means that whatever the local the hope that it be well-received, shared, re- administration can take care of, a higher ad- defined and reshaped by many other cities ministration need not be concerned with. and many other people. This book is about We fought for schools to be under the aegis the experience. Educating Cities: A Commitment to the Future

Pilar Figueras Bellot

Pilar Figueras Bellot is a teacher, with degrees in Music and Psychol- ogy.

Currently a Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, where she has also been Department Head, Director of the Escuela de Formación del Profesorado teacher’s college, and Vice Dean. She previously served as a schoolteacher for Preschool, Primary and Sec- ondary Education, as well as Music Specialist.

While at the Barcelona City Council, she has been Director of Edu- cational Services; Director of the Barcelona Municipal Music Con- servatory and Director of Music Education.

She gave impetus to and directed the 1st International Congress of Educating Cities and was Secretary of the “Barcelona, Ciutat Educa- dora” Interdepartmental Commission.

Since 1994, she has been Secretary General of the International As- sociation of Educating Cities (IAEC).

She has also authored numerous publications on the subjects of music education and “Educating Cities.” Educating Cities: A Commitment to the Future

The concept of the educational city was ini- represents an undeniable source of inspira- tially proposed in 1972 by Edgar Faure and tion and richness. others1 in the collective work “Apprendre à être.” The decalogue approved by the General As- sembly in Jerusalem (1999) on the occasion With this thought-provoking approach as a of the 5th International Congress (www.edci- precursor, the Barcelona City Council coined ties.org) revealed the need for Educating City and adopted the Educating City2 concept in proposals to go beyond young children and 1989 and presented it as a proposal that in- their first years of schooling to include the tegrated the city’s formal, nonformal and in- entire population and all areas (urban plan- formal education for all of its inhabitants. It ning and development, culture, social serv- also reflected a political, public and active ices, the environment, sports, the economy, commitment that had a bearing on families, health, etc.). schools, city councils, associations, cultural industries, businesses and other institutions The changes taking place in societies and cit- and groups. ies prompted us to update the Charter,5 taking into account the contents of its last article After some personal reflection with the bene- (“This Charter, therefore, should be expanded fit of hindsight, I believe that initially focusing to include aspects that have not been dealt the first International Congress of Educating with on this occasion.”), and incorporate new Cities on childhood and youth, and placing themes and opportunities, without ignoring a clear emphasis on these age groups when drawing up the Charter,3 greatly limited the the difficulties (lifelong learning, intercultural awareness of the idea’s scope and possibili- and intergenerational dialogue, city accessi- ties, despite the publication of a book on the bility for dependent individuals, sustainable subject4—which dealt with the concept from development, ICT training, etc.). a variety of viewpoints—and the content of the presentations given during the Congress In retrospect, we can state that in each and itself. every city, the Charter serves as a tool for building and development, both individually I think that with the passing of time and a and collectively. great deal of effort, this idea is becoming increasingly present, concrete and developed Today, experience enables us to confirm in accordance with its scope, and that the some of the assertions made in 1990 and add way it has been carried out in various cities some new ones as well.

1 Edgar Faure et al.: “Apprendre à être.” (Learning to Be) UNESCO, 1972. pg. 239 ff. 2 Adopted on the occasion of the 1st International Congress of Educating Cities: Barcelona, 1990. 3 Charter of Educating Cities: drawn up and adopted during the Congress. 4 Various authors: “The Educating City.” Barcelona City Council, 1990. 5 (www.edcities.org) Genoa, 2004: 8th International Congress of Educating Cities. 20 Introduction

Education is a shared task: families and The educating city concept is directly related schools, as well as many other still unrecog- to other concepts such as: equality, inclusive nized agents, form a new scenario, a new ed- citizenship, cohesion, sustainability and educational “system” that is present throughout ucation for peace. citizens’ lives and needs to be understood, considered and developed. We do, howev- It is important to keep in mind that the con- er, insist that this shared task should in no cept of the educating city is based on three way ignore the essential role of families and keystones: schools, which will undoubtedly have to adjust to the new scenario. effective communication of the opportunities provided by the city to each and every Every day we come across unquestionable citizen. For Local Governments it also means proof that urban planning, culture, schools, explaining the whys and hows of their poli- sports, environmental and health issues, eco- cies, that is, to make politics educational; nomic and budgetary matters, transport and traffic, safety and services, the media, etc., joint participation of citizens: previously de- contain and include different values, knowl- fining and agreeing on scope, limits and ar- edge and skills that must be considered key eas; factors in educating citizens. assessment of the educational impact of dif- The educating city is a new paradigm at the ferent policies and their level of usefulness core of which are knowledge, awareness and and efficiency. development of the educational factors contained in different policies and actions, in all Local governments, the main promot- areas, in addition to the assessment of their ers of adherence to the Charter, need to impact. become involved in the task of creating a political discourse that convinces citi- Although the preamble of the Charter of Edu- zens and municipal representatives of the cating Cities states that the city “offers count- need for interdisciplinary and cross-sector less opportunities for education. However, collaboration not only between the larg- the city can also be influenced by educating est number of individuals and associations forces used in a negative way...,” we would in the city, but also among all municipal like to point out that the city is educating departments. when this intention is implicit in the way it is presented to its inhabitants. Without a doubt, the position of greatest influence on this process, as occurs in all We confirm the important role of local gov- transversal policies, is that held by the may- ernments in building educating cities: citi- or, whose conviction determines the attitude zens’ representatives listen, encourage, sug- of political and technical collaborators, and gest, coordinate, propose, lead and execute, who should therefore be the nominal and ef- as the case may be. fective leader: first, in standing behind and promoting the idea and then in applying the The educating city is a proposal and a com- Charter of Educating Cities. mitment that is necessarily shared by local governments and civil society. Clearly, for a Local authorities need to find and develop city that aims to be educational, education the educational, or civil, aspect present in lo- in a broad sense becomes an essential and cal policies. (Although not among its formal all-encompassing concern of its political aims, the democratic city that is fully devel- agenda. oped educates.) Educating Cities: A Commitment to the Future 21

This aspect calls for and justifies an interdis- rhythms and levels of involvement, which ciplinary process of cross-sector, analytical, are related to their history, location, specific propositional planning that often requires characteristics and political programs. new management models. It is necessary to know how to contextualize and contrast any The International Association of Educat- proposal, whether external or internal, with ing Cities defends this global conception of one’s own reality. education that permeates all aspects of city life and encompasses the entire population. For this to be possible, for each city to really Its purpose is to foster dialogue and the ex- create its own educational project, the local change and mutual understanding of the structure must take preliminary steps and different ways of implementing the Charter adopt new forms of internal organization that of Educating Cities in each of the cities in- allow for cross-sector planning and interdis- volved. ciplinarity. It also calls for new forms of civil society participation, which each city should The vitality of the International Association implement according to its specific makeup of Educating Cities and the cities that are and requirements. joining it every day constitute a driving force towards a common, secure, positive and As time has passed and we have gained promising future. We cannot ignore the chal- greater knowledge about the many cities lenges, adversities and difficulties. Instead, we are working with, we have realized that we must have the same courage, conviction the methods for implementing and develop- and confidence that has been demonstrated ing the educating city concept are as varied by some four hundred cities worldwide. This as the cities themselves. They have different is the challenge. This is the future. The Concept of the Educating City Today

Joan Manuel del Pozo

Joan Manuel del Pozo. PhD in Philosophy from the Universitat de Barcelona and currently Professor of Philosophy at the Universitat de Girona. He was Vice-rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer at the Universitat de Girona (2000-2002).

He served as a representative in the Spanish Parliament from 1982-1996.

Beginning in 1995, he was First Deputy Mayor of the City of Gi- rona, and later was Head of Participation, Information and Citizen Relations (1995-1999), Head of Education (1999-2003) and Head of Presidency and Education (2003-2006).

From 2004 through 2005 he was coordinator of the National Educa- tion Pact regarding the co-responsibility of city councils in educational matters and was a member of the Catalan Board of Educa- tion.

In 2006 he served as Minister of Education and Universities for the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan government).

From November 2006 to January 2008 he served as a member of the Catalan Parliament.

As of January 2008 he is a member of the Advisory Board for the Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Media. The Concept of the Educating City Today

In 1990, from her position in the Barcelona of the Charter, an educating city—both prior City Council, Marta Mata, the highly regard- to the Charter reform and still today—has ed Catalan educator who remained active in always been one that, under the leadership her field until her death in 2006, put forward of its democratic representatives, encourages a civic and educative ideal that became con- and offers opportunities for education, in ceptualized as the “Educating City.” Like all the broadest sense of the term, to everyone ideas which, far from being Platonically per- in a city, individuals and associations alike. fect and fixed, are rooted in the complexity One of the main purposes of education is to and changeability of life today, the concept of stimulate maximum growth for both individ- the educating city changes along with cities uals and groups and foster the development and their inhabitants; this change does not of their potential and projects; we must also imply merely being subjected to all types of remember that interaction among people growing pressures and difficulties, but rather and institutions, associations, companies or coordinating with, and adapting to, the new any other group is precisely what can serve characteristics and needs of cities. The true as the seed for the growth and fullness of all spirit behind the initial concept of the edu- those who share the urban space, meaning cating city need not be lost in this process that it has educative power. One could say of change, since it innately responds to un- that anything done by an individual or group derlying and unchanging human and social either has educative or “diseducative” value, questions. Ongoing change, however, is also since no action taken is ever neutral or indif- a constant in the lives of individuals and in ferent in terms of how it affects the develop- society as a whole, and therefore any project ment of others. The educating city is aware— based in reality—including one maintaining and strives to extend that awareness—of the a certain ideal—must be able to coordinate possible mutual benefits resulting from the with, and take root in, the new profile of cit- interaction of people and groups within the ies and the people within them, on both the city’s public space, and aims to tap all of its individual and group levels. positive potential in order to contribute to the personal and social development of its In order to adapt the concept of the Educating inhabitants. City and its proposals to the intense changes our cities are undergoing, the IAEC drew up and approved at its 2004 Congress in Genoa, Changes in the Contemporary City Italy—fourteen years after the idea was originally conceived—a revised Charter of Edu- Today’s city is becoming increasingly complex cating Cities, which is the focus of this article. in nature and while this brings enrichment, it also generates problems.1 This complexity Over and above the important formality of ap- is not just a result of the number of people proving and endorsing the twenty Principles constantly moving into one or another of the

1 Most of this analysis of changes in the contemporary city and the effects of those changes is drawn from the book Ciudades posibles by González Quirós, José Luis (editor and introduction) et al., compiled by the Escuela Contem- poránea de Humanidades. Madrid: Lengua de Trapo, 2003. 26 Introduction world’s cities: every day, an estimated two tution—or at least alteration—of real city life, hundred fifty thousand people worldwide with images, symbols and showcases depict- move from rural areas into the cities. That is ing and displaying that life; the manipulation a significant quantitative change that brings of individuals for commercial and consumer with it—and to a certain extent spurs—qual- purposes; the steady loss of historical mem- itative changes in relation to how we lived ory, replaced by the intensive bombardment in, and thought about, our cities up until the of news and messages of every sort encour- last quarter of the 20th century. These qualita- aging people to live in a media-focused tive changes are largely due to globalization present, fed by constant mindless movement resulting from the dramatic transformation and the drive to consume encouraged by in all forms of communication, propelled by advertising; distant and virtual personal con- rapid technological advances. tacts displacing closer, physical contacts; the sort of individualism that views urban life as Some of the main qualitative changes—pri- a risk, where the opportunity factor appears marily those generating the greatest sense to outweigh the risk factor and where empha- of unease—which I simply list here without sis is placed on competition as a means of further analysis are: wide-scale digitaliza- achieving dominant positions in the constant tion and the progressively expanding virtual exchange encouraged by the city; an individ- world; the intensified use, often even abuse, ualism that also requires increased—and of- of urban space for exchanging all types of ten disproportionate—protection against the goods and values; the increased volume and dangers that the risk—initially considered pace of all types of flux and movement related opportunity—carries with it. to exchange and commerce; the proliferation of messages and symbols, especially through Other similar analyses3 stress that the effects advertising; the abundance of—and pressure of these accelerated changes provide the imposed by—publicity turning us into spec- ideal setting for a “culture of immediacy,” tators, above all else; the growing tendency, with time being neither circular nor linear, unnecessary yet predictable, to turn life in but rather strictly “pointillist,” creating in our the city, and everything happening within it, cities’ inhabitants a “presentist” concept of into a grand spectacle2; the transformation of the culture, characterized by the precari- that very spectacle into a consumer product; ousness of individual identities and the ties in the end, the city becoming the stage for an among them, to the point where that seems ever-changing public show. to represent the substance of individual freedom in our culture. This culture, now clearly Some of the effects of this—again only men- liquid—lacking secure or solid points of tioned here—include the steady and increas- reference—does not encourage a desire to ingly accelerated movement of people, ve- learn and amass, but rather seems to be one hicles and all types of products and goods, of distancing, disconnection and oblivion. In physical or otherwise; the progressive substi- this situation—where definition and commit-

2 An example of wide-scale provocation that we have seen repeatedly are Oliviero Toscani’s photographs used in advertisements for international clothing companies. Photos and advertising campaigns of that nature are an example of how real human and social problems, such as immigration, HIV and anorexia, are marketed by being turned into spectacles. It is interesting to consider what might be the predominant element in play here: is it the “art” of the photograph, is it the “human subject” or is it ultimately just pure, unadulterated business? In any case, cities become the stage for, and its people, the spectators of, shameless exhibitionism. Perhaps that is a useful way of collectively raising people’s consciousness; or a damaging “endorsement” of abnormal conditions such as anorexia; or simply brazenly immoral in its self-interested exploitation of human pain. 3 Thoughts drawn from Zygmunt Bauman’s piece Els Reptes de l’educació en la modernitat liquida (Educational Challenges of the Liquid-Modern Era). Barcelona: Arcadia, 2007. The Concept of the Educating City Today 27 ment are virtually null—the city’s democratic ening of local governments in urban policy; public space and social and territorial cohe- and finally, the revamped concept of citizens sion are seriously threatened.4 as the subjects of an urban policy in constant reform as a result of their participation in the With regard to the rich concept of public process. space, Jordi Borja5 points out the relationship between its physical configuration and how Bauman, in concluding his analysis7 of the it is used by people, understood as the statute educative challenges in the liquid-modern allowing for certain civic, political and social era, indicates some paths forward that, as rights and responsibilities to be exercised; in we will see, coincide at many points, both his words, “The quality of a public space can in terms of what we have said regarding the be assessed above all by the intensity and idea of democratic public space and with the quality of the social relationships which it fa- proposed new Charter of Educating Cities. cilitates, by the degree to which groups and Among other things, he points out the need behaviors mix within it and by its capacity to for: building and rebuilding ties among peo- stimulate the symbolic identification, expres- ple; encouraging people to live hospitably sion and integration of cultures.” Bauman side by side; promoting mutually enriching recently emphasized once again the impor- cooperation in order to raise individual and tance of the “mixing” capacity of the city’s collective self-esteem; developing hidden physical space, criticizing urban policy of potential in individuals and making the best “homogenizing the neighborhoods and then use of each person’s abilities. All of this is reducing all commerce and communication summarized in the idea—literally expressed among them to the inevitable minimum (...), in the sense of “rebuilding public space”— a foolproof way to stimulate and intensify the of constant dialogue between the individual desire to exclude and segregate. (...) The fu- and the community and the rights and re- sion which mutual understanding requires sponsibilities of all citizens; and in the con- can only come from shared experience; and cept of a life-long process of education that sharing experience is inconceivable if space not only keeps people abreast of changes in has not first been shared.”6 work and technology but, above all, revives the spirit of citizenship. Numerous citizen movements, in conjunction with their local democratic governments, The educating city, faced with the complex, have made advances to improve the quality ever-changing yet stimulating situation at of public spaces. These include: recognition hand, with all the associated challenges, of the importance of the urban environment, cannot presume to single-handedly respond quality of life in the neighborhoods, and the to all of those difficulties and challenges. It creation and balance of new urban cores; can, however, as we shall see, aspire to gen- also, improvements in city democracy, citi- erating a quality urban climate of coexist- zens’ consensus and participation in plans ence, providing awareness of the changes and projects, and, consequently, the strength- taking place, and ways of managing its com-

4 In 1998, Jordi Borja’s article “Ciudadanía y espacio público” referred to the “fear of public space.” “It is neither a protective nor protected space. In some cases it has not been planned with security in mind but rather considering traffic flow or parking needs, or is simply a residual space between buildings and roads. In other cases it has been occupied by society’s dangerous classes: immigrants, the poor and the marginalized.” Article published within the AAVV series, Ciutat real, ciutat ideal. Significat i funció a l’espai urbà modern. Urbanitats, no. 7. Barcelona: Centro de Cultura Contemporánea, 1998. 5 Ibid. 6 Bauman, Z., Confianza y temor en la ciudad (Trust and Fear in the City). Barcelona: Arcadia, 2006, p. 38. 7 Bauman, Z., op.cit. p. 38 ff. 28 Introduction plexity, of reducing and overcoming some of systems with their stars, planets, satellites the negative aspects and fostering the oppor- and asteroids of every sort spinning wildly tunities and positive elements arising from around stunned individuals who, paradoxi- the change. We believe that one of the best cally and naïvely, think that they control the ways to view the Charter is as a program that world with their remote control. truly attends to and promotes quality democratic public space, with education as one Aside from this training, now considered of its main—but by no means exclusive or rather basic, the educating city must concen- exclusionist—focuses. trate its efforts on sustaining and reinforcing the community ties that still remain in many The city today continues to be—as much as cities and stimulate them in places where or more than before—a space of freedom they have weakened or are at risk of disap- and communication; and although commu- pearing. The community aspect of a city is nication is colored by commercial interests essential from an educating perspective: in and often targeted to consumerism, the in- order to understand one another, citizens trinsic mix of the people who live there, in need to be actively cooperating and living intelligent combination with the new com- together, not seeing themselves as separate munications capabilities and technology, individuals in cold juxtaposition to each oth- provides the opportunity to create and de- er. Mere juxtaposition doesn’t create a city; liver messages that are neither commercial it simply creates a depository of individuals. nor consumer-oriented. A city aspiring to Only participatory and interactive coexist- be an educating city must adapt itself to the ence can create civic space and give sub- demands of the new globalized and digital stance to political projects in the best sense world in order to more efficiently protect of that term: we must remember that to the the democratic public space, applying the Greek founders of the concept of city (polis), same communication techniques and styles the verb politeuesthai did not mean “doing that are effectively used to other ends. With- politics”—a poor literal translation—as in its out a doubt, the city, working together with current professional sense, but rather “en- both formal and non-formal educators, will gaging as a citizen,” “actively participating in need to guide its inhabitants—especially, and exercising civic rights.” In other words, though not exclusively, younger people—in being a citizen was intrinsically and closely the direction of gaining a conceptual com- tied to the community’s public activity. In ad- mand and ethical understanding of the “new dition, this way of life was closely related, alphabets,” the tools and the infinite possi- as Jaeger demonstrated, to the “education bilities of communication and information for” or “culture of”—the two main senses exchange in the 21st century. This is surely of the concept of paideia—civic action or the central point from which—with great ef- participation (“politics,” in its etymological fort and modest forecasts of success—we can sense): “Education is not individual property, make a qualitative change in our cities. At but rather belongs, by its very nature, to the the same time, it must be made clear that the community. The character of the community “conceptual and ethical” training obviously is imprinted on its individual members and, means more than mere technical ability or in the case of humans and to a much greater command of the wide range of instruments: degree than in animals, is the zoon politikon, it means, above all, full consciousness of the the source of all action and all behavior.”8 aims, the values and the human and social Against the backdrop of this Greek cultural- undercurrent that are in play every day in the political model, one could say that at present immense communications galaxy that the “creating an educating city” must involve, world has become; entire communications simply and essentially, “fully creating a city.”

8 Jaeger, Werner, Paideia: los ideales de la cultura griega. Mexico: F.C.E., 2nd ed., 2nd printing, 1971, p. 3. The Concept of the Educating City Today 29

Fully creating cities, with the participation of and democratic contexts, along with an im- their inhabitants, provides the best possible proved public space where people can fully education—including formal education— participate as citizens; in this regard, the and the cities fully become educators; at the ideal of an educating city is no longer just same time, educating citizens—formally and a wishful and, without question, well-inten- otherwise—to fully exercise their citizenship tioned idea but becomes something that can is the seed of the best city imaginable and be claimed as a right by every individual in possible. their respective cities. Needless to say, how effectively this right is carried out depends on other authorities outside the framework of The 2004 Genoa Charter Reform the Charter, but it can serve as a positive impetus. Thus, the first article refers to the right In the IAEC’s efforts to adapt the first Char- to an educating city as an “extension” of the ter of Educating Cities to the changes taking basic right—a Human Right, one granted place in cities, certain ideas were developed under democratic constitutions—of all indi- that added breadth and depth to the overall viduals to an education. In essence it states concept. that only in the context of an educating city can the fundamental right of every individual A new element introduced in the update of to a formal school education be totally ful- the 1990 Charter was the more explicit state- filled. In other words, the formal schooling of ment of the general guidelines for the Edu- individuals is essential and necessary, yet not cating City which, though perhaps implicit enough: there is added value in an educating in the first version, warranted more attention city, to which its citizens also have a right. in order to stress points that redefine and consolidate the document. This was accom- The second and third sections together are plished by regrouping the twenty principles, a direct response to the first: with the basic or articles, of the Charter under three new right to education recognized, there must be subheadings; for the sake of consistency, a “commitment on the part of the city” (sec- the number of articles remains the same, tion two) to “serve its inhabitants” (section although the content and order have under- three). First, it is important to look closely at gone significant changes. the idea of commitment, the ethical/political connotation of which surpasses a city’s mere These guidelines connect the texts as follows: obligation to efficiently and honestly manage first, “the right to an educating city,” encom- day-to-day affairs; making a commitment re- passing six articles; then, “the city’s com- quires proactively recognizing the right of in- mitment,” covering another six; and finally, dividuals to what we are calling the “added “fully serving its inhabitants,” comprising value” above and beyond the right to formal the remaining eight articles. The idea behind schooling, and putting that into effect. All in this is not necessarily to group the articles all, it would be simplistic, and not in keeping by subject matter, but rather to convey the with the spirit of the Charter, to place sole general spirit of the Charter—in each section responsibility for this commitment on the and especially in the interrelationship among shoulders of city administrators; in fact, the the sections—and clarify its goals. Charter refers to the city’s commitment, not the “city council’s” commitment, and thus Let us take a closer look: the concept of “the the duty of carrying it out is understood to fall right to an educating city” is designed to be a to the city as a whole, though naturally under step towards providing the inhabitants of all the leadership of its democratic representa- cities with the legitimate aspiration to rede- tives. In that way, the right to an educating fine their city as an educating city, meaning city becomes, in the best sense, a true right/ one that offers quality of life in both personal duty for everyone: for the city’s representa- 30 Introduction tives, certainly, but also for its people. The of fostering intergenerational dialogue and city’s commitment is very much one of “serv- cooperation11 in order to encourage, to the ing its inhabitants” as stated in the heading highest degree possible, social integration of of part three, which is a natural sequel to the people of all ages and the resulting mutually previous section. Indeed, the idea is that eve- beneficial exchange of knowledge and expe- ryone living in the city truly feels attended riences. Closely related to the above crite- to—by the city as a whole and especially by ria—concerned with ageing and accessibility its democratic representatives—as a citizen issues—and in connection with the new glo- with rights and, very importantly, as an indi- balized knowledge society, the revised Char- vidual with a real possibility of fully devel- ter focuses on the need for educating cities oping his/her potential, regardless of age or to guarantee to all—and particularly to those life circumstance (a classic and fundamental segments of the population which, due to goal of education), and achieving the high- age or other factors, find themselves outside est quality of life (a basic goal of democratic of the learning circles—access to training in governance, and the only one possible in an information and communication technolo- educating city). gies.12 The goal here is not only the ability to use computers and related tools, but more Without going into a detailed description of importantly to know how to select from, un- each of the twenty articles, it may be worth- derstand and handle the flood of available while briefly noting, so as to further clarify information, thereby evading one of the new the concept of the “educating city,” the new causes of social exclusion—something un- elements incorporated into the 2004 Char- imaginable in years past. On another level, ter and the adjustments made to the original the Charter reform also addresses the new document for the purpose of adapting it to and increasingly necessary concept of “sus- the characteristics and demands of cities at tainable development” with express men- the start of the 21st century. The main changes introduced in the charter reform begin with tion of the balance between the city and placing emphasis on the need and the right nature, the right to a healthy environment and overall participation in the good prac- of all individuals to ongoing educational op- 13 portunities throughout their lives,9 a princi- tices of sustainable development. Another ple embraced by a broad range of interna- form of sustainability that demands our at- tional forums as an essential requirement in a tention is democratic sustainability, which, fast-changing world, with an eye not only to as the Charter Preamble states, is lacking suf- a steady improvement in work-related skills, ficient structure with regard to all that is hap- but also to family, civic, communications pening within the new global context; thus, and social capabilities. A second important several points of the new Charter include new criterion was the wide-scale improve- stronger and clearer references to promoting ment of facilities allowing everyone—partic- the essential values of democracy, freedom, ularly individuals with disabilities, physical equality, cultural diversity and international or otherwise—access to all of the city’s serv- solidarity;14 it especially stresses, in the last ices, buildings and public spaces,10 a priority article, the importance of what we could call in terms of quality of urban life. Another im- the foundations of democratic culture: edu- portant point, both in its own right and with cating each and every person with values of regard to how populations evolve, was that respect, tolerance, participation, responsibil-

9 Arts. 1 and 19 of the Charter of Educating Cities; updated in Genoa in 2004. 10 Arts. 1, 8 and 10. 11 Art. 3. 12 Art. 19. 13 Art. 11. 14 Arts. 1 and 2. The Concept of the Educating City Today 31 ity and interest in public concerns, programs, education, and of the different possible paths goods and services.15 leading to a full understanding of the city,18 all of which traditionally have remained on the periphery of formal education. The Charter’s Basic Principles Leading on, then, from this understanding of It would not be fair or accurate, however, to the city, the Charter places importance on focus only on the main points of the Char- preserving each city’s individual identity, in ter reform; as we mentioned at the start, all of its complexity; on maintaining its cus- the new Charter maintains the overall spirit toms, roots and languages, always with a of the original document and the newly in- view to encouraging social integration and corporated elements simply serve to further unity.19 In similar terms, it establishes that consolidate it by adapting it to the present urban planning must focus on the creation circumstances. of public space that is accessible, that people can identify with and that draws them Therefore, I would like to conclude this piece together, in order to encourage personal, so- 20 on the current concept of the “educating cial, moral and cultural development. One city” by reviewing the basic principles and element that is key to the spirit of the edu- the enduring—and, thus, also current—val- cating city and particularly apropos to this ues on which it is based; though these may planning approach, is citizen participation; have been reordered and updated, they re- clichés aside, it is clear that quality of life in main as solid as they were at the outset. The a democratic urban environment is directly following is not a detailed description, but proportionate to the degree to which citizens participate in the life of their city: therefore, rather a synthesis of the essential elements of the Charter maintains that the educating city the Charter. shall encourage critical and responsible citizen involvement, providing the necessary in- The first is the right to equal opportunities for formation and civic organizations by which the education, leisure and personal growth to accomplish that.21 offered by the city as a whole,16 one of the main pillars of any educating city. Logical- Other basic points addressed in the Charter ly, another key feature of the Charter is the include developing personal initiative and specific concern with city policies regard- autonomy in children and young people, ing education, urging that they be carried providing them with cultural and recrea- out within a framework of social justice, tional opportunities and information,22 and democratic community spirit, quality of city guiding them towards an education suited to 17 life and support for its citizens; and, in a the needs of the labor market.23 Families and very particular way—given the added value teachers alike will be given the training and it brings—encouraging the exploration of incentive needed to help them better educate broad, multidirectional and innovative ap- their children,24 that being a very important proaches to both non-formal and informal influence in one’s lifetime education; like-

15 Art. 20. 16 Art. 1. 17 Art. 4. 18 Art. 5. 19 Art. 7. 20 Arts. 8 and 10. 21 Arts. 9, 12 and 18. 22 Art. 13. 23 Art. 15. 24 Art. 14. 32 Introduction wise, this will extend to individuals working them as well;27 where only the idea of exclu- in the public service sector, including secu- sion—the least educative approach, at either rity forces, emphasizing the model of a city an individual or group level—is excluded. open to educating, in the broadest sense of the word, as a coherent, unifying whole. In The final words of the Charter Preamble keeping with this, the Charter addresses the serve as a particularly fitting closure to this importance of coordination among the city’s article: “There must be a real fusion—during administrative bodies and with social and the stage of formal education and throughout civic organizations, particularly those in the adulthood—of the city’s resources and edu- service sector.25 cative potential with the natural development A basic principle underlying the Charter as a of the educational, labor and social systems. whole is the concept of social unity. It reap- The right to an educating city must include pears in different articles, stated in different a guarantee of the principles of equality for ways but with a single purpose: working to all, social justice, and territorial balance. This create a city where each and every person calls on local governments to develop all of has a place in society;26 where policies are the city’s educational potential by incorpo- established to assure immigrants and refu- rating the principles of the educating city gees the right to feel that the city belongs to into its political policy.”

25 Art. 17. 26 Art. 15. 27 Art. 16. Barcelona: A City Committed to Education

Jordi Hereu

Jordi Hereu (Barcelona, 1965) has been the Socialist Party Mayor of Barcelona since 2006, a post to which he was elected by the citizens of Barcelona in the 2007 municipal elections. He holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the prestigious ESADE Business School. Be- fore starting his career in the Barcelona City Council, he worked with a number of companies associated with the port of Barcelona.

After joining the Barcelona City Council in 1997, Jordi Hereu has had ties with the local public sector and over the past 10 years has held various posts in the areas most closely related to citizen affairs. As head of local government in Barcelona, Jordi Hereu has defined the following strategic foundations and political priorities as his political agenda: social cohesion, economic development and international projection; coexistence and security in proximity; sustainability and the fight against climate change, capital status, etc. Barcelona: A City Committed to Education

I recently took another look at the Charter ants, regardless of their age, circumstances of Educating Cities adopted at the 1st In- or origin. At the same time, the initiative does ternational Congress held in Barcelona in not undervalue the two most powerful tools 1990. The preamble to the Charter (revised for achieving educational goals: the family in 1994 and 2004) reads as follows: “Today and the school system. more than ever the city, large or small, offers countless opportunities for education. Education is now being redefined, just at a However, the city can also be influenced by time when new technologies (which offer educating forces used in a negative way.” It vast amounts of unfiltered information) are is a good start. Especially if we consider that inundating the mental and physical space of the last article of the Charter reads: “The edu- adolescents and young people. Indeed we cating city must offer all its inhabitants, as are redefining our entire society from top to a necessary, growing objective for the com- bottom: the way we live, interact, work, form munity, education in the values and practices groups, grow rich and become poor. Eve- of a democratic citizenry: respect, tolerance, rything is in flux because globalization has participation, responsibility and interest in shaken up the old tracts of land we used to things public, its programmes, heritage and inhabit and had so carefully measured out. services.” These changes, however, are for the good: we have opened up to the world, we have This objective is now shared by hundreds of the whole world right here in Catalonia, and cities around the world, each with its own we have access to a broader array of more specific cultural, social, economic and po- effective tools to deal with challenges. That litical conditions. Despite their differences, said, it must be recognized that any profound they are linked by a determination to im- change is bound to be accompanied by a prove the quality of life for citizens, not only crisis. We must be aware that we are living materially (environment and services), but through a crisis in the educational system, also by helping build civil society. This is an but we must also understand the term “cri- encouraging view of the role of the city be- sis” in a constructive way. We will overcome cause it connects the individual and the col- this crisis precisely because we know what is lective. The initial impetus behind the pro- happening to us. gram and this underlying idea emerged from Barcelona at a time when the city was caught Barcelona has always been committed to up in the transformation process that began quality public education. For more than a with the arrival of democracy in Spain. The hundred years the Barcelona City Council basic aim was to create a city that was more has acted on this commitment. The city has just, friendlier, fairer and more dignified. In a achieved a great deal in terms of educational sense, Barcelona wanted to share this drive renewal, and we have passed many mile- and energy with the world, and it pursued stones that reflect our determination to move this goal in the best possible way, by putting ahead towards an educational model that is into circulation a generous, elevated notion fair, democratic, open and civic-oriented. So of what a city can be, one that highlights the it is not surprising that 20 years ago Barcelona role of cities in educating all of their inhabit- enthusiastically put forward the “educating 36 Introduction city” project, something I particularly value and provides support for the projects each because I am convinced that cities have a individual dreams of carrying out. Are these role to play in managing values. I believe cit- things not values? ies can and should convey the basic values that enable us to live together in harmony. It takes training, though, to read the city in terms of values. The task of teaching this skill In this regard, public authorities have a part is shared (or should be) by schools and fami- to play. It is their role to create the frame- lies. It is the symbiosis between these two work for social cohesion within which citi- irreplaceable systems that produces new citizens can live together harmoniously. But the zens who are educated, socially responsible, human dimension is much more nuanced. critical, and active participants in the com- Background, character, environment and im- munity. The third factor having an impact on plicit education are all important. By implicit education is the immediate environment— education I mean what happens outside the the neighborhood. Public authorities must formal educational system, the type of learn- provide the resources needed to ensure that ing that goes on every day, often without us neighborhoods play a positive role in this edu- noticing. This process plays a fundamental cational process. Ideally these three factors role in educating citizens, particularly new should work together and focus on the same ones, whether newcomers to the city or objectives. The role of municipal authorities young people trying out their citizenship for is to make this so. the first time. Neither should we overlook the role of older generations, which serve as an I would like to highlight a couple of propos- example and provide us with support. The als (certainly not all of them) being consid- city belongs to all of us and everyone should ered or carried out with the aim of making be involved in learning too. I firmly believe Barcelona a city that really succeeds in ed- the city exemplifies a specific set of values by ucating its citizens beyond the classroom. virtue of the way it is organized, the priorities One relates to a basic element of our urban set by local government, what it offers its citi- legacy: the city’s tangible heritage. This as- zens, values that are also expressed in com- pect of our heritage is a concrete expression munication and participation campaigns. of memory, and cities need tangible reminders of their past, present in their streets, to The approach a city takes to urban planning is build their identity, which is also part of the another clear indicator of its values, and I am identity of their citizens. Much of the mod- proud to say that Barcelona’s urban spaces ern memory of Barcelona is industrial, and reflect the priority given to public space as in historic working-class areas we have fac- a meeting place for citizens. It is important tories (now freed up) that are gradually being that cities be organized around the space we restored and converted into diverse kinds of share, which is the setting for spontaneous facilities, in many cases for cultural use. One interactions between different social groups. current project is to use these buildings as For the careful observer, however, the urban “culture factories,” spaces where young peo- space reveals much more about the city. The ple can create and experiment. We believe centrality of public transport, bicycle lanes, that in the 21st century (a century that values and social and cultural facilities all tell us creativity and talent), this is the right kind of what kind of public values we stand be- message to send to new generations. hind. Finally, the services offered by the city, though less visible, are ultimately at the core I would also like to draw attention to the of the relationship between the local govern- way Barcelona resolves conflicts by negoti- ment and citizens, for it is through these serv- ating agreements. We believe the processes ices that the City Council ensures equality of that lead to these agreements are themselves opportunity, facilitates personal autonomy, educational. This approach is not an easy Barcelona: A City Committed to Education 37 one. It often involves finding the point of modern, and making sure that they are fully balance between different groups or sectors integrated in today’s complex society. This is when all parties involved have some valid not enough, though: the city as a whole must arguments. The role of the City Council is to reflect the values promoted in our schools. It act as an arbitrator, but it must also deter- must demand a great deal of itself and of its mine exactly where the “common good” lies citizens. This is already happening, but we beyond individual interests. We have made must pursue this goal with even greater vigor progress with agreements on mobility, on the as we seek to achieve both educational and conflict between the city’s nightlife and resi- civic excellence. dents’ need to get a good night’s sleep, and even in working with young immigrants from To finish up, I would like to return once Latin America. We have assisted the latter to again to our shared history as educating cit- avoid the danger of segregation or antisocial ies. Right from the outset, the Barcelona City behavior by helping them act on their own Council undertook this commitment with the wish to set up cultural organizations. It is true aim of providing social leadership and using that progress is slower by this route, but it is politics as a tool for achieving educational an approach that legitimates authority, which goals. We are convinced that the educational also has a place and must be exercised dem- potential of a city is its civic potential and ocratically. visa versa: the civic quality of the city contributes to educating new citizens (and old A city that turns memory into creation and ones too). It is therefore our responsibility negotiates agreements to resolve conflicts is to go one step further when it comes to dean educating city. These are values being put mocracy, participation, social cohesion and into practice. And these city values, if they values. These aims are articulated in detail in are to be strengthened, must be closely al- this movement’s founding charter, which has lied to the school system and to education now made its way around the world with a at all levels. Quality education is vital to the message of goodwill. future competitiveness of our economy and to ensuring social harmony. Right from the Each day, new municipalities join the edu- first years of life, schools are a tool for in- cating cities project and take on the com- tegration and for facilitating equality of op- mitments it entails. As the president of the portunity. We have succeeded in creating International Association of Educating Cit- schools that address the needs of all students; ies, I feel satisfied with what has been ac- now we need to work towards increasing the complished. We are working toward a better quality of education, making schools more world, and making progress each day.

The New Challenges of Urban Life Dialectical Utopias

David Harvey

David Harvey (Gillingham, Kent, United Kingdom 1935) is currently Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York (CUNY). With a PhD in Geography from the Unversity of Cambridge, Harvey has stood out over the course of the last 30 years for the publication of an extensive body of work with common foundations such as criticism of neoliberalism and imperialism and the geographic analysis of the city from a Marxist perspective.

His books, including Social Justice and the City (1973), The Limits to Capital (1982), The Condition of Postmodernity (1989), The Urban Experience (1989), Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (1996), Spaces of Hope (2000), the geographical/historical work Paris, Capital of Modernity (2003), New Imperialism (2003), and the number of essays that he has published throughout his career have made David Harvey one of the most cited geographers world-wide. Dialectical Utopias

The urban sociologist Robert Park defined hundred years has made reflection on Park’s the city as: thesis difficult. We have been made and remade many times over by forces seemingly “man’s most consistent and on the whole, beyond our control. The city builders—the his most successful attempt to remake the developers, financiers and construction in- world he lives in more after his heart’s terests aided and often abetted by state plan- desire. But, if the city is the world which ners and municipal governments—have been man created, it is the world in which he is impelled forward by the thirst for profit, the henceforth condemned to live. Thus, indi- need to accumulate and then absorb ever- rectly, and without any clear sense of the larger capital surpluses, backed by the coer- nature of his task, in making the city man cive laws of capitalist competition. Concern has remade himself.”1 for human well-being has been incidental, while the immigrants also flooding into cit- The question of what kind of city we want ies, who have also radically transformed the cannot be separated, therefore, from the urban scene, are more driven by desperation question of what kind of people I, you, we then conscious reflection upon Park’s thesis. and they want to become: what kinds of so- The right to change the city is not an abstract cial relations are valued, what production right, however, but a right that inheres in dai- systems and labor relations are considered ly practices. The dialectics of urbanization creative and fulfilling, what relation to nature and social transformation are perpetually at is cared about, what aesthetic senses do peo- work all around us and we both encoun- ple wish to cultivate, what technologies are ter and contribute to its effects—good, bad considered appropriate and, more simply, and indifferent—as we live, construct, work, how people want to live their daily lives. It shop, interact and circulate through our dis- would be alarming if there were social con- tinctive urban environments. But how can sensus on all these matters. The important we become more conscious as to the nature thing is to put all these issues into the fore- of our task? How can we imagine modulating front of debate at a time when more and more our behaviors and the urban world around of the world’s population is “condemned to us in such a way as to shape the city in ag- live” in some sort of urban setting and when gregate more according to our heart’s desire? it is surely clear that we are not necessarily Can a return to the utopian tradition provide becoming better people because of it. We us with any clues? Urban utopias have, after should at least agree that the right to make all, been recurrent expressions throughout and remake the city and, thereby, ourselves, human history of human desire for a better if more after our heart’s desire, is one of the not perfected way of life. most precious of all our human rights. Most of the projects and plans we desig- But what does this mean? The extraordinary nate as “utopian” are fixed and formal de- pace and scale of urbanization over the last signs. They are what I call “utopias of spatial

1 Park, R., On Social Control and Collective Behavior (Chicago, Chicago University Press), p.3. 44 The New Challenges of Urban Life form”—the planned cities and communities try, in which predatory capital has plundered that have through the ages beguiled us into the world to the detriment of all else (social thinking that harmony will be established, relations and the environment in particular). that human desires will for once and for all A few hedge funds, exercising their right to be fully satiated if not happily realized. The make a profit and protected by the legal fic- problem with such utopias is that they end tion that the corporation is in effect a private up being repressive of the human spirit and person, can rage around the world, specula- frustrate human desire for exploration and tively destroying whole economies (such as novelty. To the degree that they have been that of Indonesia in 1997-8 and Argentina in implemented, the results have been far more 2001). Worse still, free market neoliberalism authoritarian and repressive than emancipa- requires scarcity to function. If scarcity does tory. In these utopias history is supposed to not exist then it must be socially created. This stop which means that nothing new is sup- is what private property and the profit rate posed to happen, no new stories can be told. do. Enclosure of the commons and the de- The only innovations allowed are those that struction of common property rights through support the pre-existing harmony. Like the privatization and commodification of every- static Christian concept of Paradise these thing is a necessary precondition for capital utopias are so boring that no one wants to accumulation to proceed. Education, health go there.2 care, water, sanitation have to be privatized and brought within the dominant regime of Then there are utopias of the social process. rights favorable to the circulation and accu- In recent times, the neoliberals have sought mulation of capital. What I call “accumula- to persuade us that freedoms of the market tion by dispossession” becomes a dominant and of free trade coupled with private prop- motif.3 erty and an entrepreneurial individualism will bring wealth, security and happiness to The collective right to the city is lost. The city all, that the market process will deliver to us is turned over to the growth machines, the the cities of our dreams. But the practical ef- financiers, the developers, the speculators fects of this neoliberal utopianism on our life and the profiteers. The result is much unnec- chances, on our cities, on our security and essary deprivation (unemployment, housing on our prospects—have been far from be- shortages, etc.) in the midst of plenty. Hence nign. “There is,” the old saying goes, “noth- the homeless on our streets and the beggars ing more unequal than the equal treatment of in the subways. Famines occur in the midst of unequals.” Free markets cannot produce fair- food surpluses. Basic needs, like clean water, ness when initial endowments are unequal, are denied to those who do not have the abil- when monopoly power is exercised and when ity to pay. The excluded are forced to drink the institutional frameworks of exchange are from cholera infested rivers. This is what free affected, as they always are, by asymmetries markets actually do. And this is what attach- in power and information. Many countries, ment to the inalienable rights of private prop- in the name of the free market, promote gross erty and of the profit rate really means, no violations of human rights, and undermine matter what the pious assertions emanating the right to subsist of those on whose labour from the main centers of capitalist power. competitive advantage often rests. The lib- Even the World Bank admits that poverty, eralization not only of trade but of financial both absolute and relative, has grown rather markets across the globe has unleashed a than diminished during the halcyon days of storm of speculative powers, particularly in neoliberalism on the world stage. But it then housing markets and the construction indus- insists that it is only through the further prop-

2 Harvey, D., Spaces of Hope (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2000). 3 Harvey, D., A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005). Dialectical Utopias 45 agation of neoliberal rights of private proper- “Each form of government enacts the laws ty and the profit rate in the market place that with a view to its own advantage” says Thra- poverty can be eliminated! Yet the actual re- symachus in Plato’s Republic, so that “the sult, as even the United Nations concedes, is just is the same everywhere, the advantage the production of a “planet of slums.”4 of the stronger.” Karl Polanyi put it another way: when the idea of freedom “degener- For obvious self-serving reasons those ates into a mere advocacy of free enterprise,” of wealth and power support rights and this means “the fullness of freedom for those freedoms that attach to the neoliberal dream whose income, leisure and security need no machine, while seeking to persuade us of enhancing, and a mere pittance of liberty for the people, who may in vain attempt to make their universality and their goodness. Thirty use of their democratic rights to gain shelter years of neoliberal freedoms have brought us from the power of the owners of property.”5 immense concentrations of corporate power Neoliberal utopianism has sparked move- in energy, the media, pharmaceuticals, trans- ments of opposition. Some of these claim that portation and even retailing and construc- other processes, such as class or anti-racist tion. The freedom of the market turns out to or feminist struggles, will eventually lead us be nothing more than the convenient means to the perfections of communism, socialism, to spread corporate monopoly power, con- anarchism, feminism, ecologism, or what- dominiums and Coca Cola everywhere with- ever. Unfortunately, these alternative utopian out constraint. In the United States, to take a schemas of the social process turn out to be paradigm case, it has also permitted the top just as fatally flawed (as becomes evident on one per cent of income earners to raise their those rare occasions when moves occur to proportionate claim on the national income implement them). They abstract entirely from from less than 8 per cent in the 1970s to close the problems that arise when spatial struc- to 20 per cent today. Even more dramatically tures get created on the ground. The territo- the top 0.1 per cent of income earners in- riality of political power and organization is creased their share from 2 to over 6 per cent of viewed as neutral in human affairs (when we the national income between 1978 and 1998 know in practice that spatial forms are con- (today it will surely be even greater). This sort stitutive of social relations). Utopias of the of thing has gone on everywhere where the social process ignore what happens when turn to neoliberalism has occurred. Neolib- walls, bridges and doors become frameworks eralism has simply been about the restoration for social action, when gated communities of class power to a small elite of CEOs and and state borders and boundaries get set up, becoming bases for exclusions and discrimi- financiers. With disproportionate influence nations (look at the history of the Israeli Kib- over the media and the political process this butz that began as socialist and ended up elite seeks to persuade us as to how better corporatist and entrepreneurial). off we all are under a neoliberal regime of political-economic power. And for them, liv- Rights and freedoms are, of course, rarely, ing comfortably in their gilded ghettos, the if ever, willingly surrendered by those in world is indeed a better place. Contempo- power. “Between equal rights,” wrote Marx, rary cities are more segregated, fragmented “force decides.” There is bound to be a strug- and fractured by wealth and power than they gle, but what should that struggle be about? have ever been. This is not the socially just If all utopias of spatial form are found want- city of my dreams. ing because they seek to suppress the force

4 Davis, M., Planet of Slums (London, Verso, 2006). 5 Polanyi, K., The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our Time (Boston, Beacon Press, 1957), pp.249-58. 46 The New Challenges of Urban Life of historical change, and all utopias of the structures of surveillance and of power! We social process are equally repressive because must imagine a more inclusive even if con- they deny the constitutive significance of ur- tinuously fractious city based not only upon ban spatial organization, then what concep- a different ordering of rights but upon differ- tion of the city should we pursue? ent political-economic practices and more open access to the city’s spaces. Individual- The answer in part lies within Park’s formula- ized rights to be treated with dignity as a hu- tion. If, in making the city we re-make our- man being and to freedoms of expression are selves then, clearly, this is a dialectical prop- too precious to be set aside, but to these we osition that requires a dialectical utopianism must add the right to adequate life chances to match. History abounds with elements of for all, to elementary material supports, to that idea. No social order, said Saint-Simon, inclusion, to access and to difference. The can change without the lineaments of the task, as Polanyi suggested, is to expand the new already being latently present within the spheres of freedom and of rights beyond the existing state of things. Revolutions are not narrow confines within which neoliberalism total breaks but they do turn things upside confines them. down. Old rights can be resurrected and new rights can be defined: like the right to the city The right to the city is an active right to make which, as I began by saying, is not merely a the city differently, to shape it more in ac- right of access to what the property specula- cord with our collective needs and desires tors and state planners define, but an active and so re-make our daily lives, re-shape our right to make the city more in accord with architectural practices (as it were), to define our heart’s desire, and to re-make ourselves an alternative way of simply being human. in a different image. This right has to be held perpetually open. If, as Alfred North Whitehead once put it, all A dialectical utopianism cannot be a purely nature is about the perpetual search for and individual affair precisely because the city is creation of novelty, and if human beings, as a collective product. A dialectical utopian- is evident from our history, are astonishingly ism must be a collective project, a collective inventive and creative in the pursuit of that right the exercise of which depends crucially novelty, then the city can never afford to upon the creation of a collective politics of become a frozen and sclerotic spatial form. reshaping the city’s spaces and places, en- Holding city spaces open and flexible, build- vironmental conditions and social practices ing sites for public appropriation and contes- in a new image. The creation of a new ur- tation, folding worlds of memory and desire ban commons, including expressive spaces into built forms and spatial configurations of of public politics and contention, a public perpetual hope become integral to our prac- sphere of active democratic participation, tice of a dialectical utopianism. requires the rolling back of that huge wave of privatization that has been the mantra of If our urban world has been imagined and a destructive neoliberalism these last few made, then it can be re-imagined and re- years. Liberate the shopping malls from the made, again and again and yet again. Public Space

Zygmunt Bauman

Zygmunt Bauman (Poznan, Poland, 1925) is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, having served as Professor of Sociology and, at various times, Head of Department at Leeds from 1972 until his retirement in 1990. He was formerly of the University of Warsaw until 1968 and the University of Tel Aviv, and held several visiting professorships, in Australia and elsewhere, before coming to Leeds. He is now Profes- sor Emeritus also at the University of Warsaw.

Zygmunt Bauman is known throughout the world for works such as Legislators and Interpreters (1987), Modernity and the Holocaust (1989), Modernity and Ambivalence (1991) and Postmodern Ethics (1993).

Zygmunt Bauman was awarded the Amalfi European Prize in 1990 and the Adorno Prize in 1998. It is difficult to think of higher honours being bestowed on a sociologist, in this case of European and indeed world standing. Public Space

‘Agora’ is the place where oikos (the house- to itself the monopolistic or almost monopo- hold, realm of the ‘private’) and oikoumene listic entitlement to authoritative translation. (the polity, realm of the ‘public’) meet. They Just like the wind exists solely through the meet to talk, and the explicit or implicit pur- action of blowing, and river through flowing, pose of exchange (in all its forms—of formal agora exists only through the activity of free speeches met with applause, hisses or cat- and continuous, unconstrained and uninter- calling, of cool or heated argument, of ha- rupted translation. rangue or pep talk, negotiating or quarrelling etc.) is arriving to a satisfactory or at least Ideally, both borderlines therefore, separat- acceptable two-way translation: of private ing agora from the domain of the private on worries and wishes into public issues, and one side and from the domain of the public of public needs and ambitions into private on the other, are marked by heavy two-di- rights and duties. It is on the agora that the rectional traffic. Occasionally, however, the compact space integrating private individu- traffic across one or the other borderline may als into a social totality (be it a tribe, a local be reduced to a trickle that might render community, a nation-state, and—prospec- translation, that raison d’être of agora and its tively—humanity) is ever anew renegotiated, modality of being, inadequate or ineffective; reformed and reconfirmed. it may be even wholly arrested. None of the borderlines is anything but securely fortified; Agora must be therefore a space hospitable poorly guarded and eminently permeable, simultaneously, and equally, to the arrivals both remain vulnerable and are permanently from private and public realms; but to be and exposed to invasion. As the need to leave the to stay hospitable, it needs to staunchly de- translation to the hazards of free initiative fend its independence from both. It can’t be and free opposition may be by each side felt property or merely an outpost of either of the cumbersome and discomforting, suppress- two. If it were, the flow of translation would ing that need and hopefully getting rid of it be constantly threatened with disruption and altogether at least for a time being by invad- the outcomes could be distorted. In the ex- ing and conquering the agora is at all times treme case, translation would grind to a halt tempting to the actors of the private as much and result in communication breakdown, as as of the public realms. Agora is never safe one of the two languages would eliminate and hardly ever feels self-confident. It can’t the other which it was supposed to be meet- count on good will of the occupants of either ing on equal terms. of the two neighbouring realms and on their voluntary submission to the code of behav- Inviting to both the oikos and the oikou- iour (to the rule of mutual respect in particu- mene, agora must remain therefore vigilant lar) that must be observed if the dialogue is to and wary of the appetite for conquest that continue unabated. Agora’s survival depends may prompt one or the other of the partners- solely on its own spirit of independence and in-dialogue to appropriate the meeting space its own pace and vigour. fully to itself, take it under its own exclusive administration and permanently limit the Through most of the 20th century, the most right of entry of the other partner, reserving perceptive and insightful minds of all and 50 The New Challenges of Urban Life any political/ideological denominations fo- stopped short of the ideal advanced by the cused their worried attention almost exclu- claim to sovereignty—they came closer to sively on the borderline/frontline separating/ such full and uncompromised model of state connecting agora and oikoumene, in their sovereignty than at any other period of his- modern rendition of, respectively, bürger- tory; and certainly much closer than at our liche Gesellshaft1 and nation-state. Most of time of accelerated globalization, planet that century was lived in the shadow of two crisscrossed by information high-ways and totalitarian powers bent on world-wide rule, the falling defensive value of space. Towards and of their fresh, traumatic memory. the end of the nation-building process associated with the ‘solid’ phase of moderni- The impact of both totalitarian regimes ty, the possibility to socially, culturally and spread well beyond their state borders. The economically integrate large territories and radical and ruthless totalitarian responses to their populations into political totalities was the vexing uncertainty associated with the matched by the technical capacity to sur- social settings centred around free-wheeling round such totalities by nearly impermeable agora-type polylogue (settings known under borders within which full sovereignty, and the name of ‘democracy’) were looked to the tripod of the economic, cultural and po- by many denizens of nominally democratic litical autarchies on which it was presumed regimes as models to copy; reporters of the and had to rest, could be effectively pursued, most prominent press organs of the demo- established and henceforth defended. cratic countries, those very symbols of the democratic spirit that a few decades earlier While a vigorous and resourceful agora seemed to overwhelm the post-Enlightened composed of the network of autonomous world and be perceived as the pinnacle of associations and institutions seemed the political/ethical progress, waxed lyrical when most reliable and durable means to fulfil painting the picture of order, stability, social that possibility, the ‘totalitarian inclination’ peace and citizen discipline that descended (as Hannah Arendt called it), the tendency upon Italy or Germany in the aftermath of to proceed through shortcuts, rather than the brutal dismantling of democratic institu- follow twists and turns of lengthy and risks- tions and the invasion and conquest of the peppered routes, had to be reckoned with— agora by the state. One could say, paraphras- given the rising capacities and resourceful- ing Marx, that for the better part of the past ness of state powers. ‘Shortcuts,’ to borrow century a spectre hovered above Europe: the Jürgen Habermas’ terminology, boil down to spectre of totalitarianism, whether in its fas- multiplying the ‘communicative distortions’ cist or its communist version. And the most by preventing all or some postulates about conspicuous mark of totalitarianism was the to enter the agora from the other, ‘private’ uncompromising colonization of the agora end, from being articulated; and in case such by the state and its submission to the state’s articulation has already occurred, by pre- exclusive authority. empting the chances of voicing them. Regi- mentation of the media and the censorship of The temptation to invade and colonize the their contents are the best known and once agora and the threat that the states may suc- most commonly used tools of intentional cumb to that temptation looked all the more distortion, though there are also less crude, realistic for the realism of the state ambitions less salient and less obtrusive (and there- to exclusive and undivided territorial sover- fore less likely to arouse resistance) means eignty. Though at all times realities of power to the same effect, amounting to (as Thomas

1 Its English equivalent, ‘civil society’ is rather misleading. In that translation, the personal union between the owner/ manager of the oikos, and the citizen of polity, presumed by the compression of their names in German, has been lost. Public Space 51

Mathiesen put it),2 ‘silent silencing’ —a proc- the sense of ‘making available,’ but not nec- ess ‘that is quiet rather than noisy, hidden essarily in the sense of ‘delivery,’ let alone rather than open, unnoticed rather than no- ‘acquisition,’ not to mention ‘retention’) has ticeable, unseen rather than seen, non-phys- transformed the information from the most ical rather than physical.’ ‘Silent silencing’ is valuable source of knowledge into the major structural; it is a part of our everyday life; it is impediment to knowledge-formation. When unbounded and is therefore engraved upon one Sunday issue of the New York Times con- us; it is noiseless and therefore passes by un- tains more bits of information than a most noticed; and it is dynamic in the sense that exquisitely educated man of the Renaissance in our society it spreads and becomes con- encountered in the course of his entire life, tinually more encompassing. The structural and since the volume of information cre- character of the silencing ‘exempts’ repre- ated in the last 30 years exceeded the vol- sentatives of the state from responsibility for ume produced in the preceding fifteen thou- it, its everyday character makes it ‘inescap- sands years of human history, information able’ from the point of view of those being and knowledge have parted their ways and silenced, its unbounded character makes it the gap between them seems to be widening especially effective in relation to the individ- unstoppably. ual, its noiseless character makes its easier to legitimise, and its dynamic character turns it Among the principally anti-agora (since into a mechanism of silencing which may be communication-distorting) factors, two other increasingly trusted. phenomena perhaps may currently keep the fear of the state-invasion of agora alive: state This more sophisticated and refined (but for secrets and political lies—both fast growing the same reason more difficult to note and in volume, frequency of deployment, and in resist) method of communicative distortion (arguably) their impact on the effectiveness will in all probability rise in importance at of political debate. the expense of the orthodox expedients. For once, it is potentially more effective since Secrets have been shown already by Georg more radical: it casts political repression Simmel to be avidly sought by all sides in a outside the realm of political discourse and conflict for the advantage one may obtain action recognized as political practice, strik- over an adversary deprived of access to po- ing at the point where the postulates meant tentially significant factors of the situation to be barred entry to the agora had not yet and thus compelled to grope in the dark reached the threshold of articulation and so where and when the other side can move of politics. Besides, and yet more importantly, with confidence. In addition, the very aware- whatever the advantages of ‘silent silencing’ ness (or just a mere suspicion) that the ‘other might be, the orthodox alternatives like me- side’ holds some (unknown and un-defina- dia-regimentation and censorship become ble) parts of the scene in darkness, generates increasingly difficult to apply with any meas- an atmosphere of uncertainty and may in ure of success, in view of the globalization consequence eat deeply into the self-confi- of the information flow having progressed by dence and resolve of its potential detractors. now far beyond the reach of the state-man- These are general and extra-temporal effects aged controlling powers. Those alternatives of secrecy. In our times, however, thanks to are however turning also increasingly irrele- the growing technical facility of gathering, vant, and arguably even counter-productive: storing and processing of information, also ever more intense production and ever faster the realm of secrecy may have grown enor- distribution of information (‘distribution’ in mously in size. It may now (and in all proba-

2 See Thomas Mathiesen, Silently Silenced: Essays on the Creation of Acquiescence in Modern Society, Waterside Press 2004, pp. 9, 14. 52 The New Challenges of Urban Life bility does) include ‘personal,’ often intimate rate not before the end of the statutory pe- and potentially defaming and compromising riod (30 years in Britain) after which the state information, which again may (and probably archives must be opened to public scrutiny. does) expose the individuals falling out of If the state warnings of an imminent disaster line, and/or advocating demands unpopular are not confirmed (like in the case of tempo- with the powers that be, to the menace of rary closing of airports and introduction of an instant retaliation or even pre-emptive in- new stringent and severe ‘security measures’ capacitation; one more blow to the already following the announcement of the discov- shrinking self-confidence and resolve of the ery of a ‘liquid bombs’ plot), one would nev- potential actors of the agora. er be able to decide with certainty whether the threat failed to materialize thanks to the Political lie is on the face of it the opposite of government’s vigilance and efficiency of its secrecy (contrary to state secrets, it is voiced counter-measures, or because is was based loudly in the name of ‘public awareness’ and on mistaken, sloppily gathered and other- hammered home with unremitting vigour ‘for wise unreliable information—or even wholly the subjects’ own good’), though its effective invented. deployment in the assault against freedom of the agora wouldn’t be feasible if not on All this warrants the expectation that resort- the assumption that the state knows things ing to political lies will in the foreseeable fu- which its subjects are unable to learn and ture become more common in governmental better not know unless knowing is needed practices. In the times of the states urgently ‘for their own good.’ Contrary to secrecy (that seeking new foundations for their authority is, the state withholding a piece of informa- and demand of obedience (the extant foun- tion which it has), in the case of a political dations, the promise and to a large extent lie the state fabricates a piece of information the practice of the ‘social state’ insuring the it only pretends to possess, though again for citizens against blows of fate and individu- ‘the subjects’ own good’ it can’t disclose its ally suffered, though socially-caused misfor- contents and sources; all and any question- tune, having been progressively weakened ing by the sceptics is thereby disqualified in and feared to be dismantled altogether), care advance and bound to remain unanswered. of personal safety (protection against food, Resorting to a political lie involves little risk; drugs, fumes harmful to the body, against since all potential proofs and arguments are sexual molesters, paedophiles and rapists, ensconced firmly in the inaccessible realm of prowlers, stalkers, obtrusive beggars, uncivil state secrets, the state’s bluff can’t be called, behaviour in public places, speeding driv- at least not ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’ In ers, thieves, burglars, armed assailants, ter- case the deception is unmasked and laid rorists, tobacco smokers, etc.) seems to be bare by the subsequent events which the an attractive alternative. To render this new state can’t control (like in the case of the legitimation of state authority effective, gov- weapons of mass destruction which Saddam ernments are tempted however to exagger- Hussein was allegedly able to shower on the ate the volume and intensity of the threats British isles in less than an hour), the state to safety; they are also in desperate need to can still count on the lamentably brief and demonstrate in public their own resolve and still shrinking span of public memory and the industry in fighting the menace back, nipping notorious drifting habits of public attention. the danger in the bud. In the effort to satisfy The lie will be quickly forgotten, or at the mo- both needs through maintaining the mood of ment of its disclosure it won’t be any longer constant emergency, uncertainty and anxiety, in the focus of public concern. In most cases, political lie proves to be an ideal expedient; a the queries will never be definitely answered stratagem likely to be invented, were it not al- and sceptics would never be able to prove ready firmly entrenched in political practice. that their doubts were well founded—at any State secrecy, political lie, and the promo- Public Space 53 tion of personal safety to the rank of top- politics,’ the domain of individual initiative, priority public issue have a debilitating im- individual resources and individual respon- pact on the agora. They stem the articulation sibility, enclosed inside the confines of the and advancement of alternative public is- oikos. sues, pre-empting thereby the possibility of submitting their gravity and urgency to the The latter process ostensibly ‘empowers’ the public consideration and formation of an in- universe of oikos and its residents: indeed, formed and balanced public opinion. In the the widely advertised twin trends of ‘deregu- long run, they undermine the public skills of lation’ and ‘individualization’ were widely the two-way, private interests vs. public is- portrayed as decisive steps towards eman- sues, translation: that life-blood of agora, cipation of the individuals from personally and through it of viable democracy, and the debilitating dependency, obtrusive and ob- indispensable condition of effective com- noxious interference of the ‘nanny state’, and munication between oikos and oikoumene. summa summarum as an unprecedented ex- In this way they clear the space of the agora pansion of the individual powers to choose for another invasion and conquest—though and act on the choices made. Numerous ob- from the least expected side: invasion of the servers however report that the individuals, individual private interests and concerns the targets of the allegedly emancipating ex- no longer arriving at the agora to seek their ercise, find the resulting life challenges over- translation into the vocabulary of communal whelming and in their own way incapaci- tasks, but to have their privacy and their in- tating, exceeding their skills and resources dividuality, willy-nilly and by default rather and in the end disempowering. Throwing than by design, coupled with the futility of the agora wide open to private concerns is any attempt to seek collective solutions to one aspect of the process; but provision of individual problems, reconfirmed and rein- a protective shield against the eventuality of forced. I would suggest that this not-so-long- the individually suffered troubles setting the ago unanticipated invasion, currently in full agenda of communal tasks is another. Any swing, constitutes the principal and the most attempt to translate individual problems into awesome and least resistible threat to the public issues is likely to be reflected back liveliness and effectiveness of the agora. But into the sphere of ‘life politics’ and returned what are the sources of this novel threat? to the list of tasks which the individuals need to face up to and attempt to fulfil on their The consistent emaciation of the nation-state own, accepting full responsibility in case sovereignty following the ceding of many they end in failure. of its powers to the supra-national agencies and other powers evaporating into the glo- Individuals are left alone, sentenced to self- bal ‘space of flows’ (to use Manuel Castells’ concern, self-reference and self-help. Be- term), has a disabling impact of its capacity reaved of the pre-designed, pre-fabricated to handle many of the functions it previously and pre-established community of the kind performed or intended and promised to per- to which they belong before they begin to form. Remaining powers of the state fall short act, they need to weave their own protective of the volume which the state organs and social nets spinning the yarn of admittedly institutions would require to embrace the thin and friable inter-personal bonds (and the entire range of their past functions. Under bonds need to be tied up loosely, to make changed circumstances, the governments of them easy to untie when the need comes as it the nation-states find themselves compelled surely will). Once they enter one or another to ‘contract out’ a large and growing part of of the plentiful ‘local initiative’ agorae, indi- their traditional repertoire to the politically viduals meet only each other, except for a uncontrolled market forces, while ‘subsidi- few professional or amateur compères, ani- arizing’ much of the rest to the realm of ‘life mators or counsellors plotting and boosting 54 The New Challenges of Urban Life their gambits and pronouncing on their re- their character, but emerges in their course sults. Anything recognizable as oikoumene and grinds to a halt and ‘becomes history’ is there nowhere in sight. Whatever ‘totality’ the moment the interactions end. may be spotted inside an agora, can only be an interim side-product of their interaction, Symptomatically, the term ‘community’ is be- as volatile and frail as the nets they weave ing currently replaced in the social-scientific and the yarn they use to weave them. Such as much as in the vernacular vocabulary by ‘totality’ is always both not-yet-complete and the concept of ‘network.’ If the idea of com- until further notice, eminently revocable on munity traditionally conveyed the image of demand, presumed from the start (and hoped) closed exits, of a pre-determined and difficult to last only as long as desired, and not a mo- to interrupt duration of stay, the ‘network’ ment longer. Such ‘totality’ is not expected or is made of the acts of connecting as much wished to replace the absent community; its as disconnecting. If the membership of the role is to cover up the void left by the demise orthodox community was ‘objectively’ de- of the ready-made and ready-to-use commu- fined, pre-given and not a matter of personal nities of yore. A task that is hopeless, and for choice, the network is wrapped around the that reason needed to be endlessly repeated. individual, put together through individual action and its composition remains perpetu- I suggest that the ‘totalities’ daily emerging ally changeable; the exit from a cloakroom and vanishing inside the present-day agorae community is as easy as entering it. The rai- are best called ‘cloakroom communities’ (this son d’être of the orthodox community was metaphorical term refers to the ‘unity of pur- to assure that inter-human bonds last and pose’ emerging, for the duration of a perform- the members stay together bound by mutu- ance, in the cloakroom of a theatre—when al loyalties and obligation they are not free numerous individuals coming together from to renounce. In the networks and in cloak- far and wide assemble for a short while in one room communities no bonds are expected or room to hang their coats, only to take them wished to tie members interminably, let alone again off the pegs after the last curtain and forever; they are all in principle re-negotiable disperse, each in his or her own direction). and can be terminated at a moment notice.

Cloakroom communities are communities à * la carte. They share with the ‘communities of belonging’ the quality of bringing people The persistent popularity of the ‘Big Brother’ together, imbuing them with a shared pur- shows can be only explained by its being the pose, inspiring synchronized actions, and le- contemporary version of the ‘morality play’, gitimizing (through the sheer size of the com- representing in a condensed and reduced to pany in which the actions are performed) the the bare essentials form the inner logic and pattern of conduct individually (though in a the often unnoticed yet faithfully followed strikingly similar fashion) followed by all the patterns of the viewers’ daily life. individuals present. They do not share however, and emphatically so, the authority of The millions addicted to the successive in- ‘communities of belonging’ to determine the stalments of the show find no difficulty in composition of membership, and above all to identifying with the plight of the characters of render the membership (described appropri- the ‘Big Brother’ interminable saga: they rec- ately as ‘belonging’) an obligation as much as ognize in the lot of the ‘Big Brother’ House representing it as a right. Unlike in the case inmates their own experience and discover of the communities of belonging, ‘belong- its heretofore overlooked and un-guessed ing’ in cloakroom communities (whatever or only half-intuited sense. The ‘Big Broth- that term may refer to in their case) neither er’ shows consistently hammer home—and precedes the interactions nor pre-determines hammer unashamedly, blatantly, in full light Public Space 55 and leaving little to imagination—the hidden the events on which bets are made and the truth of a world spattered by entries and ex- inmates together with those watching their its to and from the endemically brittle and trials and tribulations on TV screens, work short-lived cloakroom communities. towards and think toward…

Indeed, with every successive round another After the series of exclusions has run its random collection of individuals settles for course, the inmates disappear from view, a while in the Big Brother’s House with no sinking back into that nowhere from which history of previous contacts and no mutual they emerged at the start of the show. While bonds to justify their new (admittedly tem- the watchers, losing the focus that for a time porary) togetherness. They all carry their patched together their scattered concerns, own biographies, as different as individual will also fall apart and scatter, each pursu- biographies might be, and so also their own ing as before his or her own targets and tra- idiosyncratic, variegated experiences, char- jectories. Hopefully, however, the time spent acters, temperaments, expectations, prefer- watching and debating the ‘Big Brother’ dra- ences… Whatever will unite or divide them ma won’t be wasted. The watchers will end in the coming weeks, they obviously must up enriched. They will be able now to better first conjure up, sustain through their own ef- answer the question of what life is like: life fort and negotiate from scratch. The inmates is as seen on the reality TV show called ‘Big are not given much time to accomplish such Brother.’ complex and daunting tasks. Hospitality of the house owner and manager is not assured: ‘Big Brother’ is a portrayal of contemporary on the contrary, inmates have been told in no life. I suggest that it may serve as well as a uncertain terms that whatever they do their likeness of the contemporary agora. Like stay in the house will be limited, that it is not the closely watched and guarded scenery of up to them to determine that limit, and that the ‘Big Brother’ esoteric world presented to the limit to negotiation is itself non-negotia- viewers under the rubric of ‘reality TV,’ con- ble. How they proceed is their choice, but to temporary equivalent/replacement/substitute go on or fall out is not matter of choice… for agora is entered solely by private interests, concerns and undertakings—with ‘public is- The sluggish and inept among the inmates will be promptly eliminated from further sues’ and its would-be spokesmen keeping trials. If they wish to stay, they must outwit their distance, letting private pursuit to ‘find the rest of the bunch before they are outwit- their own value’ in mutual rivalry and com- ted by them. Exclusion from the game does petition, keen to manifest their neutrality and not depend on how eager and clever they sticking to a ‘don’t phone us, we’ll phone themselves are—but on who will prove to you’ rule. Private interests and ambitions be more eager and clever than others. The leave the contemporary agora reconfirmed day of exclusion must arrive and will, inevi- and reinforced in their quo ante condition: tably; in fact, every week one member of the that of the self-sustained and self-propelled bunch must be banished from the company, individuals who in the efforts to resolve their whatever is the number of individuals who individual problems, however articulated, happen to fall below the standard of wit, zeal can derive little from the company of others and cunning. It is not so much the ‘deserving’ except the strengthening of their own resolve by its victims, as the non-negotiable order of to concentrate on individual interests and things that is the ultimate cause of exclusion. pursue them at whatever cost to others; and And it is the regular, repetitive ceremonies who can gain even less from loyalty, cooper- of exclusion that provide the highlights of ation and solidarity, while nothing at all from the show. These are the days which the ad- a long-term (let alone indefinite) commit- dicts wait for with bated breath; these are ment to loyalty, cooperation and solidarity. 56 The New Challenges of Urban Life

Resolving of the conflict between com- it. None of the known realities had ever mitment and choice is indeed the constant reached the extreme it would arduously and theme of the whole (and growing) family of self-confidently advocate and/or enforce. ‘reality TV’ shows for which the recurrent But each twisted the balance between the ritual of the ‘Big Brother’-style war of attri- competing values towards one or the other tion waged by all against all stands out as pole. Each made easier and more likely the the most popular and publicly acclaimed preference given to one value, and more member. The conflict between commitment difficult and unlikely a preference given to and choice (one of the many manifestations the other. But in no case has the war of attri- of the principal opposition between security tion between two inextricably linked values and freedom) is all too real, of course. Wider reached its ostensible objective. However commitment narrows the choice, stronger severe the constraints imposed and however choice weakens commitment. Freedom of indefatigable, overwhelming and unscrupu- choice makes commitment unsafe, while lous the forces trying to impose them, human commitment makes unsafe the feasibility of freedom proved to be indestructible; even choice. The ideal (let alone holding) resolu- the commandants of concentration camps tion of that conflict is inconceivable, since the and gulags never fully managed to extirpate two competing values of freedom and securi- it. Whereas however oppressive the uncon- ty are equally indispensable for a decent and ditional commitment might feel, its attraction agreeable life, while their reconciliation is as was unlikely ever to fade out completely; it plausible as squaring a circle or construction proved to be certain to survive, even if only of a perpetuum mobile. No resolution, long in a rudimentary form and even if relegated lasting since prompting little or no dissent, to the margins, the most virulent resentment. is likely ever to be found—only settlements In the future of the stormy relations between may be put in place (‘settlements’ are not ex- ‘individual’ and ‘community,’ as much as in pected to last; they are interim compromises their long history, the cries ‘come back com- deemed to be, and often explicitly presented munity, all is forgiven,’ are likely to be heard as, conditional, transient and above all revo- intermittently with, or alongside, the trum- cable). Any mutual balance between com- pets of individual freedom fighters. mitment and choice is bound to be sooner or later found unsatisfactory, any settlement Contrary to the suggestion hammered home will be sooner or later called and pressed to by the most popular varieties of contempo- be renegotiated, and the search for an (in- rary agora, what has been argued thus far in achievable) ideal formula will go on. In the no way implies that the current triumph of contemporary variety of the agora, however, choice over commitment is final or complete. the die is loaded before being cast. Invari- The court is still in sitting, and will remain sit- ably, it is the commitment that is singled out ting for a long time to come, perhaps forever. as in need to justify itself in terms of a service With all the current pressures (whether co- rendered to choice, while being also denied ercive, persuasive, or brain-washing, that is the right to expect and to demand the same mixing persuasion with coercion), surrender- from its adversary. In case of a clash between ing a part or even the totality of freedom to the two, the outcome in favour of choice is choose in the name of commitment has not preordained by the rules of the life game. In been made impossible. It has been only made the never-ending strife between freedom of more difficult, more risky, and more costly choice and security of being, reality ‘as seen (to wit, less popular…). Forced to counter on TV,’ as much as the reality daily experi- awesome odds against which it finds itself enced by the TV viewers, take sides. standing, it seems unlikely to be the course of action taken by the ‘statistical majority’ And so did all realities known to be created of contemporary men and women and in a to-date for human cohabitation and through ‘statistical majority’ of their life situations.

Organizing Heterogeneity: Migrations, Demographic Changes and Cultural Consequences1

Blair A. Ruble

Blair A. Ruble is currently Director of the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., where he also serves as Program Director for Comparative Urban Studies. He received his MA and PhD degrees in Political Science from the University of Toronto (1973, 1977), and an AB degree with Highest Honors in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1971).

A native of New York, Dr. Ruble worked previously at the Social Sci- ence Research Council in New York City (1985-1989) and the Na- tional Council for Soviet and East European Research (1982-1985).

He has edited a dozen volumes, and is the author of five monographic studies. His book-length works include a trilogy examining the fate of Russian provincial cities during the 20th century: Leningrad. Shaping a Soviet City (1990); Money Sings! The Changing Politics of Urban Space in Post-Soviet Yaroslavl (1995); and Second Metropolis: Pragmatic Pluralism in Gilded Age Chicago, Silver Age Moscow, and Meiji Osaka (2001). Dr. Ruble’s most recent monographic study— Creating Diversity Capital (2005)—examines the changes in such cities as Montreal, Washington, D.C., and Kyiv brought about by the recent arrival of large transnational communities.

1 The author would like to thank Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Lisa Hanley, Galina Levina, Boris Koptin, Renata Kosc- Harmaty, Liz Malinkin, and Mejgan Massoumi for their assistance in the preparation of this chapter. Organizing Heterogeneity: Migrations, Demographic Changes and Cultural Consequences

A curious story appeared in the Montreal of a Christian miracle icon uncovered by a press a couple of winters ago.2 During the pious Muslim. depths of a typically-harsh Quebec Febru- ary, Filipino and Hispanic parents trekked French Canada’s metropolis is hardly unique. with their sick children through snow filled Migrants of all sorts—immigrants, emigrants, streets to a small apartment complex in the refugees, displaced persons, guest workers— fringe neighborhood of St. Laurent. Desper- have become a significant presence in urban ate mothers and fathers beseeched an icon- communities everywhere. According to the like portrait of the Virgin Mary to cure their United Nations Population Division, some ill offspring. Abderezak Mehdi, the Muslim 200 million people—or 3 percent of the building manager of the low-rise apartment world’s population—live outside of the coun- building, had discovered the Virgin’s im- try of their birth.3 Such projections could well age in the garbage. According to Mehdi and underestimate those living in a new country Greek Melkite Catholic priest Michel Saydé, without complete documentation, and fail to the Virgin shed tears of oil that could cure the capture migrants moving within the borders ill and tormented. Michel Parent, the chan- of any given state. The people of the world cellor of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of are in constant motion, with no society on Montreal, cautioned skepticism, noting that earth being left unaffected. “while it is true that nothing is impossible for God, historically, that is not how God acts.” This little scene of healing unfolded in a Diversity in Motion dreary neighborhood built at a time when Montreal was starkly divided between speak- People don’t just move; they resettle in a par- ers of French and of English—the so-called ticular place. In a world in which, for the first francophones and anglophones of mid-twen- time, most humans live in cities, migrants in- tieth century Quebec. Over the past three creasingly make their homes in urban neigh- decades or so, those earlier linguistic bound- borhoods of one sort or other. New arrivals— aries have been submerged within a new mé- be they from abroad, from another town or lange of overlapping cultures and religions city, or from the countryside—disrupt long- that so characterizes life in Montreal at the standing systems of economic and political dawn of the twenty-first century. Filipinos, dominance. Their very presence forces host Hispanics from various corners of the globe, communities to confront once dormant is- Greek Melkite Catholic priests, and Roman sues often assumed to have been resolved in Catholics now seek out St. Laurent in search some distant past.

2 This story was originally reported in Ann Carroll, “Faithful Flock to See Virgin Mary’s Tears of Oil,” Montreal Gazette (February 28, 2004). This account has appeared previously in Blair A. Ruble, Creating Diversity Capital. Tran- snational Migrants in Montreal, Washington, and Kyiv (Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Maryland: Woodrow Wilson Center and Johns Hopkins University Presses, 2005), pp. 43-44; and in Blair A. Ruble, “Mélange Cities,” The Wilson Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 3 (2006), pp. 56-59. 3 Jason DeParle, “In a World on the Move, a Tiny Land Strains to Cope,” New York Times (June 24, 2007). 60 The New Challenges of Urban Life

The processes by which migrant communi- Expanding a community’s stock of diversity ties become incorporated into a particular capital depends on a holistic strategy of ad- urban region vary from city to city. The his- dressing multiple human needs simultane- tory of place, community identities, and pub- ously. Communities must reconfigure local lic policy all impact this process. In addition life in order to promote accommodation of to confronting language barriers, racial dis- diversity and to acknowledge every resident’s crimination, unfamiliar cultures, and hostile inherent “right to the city.”5 They need to labor markets that make integration a great provide protected meeting places in which challenge, migrants are faced with finding people of difference come and go, and in- an appropriate balance between maintaining teract with one another without coming into cultural and ethnic integrity while simulta- conflict and confrontation. Community resi- neously accessing the social, political, and dents need to learn how to use space—both economic opportunities of their new city. literal and figurative—in new ways. Schools The need to address issues of process and in- need to educate students to accept diversity tegration grows in importance as the forces as part and parcel of the world around them. of globalization amplify income disparities Diversity must be transformed from being in urban areas; as opportunities for employ- seen as a threat to the well-being of a comment, education, and basic services become munity into becoming recognized as an op- constricted. How do urban communities and portunity for economic success. migrants adjust as they accommodate the new realities of this century’s massive tran- Such changes in how life is lived are not eas- snational migrations? ily secured. Cities everywhere are littered with unsuccessful attempts to accomplish To be successful in a time of such a rapid any of these goals; failures that all too of- global flow of people as the early twenty-first ten have been compounded by outbursts of century, urban communities simultaneously communal violence. Achievement of even must accept difference and identify shared partial and temporary success in accommo- points of reference. Local legends, memo- dating the diversity created by newly arriving ries, and telling of history must go beyond migrants—both domestic and transnation- exclusionary understandings of society to ac- al—must stand at the center of any effort to cept an inclusive pluralism. In other words, reconsider how to organize heterogeneity. civic identity must embrace a variety of ur- The case studies to follow suggest some pos- ban groups and individuals. Even if they have sible avenues toward the accommodation of been divided in the past, cities must create a difference. shared sense of responsibility for a common future. Urban communities must expand their repertoires of responses to diversity in Reshaping Space, Learning from Quito order to accommodate new arrivals even as migrants must adapt to their new surround- Reconfiguring public space so as to encour- ings. Local strategies to promote “diversity age various communities within a city to capital” must seek to maximize the benefits share in a mutual communal experience and to minimize the disruptions of the global presents a bedeviling challenge to munici- forces which promote migration in every re- pal leaders at a time when those with means gion of the planet.4 seek to separate themselves from society at

4 For further discussion of the concept of “diversity capital,” see Blair A. Ruble, Creating Diversity Capital. Transna- tional Migrants in Montreal, Washington, and Kyiv. 5 For further discussion of the concept of the “right to the city,” see Don Mitchell, The Right to the City. Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space (New York: The Guilford Press, 2003). Organizing Heterogeneity: Migrations, Demographic Changes and Cultural Consequences 61 large. Political and economic rewards favor at the turn of the twentieth century, to which efforts to privatize space by granting privi- automobile-oriented modern development lege to commercial projects, or by building added alternative commercial centers and walls and gates around the preserves of the residential neighborhoods for the rich at cen- well off. The resulting fragmented landscape tury’s end.8 accentuates difference rather than promoting a sense of shared destiny. This is especially By the 1990s, Quito’s historic city-center re- so in cities struggling to manage migration mained the focal point of local political and from an impoverished rural hinterland while religious life, while a new commercial cent- simultaneously establishing connections to a er to the north had emerged as the home to global capitalist economy.6 Unsurprisingly, major international corporations. Migrants few have attempted to re-invigorate their fleeing rural poverty were drawn to the city’s city-centers to attract international capital colonial squares and monuments as Quito’s while broadening the presence and partici- oldest neighborhoods became home to a vi- pation of their most impoverished residents. brant informal economy dominated by street Quito, Ecuador, marks an important counter- vendors. Municipal leaders began to find example to the explicit global pursuit of so- ways to attract international tourists and the cial exclusion. local bourgeoisie to return to a city-center which provided the symbols of a once-shared As elsewhere in Latin America, Quito is di- past. vided into distinct spatial zones, with poor squatter settlements being found in peri- The desire to leverage the symbolic value of a urban areas and on the city outskirts. A de- distinguished historic neighborhood was not teriorating historic city-center dates back to particularly unusual for a continent in which Colonial and Pre-Columbian days, while local elites had long been trying to integrate middle class and wealthy residential areas in heritage preservation into economic devel- between are separated from the remainder of opment plans.9 Typically, such plans sought the city by myriad physical, psychological, to displace poor and unpicturesque indig- and symbolic barriers.7 Such divisions have a enous residents through various forms of so- long history. Spanish colonizers transformed cial control and coercion in order to increase the city—which had emerged as a major the comfort level of middle class visitors.10 center within the northern Inca Empire by Quito elites moved in the opposite direction. the end of the fifteenth century—into a ma- They draw on discussions of the historic city- jor colonial center laid out in accordance center’s future to create civic symbols shared with the Greek-inspired Laws of the Indies of by all Quito residents, and to increase citizen 1523. An outburst of post-colonial industri- participation among previously displaced alization led to the city’s dramatic expansion communities.11

6 Susan Chrisopherson, “The Fortress City: Privatized Spaces, Consumer Citizenship,” in Ash Amin, editor, Post- Fordism: A Reader (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1994), pp. 409-427. 7 For further discussion of Quito’s development, see Fernando Carrión and Lisa M. Hanley, Urban Regeneration and Revitalization in the Americas: Toward a Stable State (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2007). 8 Lisa M. Hanley and Meg Ruthenburg, “The Symbolic Consequences of Urban Revitalization: The Case of Quito, Ecuador,” in Ibid., pp. 177-202. 9 Fernando Carrión M., “The Historic Center as an Object of Desire,” in Ibid., pp. 19-65; Eduardo Kingman Garcés and Ana Maria Goetschel, “Patrimony as a Disciplinary Device and the Banalization of Memory: An Historic Read- ing from the Andes,” in Ibid, pp. 67-78; and, Silvia Fajre, “Cultural Heritage and Urban Identity: Shared Manage- ment for Economic Development,” in Ibid., pp. 143-150. 10 As has been the case in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, during the past fifteen years. See X. Andrade, “‘More City’, Less Citizenship: Urban Renovation and the Annihilation of Public Space,” in Ibid., pp. 107-141. 11 Diego Carrión Mena, “Quito: The Challenges of a New Age,” in Ibid., pp. 151-156. 62 The New Challenges of Urban Life

By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Quito society remains fragmented by social Quito’s political leaders embraced a strategic class, ethnicity, language, race, and region; vision for their city that was predicated on Quito identity remains highly contentious “reclaiming” the city-center. The goal was to and contested.14 The Quito experience dem- expand citizen participation in municipal af- onstrates both the possibilities for and the fairs through discussions of how the historic limits imposed on promoting inclusive pub- center might revitalize. A diverse citizenry lic space in the absence of deeper structural gave voice to very different notions about changes within society. what historic preservation might mean. For example, disparate responses emerged concerning the appropriate balance between Teaching Diversity, Learning from preserving the city’s indigenous and colonial St. Petersburg heritages. Local officials tried to maximize participation and transparency as a way of Urban social fragmentation of a different bringing together the public and private sec- sort has been taking place in Russia’s sectors in a shared development strategy. Lead- ond largest city, St. Petersburg, over the past ers harnessed transportation, public safety, decade-and-a-half. The trauma accompany- and environmental policies to promote stable ing the collapse of the Soviet Union accel- job creation as well as to give expression to erated a general decline in the health and collective interests.12 Informal vendors were in the size of the city’s population. During brought into extended negotiations which the early 1990s, male life expectancy and concluded with their moving into more for- births fell in the city at a faster rate than in malized markets and shops.13 all but a handful of the country’s eighty-nine regions.15 Rampant heart disease, accidents, Quito’s efforts have not been wholly success- and cancer have continued to cut the lives of ful. Crime has dropped in the historic center, Russian men tragically short ever since. Af- tourism has increased, and informal vendors ter reaching 65 years of age in 1987, male have been incorporated into a thriving com- life expectancy in the Soviet Union and, sub- mercial economy. The center’s symbolic im- sequently, Russia fell to less than 59 years ages and public spaces have begun to cre- of age by 2003.16 This pattern of high male ate a sense of what it means to live in Quito mortality was accentuated within the city of that is shared by tens of thousands of city St. Petersburg.17 As elsewhere in the country, residents who have little else in common. birth and fertility rates declined simultane- Nonetheless, barriers to entry into the formal ously.18 economy remain high, often forcing the city’s poorest residents farther to the periphery of The combined impact of these trends on the the physical city and the margins of society. city’s population has been devastating. From

12 Ibid. 13 Lisa M. Hanley and Meg Ruthenburg, “The Symbolic Consequences of Urban Revitalization: The Case of Quito, Ecuador,” in Ibid, 214-215. 14 Ibid., pp. 198–199. 15 Peder Walberg, Martin McKee, Vladimir Shkolnikov, Laurent Chenet, David A. Leon, “Economic Change, Crime, and Mortality Crisis in Russia: Regional Analysis,” British Medical Journal, v. 317 (7154); August 1, 1998. 16 Irina Titova, “Russian Life Expectancy on Downward Trend,” St. Petersburg Times (January 17, 2003). 17 Vladimir M. Shkolnikov, Alexander D. Deev, Øystein Kravdal, Tapani Valkonen, “Educational differences in male mortality in Russia and northern Europe. A comparison of an epidemiological cohort from Moscow and St. Peters- burg with the male populations of Helsinki and Oslo,” Demographic Research, vol. 10, article 1, pp. 1-26 (January 9, 2004). 18 Julie Da Vanzo and Gwen Farnsworth, Russia’s Demographic “Crisis” (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1996). Organizing Heterogeneity: Migrations, Demographic Changes and Cultural Consequences 63 the time the city’s fifth millionth resident was hostility in Russia following the collapse of born in February 1988 until the official Octo- the Soviet Union appears to be enlivened by ber 9, 2002 census, St. Petersburg’s popula- similar trends in Europe.24 All too frequently, tion plummeted by nearly 350,000 residents thought has led to action. Increasing “skin- to 4,661,219.19 By 2007, the city’s popula- head” violence has challenged authorities tion had fallen further to 4,596,000, which throughout Russia.25 St. Petersburg in par- still makes St. Petersburg the fourth largest ticular has been plagued by violent and re- city in Europe after London, Moscow, and pugnant racist and xenophobic attacks on 20 Paris. individuals who do not appear to be “Rus- sian.” Russian and international media re- Hidden within this picture of decline is the ports about such incidents threaten the city’s arrival of thousands of new Petersburgers efforts to attract the very domestic and trans- who have moved to the city—often from be- national migrants that are essential for the yond the borders of the Russian Federation— city to sustain economic growth.26 in response to the demand of local employers for labor. The city’s economy entered a City officials have become acutely concerned period of explosive growth around 1999 led by an expanding port, together with rapidly by the rise of inter-cultural tensions and ultra- recovering shipbuilding and automotive in- nationalist tendencies within their commu- dustries.21 As a consequence of these various nity. The particularly horrifying murder on trends, what had been an almost exclusively February 9, 2004 of a nine-year-old Tadzhik ethnic Russian city at the end of the Soviet girl, Khursheda Sultanova, by a group of lo- period has become home to over one-mil- cal teenagers prompted St. Petersburg City lion non-Russians.22 Governor Valentina Matvienko to speak out for the first time against growing racialist Not everyone in the city has been pleased violence in her city.27 Local community and by these developments. Racialist thought political leaders began struggling with how has deep intellectual roots in Russia, as else- best to formulate a systematic response to where.23 An increase in racial and ethnic inter-cultural conflict.

19 Pavel Viacheslavovich Rusakov was born to great fanfare as Leningrader number 5,000,000 on February 25, 1988. “S dnem rozhdeniia, Leningradets!”, Sovetskaia Rossiia (February 26, 1988). The official figure from the 2002 Rus- sian Federation Census may be found in Russian Federation Federal State Statistics Service, Numbers and Distribu- tion of the Population: Results of the All Russian 2002 Census (Moscow: Russian Federation Federal State Statistics Service, 2004), Vol. 1, p. 93. 20 For the current population of St. Petersburg, see the St. Petersburg City Government’s official website [http.//eng.gov. spb.ru/figures/population]. 21 According to the St. Petersburg City Government’s official website, industrial production grew by 131.4% in 2002 alone [http.//eng.gov.spb.ru/figures/industry]. 22 Interview with Boris Aleksandrovich Koptin, Head of the Administration for Contacts with National Associations of the St. Petersburg Government Committee for External Relations, St. Petersburg, Russia, April 25, 2007. For further discussion of the city’s evolving ethnic composition throughout its history, see: Blair A. Ruble, Leningrad. Shaping a Soviet City (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 54–56; N. V. Iukhneva, Etnicheskii sostav i sotsial’naia struktura naseleniia Peterburga: Vtoraia polovina XIX – nachalo XX veka: Statisticheskii analiz (Leningrad: Nauka – Leningradskoe otdelenie, 1984); and, G. V. Starovoitova, Etnicheskaia gruppa v sovremennom Sovetskom gorode. Sotsiologicheskie ocherki (Leningrad: Nauka – Leningradskoe otdelenie, 1987). 23 For a discussion of the roots of racialist thought in Russia, see V. A. Shnirel’man, Ocherki sovremennogo racizma (Petrozavodsk: K. R. O.”Molodzehnaia pravozashchitnaia gruppa,” 2007). 24 Ibid., pp. 30-37. 25 For discussion of an emerging “Skinkul’tura” in Russia, See V. A. Shnirel’man, “Chistil’shchiki moskovskikh ulits:” skinkhedy, SMI i obshchestvennoe mnenie (Moscow: Academiia, 2007). 26 See, for example, “Four Get Lengthy Terms in African’s Slaying,” Moscow Times (June 20, 2007). 27 V. A. Shnirel’man, “Chistil’shchiki moskovskikh ulits:” skinkhedy, SMI i obshchestvennoe mnenie , pp. 86-87. 64 The New Challenges of Urban Life

In July 2006, the Government of St. Peters- spect for their values, traditions and special burg launched a “tolerance program” aimed features of their ways of life” into every aspect at “promoting harmony of inter-ethnic and of the school curriculum, in all disciplines, inter-cultural relations, and preventing ultra- throughout the entire primary and secondary nationalist tendencies, and strengthening to- school program. Simultaneously, the school lerance for all in St. Petersburg.”28 City au- curriculum is to be re-designed to promote thorities formulated the program on the ba- the rejection of chauvinism and extremism. sis of extensive consultation with local law School children and youth are to be taught enforcement agencies, academic specialists, skills to interact more peacefully with others civil society leaders, and educational offi- who are different from themselves.31 cials. Beyond making diversity and tolerance seem Among the program’s goals are enhanced co- “better,” concerned St. Petersburg officials ordination among city agencies on questions and residents are trying to make diversity of tolerance, expanded initiatives to integrate and tolerance seem “cool.” Non-governmen- nationalities living in the city into public and tal organizations such as Funky Tolerance cultural life, greater effort to preserve and sponsor events around the city encouraging develop the cultural heritage of all groups young people to embrace tolerance as “hip” within the city, stronger enforcement of laws and “fun.” Their chat-rooms, parties, and intended to prevent ethnic violence and pun- concerts are increasingly popular among stu- ish the perpetrators of hate crimes, as well as dents, young managers, and other members improved communication between various of a growing local middle class who are in communities and local authorities through search of a good time with sufficient wealth the establishment of a “St. Petersburg—A to connect on the internet, in local basement City of Peace” hotline.29 The city has made pubs (traktir), and at concerts.32 funding available to encourage local ethnic associations—especially those representing The relatively spontaneous socializing spawn- the city’s 200,000 Azeris, 150,000 Tatars, as ed by Funky Tolerance and other self-organ- well as many smaller groups such as Peters- ized initiatives bring together small groups of burg’s historic Jewish community—to organ- rising elites from different ethnic, religious, ize cultural festivals.30 and sexual communities. City officials want to associate more wide-spread cross-cultural More ambitiously, city officials are working interaction with a good time as well. Work- with the Russian Federation Ministry of Edu- ing with local ethnic associations, the St. cation to introduce a comprehensive toler- Petersburg government has supported a va- ance curriculum throughout the city’s school riety of festivals promoting cultural diversity system. This effort is intended to integrate “a throughout the year. By far the largest and positive understanding of ethnic and religious most successful among these efforts has been diversity, interest towards other cultures, re- a local staging of the Tatar summer festival

28 Pravitel’stvo Sankt-Peterburga Komitet po vneshnim sviaziam, “Programma garmonizatsii mezhetnicheskikh i meshkul’turnykh otnoshenii, profilaktiki proiavlenii ksenofobii, ukrepleniia tolerantnosti v Sankt-Peterburge na 2006 - 2010 gody (programma “Tolerantnost’)” (Sankt-Peterburg: Pravitel’stvo Sankt-Peterburga, 2006). 29 Ibid, pp. 8–19. 30 Interview with Boris Aleksandrovich Koptin, April 25, 2007. 31 Pravitel’stvo Sankt-Peterburga Komitet po vneshnim sviaizam, “Programma garmonizatsii mezhethnicheskikh i meshkul’turnykh otnoshenii, profilaktiki proiavlenii ksenogobii, ukrepleniia tolerantnosti v Sankt-Peterburge na 2006 - 2010 gody (programma “Tolerantnost’),” pp. 12-13. 32 E. E. Chebotareva, “Funky Tolerance: Conceptual Analysis of Corporate Management in Multi-Cultural Surround- ings,” conference paper, International Academic-Practical Conference on Tolerance and Intolerance in Modern Society, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, April 25-25, 2007. Organizing Heterogeneity: Migrations, Demographic Changes and Cultural Consequences 65

Sabatunyi held at the height of the city’s fa- sponsored gathering – is not threatening. This mous “white nights” in mid-June. domesticated form of cultural interaction is seen as re-enforcing their city’s strengths. Not Celebrated in villages of the mid-Volga be- the least, officials believe, Sabantuyi helps fore the arrival of Islam, Sabantuyi merged people realize that “diversity can be fun.”35 with other local festivals during the late nineteenth century to become a symbol of Tatar The initiation of the city’s tolerance program nationhood.33 Further secularized during the might appear to be surprising in light of a Soviet period, Sabantuyi is now an annual widely-held image of contemporary Rus- celebration of Tatar traditions, song, dance, sian political development that accentuates food, and play. Most Sabantuyi festivals in- a turning away from civil society institutions, clude a distinctive form of Tatar wrestling, a tendency toward nationalist rhetoric, and a horse racing, and more light-natured compe- growing separation between state and soci- titions; together with lots of food and music ety. The Petersburg experience suggests that ranging from folk choruses to raucous rock this conventional understanding of contem- music. Russian Federation Presidents Boris porary Russian politics is limited. More sig- Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin have embraced nificantly, the Petersburg tolerance program the celebration as a seemingly benign way to indicates that city officials need not be inhib- demonstrate their country’s diversity; though ited in their efforts to address the challenges Sabantuyi retains a strong sense of an auton- of heterogeneity by the limitations of a larger omous Tatar identity. national political environment.

The St. Petersburg Sabantuyi is held outside The impact of St. Petersburg’s tolerance pro- the city in the neighboring Leningrad Region gram remains far from certain. Ethnically and with governmental support from the city, re- racially inspired gang attacks continue with gion, federal, and Tatarstan administrations disturbing frequency on the city’s streets, as well as corporate support from major lo- public transportation system, and in parks cal firms.34 More than 60,000 attended the and other public spaces. Police response to 2006 Sabantuyi, with perhaps twice as many such incidents remains disappointing, while people making their way an hour or so north the judicial system struggles to handle tri- of the city in 2007 to a field along the Siargi als with dispatch. Budgetary allocations to highway outside of the village of Kuzmolovo. support program activities have been inad- Once there, Petersburgers spent the day en- equate. joying rides, exploring Tatar cultural exhibits, and listening to a variety of music from three Profound change has taken place in St. Pe- large stages. tersburg’s response to cultural and racial intolerance over the past two-to-three years. For local officials, the Sabantuyi celebrations The city government and its leaders are firm- represent an effort to make diversity seem ly on record as condemning intolerance and “normal” and “comfortable.” They view the violence. City agencies actively promote op- festival’s obvious popularity as an opportuni- portunities to highlight the contributions of ty to spread the word that living with people various economic groups to the city’s overall who are different—at least in the controlled well-being. City officials publicly embrace environment of a corporate and municipal- diversity more enthusiastically than ever

33 “Saban tuyi,” in Tatar Encyclopedia (Kazan’: Institute of the Tatar Encyclopedia, Tatarstan Republic Academy of Sci- ences, 2002). 34 For example, the Interleasing Group was a major corporate sponsor for the 2007 St. Petersburg Sabantuy (www. ileasing.ru). 35 Interview with Boris Aleksandrovich Koptin, April 25, 1007. 66 The New Challenges of Urban Life before in Russian history. Finally, serious Recent migration within Canada has changed long term efforts are underway to insure that in three dimensions which have reshaped the future “Petersburgers” consider diversity to urban experience of Montreal.39 First, trans- be a normal state of being in the twenty-first national migrant flows have shifted from century.36 Montreal to Toronto and the Canadian west as the economic uncertainties generated by debates over Quebec sovereignty devalued Profiting from Diversity, Learning from the Montreal region as a receiving area for Montreal migrants from abroad.40 Second, migrants to Montreal—as everywhere in Canada— increasingly have arrived from the Caribbean Montreal has evolved over the past third-of- 41 a-century from a city divided between two Basin, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Third, Montreal’s migrants have come more founding linguistic and cultural communi- and more from French-speaking societies in ties—French and English—into a complex Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia.42 inter-cultural metropolis rooted in generally 37 One consequence of these trends emerged in shared knowledge of French. In most re- the 2001 Canadian Census count, which recent years, the city’s economy has expanded vealed that “visible minorities” had come to as business, community, and political lead- making-up nearly a fifth (18.7%) of the city’s ers have learned how to capitalize on these overall population.43 changes. Indeed, transnational migration to Montreal during the first years of the twen- This transformation is most evident in Mont- ty-first century has become essential to the real’s leading transnational neighborhoods city’s well-being given otherwise precipitous such as Côtes-des Neiges and the neighbor- projected declines in total population and ing Notre-Dame de Grâce.44 At times known labor force.38 as Montreal’s “Bronx,” Côtes-des-Neiges in

36 The goal of making diversity “normal” for the city’s schoolchildren is viewed as an essential objective for the program. Ibid. 37 For further discussion of these trends within Montreal, see Blair A. Ruble, Creating Diversity Capital. Transnational Migrants in Montreal, Washington, and Kyiv, pp. 34–44. 38 A point made in a number of studies, as reported in Radio-Canada, “L’immigration: apport essentiel à l’économie montréalaise” (30 December 2003). 39 Peter S. Li, “Deconstructing Canada’s Discourse of Immigrant Integration,” Journal of International Migration and Integration/Revue de l’intégration et de la migration internationale, vol. 4, no. 3 (2003): 315-333. 40 By 2001, 43.7% of the population of metropolitan Toronto was foreign born, as was 37.5% of Metro Vancouver’s population. Both figures are markedly higher that the estimated 18.4% of the residents of metropolitan Montreal (and only 2.9% of the residents of the Quebec City region) who were born outside of Canada. The 2001 Census figures are available on line on the Statistics Canada website at http://www.statscan.ca. 41 D.F. Levy and L.S. Bourne, “The Social Context and Diversity of Urban Canada,” p. 23. For more extensive discussion of the Asian immigrant experience in Canada, see the essays contained in Eleanor Laquian, Aprodicio Laquian, and Terry McGee, editors, The Silent Debate: Asian Immigration and Racism in Canada (Vancouver, B.C.: Institute of Asian Research, the University of British Columbia, 1998). 42 Denis Helly, L’immigration pour quoi faire (Montreal: Institut Québécois de Recherche sur la culture, 1992). 43 L’INRS-Urbanisation, Culture et Société, Portrait des populations immigrante et non immigrante de la ville de Montréal et de ses 27 arrondissements [www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/ diversite/ portrait.htm]. The Canadian Census identified Canadians of “Black, South Asian, Chinese, South East Asian, Arab and Middle Eastern, Latin American, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino heritage” as constituting the country’s “visible minorities.” 44 Côte-des-Neiges has been the subject of extensive social science research in part because of its diverse and complex character and, in part, because of the presence in the neighborhood of l’Université de Montréal and its faculty and students. An excellent collection of articles examining various aspects of neighborhood life during the 1990s may be found in: Deidre Meintel, Victor Piché, Danielle Juteau, and Sylvie Fortin, editors, Le Quartier Côtes-des- Neiges à Montréal. Les interfaces de la pluriethnicité (Montréal/Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997). Organizing Heterogeneity: Migrations, Demographic Changes and Cultural Consequences 67 particular, has become home to Africans, or unwilling, to relinquish the individual and Arabs, Cambodians, Jews, Philippines, Lao, cultural prejudice, nostalgia and expectation Vietnamese, Chinese, Latin Americans, Por- that alienate them in their quests for ‘le vrai tuguese, Haitians, and members of various Montréal’.” Once starkly divided by lan- other groups living in close proximity to one guage, Montreal has become converted into another.45 By the 1990s, Côtes-des-Neiges “a grid of many solitudes.”49 and Notre-Dame de Grâce were home to over 154,000 residents who sustained flourishing This “grid of solitudes” has recovered some small business districts dominated by ethnic of its historic economic dynamism in part entrepreneurs.46 Local businesses were pro- because new Montrealers have been arriv- ducing sufficient advertising revenues - dur ing every day. Migrants from around Que- ing the early 1990s to support two-dozen bec, Canada, and beyond represent critical ethnic and neighborhood newspapers pub- new additions to a labor force that otherwise lished in various African languages, Arabic, would be in precipitous decline. The future Cambodian, Hebrew, Philippine languages, growth of Montreal’s regional economy de- Lao, Vietnamese, Chinese, Latin-American pends on upgrading the skill profile and in- languages, Creole French, Québéois French, jecting younger workers into an aging popu- and English.47 lation that has lagged behind other Canadian and US metropolitan regions in educational Montreal entered the twenty-first century attainment.50 Migrants have enhanced eco- with an astonishing mixture of ethnic, reli- nomic vitality in the city and region and must gious, racial, and linguistic communities— continue to add value to the local economy if often without well defined boundaries the city is to thrive. The Montreal experience among them. Given the historic enmities demonstrates the need to inculcate migrants between anglophones and francophones— into urban economic development strate- as well as between Roman Catholic and gies. Diversity must become recognized as Protestant communities—“it is,” in the words an opportunity for economic success in or- of La Presse journalist Laura-Julie Perreault, der for the city and region to develop eco- “something of a miracle that Montreal did nomically. not become a Second Northern Ireland.”48 Instead, as Perreault reports, the city’s 350 year old multi-confessional regime has be- Multiplying Investments in Diversity come a marketing tool for the city’s bour- geoning tourism industry. The result is not The experiences of Quito, St. Petersburg, always blissful, as one can see in Stephen and Montreal suggest that urban political Henighan’s popular novels of late twentieth- and community leaders in many cities of the century Montreal. To quote from the author world are struggling to organize twenty-first of a review of Henighan’s 2004 story The century heterogeneity in a way that enhances Streets of Winter, Montrealers “are unable, everyone’s well being. These experiences are

45 Myriame El Yamani with the assistance of Jocelyne Dupuis, “ La construction mediatique du ‘Bronx’ de Montréal,” in Ibid, pp. 29-52. 46 Daniel Juteau and Sylvie Paré, “L’entrepreneurship à Côtes-des-Neiges: le périmètre Victoria/Van Horne,” in Ibid., pp. 129-160. 47 Myriame El Yamani with the assistance of Jocelyne Dupuis, “La construction mediatique du ‘Bronx’ de Mon- tréal,” p.35. For a broader discussion of Montreal’s “ethnic” press, see Sylvie St-Jacques, “Des nouvelles de leurs mondes,” La Presse (April 21, 2004). 48 Laura-Julie Perreault, “Embouteillage sur le prie-dieu montréalais,” La Presse (June 12, 2004). 49 Karen Solie, “The Many Solitudes of Montreal,” Globe and Mail (June 12, 2004). 50 “OECD Territorial Review of Montreal,” OECD Observer Policy Brief (Paris, OECD, 2004), pp. 2-3 [www.oecd.org/ publications/Pol_brief]. 68 The New Challenges of Urban Life only small examples of a developing trend in jobs. Few visitors and residents would mis- urban governance world wide. Momentum is take these cities for an urban ideal. growing to expand the repertoire of responses to social and cultural diversity. Cities are Policies fall short because improvement in seeking to create better environments for the any single urban domain produces the de- adaptation of communities and migrants— mand for improvement in other areas. More both domestic and transnational—to one inclusive public space must be populated another, thereby increasing diversity capital. by better educated residents if jobs are to be Successful politicians in very different cities produced; urbanites educated in the way of are making explicit decisions to oppose a tolerance must have the physical space and the economic opportunity to engage other global trend toward social fragmentation and groups for the city to change; and new busi- isolation. nesses must be accessible to diverse residents who have the education to sustain further These brief case studies reveal how difficult growth. The task of organizing a city’s het- a task the reorganization of urban communi- erogeneity in a period of rapid demographic ties for heterogeneity can be. Public space change requires long term, multi-faceted, has been reconfigured in Quito to be more complex strategies which only emerge when inclusive; school curricula have been rewrit- the city itself becomes a shared focus of con- ten in St. Petersburg to promote tolerance; cern and attention. The city must become an and entrepreneurship in Montreal among agent of organization and education, and not transnational migrants has created more just an object acted upon by others. The Media, the City and Education. Between Hyperactivity and Indifference

Josep Ramoneda

Josep Ramoneda Molins is a philosopher and a journalist. He was professor of Contemporary Philosophy at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1975-1990), Director of the Institut d’Humanitats (1986-1989), Director and founder of the collection titled “Textos filosòfics” (published by Edicions 62), founder of the culture magazine “Saber” (1980) and a contributor for the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia (1980-1996).

He presently serves as director of the Barcelona Center for Contem- porary Culture and contributes to the Spanish newspaper El País and radio station Cadena Ser. He has also published a number of books, including: Después de la pasión política (Taurus, 1999) and Del tiempo condensado (Random House Mondadori, 2003). Some of his titles published by Edicions 62 include: Apologia del present; Mitològiques, and El sentit íntim. Multi-author books: Frontera i Perill; Coneixement, memòria i invenció, and “Ediciones de Foucault, Locke, Nietzsche y Montesquieu” in the Textos filosòfics collection. The Media, the City and Education. Between Hyperactivity and Indifference

1 far more useful than the Sagrada Família, and the Gràcia district than La Pedrera (a building In a book about his native city (Nantes), designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí). Julien Gracq, a peculiar French writer who The form of Barcelona is essentially that of has always been regarded as completely out a collection of towns caught in a web—the of step with the times, discusses the form of Eixample—that informs this new life. This the city.1 The form of a city is related to how is why Barcelona has often been pluralized it is represented but also to the way its peo- in narrative: “Barcelonas” (Manuel Vazquez ple live. When a city loses its form (its own Montalbán) or the “Barcelonas” of Barce- unique calligraphy), it ceases, in a sense, to lona. The result is a peculiar form in which be a city and becomes an “urbanal” space, the underlying rationality has only partially to use an expression coined by Francesc penetrated the much more twisted spaces of Muñoz. This expression refers to the multi- the old towns that now make up Barcelona. plication of residential spaces without civic This dual nature is the form of this city. It is will—a consecration of the worst version in this context that the city is now absorb- of middle-class individualism—that expand ing an unprecedented wave of immigration around cities in a series of concentric circles from abroad, which spreads over the exist- of housing, like ripples in a pond. ing form, validating the idea articulated by Dipesh Chakrabarty: that we always live in The form of the city is a subject that draws places previously inhabited by others.2 This little media attention. It is probably a matter is precisely why the form of a city is like an too subtle to capture. As we already know, accent that emerges from its architectural media simplification leaves little room for and urban form to mark and determine the nuances. The form of the city is physical, but city’s spirit. It is this local accent that makes this physicality is lived, inhabited. The plan the city different from others. Do the media developed by 19th-century Catalan town convey the form of the city? Not much, I am planner Ildefons Cerdà is not the form of Bar- afraid. celona: the city’s form is seen in the Eixam- ple district, the Cerdà plan worked on and made tangible by people. A city is not given 2 its form by the emblematic buildings, muse- The media address citizens, and citizenship ums, stores, bars and restaurants featured in is the mainstay of the city. To date, no space tourist guides. While this picture of the city has been known to be more open to broad may serve marketing purposes, its form is recognition of citizenship than the city. States more complex—difficult to turn into some- put many obstacles in the path of those who thing monumental or boil down to an image. come from abroad and seek recognition as If we had to choose an image to define the citizens. For states, the distinction between form of Barcelona, the Eixample would be nationals and non-nationals is a vital one

1 I am referring to the book by Julien Gracq entitled La Forme d’une ville (Paris: José Corti, 1986). 2 Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Humanism in an Age of Globalization,” draft of a paper presented in Essen, 2006. 72 The New Challenges of Urban Life that defines “us” and in so doing contributes say. The ideal subject matter for television is to collective cohesion. Even today, during a simple confrontation turned into spectacle. time when migratory movements are restrict- In this sense, television can be viewed as an ed, cities are more open-handed than states. extension of the democratic arena. Indeed, In Barcelona, simply registering with the city if parliament is the dialectical sublimation authorities grants a person such basic rights of conflict, the world of television is another as access to medical care. By taking this step, stage in the same exercise. illegal immigrants set out on the path to citizenship. But at the same time, television banalizes. Cruelty as a repeated image gradually loses The unequal relationship between the media its impact. When atrocities become routine, and citizens determines what we call public they are dehumanized and turned into pure opinion, something that plays a decisive role spectacle. And no matter how shocking an in the formation of current social truths. We image may be the first time we lay eyes on it, are living in a stage of capitalism in which, in once we have seen the same image (or simi- open societies like ours, people can say vir- lar ones) a number of times, it means nothing tually anything, but the vast majority of what to us. This has a very serious consequence: is said serves only to reinforce the status quo. the only way to regain the attention of view- This reflects the capacity of the system to in- ers is to increase the dose. This is how we corporate and dissolve its cultural contradic- have ended up with snuff movies and people tions, something that now-largely-forgotten provoking real acts of violence so they can post-war authors like Daniel Bell and Her- film them and get them on our screens. The bert Marcuse were able to see.3 Thus, while Internet is full of this.4 When we are used to many of us contribute to forming the social having our lunch and dinner every day while truth, very few have a hand in determining it. images of terrorist attacks are served up to In societies dominated by television, simpli- us on TV, this escalation in pursuit of intense fication and banalization hold sway. emotions has no limit. At the same time, citizens react to these images with growing Television is a cold medium. As a result, it indifference. This is the duality of television. has a certain calming effect; TV is unlikely On one hand, it creates social truth (it has to get viewers up off the sofa. Everything even been said that something doesn’t exist if becomes fiction as reality skates across the it is not on TV). But on the other hand, it dis- screen. Revolutions nurtured by television tances us from reality by turning everything have tended to be more peaceful than those into fiction. nurtured by radio. For the same reason, TV also has a certain demobilizing effect. Televi- The apparent transparency of television im- sion is the medium of the totalitarianism of ages belies a system of multilayered con- indifference, which at times seems to threat- cealment: concealment by accumulation, en affluent European societies. concealment by speed (due to the way information is hyperbolized), concealment by Television simplifies and banalizes. It sim- obscenity (the exhibitionism of the image), plifies because it demands abbreviated lan- concealment by simplification, and conceal- guage, leaving no room for nuances. No sen- ment by standardization. Television contri- tence should take more than ten seconds to butes to the degradation of physis.5 This has

3 See Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996), and Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964). 4 There is a very interesting essay on this subject by Michela Marzano: La mort espectacle. Enquête sur l’horreur- realité (Paris: Gallimard, 2007). 5 These issues are examined in my book Después de la pasión política (Madrid: Taurus, 1999). The Media, the City and Education. Between Hyperactivity and Indifference 73 led some authors to invite us to create reality plexity. Cities mix cosmopolitanism with through literature as a form of resistance to the discourse of identity, and in the minimal the ecstasy (exasperation and fragmentation) overlap between frames of reference there of information and as a response to the eu- arise diverse forms of cultural transversality phemistic language of politics.6 and new imaginaries which, though woven here, still contain the music of faraway places. The television paradigm dominates the public arena. It is true that prophecies announc- The first thing we need to bear in mind is that ing the death of old media when a new one the mass media are a window onto the world appeared on the scene have never been ful- beyond our private sphere, one that provides filled. Radio did not spell the end of print me- a volume of information most citizens never dia; motion pictures did not do away with ra- had access to before. This information may dio; and television has not brought about the be superficial, banal, etc., but just watching demise of radio or motion pictures. Neither, television (as almost everyone does) enables for the moment, have cell phones and the In- people to learn things and have access to ternet led to the disappearance of television, diverse information from around the world. radio, motion pictures or the written press. Before the age of TV, this was a privilege re- But today it is the television paradigm that served for a small minority. has the upper hand. One can easily see how the other media (even print media) attempt to Needless to say, this information comes in a adapt to its laws. This is clear in the way the flood and is not very organized from a peda- layouts and fonts used in newspapers have gogical point of view. Moreover, it is oriented evolved in recent years. Television is respon- mainly towards entertainment and minimal sible for what communication strategists call socialization of people. But anyone who be- the multiplier effect. The important thing is lieves that things were better in the past is the way a piece of information spreads from mistaken. person to person, the echo that reaches those who never read a newspaper. It is precisely this flow of information from the mass media that naturally gives rise to diversity in terms of the way people are and 3 the opinions they hold. And it is not banal because much blood has been shed by hu- In the panorama I have sketched out, what is manity to achieve this recognition of “the the contribution of the mass media—press, other”—that there is not just one way of un- radio and television (the Internet is another derstanding the world. Thanks to the media, world)—to the education of people, and freedom of expression is becoming like a therefore to building citizenship? second skin for citizens. The absence of that freedom is experienced as an unacceptable According to Zygmunt Bauman, the city is a mutilation. “place where strangers live together permanently while keeping their differences and More information and the consecration of without stopping being strangers.”7 In other diversity as a natural characteristic of any words, it is a place where people relate to modern city—these two factors are taking us each other in many ways on many different in the right direction when it comes to demo- levels. This implies enormous cultural com- cratic education.

6 In connection with this point, see James G. Ballard’s introduction to his novel Crash. 7 Zygmunt Bauman, Noves fronteres i valors universals (New Frontiers and Universal Values), Breus, (Barcelona: CCCB, 2006). 74 The New Challenges of Urban Life

4 this dynamic has serious consequences for the way people develop, duty-bound as they Now we can move ahead a bit. Not all me- are to buy happiness over and over again.9 dia operate in the same way. Print media People find it more and more difficult to focus are becoming more and more of a minority their effort or attention. The problem is not phenomenon, aimed at just one sector of the just that any form of contemplation or delib- population: those who read. The function of eration has been abandoned; what is worry- the press, therefore, is an increasingly coming is the need to be paying attention to half plementary one. Recently, some newspapers a dozen things at the same time. There is no have opted to free themselves, as a way of calm of spirit in front of a television screen. surviving, from the fatal attraction exerted Everything leads to one extreme or the oth- by the television paradigm, and shift their er: “hyper-action” or indifference. And, in a focus to the kind of reflection and debate sense, one fuels the other. There is not much more characteristic of democratic culture. difference between taking an interest in eve- Radio reaches the ears of listeners directly rything and not taking an interest in anything. and evokes emotional reactions more readily than any other medium. The common view Information is no longer the scarce resource that radio is a “hot” medium is well-founded. it had been throughout most of human his- In many ways it is a medium of combat and tory. Instead we are faced with a superabun- plays an important role in political battles. dance of information, and the problem is A particular experience I had illustrates the how to orient ourselves in a sea of inputs. power of the voice: while preparing an ex- Information needs to be organized into hier- hibition entitled West Portrayed by East, we archies and structured. Television is the ulti- had to decide whether or not to include vide- mate tool for establishing such hierarchies. os showing the execution of Western citizens This is why it has such a vital role to play in kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. Given how education. With this in mind, we can turn the graphic the images were, we tried using just question around: the impact of television can sound. It was far more unbearable that way. only be made into something positive by a highly effective educational system that puts In any case, I will stick to television, which people who are intellectually mature in front remains the main spiritual nourishment for of TV screens. We are, however, exposed to citizens. television at an earlier age than to any other medium. Georg Simmel said that the nervous stimulation of urban life generates unease in modern We have uncritically accepted one of the sa- man.8 In my view, advertising and zapping cred cows of modern liberal society: the view have now made television a mechanism that that private media should have a free hand to can trigger a similar nervous response, giving do as their owners please in the no-holds- TV the potential to draw viewers into a hy- barred fight to win audience share, and that peractive state. This hyperactivity has a par- the role of public media, financed with the ticular focus: the permanent dissatisfaction taxes paid by citizens, is to fill in the gaps associated with the cycle of consumption; that remain. The distinction is even more ab- the need to struggle to make a new purchase surd when generally the only difference be- before the one just paid for has even reached tween public and private media is that the the buyer’s hands, and all at an ever-faster news programs on the former are overseen pace. In an age when the rhythm of life has directly by the government currently in pow- become so accelerated, it seems to me that er. What obsesses TV broadcasters—public

8 Georg Simmel: “La metrópolis y la vida moderna” (The Metropolis and Modern Life). 9 See, for example, Pascal Bruckner, La vida bona (La vie bone) Breus (Barcelona: CCCB, 2006). The Media, the City and Education. Between Hyperactivity and Indifference 75 and private—is audience figures. Moreover, tive side of things, but without providing the audience they are chasing is the result any kind of critical perspective. This is why of a distorted system, one in which program- opinions based on what we see on television ming is restricted and subject to strict guide- are often so wrong. If there is a terrorist at- lines, and demand can only make itself felt tack in a country, for instance, only images to a limited degree. The discourse on audi- of horror reach us; we know nothing of what ence is based on a trap: broadcasters say normal life there is like the rest of the time. they provide the programs people want to This brings us to what I believe is an essential see, and viewers say they can only watch the point: television plays a fundamental role in programs offered, which, it must be said, are constructing the ideology of fear so prevalent increasingly alike across all channels. Thus in the West, where, in the name of security, despite their key role in educating citizens, freedoms are curtailed every day and the television programmers are focused on audi- general response is one of indifference. Fear, ence, not citizenship. as we know, has a demobilizing effect: it is a close cousin to indifference and lack of solidarity. What is the point of an education that 5 bolsters these two attitudes? There is no determination to educate in television. Essentially there is a determination 6 to do business and exert political control, arising from a complex balance between Conclusion: The society dominated by tel- media owners (and their system of inter- evision has more information than any other ests), the state (in its regulatory role), and that has preceded it. But this information media professionals. Television can have an does not necessarily empower citizens to enormous impact. It is therefore a tool that emancipate themselves—to think and make those with power want to keep under con- decisions for themselves. On the contrary, it trol. There are countless examples of televi- tends to activate what American sociologists sion being used for political and economic call “frames”: the ways of interpreting and ends. Sometimes those pulling the strings go responding to events we have internalized too far, as occurred in the run-up to the 2002 simply because they have been instilled in French presidential election. For months, pri- us ever since we were kids. Television does vate television channels reported extensively not teach us to adopt a critical attitude. This on criminal activity. The aim was to create must be learned before exposure to the me- a climate of insecurity among citizens in or- dium; once someone is in front of a TV, it is der to make Jospin (the prime minister at the too late. Television encourages accommoda- time) lose the election. The result, however, tion and indifference. It also tends to isolate was that the general panic enabled Le Pen to viewers, promoting uncritical individualism. make it to the second round. Suddenly, from It has few of the virtues of modern individu- the night of the election, crime was no longer alism, but it does have some of its vices, such a lead story on the news; it was as if criminal as a lack of interest in others. activity had miraculously vanished. Television should be for adults, and even There is, however, a structural problem in that is questionable. Fortunately, though, we the relationship between information and live in an open society, and television is the education. This stems from the very defini- most universally accessible medium. I have tion of news. The newsworthiness of an event the impression that if we could teach people depends on its singularity. As they say: if a how to watch television, we could get more dog bites a man, that’s not news; but if a man out of the medium in educational terms. But bites a dog, that’s news. This means infor- in that case, perhaps the first consequence mation focuses mainly on the more nega- would be that we would watch less. Competition and Cooperation. Justice and Peace

Arcadi Oliveres

Arcadi Oliveres Boadella holds a Ph.D. in Economic Sciences and is a professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the Universi- tat Autònoma de Barcelona. President of the Catalan NGO “Justícia i Pau,” and of the International University for Peace in Sant Cugat del Vallès in Barcelona, and of the Consell Català de Foment de la Pau, as well as being a member of the Societat Catalana d’Economia, a subsidiary of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. He has done research on topics involving international trade, economic globalization, foreign debt, development cooperation and defense economics. He has also written and contributed to several published works, including: El mil- itarismo en España (co-editor along with Pere Ortega; Barcelona: Ed- itorial Icaria, 2007), Un altre món (Barcelona: Angle Editorial, 2006), Contra el hambre y la guerra (Barcelona: Angle Editorial, 2005). Competition and Cooperation. Justice and Peace

1. Introduction 2. Ever-Growing Injustice

Fifty percent of the world’s population lives Despite the scientific and technological in urban areas. Urbanization has become a progress that would indeed make it possi- growing, tangible process over the past dec- ble, the basic needs of a large proportion of ades. In the mid 20th century, only 33% of the world’s population are not yet met. It is the world’s inhabitants lived in cities, where- often the lack of political will, the lucrative as by 2030 the figure is expected to rise to goals of businesses and the selfishness of in- 63%. As it progresses, urbanization shapes dividuals that force thousands of millions of economic and social attitudes that, for better people to endure appalling living conditions. or for worse, depart from traditional param- Among examples are those who die of AIDS eters. due to lack of access to medication because pharmaceutical companies are careful not to Indeed, on one hand, the benefits of large share their patents; the inhumane working conurbations are undeniable in that they conditions that are exploited by offshore sub- facilitate access to good medical assistance contractors of major companies; the shortage and improved educational possibilities, so- of resources to fight hunger when enormous cial services and cultural activities, while amounts of money are spent on war; the ir- strengthening the social fabric and making responsible and immoral arms industry; the available a wide variety of tools that promote closing of borders to migrants; international the emergence of new ideas and alternative trade under conditions of inequality; corrup- proposals. tion combined with illicit business and tax havens; brain drain, financial speculation; But it is also clear that it is precisely in urban abusive foreign debt; relentless exploitation areas where inequality and lack of solidar- of natural resources; environmental degra- ity, consumerism, acts of violence, housing dation; and indiscriminate urban develop- problems, residential ghettos and a growing ment—these are just some of the mechanisms proliferation of “non-spaces” in reference that generate such shortages. Furthermore, it to large shopping malls, service stations, is easy to verify that they have an even deeper airports, and chains of coffee shops, restau- impact when the population is concentrated rants, hotels and so-called leisure centers in the periphery of large cities. that could be found anywhere in the world, are most likely to emerge. These mechanisms not only prevent many people from maintaining their dignity, but The city has become a paradigm of social also lead to growing differences between change and all the risks that undermine those living in the North and South, in addi- justice, freedom, peace and environmental tion to differences within each country. While protection, which we will see below, appear in the 1950s there was a rate of 30 to 1 in the there in their strongest form, just as proposals per capita GDP between the richest 20% and for change are logically formed in the critical the poorest 20% of the world’s population, conscience of society. the difference is now 103 to 1. The same oc- 80 The New Challenges of Urban Life curs, although in a smaller proportion, with- sels Chamber of Commerce to the Bilderberg in countries where capital income grows as Group, which determine appointments, poli- work income drops. Lastly, the same pattern cies, economic decisions and military ac- is repeated in cities, and perhaps even more tions with utmost impunity. intensely. Furthermore, if people’s freedom is an imperative of democracy, we can see how it 3. Democratic Governability Called is quickly disappearing as social control into Question increases. Cameras in public and private places, illegal phone tapping, photographic Strictly speaking, politics is the government dissection of land, the monitoring of e-mails of the “polis,” or city, and it is safe to say that and Internet sessions, and the computerized the first democratic experiences occurred in storage of any kind of personal data: these cities. Nevertheless, the current formulations are all operating at full speed and are justi- of representative democracy leave much to fied through false fears of terrorism that are be desired at many levels. If we begin with often promoted by governments and, when political parties—one of the basic instru- they are not, ultimately require a different ments of citizen participation—we immedi- kind of response. Again, city dwellers are hit ately observe three major deficits: the lack hardest by these attacks on people’s intimacy of “primary” elections to choose candidates, and privacy. the practical non-existence of open lists, and the “favors” that are offered to economic powers in return for funding. 4. Pacification Is Possible

Things do not appear to improve at state lev- It is doubtful whether wars have made any el, where we witness discrimination between sense over the course of history, but clearly first-class and second-class citizens, for ex- they now make less sense than ever before. ample by not giving immigrants the right During times when the economy was large- to vote. Meanwhile, it is practically impos- ly based on agricultural activities that were sible to undertake popular legislative initia- subject to the vicissitudes of the climate and tives, and municipalities—the first mainstay natural phenomena, it may have become im- of democracy—receive only 16% of public possible for people to survive and, although money, compared to the 53% allotted to the not justifiable, their will to attack their neigh- central government. bors in order to attain the goods they lacked may have been comprehensible. Nowadays, On a European and global scale, we are despite the millions of people who are starv- forced to acknowledge the practical nonex- ing, there are more than enough resources to istence of democracy. Clear examples are satisfy the basic necessities of the world’s in- the European Parliament without legislative habitants. And when local or circumstantial powers, the United Nations with one vote deficits arise, they can be overcome thanks per state and therefore hugely disproportion- to modern communication systems, means ate to their populations, a Security Council of transport, scientific knowledge and other with an incomprehensible right of veto for existing techniques. Thus, war is nothing five privileged countries, and institutions more than intense selfishness and competi- like those of Bretton Woods (World Bank tiveness taken to the extreme. and International Monetary Fund) in which the vote corresponds to the quota allocation. But wars do exist and among the reasons be- Not to mention that above formal organiza- hind them are the economic interests largely tions are factual powers ranging from the G8 linked to commodities and energy resources. to the Economic Forum in Davos, the Brus- These wars aim to maintain, or increase, the Competition and Cooperation. Justice and Peace 81 welfare status of a fifth of the world’s pop- Firstly, according to estimates by international ulation in detriment of the rest. The armed organizations, military expenditure currently conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those stands at $1.2 trillion per year, twenty-two waged in Angola and Somalia, closely follow times more than the amount the World Food this model of self-interest that is maintained and Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes internally in Algeria, Colombia, Congo Kin- would be required to eradicate world hunger shasa and Congo Brazzaville, among other for a year. Secondly, the number of people places. Occasionally, without turning into who have joined the armed forces (some a war, these benefits for the privileged are 26,000,000) is surprising when, according to upheld through dictatorial means based on the United Nations, half a million blue hel- torture, repression and extrajudicial murders, mets would be more than enough to appease often with the backing of foreign powers. situations of conflict worldwide. Thirdly, Such is the case of Equatorial Guinea, Niger- there is the perverse research with military ia, Zimbabwe, Myanmar and Uzbekistan. goals that, despite its unacceptable ethical dimension, is justified with the excuse that Other times, wars are waged due to a series of civilians will benefit from these innovations. political, social and ethnic conflicts that lead In fact, benefits have proven to be scarce, to social marginalization, territorial occupa- technology transfer channels usually follow tion, majorities that oppress minorities, and the path from civil to military, and arms-re- even minorities that oppress majorities. This lated discoveries have absolutely no respect has been the case of Israel versus Palestine, for human life. Fourthly, the production and Serbia and Croatia versus Bosnia and Kosovo, transfer of arms that often flows from North the Russian Federation versus Chechnya, the to South ensure ample profits for the rich, north versus the south of Sudan, Morocco while causing wars in poor countries. Con- versus the Sahara and, until recently, Great versely, drug trafficking flows in the opposite Britain versus Northern Ireland. direction; arms are frequently paid for with drugs, and drugs are often purchased with arms. The Spanish weapons industry is par- Besides the origin of these conflicts, the main ticularly shameful, as it is one of the world’s reason for concern is the obsession of most largest exporters and a major supplier of am- countries with having their war machines in munition for wars in Africa, as denounced by permanent operation, which incites others to Intermón Oxfam. do the same. The war machines are almost always justified through the fabrication of However, if we say that pacification is possi- false or exaggerated threats and nonexistent ble, it is because, as long as we have the per- enemies. Working efficiently to ensure this is sonal and political will to secure certain con- the case are a significant number of media ditions, we truly believe this to be the case. companies often backed by major indus- As a basic principle, and as set out in the trial corporations, important financial pow- UNESCO Charter, we should remove wars ers, heads of defense departments and the from our minds. Nowadays, it is impossible arms industry. For instance, the French press to conceive a “fair war” and if we consider is largely in the hands of Serge Dassault (Le that the war waged in 1991 to reconquer Figaro), a leading combat aircraft manufac- Kuwait—which resulted in the casualties of turer, and Arnaud Lagardère (regional press three hundred American soldiers, 270,000 and the Hachette publishing empire), the Iraqis and the subsequent embargo that, ac- principal shareholder of the country’s priva- cording to UNICEF, created over one mil- tized war industries. lion victims among children under the age of five—we must immediately reevaluate our The arms cycle—a more polite way of refer- moral beliefs. However, if the conflict has ring to the war machine—is presented in dif- already begun, unconditional peace negotia- ferent forms, each increasingly pernicious. tions must be instantly instituted. 82 The New Challenges of Urban Life

The peace process should continue with nu- approved by the Parliament of Catalonia and clear and conventional disarmament, reduc- based on the Law for the Fostering of Peace, ing the contingent of armed forces, destroy- and the subsequent creation of the Catalan ing arsenals and reconverting the military Council for the Fostering of Peace, the con- industry to benefit civil goals. Although these sultative body that connects the civil society are usually political decisions, they must be with political institutions in peace issues. exhorted by citizens through social movements and individual commitments. At this point, nobody can deny the moral justifica- 5. Immigration, the Keystone of City tion of those who demonstrated against nu- Life clear tests, the Vietnam War and the invasion of Iraq, to mention only a few specific cases. The city is the migratory space par excel- Similarly, today we all understand those who lence. The injustice described in the second object to compulsory military service on section and the wars analyzed in the third moral grounds, and we are slowly acknowl- explain the driving forces behind migrations edging the reasons for fiscal, financial, labor and population flows. We are interested in and scientific objections to anything involv- learning how the North can respond to these ing war provisions. flows but, unfortunately, the response is very negative: we close our doors to the arrival We have left a central factor until the end of of immigrants, which leads to mafia-con- this chapter: education for peace. Education trolled trafficking of humans who often end for peace, and peace itself, needs to be un- up dead; we do not give them the necessary derstood in a broad sense that demands jus- documentation but instead put them in situ- tice, disarmament, respect for human rights, ations involving precarious work and social social equity, development of peoples, care instability; we do not give them full rights as for the environment and many other require- citizens and thus facilitate their mistreatment ments. In this respect, it comprises the edu- and discrimination. cation that leads to the fulfillment of these goals. But education for peace also calls for Misconceptions must be reversed and we us to become aware of the privileges we need to realize that migration—a practice as enjoy as citizens of the North, to renounce old as humanity itself—has always been mo- competitiveness, eliminate any manner of tivated by hunger and war. We should also discrimination, fanaticism and patriotism understand that aging societies like those in and hold the value of human dignity above Europe require immigration as a source of any material, individual or collective gain. youth and labor force. However, the real rea- Education for peace also demands the disap- son we must welcome them is because they pearance of the ever-present virtual violence have the right. To conclude, we should un- in films, comics, videogames, role-playing derstand that, contrary to the cultural clash games, war toys and any educational or lei- that is so often mentioned, migrations are at sure instrument for children, youth or adults. the origin of our habits, customs, traditions, artistic wealth and literary heritage. Complementing education for peace is research for peace, paradoxically undervalued It is also necessary to realize that mutual in- compared to research for war, but essential if terrelations have not always come about in we wish to determine the origin of conflicts the same way. At times, processes of enrich- and their possible solutions. It is reassuring to ment and respective osmosis have worked know that working in this direction and fol- well enough, whereas in other circumstances lowing the models already established mostly they have given rise to conflicts, ghettos and in northern Europe is the newly launched In- situations of dominance. In our context, it ternational Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP), has been a case of social rather than ethnic Competition and Cooperation. Justice and Peace 83 discrimination. Thus, when we hear about Indeed, once societies recovered from the the riots in the banlieues of major cities in devastation of the Second World War, the France, we should realize the protests are Western world, and particularly its compa- actually against the faulty “social ladder” as nies, realized that consumption was the ba- a result of the labor and income policies of sis of profit and set in motion a careful and right-wing governments, rather than conflicts fervent plan using psychology and advertis- between groups from different ethnic backing techniques to motivate buyers, hypnotize grounds or territories. them with products, offer them spaces that predispose their five senses towards the at- Still, when walking around the Rambla del tention to goods, providing them with access, Raval area in Barcelona, one realizes that extended opening hours and easy payment peaceful cohabitation is perfectly plausible terms, and luring them into a false sense of and that we are still able to prevent the seri- happiness. ous conflicts that have erupted in other Euro- pean countries. But it will only be possible This situation is beneficial to governments, if we are capable of curbing the racist traits regardless of whether or not they are demo- that appear in certain media, eliminating the cratic, because they create conformist citi- xenophobic spirit of certain groups of the lo- zens with uniform models of life, particularly cal population and instituting open public in terms of consumption and leisure, who are policies that are respectful to immigrants. rarely prepared to raise their voices against the system, especially if they are burdened Before concluding this section, I would like with the responsibility of paying long-term to mention how unfavorably Spain has dealt mortgages, as occurs in Spain. France’s May with the issue of political asylum and exile 1968 was a clear warning of this situation, over the past thirty years. Indeed, it is quite but it was only seized by certain minority contradictory that as freedom practices in groups; for the rest, the door to a single way public life have improved, we have lost the of thinking was left wide open. ability to offer refuge to those who escape war and repression and come to our coun- The results have not taken too many decades try not to improve their living conditions but to become visible and we are now witness- to actually save their lives. The plurality and ing two things: firstly, that the current level wealth that accompanied the arrival of those of consumption cannot be generalized to expelled by Latin American dictatorships in the rest of the world. As stated during the Jo- the 1970s have disappeared from our cities hannesburg Earth Summit in 2002, if all of and, in absurd contrast to our situation at the humanity wanted access to the same natural end of the Civil War, we have refused to ac- resources (water, minerals, energy sources, cept refugees, except in symbolic numbers, wood, etc.) as those in the industrialized from Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechnya, not to world—which account for a fifth of the mention those from Rwanda, Sudan, Iraq, total—we would need three planets. Con- etc. sequently, from the viewpoint of justice as contained in the title of this section, the only way of applying it in the material area is by 6. Consumerism, Limiting Resources putting the theory of decrease into practice. In other words, we are not ethically author- Another of the major challenges that affect ized to grow any more—though we can, of today’s societies and urban life in particu- course, continue to develop—when the ma- lar has to do with the exponential growth of jority of the world’s population will be forced consumerism and progressive depletion of to refrain from doing so. It is about time this resources, which was first observed in the idea were expressed by economic authorities 1950s and reached its height in the 1970s. and thus served as an example to business- 84 The New Challenges of Urban Life people and citizens alike, who must work to distribution of land for agricultural purposes, achieve the same goals. free transfer of technology, cancellation of foreign debt, growth of development cooper- Secondly, our injustice in terms of consump- ation, a curbing of the speculative rather than tion will have an even greater effect on future the productive economy, fair trade practices, generations. The symptoms are very clear: promotion of ethical finances, establishing depletion of resources, loss of biodiversity, cooperative business formulas, distribut- all kinds of pollution, global warming, etc. ing labor among all workers, responsible Furthermore, we are now beginning to wit- purchasing, promoting links with southern ness resource wars, new diseases, lakes dry- countries, occupation and recovery of aban- ing up, the disappearance of emerging areas, doned factories, women’s business ventures, etc. Thus, we are in no way complying with creation of international taxation instru- the Indian proverb that says we must treat the ments, reconverting military expenditure to- earth well since it was not inherited from our wards social goals, basic income practices, ancestors but rather, is borrowed from our soup kitchens, nonmonetary exchanges, and children. many others.

This new form of understanding the econ- 7. All Is Not Lost omy entails at least three requirements that correspond with the three social “partners”: Although still going strong, today’s socioeco- individuals, companies and the public au- nomic system, which we have described in thorities. Individuals, including not only con- the previous sections, reached its height in sumers but also workers and investors, must the 1990s after the fall of the misnamed al- replace the philosophy of “having” with that ternative to real socialism, which was in fact of “being,” replace competitiveness with co- none other than state capitalism with a very operation, and material profit with collective high level of militarization. During the sec- welfare. Companies must embrace the con- ond half of the decade, signs of unrest were cept of social responsibility in the true sense observed first in Chiapas in the south and later in Seattle in the north. These signs became of the term rather than as a marketing strat- established in January 2001 during the first egy, as so often occurs. Social responsibility of the World Social Forums, which under the should be applied to workers, customers, well-known slogan “another world is possi- users, suppliers, commercial competitors, ble” present a series of proposals for trans- subcontractors, public tax offices and all lev- forming the current globalization system. els of the government. Meanwhile, public authorities must ultimately understand that While it could be considered an oversimpli- their purpose is to offer a public service to all fication, the series of contributions from the citizens and not only to the most powerful Forums, which began in Porto Alegre and and privileged, that taxation must be fairly have later been held at different levels in oth- distributed, and that economic, social and er cities around the world—once again, the cultural rights must be as fully respected as role of the city—largely represent an attempt civil and political rights. to build a community economy to replace the current one, which is seen as unjust and In this context, the city is nothing more than predatory. a space for rather unfortunate verifications and a laboratory for tests that may actually Certain traits that can be inferred from the become transformation tools. If that were the issues addressed point clearly in this direc- case, then we truly would be in a position to tion. Good examples include: the improved speak of educating cities. Urban Culture: In Search of Authenticity

Sharon Zukin

Sharon Zukin is Broeklundian Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York. She writes about cities, culture, and the economy, and has won both the Lynd Award for career achievement in urban sociology from the American Sociological Association and the C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Her most recent book is Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture (Routledge, 2004). Earlier work includes After the World Trade Center (co-edited with Michael Sorkin, Routledge, 2002), The Cultures of Cities (Blackwell, 1995), Landscapes of Power (University of California Press, 1991), and Loft Living (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982). She is now writing a book about authentic cities. Urban Culture: In Search of Authenticity

With most of the world’s population now liv- come. Adventurous teachers, writers, law- ing in cities, urban culture should be a pow- yers, and business professionals moved into erful expression of collective identity. But old houses and lofts, creating a new style few cities are sure of what their identity is. of urban life between bohemian and bour- More vulnerable than ever to waves of mi- geois. The places they established—public gration and movements of capital, they are places like cafés, restaurants, and boutiques, socially more diverse but increasingly look and the private spaces of their homes—soon the same. Their cultural continuity is chal- attracted attention for their industrial chic lenged by big changes over which they have design and camera-ready patrons. With the no control: the end of traditional industries steady growth of media and the arts, these like textiles, steel, shipbuilding, and automo- spaces acquired an irresistible dynamic: they biles, the rise of influential transnational e- were visible signs of a new urban culture. lites in finance and media, and the pervasive presence of new migrants in all areas of so- By the 1970s, the gradual “upscaling” of ur- cial life. Global media chains, aided by the ban spaces to artists’ quarters and gentrified World Wide Web, promote and popularize locales suggested a model that governments new attractions while making it possible to and private investors could follow: using avoid face-to-face interactions. New forms cultural capital for broader urban redevelop- of urban culture, from iconic architecture to ment. This strategy promised to renew city fast food restaurants and hiphop bands, im- centers without the trauma of tearing down pose a universal modernism on city dwellers’ historic buildings and displacing large num- local sense of space and time. Expressing the bers of long-time residents, but it deferred anxiety many men and women feel about to the cultural tastes of a highly educated, these changes, urban culture suffers from a relatively mobile group of men and women. crisis of authenticity. In North America and Western Europe, their preference for old districts, historic buildings, This crisis is most tangible in the city’s cen- and neighborhoods rich in aesthetic mean- ter. By the 1960s, in the richest cities of the ing defined authenticity in a new way. It also world, decades of disinvestment had left a placed them in the midst of older, poorer, legacy of empty warehouses, rotting docks, and less mobile city dwellers, whose right to and partly empty office towers. Factories, of- the city depended on family, habit, and local fices, and richer residents were steadily mov- social bonds. ing to the suburbs and even to other regions of the world. The center they left behind was At the same time, a wider initiative to re- gradually pressed into use by creative art- shape the city center began in the United ists and shoestring entrepreneurs, from im- States, where since the 1950s shoppers had migrant street vendors to would-be gourmet deserted downtowns for suburban homes chefs and art gallery owners. Their activities and shopping malls. Local real estate de- brought a new vitality to old neighborhoods, velopers and government officials dreamed while in the central business district, bank of turning the city center into a new kind of headquarters, financial firms, and media shopping space that would bring back mid- startups arose like beacons of a new age to dle class residents and also attract suburban 88 The New Challenges of Urban Life visitors and foreign tourists—remaking the But this sort of staging convinced both de- old downtown into a “festival marketplace.” velopers and shoppers to take the risk of in- Like gentrification, these downtown devel- vesting in city life. The commercial success opments also followed a cultural strategy. of Faneuil Hall in Boston, Baltimore’s Inner Their developers used old buildings as both Harbor, and Horton Plaza in San Diego soon an historic backdrop of local identity and an encouraged imitations in many U.S. cities, aesthetic marker of distinction. The festival and spawned even more ambitious spaces, marketplace relied on a new awareness of with aquariums, IMAX theaters, convention the cultural value of historic heritage in the centers, and shops, from Barcelona to Sin- form of “landmark” architecture. But it also gapore.2 reflected the growing importance of shopping malls as sites of both individual leisure consumption and public culture.1 Times Square

Although the new downtown shopping cen- The remaking of Times Square, the famous ters brought record numbers of shoppers to entertainment zone in midtown Manhattan, the city center, these shoppers did not circu- shows how the staged authenticity of central late around the old city streets. Developers spaces poses a dilemma for those who want of new urban marketplaces created self-en- to retain the city’s old popular culture but closed, almost “gated” spaces where shop- recognize the need for economic renewal. pers could browse, buy, eat, drink, and visit During most of the 20th century, Times Square an art museum, movie theater or aquarium, was a vigorous entertainment center—every- embraced by a feeling of security, abundance, thing from Broadway shows and movie thea- and fun. The unknown dangers of city life ters to bright neon lights, billboard advertise- were controlled by private security guards ments, and milling crowds—at all hours of hired by the real estate developers who the day and night. At the beginning of the owned and managed the space, as well as by 1900s, its cosmopolitan aura enabled New local laws prohibiting the presence of home- Yorkers to call it, with some exaggeration, less men and women, beggars, and other “the crossroads of the world.” In terms of disturbances. As a result, critics complained national aspirations, Times Square was both that these projects imposed a Disneyland- the geographical and metaphorical center of type social order on the unruly city center, American popular culture. Men and women depriving residents and visitors of spontane- gathered there to read the latest headlines ous encounters with unexpected strangers spooling off the huge, electric Motogram and causing the city to lose its authentic ex- sign, and it was in Times Square that Alfred perience of Otherness. Festival marketplaces Eisenstadt took his famous photograph, pub- in historic centers “staged” authenticity as lished in Life magazine, of a sailor sweeping a consumption experience, very much like a young woman off her feet and kissing her Disneyland’s famous entertainment complex to celebrate the end of World War II. Times with a “wienie” (hot dog, or big attraction) at Square continued to draw visitors, including the center, in Walt Disney’s famous phrase. families with children, through the 1960s.

1 Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York: Knopf, 2003); Bernard J.Frieden and Lynne B. Sagalyn, Downtown Inc.: How America Rebuilds Cities (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1989). 2 Sharon Zukin, Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Cali- fornia Press, 1991); John Hannigan, Fantasy City (New York: Routledge, 1998); Don Mitchell and Lynn A. Staeheli, “Clean and Safe? Property Redevelopment, Public Space, and Homelessness in Downtown San Diego,” in Setha Low and Neil Smith, ed., The Politics of Public Space (New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 143-75. “Staged Authen- ticity” from Dean MacCannell, The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class, 3rd ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999). Urban Culture: In Search of Authenticity 89

But as a heavily traveled, carnivalesque area customers who made 42nd Street after dark so of the city, it also drew men and women menacing, especially to women. For added looking for casual encounters with stran- force, the city government condemned prop- gers, often involving the rough trade of sex erties occupied by porno shops that refused and drugs. Because private real estate de- to change their stock or close, using the law velopers showed no interest in the area, the of eminent domain to seize them “for the city government proposed several different public good” and sell them to real estate de- projects, none of which attracted much at- velopers who would replace them with less tention—until the 1980s, when corporate in- troublesome businesses. vestors made their own plans for a new Times Square featuring office towers: definitely not The combination of “aesthetic legislation,” a festival marketplace, and not at all consist- policing, and eminent domain prepared ent with Times Square’s authentic roughness Times Square for a change of popular cul- and neon glitter. This plan stirred so much ture, one that relied, not coincidentally, on opposition that the project was delayed for the Disney Company. The well-known New several years, until potential financing disap- York architect Robert A. M. Stern linked these peared in the stock market’s decline.3 strategies, for he both served on Disney’s corporate board and oversaw a local planning Much of the opposition came from the men study of how to preserve the Broadway thea- and women who supported historic preser- ter district. Stern recalls noting, when pass- vation and led many of the city’s cultural in- ing through Times Square one day in the late stitutions. Spearheaded by the Municipal Art 1980s, how many people, especially women, Society, opponents campaigned to protect came to matinee performances at the area’s the authenticity of Times Square by aesthet- theaters by chartered bus from their homes ic means: by preserving its look. They pro- in the suburbs. He then came up—so he posed a law requiring each building in the recalls—with the idea of building attractions district to wear a large illuminated sign on that would make Times Square safe enough its façade—making each building, in effect, for these visitors to feel at home there. Luck- a giant electronic billboard. Broadway thea- ily, by the early 1990s, the Disney Company ters, threatened with being sold by those who was also thinking about expanding their busi- owned the land on which they stood and ness by producing shows for the commercial swallowed up by new office development, theater that would feature their film charac- inspired another new law. This law enabled ters and theme park rides. Placing Disney on theater owners to sell “air rights,” important Broadway, then, was an attractive prospect for the opportunity they offer to build a much for both the urban planners and the corpora- taller building on the site, to owners of near- tion. by properties. The sale of air rights would protect the concentration of low-rise theater Locating Disney in Times Square suggested a buildings on the side streets while skyscrap- healthy synergy between the family-oriented ers rose on the broad avenues around them, popular culture of Disney entertainment and beginning on Broadway itself. At the same the moral renewal the city government de- time, the New York City Police Department sired. With new laws protecting space in began vigorous sweeps of the sidewalks and the district for legitimate Broadway theaters, porno shops, removing the pimps, hustlers, private developers began to plan new enter- and hyperventilating, overwhelmingly male tainment facilities for corporate tenants who

3 William R. Taylor, ed., Inventing Times Square: Commerce and Culture at the Crossroads of the World (New York: Russell Sage, 1991); Lynne B. Sagalyn, Times Square Roulette (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2001); Sharon Zukin, The Cultures of Cities (Oxford and Cambridge MA: Blackwell, 1995); Marshall Berman, On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square (New York: Random House, 2006). 90 The New Challenges of Urban Life wanted to be near the Disney beachhead. In ment. Branches of transnational businesses the 1990s, when Disney still seemed an in- like Madame Tussaud’s deny the unique vincible corporate giant with universal pop- location, detaching it from New York’s his- ular appeal, the company opened a Disney tory and from the area’s pop culture roots in store on Times Square and renovated a his- live performance. Despite its pulsating neon toric theater, the New Amsterdam, next door, billboards and the crowds that make the as- for the premiere of “Beauty and the Beast.” phalt ripple with expectation, Times Square They were soon joined by the youth-oriented has become a fast food franchise of popular cable music network MTV and a slew of entertainment. It is a modern, standardized themed restaurants, bars, and performance expression of urban culture that, despite the spaces with well-known brand names--from prominence of its live-action events, like the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum and Virgin dropping of a glittering ball from the top of Megastore to B. B. King’s Blues Club and a the Times Tower on New Year’s Eve, risks be- Hello, Kitty store. ing a cliché.

By the usual measures of urban redevelop- Authentic urban culture should carry the ment, Times Square is a rousing success. Eve- force of destiny. We see it in old buildings, ry year, 26 million visitors come to gawk at narrow streets, and the sheer variety of peo- the bright lights, eat at the restaurants, shop at ple, trades, shops, and sights that we en- Toys ‘R’ Us, and, perhaps, go to the theater— counter in a big city. It’s a brick-and-mortar at least to the Disney theater. The area’s eco- feeling in our bones that we can’t separate nomic impact, according to the Times Square from the city’s historic scale of low buildings, Alliance, a local business group, equals the mom-and-pop stores, and crowded streets: combined economies of Bolivia and Panama. it’s a different aesthetic. It’s also a social feel- While the cultural attractions bring crowds ing, an unforced sense of civic pride among that fill the square from 42nd to 50th Street, strangers and a fierce social bond among lo- day and night, the area is ringed by corpo- cals. Both socially and aesthetically, the de- rate office towers for the main job-providing sire for authenticity is a cry against moderni- sectors of the city’s symbolic economy—me- ty—against the sameness of impeccable new dia and finance. The headquarters of Condé buildings, inescapable branches of chain Nast, the Hearst Corporation, and the New stores, and an oppressive high-rise grid of York Times are nearby, as well as the head- towers in the sky. But the idea of authentic- quarters of NASDAQ, offices for financial ity is also rooted in modernity. Being truthful firms Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley, to an innate or historic character can only be and corporate law firms. Times Square’s pro- valued in an era when everything is seen as moters claim that the renewal has kept the changing and everyone is seen as capable of district’s unique populist appeal while clean- being false. Authenticity is the appearance ing it up for the public and making it a good of truthfulness. If we seek authenticity in cit- location for the headquarters of high-status ies today, we are rebelling against the false- transnational corporations. ness that we see in the staged hominess of the suburbs and the staged history of Disney- But is the new Times Square authentic? From fied centers. We are trying to escape the mass the beginning of its renewal, critics have production of pleasure—even if this leads us complained bitterly of “Disneyfication”—a to the mass consumption of old brownstone bland, mind-numbing sameness of corporate houses, cast-iron loft buildings, and cobble- brand names, bad food, and banal entertain- stone streets.4

4 For similar thoughts, see Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982) and Richard Sennett, The Conscience of the Eye (New York: Norton, 1990). In Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), John L. Jackson, Jr., uses sincerity to indicate an individual’s performance of an authentic identity. Urban Culture: In Search of Authenticity 91

Although we value it as “real,” authenticity “the ballet of the street.” Authenticity is not never emerges on its own. It is always pro- the ego of massive urban plans, it’s the libido duced by men and women who recognize it, of creative uses that drives the city’s soul.5 write about it, nurture it, and sell it to others. In its narrowest meaning, authenticity is a stamp of approval given by experts to unique Guggenheim Bilbao objects—like the authenticated Rembrandt portrait—but in a broader aesthetic sense, it In most cities, it’s the ego of planning a re- can also be a music critic’s recognition of a vitalized urban center that drives the build- singer’s authentic genre sound or a restaurant ing of new cultural districts in old industrial critic’s praise of an authentic culinary style. quarters, on derelict docks, and in vacant With clever producers and a good marketing warehouses and factories. A counterpart to campaign, authenticity can be manufactured. the festival marketplace, these new cultural It’s a “renewable resource,” as the sociologist districts are developed around a high-class Richard Peterson says, and in this contradic- “wienie,” usually a modern art museum, but tion we find both authenticity’s unique origi- also an opera house (Sydney), theaters (Sin- nality and its potential for innovation. There’s gapore) or an island of ready-made cultural nearly always an act of discovery involved institutions (old, as in Berlin and Vienna, or in authenticity—unearthing the diamond in new, as in Abu-Dhabi). In contrast to cultur- the rough, finding the rare vinyl recording, or al centers in ancient cities, which occupied happening upon the once famous blues sing- sacred ground and became icons because er at a cheap music club. Authenticity, then, of their ritual practices, today’s cultural cen- implicates the cultural consumer. In contrast ters are conceived from the outset as secu- to the staged authenticity of new-style blues lar icons to symbolize the city and mobilize clubs aimed at tourists, extricating the “real investment in a new economy. They are a thing” or the “next new thing” requires not city’s competitive chips in the casino of glo- just a certain connoisseurship but also a will- balization. ingness to dig deep in the mud of dive bars and warehouse performance spaces. Beginning in the 1960s, when the Sydney Opera House and the Pompidou Center of In the aesthetics of urban spaces, authentic- Modern Art, in Paris, were planned, cultur- ity is a visible image of the jagged edges of al centers have been asked to fulfill several uneven development—bearing witness to a roles: as magnet of urban redevelopment, naked city of dense crowds, dark streets, and prestige symbol of the nation, energizer of underground pursuits. This is the terroir of creativity and innovation. They are nearly paranoia as well as creativity, of three-card always located on land that has lost its indus- monte and other illegal confidence games trial uses and its economic value—often on played in the open, on the sidewalk, as well the waterfront. In Paris, the Pompidou Cen- as of Jane Jacobs’s hymn to the neighborly inter was planned, in part, to revitalize the area terdependence of local shopkeepers, school around the rue Beaubourg, a terrain vague children, and housewives that she called of low-rent, dilapidated housing, small work-

5 Richard A. Peterson, Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997); David Grazian, Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003); Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House, 1961); on the “delibidinization” of New York, see remarks by Broadway theater producer Rocco Landesman in Sewell Chan, “Panel Discussion: Has New York Lost Its Soul?,” http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/has-new-york- lost-its-soul/, October 4, 2007, but I heard the author Samuel L. Delaney express the same idea in a panel discussion on Times Square at Columbia University in the early 1990s. 92 The New Challenges of Urban Life shops, and cheap shops between the not-yet- “MOMA,” as the Museum of Modern Art gentrified Marais and the not-yet-demolished calls itself, but the driver was bewildered wholesale food markets of les Halles. The pa- by the museum’s brand name.) Like Times trons of these new cultural centers—political Square and other urban entertainment cen- and business leaders—placed a priority on ters, these cultural districts are often wildly innovative design and organized a competi- popular. But not all of them are popular tion among architects from around the world among the local population. The big open that was won by architects from overseas. space in front of the Pompidou Center has Today, the winners of these competitions are been filled with tourists and buskers, young “starchitects” with many honors and com- people and break dancers, many of them missions in their portfolios. At the Pompidou French, from the time the museum opened. Center, the choice of a startling industrial de- Meanwhile, the big open space in front of sign that exposed pipes and other parts of the the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is gener- building’s structure, painted in bright colors, ally empty except for tourists. was intended to represent a set of progressive programs and institutions that would force Unlike the Pompidou Center, which is owned Paris (and, by extension, France) to become a and run by the French government, Guggen- dominant player on international modern art heim Bilbao is an outpost of the global chain and music circuits. By the 1990s, when local of Guggenheim museums. Conceived as an leaders in Bilbao and Hong Kong planned attention-getting symbol of the city’s triple larger cultural districts on the waterfront, goal—breaking loose from declining indus- their thoughts turned to how these cultural tries, cleaning the detritus of steel mills and facilities could help their city to achieve, or shipyards from the waterfront, and carrying retain, an important role in global financial out a bloodless counter-terrorist campaign markets. They seldom asked how these cul- against Basque separatists—the museum tural districts could help local artists—either had many local uses. But, like the corporate by showing their work or making them the leaders of the Disney Company who decided focus of media attention. to set up shop in Times Square, the director of the Guggenheim Museum, based in Man- New cultural districts do attract media at- hattan, was already primed for expansion. tention. An increasing number of art mag- Since the mid 1980s, Thomas Krens had azines, travel guides, and Internet websites planned to open several branches in other dedicated to cities and leisure promote new cities of the world as well as sponsor a new cultural scenes as places to go. Although Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art the public may have no idea of what art, ex- (MassMoCA) in North Adams, a declining actly, is showcased in the new facilities, they industrial town in the Berkshire Mountains hear the “buzz” about them. Lower air fares, of New England. The Guggenheim Museum more free time, and a stronger emphasis on had more art works than it had exhibition individual mobility encourage cultural tour- space to show them; many recently acquired ism, especially among the wealthy, highly works and installations were so large they re- educated men and women who likely collect quired galleries of their own. such experiences as signs of their distinction. Young people, even from overseas, are often Like the Times Square project, the revitaliza- attuned to the emergence of these cultural tion of Bilbao’s industrial waterfront embod- districts, and to individual cultural institu- ied a desired synergy between the strategies tions, in a way that locals are not. (I think of of Basque business leaders and urban plan- the young Italian couple I saw who wanted ners and of Krens, a cultural entrepreneur. to enter a bus on Fifth Avenue not long ago, Like Times Square, the Pompidou Center, and and asked the driver if the bus was going to other new cultural districts around the world, Urban Culture: In Search of Authenticity 93

Guggenheim Bilbao would be joined by new artist Richard Serra and the work of modern shops and upscale apartment houses: real Basque artist Jorge Oteiza.7 estate development. But unlike most other cities, Bilbao had a broader, more ambitious Since the shipyards and steel mills had not strategy to modernize urban infrastructure yet been demolished when Muschamp wrote by organizing competitions for the design of this, it was easier for him then than it would subways, bridges, and airport terminals. The be for a visitor today to say that Gehry was main point, though, was the same: to join inspired by Bilbao’s 19th-century industrial the best of global design and local fabrica- power. But Gehry remade this industrial tion to craft a set of new urban symbols. This heritage into an abstract form, and the mu- represented an extraordinary break from the seum itself replaced a factory that, by some inwardness of local traditions toward an out- accounts, was still in working order. These ward-looking tourist economy.6 material transformations of urban culture represent the new museum’s dominant posi- But both inside the galleries and in its wider tion in the city, where it both overlooks the urban surroundings, Guggenheim Bilbao city center and takes the major share of the has a problem with authenticity. If authen- regional government’s cultural funding. Nei- ticity means “original” in the sense of being ther is there a place for local art inside Gug- true to local culture, the museum fails, for genheim Bilbao. All the exhibitions feature neither its architectural design nor its cor- work by overseas artists. This is perhaps a porate sponsorship is rooted in Bilbao. The good thing for Bilbao, where the local Fine architect Frank Gehry intended the curved, Arts Museum has an excellent collection of silver-color titanium panels of the museum’s historical local work but lacks a strong mod- façade to represent the waves of the Nervion ern art collection. Yet it casts doubt on the River and to suggest the toughness of the integration of the cultural district with local blast furnaces that used to be nearby. But artists who live and work in the city today. the museum’s sinuous shape and flashy re- Neither can it be said that the museum caters flections of light could just as well suggest a more to local visitors than to tourists. Ticket cosmopolitan glamour—the glamour of the prices are high for people in Bilbao, where actress Marilyn Monroe, as Herbert Mus- the unemployment rate is 60 percent among champ, the late architecture critic of the New young people, and most visitors come from York Times, wrote when he visited Bilbao at other areas of Spain and overseas. Moreover, the museum’s opening in 1997. The build- hotels that have been built for cultural tour- ing suggests an “American style of freedom,” ists are expensive, high-end places. Visitors Muschamp wrote. “That style is voluptu- tend to come once, stay one or two nights, ous, emotional, intuitive and exhibitionist.” and leave without seeing the rest of the city. Nothing could be farther from either tradi- (When I stayed at a hotel next to the museum tional Biskaian culture or attitudes in Bilbao, and asked the clerk at the reception desk for a city that in the past had rejected both the a city map, he drew a big circle around the minimalist steel sculptures of the American old city center and cautioned me not to go

6 The museum has sparked a never-ending debate about industrial vs. art-and-finance-led revitalization in Bilbao. See Lorenzo Vicario and P. Manuel Martinez Monje, “Another ‘Guggenheim Effect’? Central City Projects and Gentrification in Bilbao,” in Gentrification in a Gobal Context, ed. Rowland Atkinson and Gary Bridge (London: Routledge, 2005), pp. 151-67; Joseba Zulaika, Cronica de Una Seduccion: el Museo Guggenheim Bilbao (Madrid: Nerea, 1997). On North Adams, see Zukin, Cultures of Cities. 7 Herbert Muschamp, “The Miracle in Bilbao,” New YorkTimes, September 7, 1997; Joseba Zulaika, “Tough Beauty: Bilbao as Ruin, Architecture and Allegory,” in Joan Ramon Resina, ed., Iberian Cities (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), pp.1-17. 94 The New Challenges of Urban Life there: a visible symbol of Bilbao’s recent un- outside, adapt to transnational markets, and even development.)8 become more cosmopolitan.9

Many people would congratulate the leaders of Bilbao for taking destiny into their hands— 50 Moganshan Lu for acknowledging the end of the industrial economy, welcoming change, and develop- Cultural districts suggest that promoting a new ing a cultural vision of the city’s future. But economy is not just about hard drives and sil- this vision has shaped the thinking of leaders icon chips: “technopoles” like Silicon Valley in quite a few cities in the post-industrial era. where innovative computer engineers meet A quarter-century has passed for the “Beau- venture capitalists do not attract the creative bourg effect” to become the “Bilbao effect,” thinkers who are likely to devise new uses and in this time, hopes for cultural-led rede- for high-tech products that glamorize and velopment have led to an endless series of popularize the information economy. Less waterfront cultural centers, cultural festivals, monumental in size than a cultural district and cultural competitions. If the annual se- but equally ambitious in its vision of the fu- lection of a European Capital of Culture is ture, the “creative hub” is a different effort to just the most widely promoted case of cities remake the production side of urban culture. trying to remake themselves in a new civic The hub is an intentional cluster of artists and image, these flagship projects pose serious designers in a neighborhood or a building questions about the future of urban culture. complex. Sometimes it is subsidized by the Has the repetition of these projects led to the state, like the creative hubs sponsored by the imposition of a single mold of creativity— London Development Agency since 2004, one that excludes residents who are neither but often it emerges as a spontaneous cluster producers nor consumers of new art? Does of young artists, musicians, and performers, it diminish the uniqueness of museums that like the artists’ districts of SoHo (Manhattan), become, like the Guggenheim, a global fran- Williamsburg (Brooklyn), and Hoxton (Lon- chise operation? In the nineteenth century, don), as well as the short-lived “Silicon Al- industrial Bilbao was certainly connected ley” of lower Manhattan. Many cities have to economic powers outside the region— the material requirements for these clusters to European bankers and English factories to form: low-rent areas of formerly industrial, that invested in its steel mills and shipyards. or even office, buildings that are near to both But today’s modern art museums are, in financial and media firms that will buy crea- many ways, incubators of a new globaliza- tive work, often on a free-lance basis, and tion. They are not just sources of pleasure to low-price shops, bars, and restaurants, and learning, but technologies of discipline whose ethnic and working class cultures that force urban cultures to open up to the provide a diversity of source material and a

8 There is an ongoing debate on the social and economic value of these tourist visits, some of which finds its way into global media. See Beatriz Plaza, “Evaluating the Influence of a Large Cultural Artifact in the Attraction of Tourism,” Urban Affairs Review 36 (2000): 264-74 and “The Return on Investment of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao,” In- ternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research 30 (2006): 452-67; Denny Lee, “Bilbao Ten Years Later,” Travel Section, New York Times, September 23, 2007. Guggenheim Bilbao takes 80 percent of the regional government’s budget for museums: Zuleika, “Tough Beauty,” p. 12. 9 On the use of new art museums to promote economic development, see Graeme Evans, “Hard Branding the Cul- tural City - From Prado to Prada,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27 (2003): 417-40; Chris Hamnett and Noam Shoval, “Museums as Flagships of Urban Development,” in Cities and Visitors, ed. Lily M. Hoffman, Susan S. Fainstein, and Dennis R. Judd (Malden MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), pp. 219-36; George Yudice, The Expediency of Culture (Durham NC and London: Duke University Press, 2003). On the franchise effect and economic globalization in Bilbao, see Donald McNeill, “McGuggenization? National Identity and Globalisa- tion in the Basque Country,” Political Geography 19 (2000): 473-94. Urban Culture: In Search of Authenticity 95 feeling of authenticity. From the viewpoint area too expensive for artists, themselves, to of young cultural workers, sharing the streets live. In London, recently, demand by graphic with immigrants and workers helps to create arts and advertising firms that rented inexpen- a neo-Bohemia of creative energy. It also re- sive space in creative hubs in old factories on produces the edginess of the city’s traditional the urban fringe bid up rents, and gradually unexpected encounters with strangers—and reduced the cheap space that had been avail- Strangeness: new cultural production thrives able for individual artists. on the jagged edges of uneven development, in areas that have not yet been sanitized or The rationale behind state support of crea- Disneyfied.10 tive hubs, however, is that these clusters help the development of a new economy. They Whether they are subsidized or spontaneous, are an efficient way of creating the networks clusters of creative producers have an impor- of information, suppliers, and clients that tant economic function. They help to form producers need. Studies show that cultural networks that connect “creatives” in helpful production, from mainstream media to al- synergies and collaborations, and also make ternative fashion, music, and art, provides them visible to and available for potential cli- more jobs every year; the financial value of ents. Gradually some creative producers be- buying and selling these goods and services come cultural entrepreneurs, opening art gal- grows in importance as traditional manufac- leries, cafés, and performance spaces where turing continues to decline. Cultural produc- networking takes place. These spaces also ers, moreover, think up ways to increase the show and promote the work of new, creative value of high tech machinery (by creating the residents. They become a “scene” of cultural software for video games) and of standard consumption, attracting the attention of me- mass-produced items (by creating innovative dia writers, art collectors, mainstream gallery advertising campaigns for autos or beer) as owners, and museum curators, as well as of well as popularizing distinctive, new prod- music industry talent-finders and other po- ucts for niche markets (by making stealth and tential recruits to the artistic life. Gradually, word-of-mouth campaigns for indie bands, these spaces begin to change local culture. customized athletic shoes, and flavored vod- They offer a more comfortable home to art- kas).11 ists than the area’s existing shops and bars, and they create a visible community that is These lessons have been taken by entrepre- more sophisticated in its way—more “hip”— neurial business and political leaders in the than that of the long-time residents. Often rapidly growing economies of Asia, especial- new attractions for cultural consumers have ly in cities like Shanghai where old industries the effect of raising rents in the area, which are moving out and relocating to lower-cost means that the artists’ district or creative hub regions of China, and city and district offi- is a dynamic place in terms of both economy cials want to encourage new types of devel- and culture. But rising rents have the poten- opment. Although the Chinese government tial not only to displace existing “authentic” officially supports creative industries as a communities—as they have done in New keystone of national economic development York City since the 1970s—but to make the and prestige, local officials take both a politi-

10 Sharon Zukin, Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1989); Richard Lloyd, Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Post-Industrial City (New York: Routledge, 2006); Michael Indergaard, Silicon Alley: The Rise and Fall of a New Media District (New York: Routledge, 2004). 11 Allen J. Scott, The Cultural Economy of Cities (London: Sage, 2000); Andy C. Pratt, “The Cultural Industries in South East England: Towards a Sectoral Strategy,” in Dominic Power and Allen J. Scott, eds., The Cultural Industries and the Production of Culture (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 19-36; Elizabeth Currid, The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007). 96 The New Challenges of Urban Life cal and a financial risk if they support emerg- the support of local party and government ing artists, whose work may be seen as criti- officials. In 2002, the Municipal Economic cal of the party line and who had—at least Committee named the 21-building complex until a few years ago—no foreseeable mar- an official industrial park; two years later, this ket value. In any case, a number of creative title was changed to “art industrial park.”12 hubs formed in Beijing and Shanghai during the 1990s and early 2000s on the initiative of Building a creative hub at 50 Moganshan Lu individual artists. suits Shanghai’s ambition to become a global city that surpasses its close competitors— In Shanghai, the artist Xue Song moved into Hong Kong and Beijing—as both a financial studio space in a vacant, 1930s-era factory and a cultural center, a capital of the sym- complex at 50 Moganshan Lu, near the Su- bolic economy. Spaces are occupied by a zhou River, owned by Shangtex, a large tex- variety of creative concerns: art galleries, tile and apparel holding company that had graphic arts, architects’, and design studios, moved to a new development zone on the and TV and film production facilities. Not Pudong side of the river, near the airport. surprisingly, the hub’s self-claimed branding Not only artists, but also business and politi- strategy capitalizes on aesthetic and spatial cal leaders saw the site’s potential as a cul- representations that originated in the United tural hub, especially in light of the success of States and have migrated to Europe and Asia: Factory 798, a complex of artists’ studios and its slogan is “Suzhou creek/Soho/loft.” As the galleries that had opened in Beijing in 2001 hub’s website states, these connections “em- and quickly spurred the development of a hip body that M50 [50 Moganshan Lu] is an in- area of galleries, cafés, and boutiques. Artists tegration of history, culture, art, vogue [sic], in Shanghai, attracted by the cheap rents and and originality.” A meeting ground between location in the center of a rapidly growing, the old loft buildings of Manhattan’s SoHo cosmopolitan city, rapidly moved into the and the new titanium marvel of Guggenheim Shangtex site; they were joined by individual Bilbao, Moganshan Lu is intended to up- cultural entrepreneurs from Europe and the grade the polluted waterfront, show a good United States who opened galleries of con- way to re-use old buildings rather than tear temporary Chinese art, displaying work that them down, and bring technology together until recently had not only been discouraged with art. To justify the effort, the manage- but even banned by government and party ment evokes not just the appearance, but the leaders. This work now appeared to be a experience of authenticity: “The shabby fac- positive attraction for foreign tourists and tory buildings contain certain value, because investors, who were as eager to “discover” the naked steel structure as well as the old new Chinese artists in gritty industrial sur- brick walls and the mottled concrete make roundings in Shanghai as to find the work of people feel the trueness and perfection of be- other artists in similar surroundings in SoHo ing existent.” Urban culture can’t get more or the East End. Shangtex became an eager ambitious than this.13 patron—or landlord—of new artists, for the company prides itself on its innovative un- Moganshan Lu has proved to be popular ion of technology and fashion to produce with artists and tourists from overseas as well new synthetic fibers for the clothing indus- as from different regions of China. Visits are try. Moreover, 50 Moganshan Lu enjoyed recommended by foreign guidebooks and

12 Wang Jie, “Shanghai SoHo—50 Moganshan Road,” http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/citylife, August 29, 2006; http:// www.shangtex.biz/en/. 13 www.m50.com.cn. On cultural ambition and interurban competition: Lily Kong, “Cultural Icons and Urban De- velopment in Asia: Economic Imperative, National Identity, and Global City Status,” Political Geography 26 (2007): 383-404. Urban Culture: In Search of Authenticity 97 websites dedicated to Shanghai, to the art center of the city, most artists cannot afford world, and to tourism. The afternoon that to live there. Some cannot even afford to I visited, a few foreign tourists were eating work there, and have decided to rent less ex- lunch in the small café and looking around pensive studios on the edge of the city, using the open galleries, although when there are Moganshan Lu as gallery space where they special exhibitions, several hundred visitors try to sell their work. Higher property values may come by in a single day. Some of the in the center, then, have the same effect as in artists who show their work there come from New York and London, where the production Hong Kong and Taiwan; they find the cost of art takes second place to high-class cul- of living lower on the mainland, and they tural consumption. Not just the rising prices have access in Shanghai to an international paid for contemporary Chinese art, but the market. While a portion of the art is tradi- commercial success of Shanghai itself puts tional in style, much more is almost shock- the city at risk of losing its soul.14 ingly modern and ironic, making parodies of Maoist-era artifacts and poses or suggesting that some of the more blatant results of the Conclusion booming consumer society in China are as grotesque as the bourgeois capitalists cari- Authenticity is, most often, a recently culti- catured by the German Expressionists of the vated taste in urban culture. It refers to a spe- early 1900s. cific experience of buildings and areas of the city that are felt to be local, historical, and The danger is that 50 Moganshan Lu is not individually distinctive—and it finds its place successful enough either to complement or to at a specific moment, on the jagged edges counter Shanghai’s aggressive demolition of between a city’s dereliction and reconstruc- old buildings and districts. Although the city tion. Local character, historical significance, government aims to clean the Suzhou River and distinction are credited and confirmed, and develop a pedestrian-friendly, green zone if not by an authoritative expert, at least by along its banks, construction crews continue high-status cultural consumers, who may fol- to work day and night—tearing down facto- low artists and other cultural producers into ries like 50 Moganshan Lu and destroying the city’s derelict and lower class spaces, the old city that grew up around them during but soon displace them. Each dimension of the 20th century. Neither do creative hubs authenticity can be subverted by aggressive like Moganshan Lu benefit all artists. Some entrepreneurs, ambitious business elites, and individual artists have become very success- competitive political officials. “Local” be- ful; their work commands high prices and comes a brand to promote investment, tour- sells mainly to foreign tourists and at auc- ism, and the city’s future growth. “Historical” tions overseas. But other artists find it hard becomes a development strategy of adaptive to pay even the low rents at 50 Moganshan re-use for the heritage industry. “Original” or Lu. Since land prices are very high in the “individually distinctive” becomes the siren

14 In Beijing, high rents and real estate development have had a similar effect on Factory 798 (Henri Benaim, Render- ing Modernity: 798, an avant-garde art district in Beijing, senior thesis, Department of East Asian Studies, Yale Col- lege, 2006). On Shanghainese artists and the international art market, see Charlotte Higgins, “Is Chinese Art Kick- ing Butt…Or Kissing It?,” The Guardian, November 9, 2004. Aside from 50 Moganshan Lu, other creative hubs in Shanghai may have more commercial space for architects’ and graphic artists’ offices (like Bridge 8) or more space for artists’ studios (like Tianzifang), while still others (like Yifei Originality Street, in Pudong) may be a Disney-like entertainment zone that combines creative production and various sorts of cultural consumption: “Theme pubs, restaurants, art shops and nightclubs have also been set up along the street, which features landscape lighting on trees and walls, with a central plaza” (Yang Li Fei, “Chen’s Creative Cluster Opens,” Shanghai Daily, October 10, 2007). 98 The New Challenges of Urban Life call of the hip neighborhoods and artists’ dis- central attraction of a newly hip area, and tricts that attract visitors to their boutiques, compare it with the old Domino sugar re- cafés, and bars. finery on the waterfront in Williamsburg, an amazingly similar old industrial structure in The result, then, is a reproduction and stand- a newly hip area of Brooklyn. Around each ardization of authentic urban cultures around old factory we find a disappearing working the world reflecting both an old material class neighborhood and a growing complex culture abandoned by industry in its global of art galleries, restaurants, shops, and multi- expansion and a new material culture of cultural diversity on the street (although few transnational cultural consumption created immigrants still live in either neighborhood). in its wake. We have only to look at the old Authenticity has become, even more than Carlsbad brewery in the Vesterbro neighbor- land, a city’s renewable resource—and its hood of Copenhagen, which has become the lifeline to the future. City and Community Through Women’s Eyes

Olivia Guaraldo

Olivia Guaraldo. After receiving a doctoral degree in Political Sci- ence from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, Olivia Guaraldo began researching and teaching at the University of Verona, Italy, where she is currently lecturer in political philosophy. Her field of research includes modern and contemporary political thought, with a special focus on the political significance of philosophy. Her main topic of research is Hannah Arendt’s philosophy and feminist political theory. Guaraldo attempts to combine the political approach to philosophy with a ‘gender sensitive’ approach that is based on the ‘thought of sexual difference,’ a theoretical perspective that enables the deconstruction of the Western philosophical tradition from a feminist standpoint. Her publications include Storylines. Narrative, History and Politics from an Arendtian Perspective (SoPhi, Jyväskylä: 2001), Politica e racconto. Trame arendtiane della modernità (Roma: Meltemi, 2003).

She has recently edited the Italian translations of Judith Butler’s most recent books, Precarious Life (Rome 2004) and Undoing Gender (Rome 2006) and has also edited the Italian translation of Hannah Arendt’s essay Lying in Politics (Milan 2006). City and Community Through Women’s Eyes

1 ing to Arendt, as well as beyond its known patriarchal and ethnocentric implications, as The meaning of ‘politics’ is not immediately a relational and interactive paradigm of poli- transparent when analyzed from a purely tics. linguistic point of view. Clearly, ‘politics’ is derived from the term polis: a Greek word In this current time of epochal transition, for a particular type of community, which recently marked by the collapse of the old further developed over the course of history order—going by a plethora of names, but with concepts such as the Roman urbs, civi- which in essence all come under the um- tas and, finally, in a wide range of European brella of so-called “globalisation”—and by languages, city. Notwithstanding the Europe catastrophic events, a precious contribution of cities that, from the Middle Age to the could perhaps, above all, come from an in- present, has painted unforgettable scenes novative recovery of the polis model or, at of culture and history, the greatest contribu- the very least, from the rethinking of the tion of Europe to modern political lexis—that original meaning of the term politics. Thus, is, the invention of the word ‘State’ and the the city belongs by right to that origin that categorical aspect that is centered upon it— must be removed from the state imagery and seems to be going in the opposite direction. so transformed into the privileged place to The word politics, in its modern sense, ends rethink politics, and with that, in synchrony up denying the original meaning of that po- with the closeness the polis and paideia had lis which is, indeed, the founding part of its in Greece, the education of politics. etymological history. In the words of Hannah Arendt, the political model based on State, in fact, erases the idea of shared—interactive, Far from denying the concrete and historical contextual, current and, above all, horizon- instance of polis—which, as is known, was tal—space that characterised the polis as a deeply marked by a male, patriarchal pat- community.1 tern—the present contribution aims to bring to light, to focus on, the central role of the The present contribution is intended as a re- city as a place of political experiences, as yet reading of the city, with Hannah Arendt’s cri- unknown and apparently undecipherable, tique of the modernity of modern politics as putting it in a feminine perspective. Taking a point of departure. A critique that is based away politics from the state model in order on a re-reading—one could even say: an un- to reposition it within the city space is not biased recovery—of the phenomenon of the an act of good will, but it is that which the Greek polis. If one wishes to rethink the edu- current turn of events imposes in a certain cating function of the city, the ancient polis way, marked as it is by the proliferation of must not, in fact, be looked upon today as a violence and its excess regarding any regu- sort of archeological find, but rather accord- lating aim.

1 Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1958. 102 The New Challenges of Urban Life

2 which we relate to catastrophes, to the tragedy of huge proportions transmitted by the TV. The decisive importance of the city, in other In this way, one can state without scandal, words, reveals itself when times become ob- that the attack of 9/11 succeeded in every scure, and when the old institutional orders way, but especially symbolically and in its seem to collapse. This was the situation at media representation. The impact on West- the end of the Roman Empire, in the Middle ern imagery was enormous, so much so as Ages, and at the dawn of political modernity. make us think that something in the nature of Finally arriving closer to our time, midway trauma itself had been transformed for ever. through last century, the fracture of continen- tal Europe into two opposing blocks has its In our closeness to pain and loss, we instinc- very place-symbol in a city, Berlin. Witness tively did not feel like American citizens to the rending of that city, John Fitzgerald (perhaps also in the knowledge that being an Kennedy, in a visit to Berlin in 1961, provoc- American citizen means many other things, atively stated: “Ich bin ein Berliner”, showing the last of which coincides with that of being his solidarity with the German citizens that a victim) but we felt like New Yorkers, thrown now lived in a city divided by the wall. together by the trauma, by the unforeseen event that put the fragility and vulnerability On September 11, 2001 the phrase which of an urban space and its inhabitants into immediately circulated following the terrorist evidence. It was not to the Pentagon—the attack on the New York World Trade Center main symbol of State power as holder of the was ‘we are all Americans.’ However, from monopoly on violence—that the memory of Berlin, perhaps in memory of the solidar- that attack was linked, but to the City of New ity shown by Kennedy towards the German York, and, to be more precise, to the space city, another even more meaningful phrase surrounding Manhattan Island. was echoed: “we are all New Yorkers.” That phrase incisively expressed the solidarity The phrase ‘we are all New Yorkers’ is, there- with the victims and survivors of the terrorist fore, full of meanings that go well beyond the attack, because, in a certain sense it was true solidarity for the victims of the unexpected that the heart—both symbolic and real—of and horrifying brutality. Above all, this is sig- the attack, at least in Western imaginary, was nificant because it moves and dislocates the not—or at least not only—America, but the center of the trauma from nation to city and city of New York. It is also well known that in so doing localises a new political reality in the impact of the two planes into the twin the urban space, something unheard of until towers and the victims that they caused were that moment. far and away greater than that of the other targets hit. It does not have to do with an act of conscious foundation, but precisely an event Way beyond the quantitative difference, how- which transforms—or for a brief moment ever, was the quality of the event itself which transformed—the very form of political affili- was new. It is often said that September 11, ation. From the debris of that delimited and 2001 was a day which changed the world. urban space, read in its symbolic function Every one of us, man and woman, witnessing constructing an imagery—which world city that event in front of the television, felt part is more symbolic and a constructor of col- of a reality that, even if separated by many lective imagery than New York?— something miles, seemed to be right there, present and new seemed to emerge from Ground Zero in disturbing, unforeseen and horrifying, like Manhattan, an unsuspected reaction of silent a kind of alien monster invading our living solidarity, of a neighbourly and community room and our humdrum daily lives. Some- form, in a virtuous circle of help and com- thing that day, above all, changed the way in passion. City and Community Through Women’s Eyes 103

This is my theory: from the imagery of hate, tics, friend/enemy, Nation-state and the like” terror and vendetta, as the official rhetoric indeed, needs to be re-examined in light of and President Bush pictured it, the scene that the events that happen before our own eyes, was faced in Manhattan on September 11, that are women’s eyes; that is, eyes that are 2001 can be taken away to become the sym- used to observing male rhetoric and history bol of a different affiliation to the community with a certain detachment, or with a certain that has its “ideal place” in the city to rethink irony. To cite a brilliant female Italian thinker, citizenship and develop new ways of edu- “when this configuration is over, what is it cating to exercise politics and participation. that begins? It is here that the vertigo of the That event, in other words, and its backdrop, void is felt.”2 the city, can be the opportunity (perhaps not yet lost) to get rid of traditional political mod- Following some women’s readings of that els, now put into crisis by the emerging proc- event, it is possible to point out how the gen- esses of globalisation. dered perspective is able to grasp the present changes, to have the courage to name them, 3 and to propose new category frameworks that manage to light the way—still unknown The political model of modernity, as is and obscure—of the post-state configura- known, is founded on individualistic anthro- tion. In other words, I intend to analyse how pology, according to which the individual is the women-city-education link, if looked at the measure of the human, considered as an starting from the trauma-event of September autonomous and rational being that, as such, 11, reveals itself as unsurpassedly fruitful in thinks and acts. This has its institutional cor- bringing into focus the crisis of the present relation in the sovereign state, an autono- and the need to develop new interpretative mous entity, and holder of the right to govern instruments. ‘Women’s eyes’ or, not meta- a given territory and not have to justify its ac- phorically speaking, the gendered perspec- tions to any authority above itself. Getting rid tive, indeed makes the void visible and the of that model means gaining consciousness vertigo which it produces palpable, above of its now evanescent efficacy, in force by all, when compared with male readings that, the complex processes of globalisation; get- following 9/11, seemed unable to cope with ting rid of that model, however, also means the ‘new’ that was happening and, therefore, rejecting the reactive and vindictive logic (an insisted on subsuming it under known cat- apparently ‘rational’ action, based on instru- egories. mental logic) that opposes war on war, violence on violence, terror on terror. If we con- But far from pointing to a catastrophic and sider the verb ‘to educate’ in its etymological apocalyptic view, female eyes glean from the sense of ‘to lead out,’ it is clear how the cur- traumatic event the possibility to rethink the rent situation reflects the impelling need for community, starting with loss, trauma, grief, a renovated political education, that is able and, above all, vulnerability. to lead us out of the now obsolete categories of modernity (State, individual, sovereignty, war among states) and to orient us towards 4 the unknown terrain of post-state configuration. “The collapse of the configuration of We are all Americans, we are all New York- the modern Politics made up of identitarian ers. With what image of the city has 9/11 left obsession, defined space, theological poli- us? We were faced, first of all, with witness-

2 Ida Dominijanni, Nella piega del presente, in Diotima, Approfittare dell’assenza, Napoli, Liguori 2002, pp. 187-212, pp. 206-207. 104 The New Challenges of Urban Life ing, from that odd position of privileged spec- In the uncanny hides the monstrous face of tators and “deferred victims,” the fragmenta- what is otherwise familiar. For many Ameri- tion and destruction of a compact, familiar cans, and above all for the US government, and solid image that was incarnated by the 9/11 represents an uncanny spectre, a kind of two towers. The architectural colossus of the ‘dark side’ of violence that has been inflicted World Trade Center was often compared to on others for many a year. This was perhaps a phallic symbol, the warning epitome of the reason for the almost immediate reaction American financial power that, like a second to the attack of a calling to overcome the Leviathan, drew on the geometric perfection trauma, to react and go forward. The exhorta- of its lines to reassert its unquestioned supe- tion to react in one’s own personal way, con- riority and unparalleled strength. The Twin tinuing with one’s everyday life, was shortly Towers, however, far from simply incarnat- followed by the organisation of the ‘ordinary’ ing the financial superpower of the USA and state reaction, that is the use of violence and the West, are also part of another imagery, war: the ‘everyday life’ of the state. perhaps more innocent: film imagery. It is by virtue of that strange transterritorial fa- Distant from state rhetoric and justifications miliarity given to us by film that we watch, for war, what happened in the vicinity of the with nostalgia, the images of Manhattan still urban space of Manhattan was a curious and showing the towers in the background. Due spontaneous community reaction: people to a strange vortex that short circuits space went around the city with photos of their lost and time, it is also as if that film imagery had, loved-ones, beneath which was often written after 9/11, lost its innocence. Every time we ‘missing.’ Who was lost or missing, who liter- see a film or TV series that shows us a New ally ‘was missed’ in the affections and pres- York with the towers still standing, the image ence of their own family members or friends of their destruction is immediately brought to had a name and a face; to put it in the words mind. An image that, despite having all the of Hannah Arendt, was a ‘who,’ a person in characteristics of a spectacular fictional event, flesh and blood with his/her own irreplace- was cruelly real. In virtue of that cinemato- able quality of unique being. The insistence graphic imagery, New York, after the trauma, of the New Yorkers in crying and remember- took on the semblance of an ‘ideal city,’ even ing, as ‘missers,’ their loved-ones, remained more so than it was before. The trauma has ingrained in our minds precisely because changed it just like it has changed our way it reinforced the familiar, routine and inti- of seeing and imagining it: now New York is mate side of that tragedy. The media impact an icon that lives on from its wounds, that on Western public opinion of the search for continues to attract us because in it we have those lost, or ‘missing,’ was extraordinary. the mix of the familiarity of the television and film imagery and the equally familiar sensa- But to read into that grief is a difficult task, tion of destruction, fear and vulnerability. above all, because immediately after the event, the rhetoric of state and war took over, portraying the American victims as a sort of 5 inviolable shrine that had to be avenged with maximum force. The felt and lamented vul- Familiar and yet unknown is what that vulnerability experienced by New Yorkers, in nerability amounts to, for those New Yorkers fact, was immediately followed by the proud who experienced 9/11. That day they lost assertion of a programmed invulnerability, their ‘first-world invulnerability,’ they them- ready to declare ‘never ending war’ on those selves living sudden and unforeseen violence who caused the victims. in the first person. That, which is on the one hand familiar, and on the other unknown, is It is not by chance that taking on the task what Freud defined as ‘uncanny,’unheimlich . of reading into that difficult situation were City and Community Through Women’s Eyes 105 women thinkers, first among others Adriana the importance and centrality of feminine Cavarero, who, in an article published in au- reflection on politics. It is, in truth, a reflec- tumn 2001 wrote: “The walls of New York tion that for some time has criticised the have first of all reminded us that the thou- false neutrality of the models and ontology sands of deaths of September 11 died one by of modern politics, tied to the State, to the one, and are missed one by one by their fam- nation, to the liberal form of individualism. ilies and by those who, looking at their faces, However, the emergency of the present, its share that loss. Apparently, it was an emotive unforeseen turn—and the void which it has response, and however, from another point placed before us—seem to confirm that it is of view, did not only deal with a political re- indispensable, now more than ever, to put sponse far more effective than the call to the the critical and imaginative feminine thought national flag, but was perhaps more political into action, as Virginia Woolf would have put than any other response given so far.”3 it, reasserting its centrality and its importance in identifying the errors, omissions, the sym- Immediately echoing her views was Ida Do- bolic and material violence of a still too male minijanni, in an essay in 2002 in which she and patriarchal civilisation. analysed, with exquisitely female eyes, two major events in 2001 that had two cities as protagonists which are now asserted as sym- 6 bols of an era—Genoa and New York. The Beyond the vertigo of the void, therefore, ‘turn of the present,’ lived and interpreted there is more. There is first of all, a thought, through feminine eyes, revealed how the which is the thought of sexual difference that New York catastrophe, far from hitting the for years has moved outside that traditional heart of global capitalism—like the attackers (male) model and re-declined politics begin- perhaps intended and like many, also in the ning with new terms: “difference, relation, West, hoped—had absolutely new charac- singularity/community” terms which take the teristics compared to those of the past. What place of “identity, friend/enemy, individual/ happened, before the definitive collapse of state.” The challenge is to make the gendered the two towers, and what we continue to political perspective valued, not only ‘in see on TV in a sort of reality show of mas- theory’ but also in practice, from the “trust sacre, was a never before seen ‘multi-ethnic that on this basis, something which could holocaust’: “bodies ripped from their clothes be called ‘politics’ can really be born, the and skin fall from high stories, thousands of identification of a new anthropological fig- men and women from sixty-three different ure able to bring it into the world and make ethnicities imprisoned among the flames in a it walk,”5 that is, able to educate it, make a sort of multi-ethnic holocaust, that sentenc- path for growth that emerges with determina- es to death not the globalisation of capitals tion from a horizon that now finds difficulty managed from above by the powers that be, in making sense out of reality. However, it but the cosmopolitan lives lived in common is not the need to invent, ex-novo, a sound from below.”4 formula to decipher the times that pass, but rather to be able to see “that this anthropol- It is exactly this perspective from below of ogy and these politics have already been life in common that women’s eyes observ- born: in the practice of sexual difference, of ing that event pay their attention to, and it singularity in relation, of a social pact that is is that event that they draw on to reassert no longer Oedipal and sacrificial.”6

3 A. Cavarero, Il locale assoluto, in “Micromega. Almanacco di filosofia”, 5/2001, pp.64-73, p. 71. 4 Dominijanni, op. cit., p. 203. 5 Ibid, p. 207. 6 Ibid. 106 The New Challenges of Urban Life

The novelty consists in the development of public discourse someone else’s victims, or new categories of reading and interpretation those that had no place in state rhetoric (im- of reality, because reality is constantly ex- migrant, clandestine, or homosexual, and, posed to the new and unforeseen, we are the not far from these, the victims of the bomb- ones who have difficulty in recognising it. ings in Afghanistan, the faces or the bodies of the fallen soldiers in Iraq, the Palestinian It is not by chance that the perception of victims in the Israeli violence). such a novelty, that still proves difficult to be assumed, has, I reiterate, been made by Butler proposes to dislocate the account of women. In underlining the concrete, mate- those happenings from the ‘first person’ per- rial, detailed (the typically feminine attention spective, taking away the event’s suffering to detail) aspects of the tragedy of 9/11, the and offence from state logic. There is, Butler feminist perspective is on that which the large suggests, another possible account, that takes schema, on both sides, have difficulty see- note of the loss and concentrates on a shared ing. Who is dead? Who has been mourned? elaboration of mourning, making it become While Adriana Cavarero underlined how the an integral part of its own individual, social city had immediately remembered its dead, and political identity. We are not, even here, ‘one by one,’ and Dominijanni how the mul- dealing with an emotive or commemorative tiethnic holocaust had suffocated the ‘glo- reaction of suffering: the collective trauma balisation from below of life in common,’ can find an answer which is different from the American theorist Judith Butler—whose that of vendetta. It consists in taking on the line of thinking happens to coincide with her full understanding of the inescapable condi- Italian counterparts—proposes to take the tion of vulnerability as a human measure, a opportunity to rethink the human condition condition that was traumatically unveiled in starting from the centrality of grief and loss Americans precisely by 9/11. due to the experience of vulnerability and offence to which New Yorkers were subjected. That path has perhaps been taken by the people that had plastered New York with pictures In the text she writes on the morrow of 9/11, of their dead, mourning them and celebrat- Precarious Life, Butler maintains that the ing them ‘one by one,’ with name and sur- fundamental error following the trauma was name, single faces that ‘were lost’ to equally precisely that of reading the whole event as singular lives. In that moment—ephemeral a first person narration, with the giant of the if compared to the immediate violent reac- United States—wounded in its presumed tion of the State—the ‘political community of invulnerability—as the sole protagonist. In- loss,’ outlined and wished for by Butler, was visibility and inexpressibility, however, be- perhaps for a short period configured. came the characteristics of all that which did not find space in that self-centered and self- New York, if read through women’s eyes, is celebrating narrative of incommensurable, therefore configured as the ‘ideal city,’ not in unjustifiable and unexplainable pain, and as the traditional, architectural and Renaissance such had to remain.7 Butler became the criti- sense of the word, but in that most current cal voice of the State rhetoric that wished to sense of a symbolic place in which it is pos- restore its own sovereignty and invulnerabil- sible to rethink community, not starting from ity, realising how, also from within the com- the nation-state, but from that which Adriana memorative rhetoric of the victims, an identi- Cavarero has called the ‘absolute local’: “The fying perspective was favoured, taking out of view of the absolute local is not the direct

7 J. Butler, Precarious Life. The Powers of Mourning and Violence, London and New York, Routledge 2003. City and Community Through Women’s Eyes 107 fruit of the global, but that which globalisa- are all human. Vulnerability as a distinctively tion […] indeed permits to open.”8 A place human trait—however, different from the –perceived before being thought of—as un- category of ‘mortality’ celebrated by philos- tied, loosened from its belonging to a state, ophers—is not founded on an escape from which becomes the limited space able to the body but is rooted within the body, in the welcome a new type of community, a com- constant exposure of the body to the care munity which ‘comes about’ by the force of and violence of others. a traumatic event, and which sticks inside the event, the trauma of the loss to the heart of There is a constituent ambiguity in humans in the community itself. this view of vulnerability that must, however, be maintained. It deals with that ambiguity The crucial event of 9/11 reshaped, in New embedded in the duplicity of the possible York, the confines of the city that, if on response to vulnerability: reacting to vulner- the one hand were narrowed and focused ability through the perception of a union that around the debris of Ground Zero, on the can become politically productive, through other were widened and broke out of na- the refusal to inflict further violence in re- tional borders. It is true that we all have a sponse to the offence suffered. One can oth- bit of New Yorker in us because we know, erwise react via a response that stubbornly more or less, where Central Park and 5th Av- tries to remove vulnerability by strengthening enue are, and we immediately recognise the instruments of coercion and offence. Being Empire State Building and the Twin Towers. aware of this duplicity represents a new way However, the event of 9/11 has heightened of reading the phenomena of the present. this familiarity. We are also New Yorkers in the sense that the experience of the trauma, The universality of the category of vulnerabil- the loss, the mourning, touched us closely, ity, however, allows the regard for ‘local,’ in not only because we participated directly the singular that is indispensable in order to in the attack, but also because, since then, come outside traditional models (still Euro- an escalation of violence has begun that has centric) of humanity and citizenship. Through still not ceased to make us perennially trau- this, in fact, it is possible to distinguish the matised spectators of continuing massacres different degrees of vulnerability felt, while and horrors which are now part of daily life keeping the human familiarity of vulnerabili- and yet incomprehensible. It is as if, in be- ty in place. We are all New Yorkers, meaning ing secondary victims of that event, we are that, at irregular and unforeseen intervals, we obliged to politically reflect not only upon its can in turn become victims ourselves. The consequences but also on its possibilities: to community of vulnerability, however, does rethink citizenship, the shared space, the re- not imply a glorification of the home coun- lation among differences (ethnic, economic, try and a de-humanisation of the enemy—as cultural, of gender) in a new way is what the happened in America after 9/11—but is, on everyday trauma pushes us to. the contrary, a rethinking of the human condition starting out from a togetherness that It is precisely in the light of Judith Butler’s re- must be transformed into a political resource. flections that it is possible to think that the Pain as a political resource is what the photos code for this new way of conceiving citizen- and faces of those lost at Ground Zero repre- ship is vulnerability: this presents itself, in the sent, it is the understanding of what was hit first place, as a new universe that does not that day—and since that day ad infinitum un- allow the assimilation of the diversities into til today. It is the possibility of an interaction the (self-centered) model of the individual. of singular existences taken in their radical We are all vulnerable in the sense that we uniqueness: not as in friends or enemies, nor

8 Cavarero, A più voci, Feltrinelli, Milano 2003, p. 223. 108 The New Challenges of Urban Life as in Arabs or homosexuals, but as in unique the lightness and harmony of the Greek pai- beings, with name and surname. The imme- deia, but to the vertigo of the void caused by diate reactions to the multiethnic holocaust the trauma. Only in the experience of trauma that occurred on 9/11 in New York are an read through women’s eyes, alive to the sin- embryonic example of a political experience gular, to the unique being and its vulnerabil- that finds, in pain and vulnerability, a (found- ity, is it possible to transform the vortex of the ing) moment of community. Only women’s void and the senseless into an opportunity to words, however, were able to mention this reestablish the community starting out from event in a new way, giving it its proper and loss. Woman by woman, man by man, in innovative quality. their irreplaceable uniqueness—and also in their multiethnic diversity—the dead of the After all, it is not by chance that the feminine World Trade Center remind us that there is perspective is more able than the masculine no flag, there is no national identity that can view to seize and to receive the vulnerability. and must celebrate them by transforming Women have always been privileged sub- them into symbols and the justifications for jects of a vulnerability that takes on many further violence. However, the common ex- forms: from domestic violence to workplace perience of loss is there, which goes beyond exploitation, from reducing their bodies to state, ethnic and religious affiliations, which saleable goods to the law determining their opens the curtain to the possibility of a local decision to procreate. Women, however, are sharing of mourning that links vulnerability more familiar with vulnerability from the and dependency. Far beyond State logic, en- other side as well, that of care: they have, emy and war, the horizon of vulnerability in- at heart, been and continue to be the main serts into the scene that which Cavarero calls custodians of vulnerability by definition, the the politics of the “absolute local,” that “after child. Thus, women’s eyes are able to grasp being finally liberated from the cartography vulnerability from their positioned perspec- of nations, does not in fact fall into the er- tive: both as vulnerable victims and custodi- ror of placing identity affiliations above the ans of vulnerability. The political centrality of unrepeatable uniqueness of every human be- vulnerability is thus better and more clearly ing. It dares, instead, to put into play unique- seen from the gendered feminine perspec- ness without affiliations and entrusts it with tive. The universality of the vulnerable can- the sense of relation.” What was it that came not be such without the original sexual dif- into being in the experience of the trauma ference that is given to vulnerability. and loss immediately following 9/11 if not an “absolute local,” a delimited space, unteth- ered and loosened from state and national 7 rhetoric, where taking center stage, more than the flags, were the faces and the names Education of vulnerability, in light of the of people in flesh and blood; and those who feminist reading of 9/11, therefore leads to were there to mourn them were equally peo- a theoretical and imaginative effort that is ple in flesh and blood. But in virtue of the placed within the city, instead of in the na- symbolic force of the city of New York, we tion or State, the political space and commu- like to imagine that the absolute local does nity affiliation. It deals with, in other words, not have traits of localism, of partiality, but imagining another story, alternative to that— rather it pushes beyond the confines of the masculine and of state—belligerent, reactive city itself and can recreate itself wherever and apocalyptic one of the ‘war on terror.’ unique beings are able to recreate the condi- A story that has, at the center of the narra- tions of community and liaison starting from tive scene, the city as the space of a common the perception of a shared vulnerability. “The and shared experience. This, however, in the local, indeed, for the contagion that essen- emblematic case of 9/11, does not refer to tially pertains to the symbolic, has the power City and Community Through Women’s Eyes 109 to multiply. One, one hundred, one thousand intermittent, uncontrollable and astonish- ‘absolute locals’ could be, slightly ironically, ing.”9 Thus, we like to imagine—although but certainly not nostalgically, the slogan. even our women’s eyes still struggle to see Once also unchained from the logic of ter- it— that also elsewhere, in other spaces torn ritory, that masked it behind the concept of apart by violence, mourning and loss, unique the individual, the ontology of uniqueness beings, out of pain and suffering, strive can extend globally. The politics of the local to reestablish their most vulnerable ideal can be found everywhere: unpredictable and city.

9 Cavarero, Il locale assoluto, op.cit., p. 72. Forever Young: The New Reality of the Elderly

Antón Costas

Antón Costas Comesaña is an Economist and Industrial Engineer. He is a professor of Economic Policy, director of the Public Policies and Economic Regulations Research Center and director of the Masters program in the Regulation of Public Services at the Universitat de Barcelona.

His recent research and academic interests are related to the analysis of policies on privatization, liberalization and regulation of public services. He has published several books and numerous articles on the subject.

He was first ombudsman for ENDESA, Spain’s largest electric utility company. He is currently Chairman of the ENDESA Executive Board in Catalonia, Vice President of the Círculo de Economía, board member of various private companies and a member of different commissions of experts for public and private corporations.

He is a regular contributor to the newspapers El País and El Periódico de Cataluña and other media outlets. Forever Young: The New Reality of the Elderly

1. A New Social Reality, an Old percentage of people between the ages of Language 65 and 80 show pronounced symptoms of senility. It occurred to me just recently. Knowing that my father had suffered a mild heart attack, a This picture of autonomy of elderly people, friend of mine asked how old he was. He’s already a far cry from the traditional view as- young, I answered, he’s eighty. I was sur- sociating ageing with dependence, will be prised when I realized I had used the word much improved in the coming years as baby young in reference to an 80-year-old person. boomers reach retirement age. This is a large I would never have called my grandparents generation, born in the late forties and the young. decade of the fifties, educated and culturally sophisticated, and in good health. Also not long ago I heard a friend, a well- known businessman comment with certain These new generations of retired people will irritation that he had just heard a news report radically change the social perceptions of on the radio in which the reporter referred to age. In addition to that, the fact that we are the protagonist of the story as “an old man of talking about so many people means that we 64.” My friend was annoyed, he is older than will see a profound change in their social vis- that and by no means does he see himself as ibility. We will see, as well, increasing politi- an old man. cal influence, given that they will represent a growing part of the voting population and The new social reality to which elderly peo- have a greater tendency to vote. Some are ple currently belong doesn’t fit the traditional already talking about “gray power” to refer mold that the word “old” implies. In recent to the mounting political influence of elderly years I have had the opportunity to give a people. series of conferences throughout Spain to audiences of retired people. That experience For these new generations of elderly people, opened my eyes to a social reality that I had retirement years are seen as a period of grand not been fully aware of: most people over the opportunities to travel, take courses, main- age of 60 enjoy excellent health and quality tain skills acquired during the course of their of life, and have a great desire and need to working life and to acquire new skills. feel useful and busy. We will have to invent a new language and This new social reality is at odds with the a new culture allowing us to better describe way ageing is conventionally looked upon that new ageless society which is approach- and talked about, that is, as a situation of de- ing; a society in which the work force com- pendence and passivity. The facts speak for prises three different generations: grandpar- themselves. Ninety-five percent of people ents, children and grandchildren. Or, put in over 65 in Spain live autonomously, without another way: young people, adults and the any sort of dependency, and only a reduced elderly. 114 The New Challenges of Urban Life

A term still commonly used to refer to peo- The increase in the proportion of elderly ple over the age of 60 is “old man” or “old people in the world population will be the woman,” two words with pejorative conno- demographic tendency defining this century. tations which don’t rightly describe the new This higher proportion of elderly people is reality. They reflect, instead, a social reality the result of three simultaneous trends. that is on the wane: that of older people, no longer actively working, from the agricultural The first is a rise in the number of retired peo- and industrial societies dating from the 19th ple. As I already mentioned, this phenome- century and a good part of the last century; non will become more evident in the coming people less culturally sophisticated who in years. It is estimated that between 2008 and many cases reached retirement—if they 2015 large companies will retire half of their reached it—in precarious health and living current staffs. This fact should lead us to think conditions. about the need to extend working life, even if just on a part-time basis. We need an adequate language with which to refer to this new social reality which has The second element in play in pushing up the begun to emerge at the start of this new cen- proportion of elderly is the widespread drop tury. The Japanese, of which there will be in birth rates. In the United States the number millions of centenarians by the middle of of births barely equals the number of deaths. this century, refer to the “Silver Century.” The In the case of some European countries, the English refer to this age group as the “elderly birth rates are below the rate of replacing the society.” Until we coin new words to suit the population. circumstances we won’t be able to adequately describe this new reality. For lack of a bet- The third and most important, is the rise in ter term, I will use “the elderly” in this arti- life expectation. This trend is possibly the cle, to refer to the over-65 population, as it is most important demographic phenomenon of the last centuries, and the one with the more neutral than certain other ones such as greatest potential impact on the organization “old folks” or “old people.” of the economy, society and politics.

2. The Rise in Life Expectancy as the A century ago, life expectancy at birth was approximately 35 years, and most people Driving Force behind the New Social worked right up until they died. Today, aver- Reality for The Elderly age life expectancy at birth exceeds 80 years and at the age of 65 only 16% of men are still In March 2004 the well-known and influen- working in the United States and only 4% in tial weekly magazine, The Economist, pub- Europe. Elderly people now have a long life lished a special report on the new ageing after their working years are finished, which which began as follows: Something without was not formerly the case. precedent and irreversible is happening to humanity. This year or next, the proportion If we go from looking at the population as a of people of 60 years or over will surpass the whole to the population in the cities the situ- percentage of the population under 5 years ation intensifies. In general the life expect- of age. For the rest of time it is unlikely that ancy of the urban population is higher than minors will outnumber “gray heads.” People that of the population as a whole. Thus, in over the age of 60, who throughout known the case of the city of Barcelona, the report history have rarely represented more than on “Barcelona’s Health in 2005” indicates 2-3% of the population of most countries, that life expectancy continues to rise in the will constitute 15% of the population of the city. At that time it was 77.5 years for men wealthy countries. and 84.3 years for women. In the last ten Forever Young: The New Reality of the Elderly 115 years, life expectancy for city-dwelling men tion, but rather to the great and rapid advanc- has improved by 4 years and by 2.5 years for es in medicine. women. These levels place Barcelona among the cities in the world with the highest rates The increase in health spending would have of survival. But this is a general trend in the occurred regardless of any change in life ex- majority of cities. This new social reality pectancy. That is why it is important to sep- presents educating cities with a real chal- arate the two questions. In fact, the rate of lenge. increase in health spending may well slow down as a result of the fact that the health conditions of the generations who are ap- 3. The Curse of Methuselah, or Is it a proaching retirement are very different from Blessing? the conditions and personal circumstances of those generations who retired during the Most of the analyses of the economic, social second half of the 20th century. and political consequences of this increase in the proportion of elderly people in the And a similar argument can be made regard- population are alarmist. ing the idea that the increase in the population of older people will introduce elements One frequently finds studies which warn us of strong political conservatism, social rigid- of the imminent approach of the “curse of ity and resistance to change in our societies. Methuselah.” According to this vision, a society increasingly populated by elderly peo- It is surprising that a fact as positive as the ple will wreak havoc on the economy and prolongation of life of the majority of the on the public budgets as a result of the cost population would provoke such fear. Prob- of attending to the social and health needs of ably one reason for these alarmist analyses the elderly. This is, for example, the picture of the economic, social and political conse- painted by economists Laurence Kotlikoff quences of the increase in the number of eld- and Scott Burns in The Coming Generational erly people in our societies is the fact that we Storm in which they conclude that towards continue looking at this new reality of age- 2030 the United Status will be plagued with ing through the perspective, language and “political instability, unemployment, strikes cultural standards applied to older people in and high and rising crime rates.” the agricultural and industrial societies of the past two centuries. Is that an accurate picture? Prestigious economist Paul Krugman has tempered this sort Adjusting our perspective and language with of analysis. He separates the consequences regard to the new ageless society demands of the demographic tendency towards long- creating a new culture based on the new er life expectancy from the issue of public postindustrial society, a society in which spending on health matters. In his opinion, people will remain young throughout most the latter would still be a problem even if of their lives. Here I am not referring to cul- there were no increase in the number of eld- ture in the artistic sense, but rather anthro- erly people. pologically speaking. A culture that foments and develops different personal skills and It is true, as I pointed out earlier, that we are ways of life, as well as alternative ways of facing a demographic change that is without organizing the economy, the world of work, precedent and irreversible. The increase in politics and society at large, so as to be able life expectancy—predicted to be 100 years to open up all of the positive possibilities that in the mid-term—is changing the society we an increase in life expectancy of the popula- were born in. But the health question is not tion brings with it. In other words, we need directly linked to the ageing of the popula- to create an instruction manual for the use of 116 The New Challenges of Urban Life time in this new society of the elderly which pecially during the off seasons, looking for is before us. some sort of entertainment to occupy their free time. That, however, is a simplistic vision of the situation. We need to know something 4. Instruction Manual for Elderly more about the behavior and desires of the People’s Use of Time elderly.

What do we do with those 20, 25 or 30 years One of the few studies I am aware of on the which scientific and economic progress have subject is that of British journalist, Victoria granted to the new generations of retired Cohen, who posed the question of whether people? How do we take best advantage of English retirees today are driven by the same the rich creative potential of elderly people? consumer spirit as others: What do 75- and What sorts of changes are necessary in busi- 85-year-olds buy? Blenders and objects of ness, social, political and family organization personal use, as we assume, or do they buy to tap that potential? Does it make sense for computer games and state-of-the-art DVD people to continue retiring at the early age players as younger people do? According to of 60 or 65 now that life expectancy is get- the results of her study, retired British people ting so much longer? Is it right that there be buy some of everything. such a radical, complete and abrupt break in work and professional lives? Wouldn’t But that is not all. Two days after making the it be logical and rational for the transition purchase they go back to the store to return from full-time employment to retirement to the goods. And the game starts all over again take place gradually through mixed arrange- with different types of products. They also ments of part-time work? Wouldn’t it be bet- like to do home shopping through catalogs. ter to take advantage of the fact that the baby They place their order and as soon as it ar- boom generation is still active in the work- rives they proceed to wrap the item back up place, and together—governments, compa- and return it. nies, employees—lay the groundwork for the new scenario? As the author of the study sees it, this behavior explains why one only sees octogenarians How do older people use their time? Since standing in line at the Marks & Spencer re- retirement is still a recent phenomenon one fund counters. cannot find exhaustive studies on the subject, whereas studies do exist on how working How do we interpret this behavior on the part people use their time. Today we talk about of elderly people? The author’s explanation is what changes should take place in order to that they find buying and returning things en- balance work and family life for working tertaining and, even more revealing, it draws people. We should be considering the same them into the circuit of commercial activity. for elderly people. They are not interested in the purchase itself, but rather in going through the motions of The lack of studies of this type is nothing participating in a social activity from which more than a concrete manifestation of the in- they feel excluded. The spend-buy-return cy- formation black out—lack of data and, more cle doesn’t affect elderly people’s income, but than that, interest in obtaining the data—re- it does occupy their time. And it is precisely garding elderly people. A certain form of age this use of time that gives them the feeling discrimination. that they are participating in economic and social life. Feeling useful. The image we have today of our retired population in wealthy countries is of a group of What this and other studies tell us is that re- senior citizens traveling here and there, es- tired people want to take an active part, in Forever Young: The New Reality of the Elderly 117 some way, in economic, work, social and 5. The Need for a New Culture political life, even if it is just to enjoy the Regarding the Elderly social experiences that are now off-limits to them. They are hard-working older people We urgently need a new culture that address- who refuse to remain excluded and who es the sense of exclusion that elderly people until now have not been able to find more feel today and, at the same time, encourages productive and satisfying channels for their their involvement in all aspects of social life. energy. This is the challenge we face: to cre- We must ask ourselves what types of values, ate a new culture which allows the elderly practices and public policies need to be cre- to go from being leisure-seeking retirees to ated and developed so that not only can the being engaged retirees. elderly remain active and useful, but that society can benefit from all of their knowledge But the problem is they don’t know how to and skills. do that. The current generation of retired people are the first who, as a group, will live In the business world, the dominant cul- between 20 and 30 years longer than did tural norm is a total break of relations with previous generations. This had never hap- the working and professional world at the pened before, and they do not know what to moment of retirement. It is an abrupt, awk- do with their time. It is a generation which ward and frustrating break. One day you are has reached retirement en masse but has no a working doctor, the next day you are not; instruction manual to refer to regarding how one day you have a professional job or a craft to spend this new period of their lives. you practice and the next day you are without work. This leads to enormous decapitali- It is necessary to create a new culture allow- zation, not only for the individuals, but for ing for the development of good practices companies and the economy as a whole. It with regard to the use of time—this instruc- is necessary to create new paths and develop tion manual—for new retirees. I believe that new practices allowing for a more gradual this is one of the most important challenges transition from being actively working to re- our societies are facing. Among other things, tired. society and the work world must be reorganized so as to avoid a brusque, rapid exit from According to the OECD, towards the years a working and professional life that results 2025-2030, twelve million people per year in a loss of cognitive skills and abilities ac- will leave the labor force. Business people quired throughout one’s life, to the detriment and economists within the public admin- of the people who experience that and to the istration cannot continue to ignore this de- economy and society as a whole. mographic reality and the resulting loss and destruction of talent that this means. The But as we get on with the business of creating low birth rate and the restraints on the flow this manual, the first thing that must change of qualified emigrants will not adequately is the image we have of old age. Until now, replace this loss of talent of elderly people political discourse and public policies have who will leave the labor force in the coming linked old age with dependency. That is, the years. The negative impact on productivity general image of the elderly is that of people and businesses is so great that we urgently unable to live and carry out a full life in an need to design a new labor and business autonomous fashion. Without denying the culture allowing companies to continue fact that, of course, there are elderly people employing a good number of these people, in need of assistance, these perceptions and albeit through new job categories, part- that official discourse do not reflect the new time schedules or other means of collabora- reality of the elderly. tion.

118 The New Challenges of Urban Life

We need, then, a new work culture with in the lives of retirees, keeping them active regard to the elderly. There exists a stereo- and usefully engaged? The second challenge typed and false idea that older workers are has to do with maintaining skills: how do less competent, not very productive and miss we develop new practices that keep up, and more work days than younger workers. Statis- make best use of, the skills and knowledge of tics, however, indicate just the opposite. Av- elderly people? erage figures on productivity and attendance figures for employees aged 60 and above are Retirement interrupts the life story of the eld- higher than those for younger employees. erly. It breaks the connection with the knowl- Further, the loss of certain abilities requiring edge and experience they have accumulated quick reflexes for some activities is compen- over time and, in many cases, with the day- sated by greater experience and know-how to-day events that took place in the course of gained over time. their working life. Thus, it necessary to create new institutions and practices that provide For many years scientists believed that our continuity to the narrative thread of elderly mental faculties deteriorated with age. None- people’s lives and allow them to continue to theless, more recent neuroscientific research be able to make sense of what is happening shows that is not the case. Neurologists such around them and in the world at large, and as Elkhonon Goldberg (The Wisdom Paradox: to feel useful. How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older) show us that brain struc- Feeling useful involves being able to offer tures change over the course of life, creating something of interest to others. If we observe new neurons, acquiring and storing informa- what retired people in our societies do, and tion and strengthening neuron paths. For all what current cultural policies focused on the of this to happen, however, an individual’s elderly offer, we can conclude that it is all motivation and ties to an active life must be about efforts to build informal relationships sustained. and entertain, as time slips by.

In spite of that, it is surprising how few pro- Most of the current programs and initiatives grams and educational and cultural projects put forth by public and private institutions exist for the elderly. This new social reality for the elderly—involving them in an activity of the elderly in our societies is not recog- which makes them feel useful—are volunteer nized by cultural and educational institu- jobs with some group or organization, either tions. Most of the large institutions working religious or secular. in these areas do not target their programs to the elderly segment of the population. And Without, by any means, underrating the im- in those cases where some program for the portance of this sort of work, the risk of vol- elderly does exist, it tends be assistance- or unteering is, as Richard Sennett notes, reduc- entertainment-oriented. ing usefulness to a hobby. Volunteer work is a valuable practice which must be encour- The same applies with current public poli- aged. But it is important to give professional cies: either they tend towards assistance re- status to elderly people who do useful work. lated to dependency or towards recreational The differentiating element is public recogni- activity. The elderly are not seen as people tion for that work. capable of carrying out a socially useful activity. The public sector—state, regional and local—has great capacity to confer that status The new culture with regard to the elderly of professionalism or usefulness. That is what must face two big challenges. The first has to is achieved when a family member is paid a do with time: how do we provide continuity salary for taking care of another dependent Forever Young: The New Reality of the Elderly 119 family member. The same should apply to tion, point out that it is at the municipal level elderly people who take care of their grand- rather than the national level where there is children and to those involved in other useful much more capacity for innovation and cre- activities but for which they don’t received ating new cultures to respond to new social this sort of recognition. If governments re- challenges. Hence we are seeing how public ward the elderly for these tasks, they will policies are progressively centering on the cease to be neglected. cities.

This feature is what makes one think that 6. The Elderly and Educating Cities for the new culture that requires an ageless society where the older people are and will Cities play an essential role in this new continue be a major portion of the popula- culture regarding the elderly. The trend of tion, the city could possibly be the best labo- moving out of the cities, so prevalent in ratory in which to try creating new values, the second half of the 20th century, has not new practices and new policies with regard disappeared; but other trends suggest that to the elderly. A new culture which would re- alongside that centrifugal movement another nounce the superficiality and mere entertain- steadily growing centripetal force has been ment-aspect of current cultural policies and in play in recent decades: a lot of people like programs and look towards actions which city life and, particularly, living in the middle can add a sense of usefulness to the lives of of the city. the elderly.

Among those who prefer living in the city are Political managers—in education, culture, the elderly and, as I have pointed out, they social work, housing, and employment—and are a growing proportion of the population. in public as well as private institutions, must They are looking for better and easier access be aware of this new reality of a population to public transportation, health care, cultur- of cultured, educated elderly people with al life and to relationships with family and great potential. friends. But, above all, they are looking for ways to keep themselves active and useful. It is surprising that even today most cultural and educational programs of the major pub- Cities are the personification of modernity. lic and private institutions are almost totally Providence created nature, but humans cre- unaware of this new reality. Educational in- ated the cities. Cities are human construc- stitutions focus their efforts and offerings on tions in constant change. schooling years and are also totally unaware of the new reality which is the elderly. Until now the greatest factor of change throughout history has possibly been migra- The universities and other centers of higher tions. But from now on, the elderly will also learning are not very active or innovative ei- be an important factor of change in the life ther, in this regard. Only recently have proof cities. grams designed for the elderly begun to appear in institutions of higher learning. Cities are a natural space for the “creative classes,” and the generations that are ap- Nevertheless, it is in this area that most re- proaching retirement comprise people who mains to be done. University-level courses are cultured, professional and, therefore, designed specifically for the elderly are need- creative. ed, encouraging their integration and participation in society and fomenting intra- and Some recognized analysts and academics, inter-generational relationships. Programs such as Bruce Katz, of the Brookings Institu- and courses are needed that help older peo- 120 The New Challenges of Urban Life ple keep up skills acquired over time, thus ture that will provide us with a new way of providing continuity to their lives. understanding the new society of the elderly and of so-called ageing. Therefore we need a new culture and new policies with regard to the elderly. We need new values and practices—social, labor, eco- Perhaps this new culture in relation to the nomic and cultural—which encourage their elderly will be a new page in human history, full personal autonomy and make them feel and educating cities have a major role to play useful and integrated in society. A new cul- in the writing of that page. The New Challenges of Urban Life: Redefining the Concept of “Community”in the Internet Age

Genís Roca

Genís Roca is a specialist in the management of the impact of new technologies on organizations, and particularly the Web 2.0 movement, developing social networks and defining internet business models. He is a well-known speaker on these subjects and has done strategy consulting for both national and international companies and institutions, including the World Health Organization, Telefóni- ca, La Caixa savings bank, the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan autonomous government) and the European Union.

He has held various positions of responsibility in the Computer Serv- ices department of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and had managed the web page and social online network for the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. As of 2006 he is the Managing Director of In- fonomia, an innovative think tank with more than 16,000 members worldwide. He has served as a member of several Boards of Direc- tors and been a visiting professor at various universities and business schools.

Genís Roca is an archaeologist with a degree in History from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and an MBA from ESADE business school. He has his own blog at www.genisroca.com. The New Challenges of Urban Life: Redefining the Concept of “Community”in the Internet Age

“The meaning of ‘knowing’ has shifted ployer less than five years. Children now from being able to remember and repeat at school will have had between 10 and information to being able to find and use it.” 14 jobs by the time they reach the age of 38. According to former US Secretary of Herbert Simon (1916 – 2001) Education Richard Riley, the top 10 in-de- Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics mand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.

• Today’s 21-year-olds have watched 20,000 hours of TV, played 10,000 hours of video What is Happening? games, talked for 10,000 hours on the phone, and sent/received 250,000 emails Something is definitely happening, and that or instant messages. In 2002, Nintendo in- something is related to demographic trends vested over $120 million in R&D. and developments in technology, information, the Internet, etc. And from this chaos • More than 50% of US 21-year-olds have we now see a new model emerging, possi- created content on the Web. And more bly a social model, to which we will have to than 70% of US 4-year-olds have used a adapt. Two American researchers, Karl Fisch computer. and Scott McLeod, produced a short informational video entitled Did You Know?1 in • It took radio 38 years to reach an audience which they provide facts to highlight that of 50 million people. In the case of TV it something is indeed happening and wonder was 13 years. The Internet did the same aloud if politicians, schools, parents and citi- thing in four years. There were one thou- zens in general are preparing for the world sand devices connected to the Internet in that is now taking shape: 1984. In 1992, the figure reached one million, and in 2006, six hundred million. • In 2006, 1.3 million people graduated from college in the United States; in India • The Internet started to be used by the gen- there were 3.1 million graduates, and in eral public in 1995. One out of eight cou- China 3.3 million. One hundred percent ples married in the United States in 2005 of the Indian college graduates speak Eng- met online. lish. In 10 years, the country with the most people who know how to speak English • eBay was founded in 1996, and in 2006 will be China. the company’s revenue was $6 billion. Google was created in 1998; it now proc- • According to the US Department of Labor, esses 2.7 billion searches each month. one in four workers has been with their YouTube was created in 2005; by 2006, current employer less than one year. One over 2.5 billion videos were being viewed in two has been with their current em- via the website each month.

1 Did You Know? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U 124 The New Challenges of Urban Life

• The amount of technical information in Turning again to the broad historical view, the world is doubling every two years. By we can say that a technology is relevant to 2010, it is predicted that it will double the extent that it changes the way people every 72 hours. make a living in a literal sense. Lithic technology enabled our ancestors to improve Something is definitely happening, some- techniques for hunting and other tasks, and thing that cannot be attributed only to tech- those who mastered this technology were nology and the explosion of the Internet. This better equipped to survive. Neolithic tech- something has social, cultural, demographic nology involved the domestication of certain and economic roots. It is something struc- plant and animal species, and anyone who tural that inevitably affects the way people learned how to manage a crop or a herd of relate to each other, and the way they work, animals improved their chances of feeding learn and participate. themselves and surviving. The same thing happened with iron, steam, electricity, computers and now the Internet. All these tech- Cooperating to Survive nologies have changed the way human beings (or some of them) find a way to survive. Archaeologists who work on human origins Up till now our parents could teach us how date fossil remains with a margin of error of a to raise sheep, plant oats, forge iron or weave few thousand years. From this broad chron- linen, but they are no longer so useful when ological perspective, the time we are now it comes to participating in the information living in is utterly without precedent. This is society, using various devices to interact with the first generation in the history of human- people in different countries and languages, ity in which parents are learning from their or changing our occupation every five years children. At least two critical new factors are (not to a new company, but a new profes- coming together. The first is the exponential acceleration of evolution in technology, which is producing radical changes over very Decade Total short periods. The second is an increase in life 1900 34.76 expectancy: parents no longer die at an aver- 1910 41.73 age age of 30 or 40 (as occurred in the early 1920 41.15 20th century);2 instead they live to the age 1930 49.97 of 80 or 90. Our grandparents have a hard 1940 50.10 time keeping up with the pace of change in 1950 62.10 mobile telephony; our parents find it difficult 1960 69.85 to understand video game consoles; and we 1970 72.36 will perhaps struggle to come to grips with virtual reality or whatever other surprises the 1975 73.34 near future may have in store for us. It is our 1980 75.62 children who introduce new technologies 1985 76.52 into our homes, and they are the only ones 1985 76.52 who really understand and master them. 1990 76.94 Therefore, it also falls to them to explain 1994 77.93 these new tools to us and educate us on their 1996 78.31 use, just as we may help our parents program 1998 78.71 their VCRs or configure the ringtones on their cell phones. Life expectancy in Spain over the 20th century.

2 Francisco José Goerich and Rafael Pinilla (2006): Esperanza de vida en España a lo largo del siglo XX. Fundación BBVA. http://www.imsersomayores.csic.es/documentos/documentos/goerlich-esperanza-01.pdf The New Challenges of Urban Life: Redefining the Concept of “Community”in the Internet Age 125 sion). Neither are they of much help with This essential peer-to-peer exchange of infor- the task of managing uncertainty as an asset mation is carried out in digital format (pho- rather than a problem, or on the question of tos, videos, websites, blogs, chats, SMS mes- how to live while connected 24 hours a day. sages and email), and the Internet is the vast Parents perform the vital task of transmitting platform where digital relationships unfold. values, but when it comes to technology the On the Internet, anyone can give and receive assistance parents and teachers are able to anything that is in digital format. As a result, provide is ever more limited. In this context it is online that we see the emergence of new the main source of help is our peers. The communities, the new social and education- peer-to-peer approach is a new way of learn- al spaces where people can interact, develop ing and interacting with others that gives rise and learn. to a new social model: cooperate or die.

The labor market is placing increasing im- The Digital Natives Arrive portance on a set of skills and resources that children often cannot acquire if they depend Digital natives are aged between 15 and 25 only on their parents. Parents can teach their and have used all types of digital technology children an occupation or provide them with from an early age. Just as we were able to use contacts, but they are unlikely to teach them a VCR without reading the instructions, they how to handle large volumes of data and di- find it very easy to use a cell phone to record verse sources of information, or how to use a video and then publish it on YouTube. The the latest technological resources. Worse fact that they use digital resources so natu- still, the other social systems tasked with ed- rally challenges us to re-examine concepts ucating our children do not seem to be very such as property, privacy and authorship. As effective in achieving these goals either. It is MIT professor Alan Kay put it, “technology is far from clear that these resources (advanced anything that wasn’t around when you were technology, social information networks, and born.” It is the members of this new gener- vast amounts of data) are being properly ad- ation who are the owners of Web 2.0, the dressed by schools and universities. In this social Web based on collaboration where context, children perceive an implicit mes- people share all kinds of resources and the sage: if they are to compete successfully, find key requirement is the capacity to engage in work, and ultimately to survive, then they dialogue. must master techniques and skills that are more easily learned among peers than from Young people who are now 18 and have the parents or teachers. right to vote were born nearly a decade after the appearance of IBM’s first PC and have had This principle is one of the cornerstones of access to the Internet since they were young the collaborative social movement known as children. They are the digital natives, and us- Web 2.0. We are now witnessing the emer- ing the Internet to explore opportunities and gence of citizens who base their knowledge construct markers of identity comes naturally and learning on collaboration. Anyone who to them. They write in what for others is an shares and distributes information becomes impenetrable code; they are able to compose a valued node in the network. Such a per- an SMS text message at a reasonable speed son is useful. Anyone who blocks the flow of with just one hand; and they can carry on up information is not useful and is rejected by to 10 instant messaging conversations at the the network. If the network rejects you, you same time, unlike digital immigrants, who are left out of the information and knowledge need to finish one exchange before moving loop; you lose value; you become less com- on to the next. They even use blogs different- petitive, less employable, less likely to sur- ly: while digital immigrants use these online vive. journals to share knowledge, for natives they 126 The New Challenges of Urban Life are a way of sharing emotions. In fact, their to the attitude of passive consumers. They attitude towards information also differs: im- are only interested in companies with migrants still want to keep information secret which they can engage in a dialogue. If (“information is power”), whereas natives there is no possibility of a conversation, love to share and distribute the information then there is no relationship. This message they receive as widely as they can, and do so was articulated in 1999 by the visionaries as quickly as possible (“sharing knowledge behind the Cluetrain Manifesto.6 is power”). • Digital natives see the whole world as John Palfrey,3 Executive Director of the Berk- their playground, a perspective that man Center for Internet & Society at Harvard breaks down barriers of geography and Law School,4 sums up some of the main at- time. Everything is global and everything tributes of digital natives as follows: is connected all the time. It is not unusual or surprising for them to interact with peo- • Their online digital identity is as impor- ple in different countries and situations at tant to them as their real-life identity, if any time of the day or night. not more so. What the Web says about you (when someone Googles your name) is at Marc Prensky7 was the first to introduce the least as important as what your coworkers concept of digital natives and digital immi- or the people who live on your street have grants in an article published in 2001.8 In his to say about you. It is no longer credible subsequent work, he identifies a number of to say that you are very good at something areas where natives are doing things differ- if there are no references on the Web to ently from digital immigrants:9 back up your claim. • They are communicating differently. They • Natives are able to multitask. It is remark- do not like email because it is asynchro- able to see an eight-year-old child relaxing nous. They prefer to use instant messag- and having fun while juggling five, seven ing and SMS. They recognize the people or ten simultaneous chat sessions. they are talking to by their online name or “handle” and do not care if the name is a • Natives have mastered digital production real one. They invent a parallel language tools. The fact that they are not surprised and use emoticons to express feelings. by any of the possibilities offered by the digital medium is striking. They cut and • They are creating differently. One of the paste videos to post online just as easily as defining characteristics of digital natives people used to cut and paste text to create is the enjoyment they derive from creative a document. activity. They want to create and the digital medium enables them to explore this field • They see the world as “prosumers”5 in a variety of ways: by keeping a blog, (proactive consumers) in a clear contrast building websites, making flash movies,

3 John Palfrey, http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/ 4 Berkman Center for Internet and Society, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ 5 Prosumer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosumer 6 Cluetrain Manifesto, http://www.cluetrain.com/book/ 7 Marc Prensky, http://www.marcprensky.com/writing 8 Marc Prensky (2001): Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20 Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf 9 Marc Prensky (2004): The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native: What they do differently because of technology, and how they do it, http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Dig- ital_Native-03.pdf The New Challenges of Urban Life: Redefining the Concept of “Community”in the Internet Age 127

manipulating photographs, editing im- The many differences make it clear that these ages, programming mashups,10 creating two groups are not equal, yet neither is one their own avatars, and even shaping their better or worse than the other. Digital natives online identity. are not a model we should necessarily follow, and digital immigrants are not an en- • They are meeting and coordinating differ- dangered species. What is clear, however, is ently. These days, arranging to meet some- that neither group wants to be like the other, one does not necessarily imply a face- and that there are many spaces where the to-face encounter. Digital natives have two groups must meet and work together. a number of options for getting together One is the school environment, and already even if they are not in the same area. They an effort is being made to identify problems are also able to coordinate activities on- that could arise in the relationship between line to involve hundreds of people. students who are “digital natives” and some teachers who are “digital immigrants.” Ian • They are evaluating differently. In an envi- Jukes and Anita Dosaj worked on this issue ronment where the people interacting may in 2004 at Wright State University and pro- never meet face-to-face, digital natives be- duced the table below, which shows the dif- come skilled in evaluating reputations and ferences between the two groups:11 determining how trustworthy and credible others are. This involves taking into Students Teachers account a number of variables, some of “digital natives” ”digital immigrants” which are very subtle and difficult to pre- Prefer receiving info Prefer slow and control- cisely define. quickly from multiple led release of info from multimedia sources limited sources • They are searching differently. When they Prefer parallel process- Prefer singular process- do not know someone’s phone number, ing and multitasking ing and single/limited- they use Google to find it. And when they tasking search for information on a subject, they Prefer processing pic- Prefer to provide text be- search for reliable documents and reliable tures, sounds and video fore pictures, sounds and people. before text video Prefer random access to Prefer to provide infor- hyperlinked multimedia mation linearly, logically • They are socializing differently. Digital information and sequentially natives are also being socialized online, something that does not usually happen in Prefer to interact/ Prefer students to work network simultaneously independently the case of digital immigrants. with many others Prefer to learn “just-in- Prefer to teach “just-in- • They are growing up differently. Exploring time” case” (it’s on the exam) and breaking rules is part of this process for digital natives. Prefer instant gratifica- Prefer deferred gratifi- tion and instant rewards cation and deferred re- • They are learning differently. Digital na- wards tives are more likely to turn to the Web Prefer learning that is Prefer to teach to the to find out about a subject than to their relevant, instantly useful curriculum guide and parents. and fun standardized tests

10 Mashup, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_%28web_application_hybrid%29 11 Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj (2004): Understanding Digital Kids, http://www.wright.edu/%7Emarguerite.veres/786syl/ growingupdigit.pdf 128 The New Challenges of Urban Life

City and Internet: Social and Educating answer the question “where are you from?” Spaces You may feel you belong to the city where you were born, but also to the city where you The sociologist Manuel Castells concludes grew up, to the city where you studied, to the that language, nation, territory and religion city where you fell in love, to the city where now play a very secondary role in the sense you lived, to the city where you work, to the of identity felt by most members of the pop- city where you sleep, etc. And if the high- ulation.12 Our sense of belonging is most est expression of citizenship is being able to firmly grounded where we have the strongest vote to choose the leaders of your city, hav- web of relationships and interactions. Conse- ing this right in just one locality is becoming quently, we feel more involved with the city more and more inconvenient and making where we live than with the region, county less and less sense. Cities are communities or country. This explains why digital natives with many members who lack the legal right have developed a strong sense of commu- to fully participate simply as a result of the nity and belonging online, where there is not limitations of a system based on their physi- necessarily any physical frame of reference. cal place of residence.

The urban context has been, and remains, This limitation has been overcome online, a space where people are educated and so- where one can build markers of identity and cialized. It is the space for school, friends, develop feelings of belonging that are not neighbors, play, leisure, work, and collabo- linked to any physical coordinates. There are rative partnerships in pursuit of shared goals; now people who grow up online, study on- for private, social, personal, cultural and line, fall in love online, work online, and have professional interests. For digital natives, the fun online. The condition for belonging to a Internet plays precisely the same role: it is a place is participation in it. Real new citizens space where people interact, learn and de- with multiple identities are appearing. These velop; a space to converse and to exchange individuals belong to multiple communities experiences. In this new century that has just and operate in both the virtual world and the begun, community values and feelings of be- physical world without the slightest prob- longing are being built in both physical and lem. They are citizens of the world and of the virtual spaces. Web, and already there are some who feel more comfortable, more fulfilled, more use- If a community is defined as a human group ful, more recognized, and more developed that succeeds in building identity, commit- online than on the streets of their own city. ment, participation, shared interests, the determination to have an influence, a feeling of Cities and the Web are now inextricably belonging, relationships, and external mark- linked in terms of the role they play in the ers of identity, then we can safely say that personal, social and professional develop- ecosystems of this type are also developing ment of many citizens. The spaces where online in spaces that are not in the least vir- people are educated and socialized can no tual. Indeed, they are real enough to have a longer be only physical, just as it will never decisive impact on the education and social- be possible for them to be only digital. We ization of their members, just as cities do. need physical reference points just as much as we need to be connected without bor- Mayors know it is quite normal for citizens ders. to develop feelings of belonging to more than one city or town over the course of their The mayor of Santo Domingo in the Domini- lives. It is increasingly difficult for people to can Republic cannot overlook the fact that

12 Projecte Internet Catalunya (PIC), http://www.uoc.edu/in3/pic/cat/ The New Challenges of Urban Life: Redefining the Concept of “Community”in the Internet Age 129 hundreds of thousands of his citizens are liv- communities. Each individual chooses what ing in New York. Physically they are on the to read and makes his or her own decisions east coast of the United States, but culturally, about subject matter and sources of infor- socially and electronically they are perma- mation. And each individual decides what nently connected to and involved with their he or she wants to talk about, with whom, city of origin in the Caribbean. Meanwhile, and where to post. Information flows in such the mayor of New York cannot forget that his a way that in itself it no longer confers any city is home to hundreds of thousands of citi- power. Nowadays the focus is on being part zens who belong to other communities. The of a community, a network, a set of nodes, Internet is playing a decisive role in creating, and therefore of individuals. Relevant in- maintaining and developing social commu- formation circulating through such systems nities, and digital communication is making helps us form opinions and make decisions. it possible for many people to belong to multiple communities, and therefore to multiple At the same time, ways of accessing the Web environments (virtual or non-virtual) for so- have become simpler and more diverse, and cialization and education. this trend continues. More disadvantaged individuals are quite comfortable using IP telephony and video conferences at phone The New Digital Divide centers and cybercafés to communicate with distant family members. The OLPC project Much of what is happening is related to the (One Laptop per Child) and related projects digital phenomenon. Today everything is dig- offer laptop computers for slightly over 100 ital: photographs, videos, music, correspond- dollars.13 Cell phones can now be used to ence, phone calls, television, communica- surf the Web. All executives are now outfit- tions networks, etc. Not so long ago, there ted with devices that enable them to fire off was a great deal of talk of the digital divide. email messages while waiting for a flight at It was argued that the difficulty of accessing the airport. Some cities are planning to of- technology would lead to a digital divide that fer blanket wireless coverage for Internet ac- would exclude disadvantaged groups, pre- cess. And the list of new developments that venting them from finding their place in the break down technical barriers to accessing new information and knowledge society. Not the Web goes on and on. everyone would be able to afford a computer and an Internet connection, and for many The digital divide that concerns us is no it would be even more difficult to gain the longer the one that affects disadvantaged basic knowledge needed to use these tools. groups who face obstacles when it comes to A number of plans and campaigns were accessing technology. The digital divide that launched to address this issue, some more will hurt us is the one created by those who effective than others. are not connected and do not belong to any online community; the digital divide of those The Internet has evolved into something who do not educate themselves in networks more participatory, collaborative and social. and who undervalue digital markers of iden- We have moved from the Web of companies tity. It is worrying to see the number of peo- and institutions to the Web of the people, ple holding important positions in business from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. The nodes in this and government who are not connected to network are people rather than computers. any of the new digital knowledge networks, People are building their own networks of and who are therefore unable to use the Web trust, networks for the circulation of informa- as an environment for education and sociali- tion, and networks for collaboration: their zation. The number of politicians who create

13 OLPC, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olpc 130 The New Challenges of Urban Life a website or start a blog during an electoral generated, and the circuits through which it campaign only to abandon it the day after the circulates and becomes enriched. Collective election takes place is worryingly high. Many intelligence is built based on the contribu- go to the Internet only during the campaign tions made by individuals, and it is networks to take advantage of a photo opportunity and that aggregate these contributions and gener- impress people with their understanding of ate value. A recent BBC news item points to digital culture. However, they do not appre- the way things are heading. According to the ciate and have not grasped that the Web is a report, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in space where many of their citizens are being the United Kingdom called for employees to educated and socialized, a space for discus- be allowed to access social networking sites sion, participation, involvement and action. during working hours,14 given that denying Digital spaces are a new public space— access poses a serious threat to their com- one that requires people and bodies to en- petitiveness. sure that both public and private interests are protected, and services and community At a stage when many segments of the popu- representatives that are attuned to the needs lation are still finding their place in the infor- of the citizens who occupy this new urban mation and knowledge society, we see a new space. Anyone who opts to remain absent segment appearing that has already made the from this public space should be disqualified transition to the network society. While the from holding a position in which they claim first group values information (“information to be serving citizens. This applies to politi- is power”), those in the second group value cians, civil servants and teachers. The uncon- nected lack the skills to design the solutions being part of a network (“information is only of the future. The new digital divide that will useful if you can share it”), which implies define differences is the one that exists when significant changes in scales of values. As a the leaders (politicians, social and business result of the age curves of the two groups, leaders) who need to make decisions about they have encountered each other for the first our future are not connected to the online time in classrooms, but they will be coming world. together with increasing frequency in the spaces where people interact and work to- The arrival on the scene of digital natives is gether (workplaces, the political arena, col- bringing about a transition from the informa- laborative partnerships aimed at pursuing tion and knowledge society to the network shared goals, and business). We are gradu- society. Information no longer has the value ally seeing confirmation that concepts such it once did: it is very easily accessed, in mul- as authority, intellectual property, belonging, tiple formats, with multiple devices, when- reputation and identity—all of which have a ever and from wherever one wishes. Infor- bearing on the educational process—are be- mation is now within everyone’s reach. More ing transformed. What we are talking about important now are the networks, communi- is not access to new technologies but under- ties and circuits where this information is standing social changes.

14 BBC News (08/30/2007), Let Staff Use Network Sites – TUC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6969791.stm The Voice of Local Governments in World Governance

Elisabeth Gateau

Elisabeth Gateau is the first Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). Building on her past experience as a local elected official in France, she was previously Secretary General of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the European section of United Cities and Local Governments. She then went on to take charge of local government issues within the Secre- tariat of the European Convention, which prepared the Constitution of the European Union.

Elisabeth Gateau’s contribution to regional and local politics was recognised once more in July 2004 through the award of the Emperor Maximilian Prize. An international jury granted the award on the basis of outstanding efforts to implement the principle of subsidiarity and the Council of Europe’s Charter for Local Self-Government and Charter for Regional Self-Government. The Voice of Local Governments in World Governance

Local Governments’ Entrance on the the European Union the local governments’ International Scene share in public spending exceeds 10% of the GDP and in North America the figure is near “A silent but steady democratic revolution is 9%, whereas in Africa it does not reach 2.5% currently spreading across the world. Local and in Latin America it is below 4%. democracy is moving forward in all regions, reaching the people of the African savannah, Meanwhile, international action by local the Latin American high plateau, the Philip- governments also increased considerably, es- pine barangayes and Eurasia.”1 pecially as of the 1980s. In a 1994-95 survey based on a sampling from 50 countries, over These are the opening words of the First Glo- 16,000 cities were listed as being involved in bal Report on Decentralization and Local De- international actions.2 A more recent study by mocracy, which details the evolution of local the Organization for Economic Cooperation governments in the world today. The Report and Development (OECD, 2003), showed demonstrates how over the course of the last that cooperative efforts by local governments twenty years most countries have local gov- mobilized more than $1.2 billion annually.3 ernments that are elected by popular vote Currently, in a world in which over 50% of and, to varying degrees, respond to citizen the population lives in urban areas, local needs. The emergence of new political lead- governments are playing a growing role in ership at the local level has allowed for the addressing most of the major contemporary creation of local government associations in challenges: democratic challenges, since it more than 130 countries and, at the regional is at the local level where the idea of citi- level, on every continent. zenry acquires meaning and where identities are built, in the face of the steady advance of Although the idea of “local self-government,” globalization; ecological challenges, given “autonomía local,” “Selbstverwaltung,” “libre that it is at the local level where action is administration” is not new, decentralization being taken against climate change and for on a world scale is a relatively recent phe- the preservation of our planet—actions that nomenon linked to the political and socio- require adjustments to production and con- economic changes occurring in the final dec- sumption models, mainly urban; economic ades of the 20th century. In broad terms, it is challenges, seeing how it is in the cities and about transferring decision-making power, their outskirts where much of the riches and authority and resources from the central gov- opportunities are to be found…as well as the ernment and its agencies to the intermediate- greatest inequalities; and, finally, social chal- and local-level governments. Still, however, lenges and tests of solidarity, since policies vast differences between regions remain. In focusing on social inclusion, cultural diver-

1 United Cities and Local Governments, First Global Report on Decentralization and Local Democracy, Barcelona, UCLG, 2007, p.9. 2 G. Jan Schep, F. Angenent, J. Wismans, M. Hillenius, Local Challenges to Global Change: A Global Perspective on Municipal International Cooperation, SGBO-VNG-SDU Publishers, The Hague, 1995. 3 OCDE, Aid by local governments, DAC files 2005, Vol 6, nº4. 134 The New Challenges of Urban Life sity and safety issues first take shape at the Creation of United Cities and Local local level. Governments

This development explains the growing inter- In 2004, local authorities embarked on a new est on the part of international organizations era of international cooperation. The found- in the institutional aspect of the local sphere. ing of United Cities and Local Governments The “discovery” of this sphere by the United (UCLG) is the result of an almost ten-year Nations came as a result of the organization’s process which led to the unification of the concern with sustainable development and three main existing international organiza- with the problems experienced by large cit- tions of local governments: the International ies. Between 1991 and 1995, the United Na- Union of Local Authorities (IULS), the World tions held various international conferences Federation of United Cities (FMCU) and the focused on management issues of large cit- Metropolis Association. ies, the last of which was held in Quito, Ec- uador, where a joint declaration of mayors The UCLG was founded thanks to the efforts and experts was adopted in support of a new of mayors and local leaders around the world governance framework for cities. During this to strengthen their position as interlocutors same period, during the Earth Summit held with the international community and, par- in Rio de Janeiro, the United Nations recog- ticularly, with the United Nations. Today, nized for the first time that local governments this world organization draws together local indeed play a major role in environmental governments from 136 of the 192 United Na- protection and in carrying out Agenda 21 for tions member states. Its constituents include sustainable development. cities, regional governments and practically all of the national and international associa- In Istanbul in 1996, during the Second United tions of local governments in the world; one Nations Conference on Human Settlements of these is the IAEC, which focuses on the city (HABITAT II), the participating countries fi- as an educating agent. UCLG also has seven nally affirmed that the local governments are regional sections (Africa, Latin America, Asia their “closest partners, and essential in the Pacific, Euro-Asia, Europe, Middle East–West implementation of the Habitat Agenda and Asia and North America) and a metropolitan most essential associates for the implementa- section, Metropolis, which brings together tion of the HABITAT program and for promo- 80 of the largest cities in the world. The or- ting sustainable development.” They com- ganization’s headquarters are located in Bar- mitted to directing more responsibility and celona. resources to the local level and invited local governments to take part in the program with The main objectives of the new world organ- a single, unified voice in order to facilitate ization are to: dialogue with the international community. The new commitment marked the beginning a) Increase the role and influence of local of a more direct, ongoing cooperation be- governments and its representative organi- tween the United Nations and local govern- zations in global governance. ments that, after several years, would result in: b) Become the main source of support for a) the unification of the large worldwide lo- democratic, effective, innovative local cal government organizations, through the government close to the people. creation of United Cities and Local Gov- ernments (UCLG); and c) Promote a democratic and efficient world organization of local governments. b) increased institutional and political recognition of the role played by local govern- From the very start, the UCLG dedicated its ments. energies to strengthening the presence of lo- The Voice of Local Governments in World Governance 135 cal authorities with regard to the main topics regional or sectorial networks still being de- on the world agenda that have a direct influ- veloped. It entails looking at the great dis- ence at the local level: parities in both structure and levels of representation among the organization’s different • active solidarity among local governments regional sections. Moreover, it calls for a and among their constituents in the face complex democratic architecture in order to of world events, such as: with those af- achieve balanced coordination of the many fected by the natural disasters following different facets of the local world. the Tsunami in Southeast Asia (December 2004-January 2005) or with victims of the war in Lebanon (July-August 2006). The Path Towards the Recognition of Local Governments in International • local government action in support of the Law world development agenda, in particular the Millennium Development Goals pro- During the process of establishing United moted by the international community to Cities and Local Governments, and espe- fight against extreme poverty and for ac- cially since 2004, local authorities have re- cess by the neediest to education, health inforced and consolidated ties with leading and basic services (Millennium Towns and international institutions. Some of the main Cities Campaign from June-September milestones reached include: 2005). • The creation of the United Nations Advi- • encouraging Peace and Dialogue between sory Committee of Local Authorities (UN- communities, through city diplomacy and ACLA), in the year 2000, which represents support for the United Nations Alliance of one of the first experiences in institution- Civilizations initiative. alizing dialogue between local authorities and the United Nations. For the moment, • the battle against global climate change however, its mandate is limited to carrying and in favor of sustainable development. out the HABITAT program agenda.4 • participation of local governments in the world campaign against AIDS. • The launching of Cities Alliance in 1999 by the World Bank and UN-HABITAT. The UCLG has also taken significant steps to- Alliance currently brings together a coali- wards becoming the main world source of tion of more than 15 donor countries and information and analysis vis-à-vis local gov- five international organizations. Since its ernments. The organization has published creation, the Alliance has mobilized more the First Global Report on Decentralization than $88 million in investments to reduce and Local Democracy and the first series of urban poverty. The local authorities partic- basic indicators for local governments of 82 ipate in the Alliance Advisory Committee countries around the world. through the UCLG and its metropolitan division, Metropolis. The consolidation of this unified world -or ganization is not a finished process, but • The inclusion of representatives of the lo- rather one in constant progress. It requires a cal authorities as observers on the UN- sustained effort to keep drawing in the many HABITAT Governing Council (2003), a

4 UNACLA was created at the recommendation of the then–Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, under the responsibility of UN-HABITAT, to implement its program and support the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (resolution 17/18 of the UN-HABITAT Governing Council). 136 The New Challenges of Urban Life

function performed by the UCLG since the people of the world, the promotion of 2005.5 Since then, other agencies, such peace and respect for diversity. as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), have incorporat- Those steps forward must be considered ed UCLG representatives and/or local au- within the framework of the debate on the thorities into their governing bodies, albeit UN reform and the renewal of the UN global on a provisional basis. governance system. This process was initi- ated by former Secretary General Kofi Annan • Also, the explicit recognition of the role aiming to increase the efficiency of the mul- of local authorities in various texts of the tilateral system by democratizing and devel- international institutions: oping its legitimacy. The debate has generated different reports and proposals, some of • Plan of Action of the World Summit on which make explicit reference to the role of Sustainable Development (Johannes- local governments. burg, 2002); Especially worthy of mention is the 2004 • Kofi Annan’s report, “In Greater Free- report on United Nations–civil society rela- dom: Towards Development, Security tions, presented by a Highlevel Panel chaired and Human Rights for All” (New York, by the former president of Brazil, Fernando March 2005); Henrique Cardoso. This report recommended to the then-Secretary General, Kofi Annan • Declaration of the Heads of State and that the democratic deficit in global govern- Government at the Millennium +5 Sum- ance be corrected through greater involve- mit (New York, September 2005). ment of elected representatives (parliamenta- ry and local authorities), thus reinforcing the • Finally, the signing of cooperation agree- ties between the local level and the global ments between UCLG and various inter- level. The panel also proposed that the Unit- national agencies: the United Nations ed Nations General Assembly recognize lo- Development Programme (UNDP), the cal autonomy as a “universal principle” and World Bank Institute, UNESCO. Ongoing consider United Cities and Local Govern- cooperation is also maintained with UNI- ments as the advisory body for governance TAR (United Nations Institute for Training issues.6 Unfortunately, few of these proposals and Research), the (ILO) International La- were carried out. bour Organization, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UN- One decisive step taken by the United Na- AIDS). tions in that direction was the April 2007 adoption of the International Guidelines • Very recently, in January 2008, UCLG on Decentralization and Strengthening Lo- signed a agreement with the United Na- cal Authorities, a benchmark document that tions Alliance of Civilizations and became recognizes the role of local governments in a member of the “Group of Friends of the carrying out democratic governance and Alliance.” This agreement is pioneering development. In effect, the adoption of the the recognition by the UN of city diplo- Guidelines embodied a major aspiration of macy as a springboard for dialogue among local authorities.7 It is hoped that in the near

5 Resolution 19/1, on the rules of procedure of the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, articles 64, 65 and 66. [May 2003]. It has been in force since 2005. 6 A/58/817, Report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations–Civil Society Relations, June 11, 2004. 7 21st UN-HABITAT Governing Council, Resolution 21/3, April 16-20, 2007, (http://www.unchs.org/downloads/ docs/5181_19348_Resolution%2021-3.pdf) The Voice of Local Governments in World Governance 137 future this text will be submitted to the Unit- as a foundation for peace and developed Nations General Assembly to consolidate ment. this precedent in international law. • Upholding efforts to achieve the Millen- At the same time, progress was being made nium Development Goals and democracy in other international forums. In 2005, the at the local level, using it as leverage to European Union recognized local authorities strengthen the hands of local governments as “full actors” in development cooperation in global governance. (Revised Cotonou Agreement and the declaration on the European Consensus for Devel- Moreover, during the UN Climate talks in opment).8 Meanwhile, in March 2007, the Bali (December 2007), UCLG, together with European Parliament adopted a resolution the main local government networks on cli- on the role of local Governments in devel- mate change (ICLEI, World Mayors Council opment cooperation in which it recognizes on Climate Change, the C40 Large Cities the important place local governments hold Climate Leadership Group, and signatories within the European Union’s international of the US Mayors Climate Protection Agree- cooperation policy.9 ment), launched a call to: reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their territories (60-80% by In any case, there is a long road ahead be- 2050), encourage the use of clean technolo- fore these steps can take effect and enable gies and renewable sources of energy, and local authorities to achieve a new institution- promote planning and development meas- al status within the context of international ures to aid the cities most vulnerable to cli- institutions. Currently, local authorities are mate change through prevention and adapta- considered members of civil society, at the tion measures. They also requested that local same level as an NGO, a union or a profes- governments be represented within the na- sional or business association. Their status tional delegations in future negotiations for as local leaders and democratically elected the United Nations Framework Convention representatives of their communities remains on Climate Change. unrecognized. Many cities have drawn up local plans— Achieving this recognition will primarily de- or are in the process of doing so—to tackle pend on the ability of the local authorities climate change through the promotion of to contribute to solving major pending items high density urbanization, the use of better on the world agenda. These aspirations are adapted transport and construction systems, reflected in the recent final declaration of the and to encourage reforestation and more en- 2nd UCLG Congress, held October 28-31, vironmentally-sound natural resource man- 2007, in Jeju, South Korea. Its most salient agement. points are: Also, cities are spaces where the major con- • Placing the challenge posed by global temporary challenges are being addressed warming and the need for environmental daily. In an ever-more complex and urban- protection as priority issues for local au- ized world, local governments are the first in thority agendas. regularly defending citizens’ rights in multicultural cities, channeling tensions, resolving • Acting to promote all human rights and re- conflicts and promoting dialogue among cul- spect diversity in our cities and territories tures and religions. Within this context, edu-

8 Official Journalof the European Union L 209 of August 11, 2005, and C 46 of February 24, 2006. 9 European Parliament Resolution of March 15, 2007 on local authorities and development cooperation (2006/2235(INI)), P6_TA(2007)0083. 138 The New Challenges of Urban Life cation is a fundamental element in achieving of action, national governments also need these objectives; committing to a compre- to take advantage of the local governments’ hensive education for all individuals means commitment and growing role. However, in fighting exclusion, reducing inequalities and order to do so, the latter should take a more working for fairness and peaceful coexist- active part in the definition and implementa- ence among citizens. It is in the cities where tion of international policy in the areas that new forms of democratic democracy are affect local communities. tried out (participatory budgets, neighborhood councils, etc.) and where innovative The political coordination of local authorities policies of social inclusion are developed and their integration into the United Nations to promote universal access to basic public system is still recent. Without question, the services, as another step towards meeting the United Nations has played an important role Millennium Development Goals. in the emergence of United Cities and Local Governments as a new actor on the interna- Nevertheless, local governments often take tional stage. With the adoption of the Guide- on new responsibilities without being given lines on Decentralization, decisive steps have adequate resources to carry them out. Bound also been taken towards creating a universal by the limited means available in many de- framework of regulations supporting the developing countries, the ability of the local mand for recognition of local autonomy. At governments to fulfill their responsibilities the same time, important progress has been and respond to citizen demands is seriously made so that the voice of local governments undermined. This limitation is a determining factor when trying to promote policies can be heard in the international commu- to minimize or prevent conflicts. And when nity. conflicts arise, the cities and their people are the first to suffer the effects of war or terrorist Although national governments continue to violence. set limitations on the recognition of the role of local governments in international governance, the increased interaction between the Conclusion local and global issues is cause for optimism. In the words of Ban Ki-moon, Secretary Gen- Growing urbanization and greater decentral- eral of the United Nations, as part of his mes- ization will inevitably result in local govern- sage to local authorities at the UCLG Con- ments sharing their responsibilities with na- gress in Jeju: “The future of humanity will tional governments in coping with some of depend on the manner in which cities react the great challenges that the world faces to- to the major challenges posed by globaliza- day. Likewise, in order to broaden their scope tion.” 2

Education: The Present Is the Future Communications, Knowledge and the City: An Intercultural Debate

Néstor García Canclini

Néstor García Canclini is a distinguished research professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM-I) and researcher emeritus for the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, in Mexico. He has been a visiting professor at the universities of Texas (Austin), Duke, New York, Stanford, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. He received a Guggenheim grant and numerous international prizes for his books, including the Latin American Studies Association Book Award for Culturas híbridas, which in 2002 was voted the best book on Latin America. His latest book is titled Diferentes, desiguales y desconectados: mapas de la interculturalidad. His works have been translated into English, French, Italian and Portuguese. In recent years, his research topics have been focused on new cultural habits and the relationship between aesthetics and anthropology. Communications, Knowledge and the City: An Intercultural Debate

The Communicating City But the continued protests of social and ecological movements suggest that this fractur- Cities, and large cities in particular, are spa- ing of the urban space has not been well re- tial systems and communication networks. A ceived. The media picks up on the discontent city is inhabited and transited, and these two felt by the inhabitants of cities refusing to live forms of occupying it are complementary: among vague and intangible networks. Thus moving around the city to work and con- the radio, television and Internet—which are sume is, of course, one way to use it. Thus, partially delocalized networks—construct the city shapes its inhabitants through the localized stories. While the territorial expan- manners in which it organizes the occupa- sion of megacities weakens the connection tion of space and through the opportunities between its constituent parts, communica- it offers for finding information, learning and tion networks deliver the information and communicating. entertainment to every household. The haphazard bursting toward the outskirts, where- This dual analytical perspective has ended by inhabitants lose a sense of the limits of up redefining our concept of city and of ur- “their” territory, is counterbalanced by media ban life. It also leads us to reconsider what it reports about what is going on in places far is that disintegrates and reintegrates in large removed from the big city. In the past, literary cities. Much has been written on fragmenta- and journalistic pieces served this function tion, the loss of order and sense of cohesion of creating stories that drew people together, experienced by cities expanding as a result thus acting somehow as an antidote to the of industrialization and the mass influx of mi- urban sprawl. Studies done on the relation grants in the second half of the 20th century between uses of space and communication (Davis, 1998; Koolhaas, 2002). Urban dis- processes in Mexico City show us that the order and the criticism regarding the unify- helicopter flying over the city each morning, ing perspective of the social element led to broadcasting reports over the TV and radio, the discrediting of megaurban planning, es- gives an illusion of a megalopolis seen as a pecially under the influence of postmodern whole, apparently bound together by those thought. Cities were left without a cohesive on duty. As this author has discussed else- vision or comprehensive projects, and the where, the imbalances and uncertainties tendency was to consider them as a sum of engendered by urbanization that deurbaniz- fragmented parts; instead of searching for a es—through its irrational, speculative expan- comprehensive organizational plan, atten- sion—appear to be offset by the technologi- tion was focused on things deemed poten- cal efficiency of communication networks. tially more dynamic. The theorization of the Therefore, defining an urban space in strictly city as a space in flux, and one traversed by sociodemographic terms fails to explain its general fluctuations in the economy, com- new meanings if it does not also include the munications and tourism, played a role in reconstruction resulting from the imaginary distancing some urban planners from any action of the media (García Canclini, 1998). aspiration to exercise control over the urban space as a whole (Castells, 1995). Radio and television, engaged in this task of being narrators and giving coherence to 144 Education: The Present Is the Future the city, redesign their communication tac- These three factors were not always arranged, tics so as to take root in delimited spaces. as they are now, to benefit business owners The adaptations of CNN’s international dis- and promote the commercialized video cul- course, broadcast from Atlanta to comple- ture. In the early days of radio and television ment local information in many countries, broadcasting, some nations owned broad- exemplify this versatility. Although the media casting companies that were publicly ori- outlets are transnational, they know that their ented. According to John Keane, the concep- audiences want to hear about what it means tion of modern public space was linked to to be together in a particular place. Thus, the model of “public service broadcasting.” they present themselves in this dual role: as Keane has shown how important this model macrosocial informants, who announce the was in Great Britain, the Netherlands and events happening in far-off places, and as Canada, in terms of easing financial pres- microsocial confidants, who report on the sures, placing limits on both the amount and traffic jams and emotional disturbances oc- type of advertising, and giving citizens access curring in the city where we are watching the to participate in their society’s debates. We newscast. The rituals of international diplo- see a similar analysis of the social and politi- macy and the personal dramas of our neigh- cal functions of the media in studies done on bors are all part of the program. radio and TV broadcasting in Latin America (Martín Barbero, Ortiz, Winocur, etc.). Let us now take a closer look at how the meaning of the city is reshaped through the Due to the growing influence of radio, tel- “urbanizing” role of video culture. I will dis- evision and the Internet, it is often said that cuss two dimensions of video culture: first, it these resources are the new forums, sources includes all of the networks and electronic of mass information (Ferry, Wolton). Indeed, messages (radio, television, videos, Internet); the media is where we get most of our news and second, all of the visual messages that and hear commentary and debate about the make up the image of the city, namely: its public sphere, and sometimes we are par- architecture, the urban order and disorder, ticipants in that conversation. While politi- the commercial and political advertising, the cal parties were losing credibility and their signage, graffiti and other messages visible in ability to represent public interests, the me- the big city. dia went about occupying both old and new positions in social intermediation and delib- The current reorganization of urban spaces eration. Video politics has taken the place of and communication networks is being car- political party meetings and partisan affilia- ried out with three factors in mind: a) the tion. Newspapers and radio broadcasters, to tremendous technological and economic say nothing of the television, spread the news power of the media to reach the majority better than in the past, and to more people, of the population, and interweave the local about acts of corruption and human rights day-to-day with national and global infor- violations, and provide explanations on eco- mation and entertainment networks; b) the logical or political crises. The ever-increasing resistance of government organizations, and access to the Internet helps immediately con- the limited ability of societal groups, to par- nect multiple sectors to information that was ticipate in such large-scale communication formerly restricted and is now frequently dis- functions, or even comprehend the sociocul- cussed in blogs. tural dynamics and value of these communication networks; c) the commercial pres- Just as in the ‘90s when studies on the so- sures stemming from the major investments ciology of politics and communication dis- required for industrial-level production and covered the importance of video politics, mass communication via radio, television, we should now be paying closer attention to motion pictures and digital services. other means of acquiring information, com- Communications, Knowledge and the City: An Intercultural Debate 145 municating and participating socially that designed to foster economic development are available through the new digital plat- based on scientific knowledge, advanced forms. Cultural policies, therefore, can no information technologies and a seamless longer be simply Gutenbergian, that is, set global interconnectivity, or to parts of large apart from the places and media where most cities that are restructured in order to fulfill people seek out their information and enter- these objectives. Some practices of these cit- tainment. It is not feasible to focus the debate ies include: using creation and innovation as about social democratization solely on writ- key resources for adding value to production ten communication. Nor on manipulation and accelerating development, with greater by television. Just taking a look at the new competitiveness internationally; promoting forms of reading and communicating shows coordination between universities, compa- us that plenty of reading is still being done— nies and creators; facilitating widespread ac- no less than in the past. Newspaper sales are cess to new communications technologies; down, but hundreds of thousands of people gearing formal and informal education to- check them out daily on the Internet. There ward raising the educational level across the are fewer bookstores, but Internet cafés are population, particularly the acquisition of now more prevalent, as are portable media knowledge and access to networks that are devices for sending text and audiovisual favorable to obtaining this kind of social cap- messages. ital. Boston and Seattle in the United States, and Cambridge and Manchester in Great It would be naïve to think that cybersociety Britain, are a few examples of this restructur- will be able to sufficiently channel its need ing of information, knowledge, connectivity, for information, representation and partici- urban infrastructure, education and citizen pation in cities. Counter information sent via participation in development. mobile phones between hundreds of thousands of people in Spain managed to under- The Universal Forum of Cultures held in mine the manipulation of information by the 2004 in Barcelona already promoted the co- government and the PP (Partido Popular, the ordination between urban growth and the incumbent party at that time), which attrib- expansion of knowledge. The second edition uted the bombing of Madrid’s Atocha train of the Forum, which began in Monterrey, station to the terrorist organization ETA (and Mexico, in September 2007, further deline- coerced the press, radio and television into ated the link between sustainable cultural broadcasting that information). Incarcerated development and scientific/technological mafia groups also use mobile phones to or- advancements. “Monterrey, City of Knowl- ganize kidnappings and urban attacks, such edge” was the motto used to promote this in- as those orchestrated in São Paulo, Rio de ternational event in the host city—Mexico’s Janeiro, Mexico City, Tijuana and dozens of second largest in terms of population—to other Latin American cities. which Latin America’s largest steel company (among many other factories) brought prestige as an industrial capital. Nevertheless, Information Society or Knowledge when industrialization fell behind techno- Society? logical advances as a driving force for development, the blast furnaces were shut down, In recent years, questions regarding informa- and the buildings housing them, which had tion and urban management have been ad- been transformed into a foundry park (Parque dressed within the framework of redefining Fundidora), were converted into an art gal- contemporary societies as knowledge socie- lery and film screening facility. Now, with ties. Cities occupy a central position in this the boost of the Forum, this former factory line of thought and action. The term knowl- space is growing with the addition of new edge cities is used to refer to those cities museums and promenades around a 2.5 km 146 Education: The Present Is the Future canal that connects the old industrial area to reducing them to differences—always legiti- the historic city center. mate—between cultures. As long as nations, and many ethnic groups, were able to man- Two forms of knowledge: from the know- age most of their own economic, social and how that fueled industrial development, cultural processes within their territories, the embodied by the factories and furnaces that solution of valuing each independent culture, were “as resistant as the material that they with its own knowledges, remained quite produced: steel” (according to a piece pub- sound. The globalization, however, of eco- lished about the Forum in 2007), we move nomic exchange, migration, information and on to the symbolic reclamation of the empty entertainment media, ecological conditions buildings converted into the Steel Museum and sociocultural development has created (“Museo del Acero”), planetarium and art the need for a conception that acknowledges exhibition centers. The Forum’s conferences the differences along with the inequalities. and round tables were focuses for debates The distances between societies founded and discussion on the contribution made by upon different forms of knowledge are not new knowledge toward cultural diversity and solely a consequence of different paths of “sustainable” development based more on cultural development, but also of asymmet- information than on material production. Is ric, disparate relationships. this true conversion or a euphemization? The evolutionist substitution of traditional To respond to that question, it may be helpful knowledge for the sciences is no longer satis- to link these urban transformations with the factory, nor is the separate recognition of the doubts as to which qualifier—information or basic legitimacy of all forms of knowledge. knowledge—we should apply in reference to The challenge is to find out how multicul- present-day society. In Monterrey and other tural knowledge building is carried out in the forums, there has been an insistence on link- present era and to identify the intercultural ing cultural diversity to the movements sup- dilemmas in that context. The formidable posedly making the greatest strides in West- increase of knowledge can indeed commu- ern-based technological knowledge. But is it nicate (which is not synonymous with “in- valid to generalize the concept of the knowl- form”) if used to build new forms of “cultural edge society worldwide? coexistence” (Wolton, 2003: 12).

Looking at this debate from an anthropo- From this standpoint, the overall situation logical perspective reveals the difficulties in- of urban development represents a more volved with extending this formula to include complex issue than that conceived by his- the thousands of ethnic groups and dozens tory’s “progressive” teleologies or by cultural of nations in which the prevailing knowl- relativism. The burgeoning modernization of edges follow neither the cognitive strategies rapidly developing Asian countries, such as of the Western world nor those of modern China, India and Japan, has moved the de- sciences. Consistent with anthropological sign of some cities toward Western urban- research, and its diversified conceptualiza- ism, though without shedding their historical tion of the ways of producing and transmit- heritage. As such, in Latin American socie- ting knowledge, all societies, in all eras, have ties with large indigenous populations, tra- been knowledge societies, meaning that all ditional medicine, artisan practices and na- human groups have had a set of knowledges tive forms of organizing knowledge coexist appropriate to their context and their his- with the sciences. Despite the tremendous torical challenges. The consequent question- inequality between scientific and traditional ing arising from pretensions of European or knowledge, and the evolutionist tendencies Western superiority led to cultural relativism. that often discredit indigenous cultures, au- It was an attempt to resolve inequalities by tochthonous knowledges continue to be Communications, Knowledge and the City: An Intercultural Debate 147 broadly used as resources for healthcare, pation, while decision-making will become bilingual education, and rural and urban decentralized. practices (notably, in Bolivia, Guatemala and Mexico). Considering all of that, how, then, can we explain the erosion of social and political life in Added to these changes is the vast spread- cities, even in those considered to be highly ing of traditional, non-Western knowledges developed technologically? The conception in Europe and the United States, as well as of a knowledge society, in contrast, enables in both urban and rural areas of Asia and one to perceive and explain differences, in- Latin America, developed with a modern equalities and contradictions that make oth- slant. It no longer seems contradictory that er social dynamics surface. In that respect, modern communication resources such as the sociology of education has been able to television or the Internet are contributing to show that there is no “systemic simultaneity” the expansion of traditional medicines, or between all dimensions of development, be- that indigenous groups use computer pro- cause the pupils are not all the same: they do grams to record and give continuity to their not have the same exact learning opportuni- myths and views of the world. There is an ties, nor are they interested in the same sub- interaction, at times cooperative and other jects. A homogeneous education based on times conflictive, between different forms of universal, standardized information creates knowledge: old and modern, traditional and neither more parity nor participative democ- scientific. ratization. If we pay attention to the various forms of social belonging and cohesion, we In light of this complex coexistence of hear a multiplicity of demands. This calls for knowledges, ways of life and communica- “group-specific program adaptations” (for tion, we can reconsider whether it is more instance, bilingual offerings in multicultural appropriate to talk about the information so- areas), “curricular relevance in accordance ciety or the knowledge society. Information with the school’s demographics, and the allo- society refers to a set of technological and cation of special funds for areas with greater social information processes that organize social vulnerability and economic instabil- the systematic use and digital processing of ity” (Hopenhayn, 2002: 315-316). information in order to restructure production processes, and thereby reduce the cost Reducing knowledge to information leads us, of production and exponentially increase the at this new stage, back to the same problems capacity for amassing wealth. Thus, achiev- criticized in the enlightenment paradigm: in ing a more balanced social and cultural de- other words, seeing education as the imposi- velopment throughout the world would de- tion of a type of rationality that would ensure pend upon countries joining the digital and a priori the production and transmission of information revolution, every sector of every universal and true knowledge. The inequality society gaining access to “smart jobs” by hav- within each country and each city in terms of ing the new skills and being connected with accessing both the knowledge and job mar- the networks that provide strategic informa- kets—even for those possessing new knowl- tion. It is assumed that increasingly techno- edge and skills—makes it clear that there are logical productivity, the growth of the mar- other variables in play that were not taken kets and their transnational integration will into account in the enlightenment or techno- yield greater economic benefits. As direct, si- cratic models. The variety of identitary com- multaneous access to cutting-edge informa- mitments, of symbolizations of social mean- tion becomes a reality, education will at the ing, show that the knowledge necessary for same time become democratized and gen- occupying a significant place in the world eral welfare improved. In the political realm, must be obtained both from globalized tech- there will be more opportunities for partici- nology networks and by the transmission and 148 Education: The Present Is the Future reshaping of the historical heritage of each and communications. Audiovisual and elec- society. tronic resources, once seen as threatening homogenizers, are giving rise to forms of both multiculturalism and interculturalism The Intercultural City by forcing interaction—in disparate conditions—between print, audiovisual and digital Can a city help educate in a way that en- cultures. Side by side in cities, we see book- courages cultural development that is at stores, theaters, cinemas, record and video once technologically advanced and socially stores, videogame shops and—particularly integrative? Unlike before, the question now in countries with lower economic levels— goes beyond just the city’s ability to renew Internet cafés, where access to digital net- its infrastructures by incorporating scientific works is democratized. Even in monolingual and technological innovations and attract- societies, different methods for accessing in- ing the capital that drives the most advanced formation via books or video screens, or get- forms of production. It also entails combin- ting to know different kinds of music through ing historical and territorial knowledge with concerts, bootleg videos and records, free recent communications technology, and per- downloads or electronic exchanges, are haps with what remains from past periods of gradually creating differences and distances urban and industrial development. between groups and generations. The notion of urban public space—which continues to When we talk about multiculturalism, we cause rifts among neighborhoods of greater are no longer referring solely to the coexist- or lesser stature, among areas with better ence of ethnic groups, languages and forms or worse infrastructures—becomes further of knowing and imagining things—as was, complicated by the virtual prolongations of and continues to be, the case in different other forms of communication, cohabitation geographic regions of a nation—but also to or segregation. the question of proximity and interculturalism within a given city: Christians, Muslims A few years ago, with the new century just and nonbelievers living side by side in New barely underway, I watched with amazement York, London, Berlin, Paris and many other as a GPS device accurately guided the car cities in Europe, the US, Latin America and taking me from San Gimignano to Siena, both Asia. In megalopolises, as well as in hun- along the highway and through the winding dreds of medium-sized and small cities, we streets of the medieval city. The electronic, see the temples of different religious denomi- digital and information innovations brought nations being built, the fusion of music from to us by the so-called knowledge society diverse cultures and eras, architectures and are opening up significant new pathways to ways of using the city rooted in differing ur- knowledge and encouraging reflection on ban conceptions. We are getting away from society’s uses, history and potential. They the homogenizing models, and also from the combine the traditional, the modern and the fantasy—spatially reproduced in American hypermodern. But that is not enough when cities—that segregating people into different it comes to developing adequate approaches neighborhoods would ensure conflict-free to managing the many forms of knowing and multiculturalism between African Americans, representing the social aspect. Building a city, Latin Americans, Anglo-Saxons and Asians. educating in and with the city, in this day and age requires an organization of spaces and Along with trying to manage the historical circuits that is not limited to the school and forms of diversity (ethnic, national) coexist- other institutions traditionally in charge of ing within a city, additional difficulties are this task. We are just starting to get a glimpse brought on by developments in technology of what it means to build a knowledge city. Communications, Knowledge and the City: An Intercultural Debate 149

Bibliography KEANE, JOHN. “Structural Transformations of the Public Sphere.” In The Communica- CASTELLS, MANUEL. La ciudad informacional tion Review, 1 (1) (San Diego, California, (Madrid: Alianza, 1995). 1995).

GARCÍA CANCLINI, NÉSTOR (coord.) “Las cuatro KOOLHAAS, REM, “Junk-space”; October, issue ciudades de México,” Cultura y comu- no. 100, spring 2002. nicación en la ciudad de México, vol. 1 (Mexico, D.F.: Grijalbo, Universidad Au- MARTÍN-BARBERO, JESÚS. De los medios a las tónoma Metropolitana, 1998). mediaciones (Mexico, D.F.: Gustavo Gili, 1987). DAVIS, MIKE, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster (New York: ORTIZ, RENATO. A moderna tradição brasileira. Metropolitan Books, 1998). Cultura brasileira e indústria cultural (São Paulo: Editora Brasilense, 1988). HOPENHAYN, MARTÍN. “Educación y cultura en Iberoamérica: situación, cruces y WINOCUR, ROSALÍA. Ciudadanos mediáticos. perspectivas”; in Néstor García Canclini La construcción de lo público en la radio (comp.) Culturas de Iberoamérica. Diag- (Buenos Aires – Barcelona – Mexico: Ge- nóstico y propuestas para su desarrollo disa, 2002). (Madrid: Santillana, 2005). WOLTON, DOMINIQUE. L’autre mondialisation (Paris: Flammarion, 2003). Drift1

Richard Sennett

Richard Sennett (Chicago, USA, 1941) is Professor of Sociology at the LSE and Bemis Professor of Social Sciences at MIT. In the school, he teaches in the Cities Program and trains doctoral students in the sociology of culture. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Society of the Arts, and the Academia Europea. He is past president of the American Council on Work and the former Director of the New York Institute for the Humanities.

His three most recent books are studies of modern capitalism: The Culture of the New Capitalism, (Yale, 2006), Respect in an Age of Inequality, (Penguin, 2003) and The Corrosion of Character. The Per- sonal Consequances of Work in the New Capitalism (Norton 1998). His last book is already in the libraries: The Craftsman (Allen Lane, 2008). Professor Sennett has been awarded the Amalfi and the Ebert prizes for sociology.

1 Sennett, Richard: “Drift” in The Corrosion of Character. The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. (New York, W.W. Norton, 1998), pp. 15-31. Drift

Recently I met someone in an airport whom ranch house. Finally, the time they lived was I hadn’t seen for fifteen years. I had inter- predictable. The upheavals of the Great De- viewed the father of Rico (as I shall call him) pression and World War II had faded, unions a quarter century ago when I wrote a book protected their jobs; though he was only forty about blue-collar workers in America, The when I first met him, Enrico knew precisely Hidden Injuries of Class. Enrico, his father, when he would retire and how much money then worked as a janitor, and had high hopes he would have. for this boy, who was just entering adoles- cence, a bright kid good at sports. When I Time is the only resource freely available to lost touch with his father a decade later, those at the bottom of society. To make time Rico had just finished college. In the airline accumulate, Enrico needed what the soci- lounge, Rico looked as if he had fulfilled his ologist Max Weber called an “iron cage,” a father’s dreams. He carried a computer in a bureaucratic structure which rationalized the smart leather case, dressed in a suit I couldn’t use of time; in Enrico’s case, the seniority afford, and sported a signet ring with a crest. rules of his union about pay and the regulations organizing his government pension Enrico had spent twenty years by the time we provided this scaffolding. When he added to first met cleaning toilets and mopping floors these resources his own self-discipline, the in a downtown office building. He did so result was more than economic. without complaining, but also without any hype about living out the American Dream. He carved out a clear story for himself in His work had one single and durable pur- which his experience accumulated materi- pose, the service of his family. It had taken ally and psychically; his life thus made sense him fifteen years to save the money for a to him as a linear narrative. Though a snob house, which he purchased in a suburb near might dismiss Enrico as boring, he experi- Boston, cutting ties with his old Italian neigh- enced the years as a dramatic story moving borhood because a house in the suburbs was forward repair by repair, interest payment by better for the kids. Then his wife, Flavia, had interest payment. The janitor felt he became gone to work, as a presser in a dry-cleaning the author of his life, and though he was a plant; by the time I met Enrico in 1970, both man low on the social scale, this narrative parents were saving for the college educa- provided him a sense of self-respect. tion of their two sons. Though clear, Enrico’s life story was not sim- What had most struck me about Enrico and ple. I was particularly struck by how Enrico his generation was how linear time was in straddled the worlds of his old immigrant their lives: year after year of working in jobs community and his new suburban-neutral which seldom varied from day to day. And life. Among his suburban neighbors he lived along that line of time, achievement was cu- as a quiet, self-effacing citizen; when he re- mulative: Enrico and Flavia checked the in- turned to the old neighborhood, however, crease in their savings every week, measured he received much more attention as a man their domesticity by the various improve- who had made good on the outside, a wor- ments and additions they had made to their thy elder who returned each Sunday for Mass 154 Education: The Present Is the Future followed by lunch followed by gossipy cof- derstand him” in harder tones, as though the fees. He got recognition as a distinctive hu- kids had abandoned them. We all violate in man being from those who knew him long some way the place assigned us in the family enough to understand his story; he got a myth, but upward mobility gives that passage more anonymous kind of respect from his a peculiar twist. Rico and other youngsters new neighbors by doing what everyone else headed up the social ladder sometimes be- did, keeping his home and garden neat, liv- trayed shame about their parents’ working- ing without incident. The thick texture of class accents and rough manners, but more Enrico’s particular experience lay in the fact often felt suffocated by the endless strategiz- that he was acknowledged in both ways, de- ing over pennies and the reckoning of time in pending in which community he moved: two tiny steps. These favored children wanted to identities from the same disciplined use of embark on a less constrained journey. his time. Now, many years later, thanks to the en- If the world were a happy and just place, counter at the airport, I had the chance to those who enjoy respect would give back in see how it had turned out for Enrico’s son. equal measure the regard which has been ac- In the airport lounge, I must confess, I didn’t corded them. This was Fichte’s idea in “The much like what I saw. Rico’s expensive suit Foundations of National Law”; he spoke of could have been just business plumage, but the “reciprocal effect” of recognition. But the crested signet ring—a mark of elite fam- real life does not proceed so generously. ily background—seemed both a lie and a be- trayal of the father. However, circumstances Enrico disliked blacks, although he had la- threw Rico and me together on a long flight. bored peaceably for many years with other He and I did not have one of those American janitors who were black; he disliked non- journeys in which a stranger spills out his or Italian foreigners like the Irish, although his her emotional guts to you, gathers more tan- own father could barely speak English. He gible baggage when the plane lands, and dis- could not acknowledge kindred straggles; he appears forever. I took the seat next to Rico had no class allies. Most of all, however, En- without being asked, and for the first hour of rico disliked middle-class people. We treated a long flight from New York to Vienna had to him as though he were invisible, “as a zero,” pry information out of him. he said; the janitor’s resentment was complicated by his fear that because of his lack RICO, I LEARNED, has fulfilled his father’s of education and his menial status, we had desire for upward mobility, but has indeed a sneaking right to do so. To his powers of rejected the way of his father. Rico scorns endurance in time he contrasted the whin- “time-servers” and others wrapped in the ing self-pity of blacks, the unfair intrusion of armor of bureaucracy; instead he believes foreigners, and the unearned privileges of the in being open to change and in taking risks. bourgeoisie. And he has prospered; whereas Enrico had an income in the bottom quarter of the wage Though Enrico felt he had achieved a meas- scale, Rico’s has shot up to the top 5 per- ure of social honor, he hardly wanted his son cent. Yet this is not an entirely happy story Rico to repeat his own life. The American for Rico. dream of upward mobility for the children powerfully drove my friend. “I don’t under- After graduating from a local university in stand a word he says,” Enrico boasted to me electrical engineering, Rico went to a busi- several times when Rico had come home ness school in New York. There he married from school and was at work on math. I a fellow student, a young Protestant woman heard many other parents of sons and daugh- from a better family. School prepared the ters like Rico say something like “I don’t un- young couple to move and change jobs fre- Drift 155 quently, and they’ve done so. Since gradu- subservient to the schedules of people who ation, in fourteen years at work Rico has are in no way obliged to respond to him. Like moved four times. other consultants, he wants to work in accordance with contracts setting out just what Rico began as a technology adviser to a ven- the consultant will do. But these contracts, he ture capital firm on the West Coast, in the says, are largely fictions. A consultant usually early, heady days of the developing compu- has to tack one way and another in response ter industry in Silicon Valley; he then moved to the changing whims or thoughts of those to Chicago, where he also did well. But the who pay; Rico has no fixed role that allows next move was for the sake of his wife’s ca- him to say to others, “This is what I do, this is reer. If Rico were an ambition-driven char- what I am responsible for.” acter out of the pages of Balzac, he would never have done it, for he gained no larger Jeannette’s lack of control is more subtle. The salary, and he left hotbeds of high-tech ac- small group of accountants she now manages tivity for a more retired, if leafy, office park is divided among people who work at home, in Missouri. Enrico felt somewhat ashamed people usually in the office, and a phalanx of when Flavia went to work; Rico sees Jean- low-level back-office clerks a thousand miles nette, his wife, as an equal working partner, away connected to her by computer cable. In and has adapted to her. It was at this point, her present corporation, strict rules and sur- when Jeannette’s career took off, that their veillance of phones and e-mail disciplines children began arriving. the conduct of the accountants who work from home; to organize the work of the back- In the Missouri office park, the uncertain- office clerks a thousand miles away, she can’t ties of the new economy caught up with the make hands-on, face-to-face judgments, but young man. While Jeannette was promoted, instead must work by formal written guide- Rico was downsized—his firm was absorbed lines. She hasn’t experienced less bureauc- by another, larger firm that had its own anal- racy in this seemingly flexible work arrange- ysts. So the couple made a fourth move, back ment; indeed, her own decisions count for East to a suburb outside New York. Jeannette less than in the days when she supervised now manages a big team of accountants, and workers who were grouped together, all the he has started a small consulting firm. time, in the same office.

Prosperous as they are, the very acme of an As I say, at first I was not prepared to shed adaptable, mutually supportive couple, both many tears for this American Dream couple. husband and wife often fear they are on the Yet as dinner was served to Rico and me on edge of losing control over their lives. This our flight, and he began to talk more- per fear is built into their work histories. sonally, my sympathies increased. His fear of losing control, it developed, went much In Rico’s case, the fear of lacking control is deeper than worry about losing power in his straightforward: it concerns managing time. job. He feared that the actions he needs to When Rico told his peers he was going to take and the way he has to live in order to start his own consulting firm, most approved; survive in the modern economy have set his consulting seems the road to independ- emotional, inner life adrift. ence. But in getting started he found himself plunged into many menial tasks, like doing Rico told me that he and Jeannette have his own photocopying, which before he’d made friends mostly with the people they see taken for granted. He found himself plunged at work, and have lost many of these friend- into the sheer flux of networking; every call ships during the moves of the last twelve had to be answered, the slightest acquaint- years, “though we stay `netted.’” Rico looks ance pursued. To find work, he has fallen to electronic communications for the sense 156 Education: The Present Is the Future of community which Enrico most enjoyed your family you can.” Though he warmed to when he attended meetings of the janitors’ this, I had misunderstood. union, but the son finds communications on-line short and hurried. “It’s like with your As a boy, I already knew, Rico had chafed kids—when you’re not there, all you get is under Enrico’s authority; he had told me then news later.” he felt smothered by the small-minded rules which governed the janitor’s life. Now that In each of his four moves, Rico’s new neigh- he is a father himself, the fear of a lack of bors have treated his advent as an arrival ethical discipline haunts him, particularly the which closes past chapters of his life; they fear that his children will become “mall rats,” ask him about Silicon Valley or the Missouri hanging out aimlessly in the parking lots of office park, but, Rico says, “they don’t see shopping centers in the afternoons while the other places”; their imaginations are not en- parents remain out of touch at their offices. gaged. This is a very American fear. The classic American suburb was a bedroom com- He therefore wants to set for his son and munity; in the last generation a different kind daughters an example of resolution and pur- of suburb has arisen, more economically in- pose, “but you can’t just tell kids to be like dependent of the urban core, but not really that”; he has to set an example. The objective town or village either; a place springs into example he could set, his upward mobility, life with the wave of a developer’s wand, is something they take for granted, a history flourishes, and begins to decay all within a that belongs to a past not their own, a story generation. Such communities are not empty which is over. But his deepest worry is that of sociability or neighborliness, but no one he cannot offer the substance of his work life in them becomes a long-term witness to an- as an example to his children of how they other person’s life. should conduct themselves ethically. The qualities of good work are not the qualities The fugitive quality of friendship and local of good character. community form the background to the most important of Rico’s inner worries, his family. AS I CAME LATER TO UNDERSTAND, the Like Enrico, Rico views work as his service gravity of this fear comes from a gap separat- to the family; unlike Enrico, Rico finds that ing Enrico and Rico’s generations. Business the demands of the job interfere with achiev- leaders and journalists emphasize the global ing the end. At first I thought he was talking marketplace and the use of new technolo- about the all too familiar conflict between gies as the hallmarks of the capitalism of our work time and time for family. “We get home time. This is true enough, but misses another at seven, do dinner, try to find an hour for dimension of change: new ways of organiz- the kids’ homework, and then deal with our ing time, particularly working time. own paperwork.” When things get tough for months at a time in his consulting firm, “it’s The most tangible sign of that change might like I don’t know who my kids are.” He wor- be the motto “No long term.” In work, the ries about the frequent anarchy into which traditional career progressing step by step his family plunges, and about neglecting his through the corridors of one or two institu- children, whose needs can’t be programmed tions is withering; so is the deployment of to fit into the demands of his job. a single set of skills through the course of a working life. Today, a young American with Hearing this, I tried to reassure him; my wife, at least two years of college can expect to stepson, and I had endured and survived well change jobs at least eleven times in the a similarly high-pressure life. “You aren’t be- course of working, and change his or her ing fair to yourself,” I said. “The fact you care skill base at least three times during those so much means you are doing the best for forty years of labor. Drift 157

An executive for ATT points out that the mot- cycle provided people little security. In En- to “No long term” is altering the very mean- rico’s generation after World War II, this dis- ing of work: order was brought somewhat under control in most advanced economies; strong unions, In ATT we have to promote the whole con- guarantees of the welfare state, and large- cept of the work force being contingent, scale corporations combined to produce an though most of the contingent workers are era of relative stability. This span of thirty or inside our walls. “Jobs” are being replaced so years defines the “stable past” now chal- by “projects” and “fields of work.”2 lenged by a new regime.

Corporations have also farmed out many of A change in modern institutional structure the tasks they once did permanently in-house has accompanied short-term, contract, or to small firms and to individuals employed episodic labor. Corporations have sought to on short-term contracts. The fastest-growing remove layers of bureaucracy, to become flat- sector of the American labor force, for inter and more flexible organizations. In place stance, is people who work for temporary of organizations as pyramids, management job agencies.3 wants now to think of organizations as networks. “Networklike arrangements are light- “People are hungry for [change],” the man- er on their feet” than pyramidal hierarchies, agement guru James Champy argues, be- the sociologist Walter Powell declares; “they cause “the market may be `consumer-driven’ are more readily decomposable or redefin- as never before in history.”4 The market, in able than the fixed assets of hierarchies.”5 this view, is too dynamic to permit doing This means that promotions and dismissals things the same way year after year, or doing tend not to be based on clear, fixed rules, nor the same thing. The economist Bennett Har- are work tasks crisply defined; the network is rison believes the source of this hunger for constantly redefining its structure. change is “impatient capital,” the desire for rapid return; for instance, the average length An IBM executive once told Powell that the of time stocks have been held on British and flexible corporation “must become an archi- American exchanges has dropped 60 percent pelago of related activities.”6 The archipelago in the last fifteen years. The market believes is an apt image for communications in a net- rapid market return is best generated by rapid work, communication occurring like travel institutional change. between islands—but at the speed of light, thanks to modern technologies. The compu- The “long-term” order at which the new re- ter has been the key to replacing the slow gime takes aim, it should be said, was itself and clogged communications which occur short-lived—the decades spanning the mid- in traditional chains of command. The fast- twentieth century. Nineteenth-century capi- est-growing sector of the labor force deals in talism lurched from disaster to disaster in computer and data-processing services, the the stock markets and in irrational corporate area in which Jeanette and Rico work; the investment; the wild swings of the business computer is now used in virtually all jobs,

2 Quoted in New York Times, Feb, 13,1996, p. DI, D6. 3 Corporations like Manpower firm grew 240 percent from 1985 to 1995. As I write, The Manpower firm, with 600,000 people on its payroll compared with the 400,00 at General Motors and 350,000 at IBM is now the country’s largest employer. 4 James Champy, Re-engineering Management, (New York, Harper-Business), 1995, p. 119, pp. 39-40. 5 Walter Powell and Laurel Smith-Doerr, “Networks and Economic Life,” in Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg, eds., The Handbook of Economic Sociology, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 381. 6 Ibid. 158 Education: The Present Is the Future in many ways, by people of all ranks. (Please and partly that strong social ties like loyalty see Tables 1 and 7 in the Appendix for a sta- have ceased to be compelling.7 These weak tistical portrait.) ties are embodied in teamwork, in which the team moves from task to task and the person- For all these reasons, Enrico’s experience of nel of the team changes in the process. long-term, narrative time in fixed channels has become dysfunctional. What Rico sought Strong ties depend, by contrast, on long as- to explain to me—and perhaps to himself— sociation. And more personally they depend is that the material changes embodied in the on a willingness to make commitments to motto “No long term” have become dysfunc- others. Given the typically short, weak ties tional for him too, but as guides to personal in institutions today, John Kotter, a Harvard character, particularly in relation to his fam- Business School professor, counsels the ily life. young to work “on the outside rather than on the inside” of organizations. He advocates Take the matter of commitment and loyalty. consulting rather than becoming “entangled” “No long term” is a principle which corrodes in long-term employment; institutional loyal- trust, loyalty, and mutual commitment. Trust ty is a trap in an economy where “business can, of course, be a purely formal matter, as concepts, product designs, competitor intel- when people agree to a business deal or rely ligence, capital equipment, and all kinds of on another to observe the rules in a game. knowledge have shorter credible life spans.”8 But usually deeper experiences of trust are A consultant who managed a recent IBM job more informal, as when people learn on shrinkage declares that once employees “un- whom they can rely when given a difficult or derstand [they can’t depend on the corpora- impossible task. Such social bonds take time tion] they’re marketable.”9 Detachment and to develop, slowly rooting into the cracks superficial cooperativeness are better armor and crevices of institutions. for dealing with current realities than behavior based on values of loyalty and service. The short time frame of modern institutions limits the ripening of informal trust. A par- It is the time dimension of the new capitalism, ticularly egregious violation of mutual com- rather than high-tech data transmission, glob- mitment often occurs when new enterprises al stock markets, or free trade, which most are first sold. In firms starting up, long hours directly affects people’s emotional lives out- and intense effort are demanded of everyone; side the workplace. Transposed to the family when the firms go public—that is, initially of- realm, “No long term” means keep moving, fer publicly traded shares—the founders are don’t commit yourself, and don’t sacrifice. apt to sell out and cash in, leaving lower- Rico suddenly erupted on the plane, “You level employees behind. If an organization can’t imagine how stupid I feel when I talk to whether new or old operates as a flexible, my kids about commitment. It’s an abstract loose network structure rather than by rigid virtue to them; they don’t see it anywhere.” command from the top, the network can Over dinner I simply didn’t understand the also weaken social bonds. The sociologist outburst, which seemed apropos of noth- Mark Granovetter says that modern institu- ing. But his meaning is now clearer to me tional networks are marked by “the strength as a reflection upon himself. He means the of weak ties,” by which he partly means that children don’t see commitment practiced fleeting forms of association are more use- in the lives of their parents or their parents’ ful to people than long-term connections, generation.

7 Mark Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” American Journal of Sociology 78, (1973), pp. 1360-1380. 8 John Kotter, The New Rules, (New York: Dutton, 1995), pp. 81, 159. 9 Anthony Sampson, Company Man, (New York: Random House, 1995), pp. 226-227. Drift 159

Similarly, Rico hates the emphasis on team- phasize instead formal obligation, trustwor- work and open discussion which marks an thiness, commitment, and purpose. These are enlightened, flexible workplace once those all long-term virtues. values are transposed to the intimate realm. Practiced at home, teamwork is destructive, This conflict between family and work poses marking an absence of authority and of firm some questions about adult experience itself. guidance in raising children. He and Jean- How can long-term purposes be pursued in nette, he says, have seen too many parents a short-term society? How can durable social who have talked every family issue to death relations be sustained? How can a human for fear of saying “No!,” parents who listen being develop a narrative of identity and life too well, who understand beautifully rather history in a society composed of episodes and than lay down the law; they have seen as a fragments? The conditions of the new eco- result too many disoriented kids. nomy feed instead on experience which drifts in time, from place to place, from job to job. “Things have to hold together,” Rico declared If I could state Rico’s dilemma more largely, to me. Again, I didn’t at first quite get this, short-term capitalism threatens to corrode and he explained what he meant in terms of his character, particularly those qualities of watching television. Perhaps unusually, Rico character which bind human beings to one and Jeannette make it a practice to discuss another and furnishes each with a sense of with their two sons the relation between mov- sustainable self. ies or sitcoms the boys watch on the tube and events in the newspapers. “Otherwise it’s just BY THE END OF DINNER, both of us were a jumble of images.” But mostly the connec- wrapped in our own thoughts. I had imag- tions concern the violence and sexuality the ined a quarter century ago that late capital- children see on television. Enrico constantly ism had achieved something like a final con- spoke in little parables to drive home ques- summation; whether there was more market tions of character; these parables he derived freedom, less government control, still the from his work as a janitor—such as “You can “system” entered into people’s everyday ex- ignore dirt but it won’t go away.” When I first perience as it always had, through success knew Rico as an adolescent, he reacted with and failure, domination and submission, a certain shame to these homely snippets of alienation and consumption. Questions of wisdom. So now I asked Rico if he too made culture and character fell for me into these parables or even just drew ethical rules from familiar categories. But no young person’s his experience at work. He first ducked an- experience today could be captured by these swering directly—”There’s not much on TV old habits of thought. about that sort of thing”—then replied, “And well, no, I don’t talk that way.” Rico’s talk about his family had also set him, evidently, to thinking about his ethical val- Behavior which earns success or even just ues. When we retired to the back of the cabin survival at work thus gives Rico little to of- to smoke, he remarked to me that he used to fer in the way of a parental role model. In be a liberal, in the generous American sense fact, for this modern couple, the problem is of caring about the poor and behaving well just the reverse: how can they protect family to minorities like blacks and homosexuals. relations from succumbing to the short-term Enrico’s intolerance of blacks and foreigners behavior, the meeting mind-set, and above shamed his son. Since going to work, though, all the weakness of loyalty and commitment Rico says he has become a “cultural conserv- which mark the modern workplace? In place ative.” Like most of his peers, he loathes so- of the chameleon values of the new econo- cial parasites, embodied for him in the figure my, the family—as Rico sees it—should em- of the welfare mother who spends her gov- 160 Education: The Present Is the Future ernment checks on booze and drugs. He has All the specific values he cited are fixed rules: also become a believer in fixed, Draconian a parent says no; a community demands standards of communal behavior, as opposed work; dependence is an evil. The vagaries of to those values of “liberal parenting” which circumstance are excluded from these ethical parallel the open-ended meeting at work. As rules—random vagaries are what, after all, an example of this communal ideal Rico told Rico wants to defend against. But it’s difficult me that he approves the proposal current in to put such timeless rules into practice. some conservative circles to take away the children of bad parents and put them in or- That difficulty appears in the language Rico phanages. uses to describe his moves the last fourteen years around the country. Though many of My hackles rose and we debated furiously, these moves have not been of his own de- smoke rising above us in a cloud. We were siring, he seldom used the passive voice in talking past each other. (And as I look over my recounting the events. For instance, he dis- notes, I see Rico also a bit enjoyed provoking likes the locution “I was downsized”; in- me.) He knows his cultural conservatism is stead, when this event broke up his life in the just that—an idealized symbolic community. Missouri office park, he declared, “I faced a He has no real expectation of shutting chil- crisis and I had a decision to make.” About dren up in orphanages. He has certainly had this crisis he said, “I make my own choices; I little adult experience of the conservatism take full responsibility for moving around so which preserves the past; for instance, other much.” This sounded like his father. “Taking Americans have treated him each time he responsibility for yourself” was the most im- has moved as though life is just beginning, portant phrase in Enrico’s lexicon. But Rico the past consigned to oblivion. The cultural didn’t see how to act on it. conservatism to which he subscribes forms a testament to the coherence he feels missing I asked Rico, “When you were downsized in in his life. Missouri, why didn’t you protest, why didn’t you fight back?” And as concerns the family, his values are no simple matter of nostalgia. Rico in fact dis- “Sure, I felt angry, but that doesn’t do any liked the actual experience of rigid parental good. There was nothing unfair about the rule such as he suffered at Enrico’s hands. He corporation’s making its operation tighter. would not return to the linear time which or- Whatever happened, I had to deal with the dered Enrico and Flavia’s existence even if he consequences. Would I ask Jeannette to could; he looked at me with a certain disgust move, one more time, for me? It was bad for when I told him that as a college professor, I the kids as well as her. Should I ask her? Who have job tenure for life. He treats uncertainty should I write a letter to about that?” and risk-taking as challenges at work; as a consultant he has learned to be an adept There was no action he could take. Even so, team player. he feels responsible for this event beyond his control; he literally takes it into himself, as But these forms of flexible behavior have not his own burden. But what does “taking reserved Rico in his roles as a father or as a sponsibility” mean? His children accept mo- member of a community; he wants to sustain bility as just the way of the world; his wife social relations and to offer durable guid- is in fact grateful that he has been willing to ance. It is against the severed ties at work, move for her sake. Yet the statement “I take willful amnesia of his neighbors, and the responsibility for moving around so much” specter of his children as mall rats that he issues from Rico as a defiant challenge. By asserts the idea of lasting values. And so Rico this point in our journey, I understood that has become caught in a trap. the last thing I should reply to this challenge

Drift 161 was “How could you hold yourself account- things happen, showing their consequences. able?” It would have been a reasonable ques- Enrico had a narrative for his life, linear and tion and an insult—you don’t really matter. cumulative, a narrative which made sense in a highly bureaucratic world. Rico lives in a Enrico had a somewhat fatalistic, old-world world marked instead by short-term flexibil- sense of people being born into a particular ity and flux; this world does not offer much, class or condition of life and making the either economically or socially, in the way of very best of what is possible within those narrative. Corporations break up or join to- constraints. Events beyond his control, like gether, jobs appear and disappear, as events layoffs, happened to him; then he coped. As lacking connections. Creative destruction, this bit of sparring I’ve just quoted may make Schumpeter said, thinking about entrepre- clear, Rico’s sense of responsibility is more neurs, requires people at ease about not absolute. What he draws attention to is his reckoning the consequences of change, or unbending willingness to be held account- not knowing what comes next. Most people, able, to that quality of character, rather than though, are not at ease with change in this to a particular course of action. Flexibility nonchalant, negligent way. has pushed him to assert the sheer strength of will as the essence of his own ethical char- Certainly Rico doesn’t want to live as a Schum- acter. peterian man, though in the brute struggle for survival he has done well. “Change” means Assuming responsibility for events beyond just drift; Rico worries that his children will one’s control may seem a familiar friend— drift ethically and emotionally—but as with guilt—but this would wrongly characterize his employers, there is nothing like a letter Rico, at least as he appeared to me. He is not he can write to his children which will guide self-indulgently self-accusing. Nor has he lost them through time. The lessons he wants his nerve, faced with a society which seems to teach them are as timeless as is his own to him all in fragments. The rules he flames sense of determination—which means his for what a person of good character should ethical precepts apply to any and all cases. do may seem simplistic or childish, but again Change’s confusions and anxieties have bred this would be to judge him wrongly. He is in in him this swing to the opposite extreme; a way a realist; it would indeed have been perhaps this is why he cannot hold up his meaningless for him to write a letter to his own life as an illustrative tale to his children, employers about the havoc they had intro- perhaps why, in listening to him, one has no duced into his family. So Rico focuses on his sense of his character unfolding, or his ideals own sheer determination to resist: he will not evolving. drift. He wants to resist particularly the acid erosion of those qualities of character, like I’VE DESCRIBED THIS ENCOUNTER BE- loyalty, commitment, purpose, and resolu- CAUSE Rico’s experiences with time, place, tion, which are long-term in nature. He af- and work are not unique; neither is his emo- firms timeless values which characterize who tional response. The conditions of time in he is—for good, permanently, essentially. His the new capitalism have created a conflict will has become static; he is trapped in the between character and experience, the ex- sheer assertion of values. perience of disjointed time threatening the ability of people to form their characters into What is missing between the polar opposites sustained narratives. of drifting experience and static assertion is a narrative which could organize his conduct. At the end of the fifteenth century, the poet Narratives are more than simple chronicles Thomas Hoccleve declared in The Regi- of events; they give shape to the forward ment of Princes, “Alias, wher ys this worldes movement of time, suggesting reasons why stabylnesse?”—a lament that appears equal- 162 Education: The Present Is the Future ly in Homer or in Jeremiah in the Old Tes- bility is meant to be normal, Schumpeter’s tament10. Through most of human history, entrepreneur served up as an ideal Every- people have accepted the fact that their lives man. Perhaps the corroding of character is will shift suddenly due to wars, famines, or an inevitable consequence. “No long term” other disasters, and that they will have to disorients action over the long term, loosens improvise in order to survive. Our parents bonds of trust and commitment, and divorces and grandparents were filled with anxiety in will from behavior. 1940, having endured the wreckage of the Great Depression and facing the looming I think Rico knows he is both a successful prospect of a world war. and a confused man. The flexible behavior which has brought him success is weakening What’s peculiar about uncertainty today is his own character in ways for which there ex- that it exists without any looming historical ists no practical remedy. If he is an Everyman disaster; instead it is woven into the every- for our times, his universality may lie in that day practices of a vigorous capitalism. Insta- dilemma.

10 Quoted in Ray Pahl, After Success: Fin de Siecle Anxiety and Identity,(Cambridge, U. K.: Polity Press, 1995), pp. 163-164. Drift 163

Appendix

Statistical tables

Table 1. Employment by selected industry with projections, 1979 to 2005

EMPLOYMENT ANNUAL GROWTH INDUSTRY (1,000) RATE 1992-2005 1979 1992 2005 (Proj.)* 1979-92 (Proj.)*

Manufacturing 21 040 18 040 17 523 -1,2 -0,2

Finance, insurance, 4 975 6 571 7 969 2,2 1,5 and real state Personal supply 508 1 649 2 581 9,5 3,5 services Computer and data 271 831 1 626 9,0 5,3 processing services

Federal government 2 773 2 969 2 815 0,5 -0,4

State and local 13 174 15 683 19 206 1,4 1,6 government

* Based on assumptions of moderate growth Data extracted from U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1995 (Washington, D.C., 1995), p 417. 164 Education: The Present Is the Future

Table 211. Workers using computers in white-collar work, 1993

TYPE OF APPLICATION* Category No using computers (1,000) Book keeping / Inventory Processing Word Communications / Analysis Spread-sheets Databases Desktop Publishing electrónica Sales and Telemarketing telemárketing

Sex

Male 24,414 41,1 45,2 39,4 35,2 25,3 18,1 40,7 Female 26,692 31,6 44,8 38,1 33,8 19,6 14,5 47,8

Race / Ethnicity

White 43,020 37,2 45,8 39,3 35,2 23,0 16,7 45,9 Black 4,016 27,5 38,3 37,3 31,2 16,8 12,9 35,5 Hispanic 2,492 29,1 45,6 32,1 27,6 18,7 16,0 33,6 Other 1,578 39,7 39,4 37,2 33,5 22,6 10,2 44,5

Educational Attainment

Not a H/S graduate 1,190 19,1 54,4 20,4 22,2 9,9 20,6 16,0

H/S graduate 13,307 23,7 52,5 29,4 25,8 13,3 17,6 30,8

Some College 11,548 33,5 49,5 38,5 33,9 20,6 18,0 40,9

Associate Degree 5,274 37,5 47,0 39,7 34,7 21,7 14,9 41,6

Bachelor Degree 13,162 46,9 40,0 45,1 41,5 28,8 17,0 54,8

Master Degree 4,628 47,9 29,3 48,5 41,9 35,3 10,4 63,8

Ph.D or prof. Degree 1,999 42,8 27,9 45,9 39,2 28,3 5,2 66,5

*A person may be counted in more than one application Data extracted from U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1995 (Washington, D.C., 1995), p 430.

11 Table 7 in the original publication

The Library as City-State

Alberto Manguel

Alberto Manguel (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1948) is a writer of Ca- nadian and Argentine nationality now living in France. He is known for his essays and reviews on the literary and cultural world and for his columns published in various newspapers around the world (Le Monde, El País, The Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, etc.). Recipient of an honorary doctorate degree from the Univer- sité de Liège in 2007, Manguel has also won an array of awards, including the Premio Grinzane Cavour, the Prix Roger Caillois and Canada’s McKitterick Prize. Over the course of his career, he has written many books of essays and fiction, including: Dictionary of Imaginary Places (Harcourt, 2000), A History of Reading (Penguin, 1997), Stevenson Under the Palm Trees (Canongate Books, 2005), A Reading Diary (Canongate Books, 2006) and The Library at Night (Yale University Press, 2008). The Library as City-State

My starting point is a question. this ghostly quality. The books in a library hold between their covers every story ever Outside theology and fantastic literature, few known; they fill the space around us with an- can doubt that the main features of our uni- cient and new voices. Lucan’s Caesar is told verse are its dearth of meaning and lack of dis- to walk carefully in the Trojan landscape lest cernible purpose. And yet, with bewildering he tread on ghosts. In the library, the ghosts optimism, we continue to assemble whatever can speak. “A big library,” mused Northrop scraps of information we can gather in scrolls Frye in one of his many notebooks, “really and books and computer chips, on shelf af- has the gift of tongues & vast potencies of ter library shelf, whether material, virtual or telepathic communication.” otherwise, pathetically intent on lending the world a semblance of sense and order, while But the love of libraries, like most loves, knowing perfectly well that, however much must be learned. No one stepping for the first we’d like to believe the contrary, our pursuits time into a space made of words can know are sadly doomed to failure. instinctively how to behave, what is expected, what is promised, what is allowed. This Why then do we do it? is true both of virtual libraries and libraries of stone and mortar. One may be overcome Libraries, whether private or shared with a by horror—at the clutter or the vastness, the greater reading public, have always, in spite stillness, the mocking reminder of everything of their appearance of order, seemed to me one doesn’t know, the surveillance—and pleasantly mad places, and for as long as I some of that overwhelming feeling may cling can remember I’ve been seduced by their on, even after the rituals and conventions are labyrinthine logic, which suggests that rea- learned, the geography mapped, the natives son (if not art) rules over a cacophonous found friendly, the laws of serendipity under- arrangement of books. I know that libraries stood. have always housed other objects as well, but it is the presence of words that affects A library is not only a place of both order and me above all. I feel an adventurous pleas- chaos; it is also the realm of chance. Every ure in losing myself among the crowded library has a certain haphazard, flea-market stacks, superstitiously confident that any quality. Books in a library come together be- established hierarchy of letters or numbers cause of the whims of a collector, the avatars will lead me one day to a promised destina- of a community, the passing of war and time, tion. In the first century a.d., in his book on because of neglect, care, the imponderability the Roman civil war that had taken place a of survival, the random culling of the rag-and- hundred years earlier, Lucan described Julius bone trade, and it may take centuries before Caesar wandering through the ruins of Troy their congregation acquires the identifiable and remarked how every cave and every bar- shape of a library. Because books, even after ren wood reminded his hero of the ancient they have been given a shelf and a number, Homeric stories. “A legend clings to every retain a mobility of their own. Left to their stone,” Lucan explained, describing Caesar’s own devices, they assemble in unexpected narrative-filled journey. Libraries partake of formations; they follow secret rules of simi- 168 Education: The Present Is the Future larity, unchronicled genealogies, common The story of Babel is told in the eleventh interests and themes. Stored in unattended chapter of Genesis. After the Flood, the peo- corners or on piles by our bedside, in cartons ple of the earth journeyed east to the land of or on shelves, waiting to be sorted and cata- Shi’nar, and there decided to build a city and logued on some future day many times post- a tower that would reach into the heavens. poned, scattered throughout the near infinity “And the Lord came down to see the city and of the Web, the texts preserved in our librar- the tower, which the children of men build- ies cluster around what Henry James called ed. And the Lord said, Behold, the people a “general intention” that often escapes read- is one, and they have all one language; and ers: “the string the pearls were strung on, the this they begin to do: and now nothing will buried treasure, the figure in the carpet.” Eve- be restrained from them, which they have ry library, as Dewey discovered, must have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and an order, and yet not every order is willed or there confound their language, that they may logically structured. There are libraries that not understand one another’s speech.” God, owe their creation to affectations of taste, to the legend tells us, invented the multiplic- casual offerings and encounters, to dreams ity of languages in order to prevent us from and wishful thinking. And yet, all libraries, working together, so we would not overreach however haphazard or strict, have in com- our powers. According to the Sanhedrin, the mon the explicit will to lend concord to our place where the tower once rose never lost knowledge and imagination, to group and to its peculiar quality and, even today, whoev- parcel information, to assemble in one place er passes it forgets all he knows. Years ago, our vicarious experience of the world, and I was shown a small hill of rubble outside to exclude many other readers’ experiences the walls of Babylon and told that this was through parsimony, ignorance, incapability all that remained of what had once been or fear. Babel.

And here I would like to pause and consider The Library of Alexandria was a learning these apparently contradictory qualities of centre set up by the Ptolemaic kings at the a library. So constant and far-reaching are end of the third century b.c. better to follow these attempts at inclusion and exclusion the teachings of Aristotle. According to the that they have their distinct literary emblems, Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the first two monuments that, it could be said, stand century b.c., the library may have contained for everything we are. The first, erected to the philosopher’s own books, left to one of reach the unreachable heavens, rose from his disciples, Theophrastus, who in turn be- our desire to conquer space, a desire pun- queathed them to another, Neleus of Scepsis, ished by the plurality of tongues that even to- who eventually became involved in the es- day lays daily obstacles against our attempts tablishment of the library. Up until the found- at making ourselves known to one another. ing of the Library of Alexandria, the libraries The second, built to assemble, from all over of the ancient world were either private col- the world, what those tongues had tried to lections of one man’s readings, or govern- record, sprang from our hope to vanquish ment storehouses where legal and literary time, and ended in a legendary fire that con- documents were kept for official reference. sumed even the present. The Tower of Babel The impulse for setting up these earlier librar- in space and the Library of Alexandria in ies was one less of curiosity than of safekeep- time are the twin symbols of these ambi- ing, and stemmed from the need for specific tions. In their shadow, my small library is a consultation rather than from the desire to reminder of both impossible yearnings—the be fantastically all-embracing. The Library of desire to contain all the tongues of Babel and Alexandria revealed a new imagination that the longing to possess all the volumes of Al- outdid all existing libraries in ambition and exandria. scope. The Library as City-State 169

A curious document from the second cen- the history of the world as the only place tury b.c., the perhaps apocryphal Letter of which, having set itself up to record every- Aristeas, records a story about the origins of thing, past and future, might also have fore- the Library of Alexandria that is emblematic seen and stored the chronicle of its own de- of its colossal dream. In order to assemble a struction and resurrection. universal library (says the letter), King Ptole- my I wrote “to all the sovereigns and gover- Divided into thematic areas by categories nors on earth” begging them to send to him devised by its librarians, the Library of Alex- every kind of book by every kind of author, andria became a multitude of libraries, each “poets and prose-writers, rhetoricians and insistent on one aspect of the world’s variety. sophists, doctors and soothsayers, historians, Here (the Alexandrians boasted) was a place and all others too.” The king’s scholars had where memory was kept alive, where every calculated that five hundred thousand scrolls written thought had its niche, where each would be required if they were to collect in reader could find his own itinerary traced Alexandria “all the books of all the peoples line after line in books perhaps yet unopened, of the world.” (Time magnifies our ambitions; where the universe itself found its worded rein 2005, the Library of Congress alone was flection. As a further measure to accomplish receiving twice that number of items a year, his ambition, King Ptolemy decreed that any from which it sparingly kept about four hun- book arriving in the port of Alexandria was dred thousand.) to be seized and copied, with the solemn promise that the original would be returned The Tower of Babel stood (while it stood) as (like so many solemn kingly promises, this proof of our belief in the unity of the universe. one was not always kept, and often it was According to the story, in the growing shad- the copy that was handed back). Because of ow of Babel humankind inhabited a world this despotic measure, the books assembled with no linguistic borders, believing heaven in the Library became known as “the ships’ to be as much within its rights as solid earth. collection.” The Library of Alexandria (on ground firmer perhaps than that of Babel) rose to prove the It is infuriating not to be able to tell what the contrary, that the universe was of a bewilder- Library of Alexandria looked like. With un- ing variety and that this variety possessed a derstandable hubris, every one of its chroni- secret order. The first reflected our intuition clers (all those whose testimony has reached of a single, continuous, monolingual divin- us) seems to have thought its description ity whose words were spoken by all from superfluous. The Greek geographer Strabo, earth to heaven; the second, the belief that a contemporary of Diodorus, described the each of the books made up of these words city of Alexandria in detail but, mysteriously, was its own complex cosmos, each presum- failed to mention the Library. “Why need I ing in its singularity to address the whole of even speak of it, since it is imperishably held creation. The Tower of Babel collapsed in the in the memory of all men?” wrote Athenaeus prehistory of storytelling; the Library of Alex- of Naucratis, barely a century and a half after andria rose when stories took on the shape of its destruction. The Library that wanted to be books, and strove to find a syntax that would the storehouse for the memory of the world lend each word, each tablet, each scroll its was not able to secure for us the memory of illuminating and necessary place. Indistinct, itself. All we know of it, all that remains of majestic, ever-present, the tacit architecture its vastness, its marbles and its scrolls, are its of that infinite Library continues to haunt our various raisons d’être. dreams of universal order. Nothing like it has ever again been achieved, though other li- One forceful reason was the Egyptian pursuit braries (the Web included) have tried to copy of immortality. If an image of the cosmos can its astonishing ambition. It stands unique in be assembled and preserved under a single 170 Education: The Present Is the Future roof (as King Ptolemy might have thought), record everything that had been and could then every detail of that image—a grain of be recorded, and these records were to be sand, a drop of water, the king himself—will digested into further records, an endless trail have a place there, recorded in words by a of readings and glosses that would engender poet, a storyteller, a historian, forever, or at in turn new glosses and new readings. It was least as long as there are readers who may to be a readers’ workshop, not just a place one day open the appointed page. There is a where books were endlessly preserved. To line of poetry, a sentence in a fable, a word in ensure its use, the Ptolemies invited the most an essay, by which my existence is justified; celebrated scholars from many countries— find that line, and immortality is assured. such as Euclid and Archimedes—to take up The heroes of Virgil, of Herman Melville, of residence in Alexandria, paying them a hand- Joseph Conrad, of most epic literature, em- some retainer and not demanding anything brace this Alexandrian belief. For them, the in exchange except that they make use of the world (like the Library) is made up of myriad Library’s treasures. In this way, these special- stories that, through tangled mazes, lead to a ized readers could each become acquainted revelatory moment set up for them alone— with a large number of texts, reading and even if in that last moment the revelation summing up what they had read, producing itself is denied, as Kafka’s pilgrim realizes, critical digests for future generations who standing outside the Gates of Law (so odd- would then reduce these readings to further ly reminiscent of library gates) and finding digests. A satire from the third century b.c. by in the instant of dying that “they are to be Timon of Phlius describes these scholars as closed forever, because they were meant for charakitai, “scribblers,” and says that “in the you alone.” Readers, like epic heroes, are not populous land of Egypt, many well-fed cha- guaranteed an epiphany. rakitai scribble on papyrus while squabbling incessantly in the Muses’ cage.” In our time, bereft of epic dreams—which we’ve replaced with dreams of pillage—the In the second century, and as a result of the illusion of immortality is created by technol- Alexandrian summaries and collations, an ogy. The Web, and its promise of a voice and epistemological rule for reading was firmly a site for all, is our equivalent of the mare established, decreeing that “the most recent incognitum, the unknown sea that lured an- text replaces all previous ones, since it is cient travellers with the temptation of dis- supposed to contain them.” Following this covery. Immaterial as water, too vast for any exegesis and closer to our time, Stéphane mortal apprehension, the Web’s outstanding Mallarmé suggested that “the world was qualities allow us to confuse the ungraspable made to conclude in a handsome book,” that with the eternal. Like the sea, the Web is vol- is to say, in a single book, any book, a distil- atile: 70 percent of its communications last lation or summing-up of the world that must less than four months. Its virtue (its virtuality) encompass all other books. This method pro- entails a constant present—which for medi- ceeds by foreshadowing certain books, as eval scholars was one of the definitions of the Odyssey foresees the adventures of Jack hell. Alexandria and its scholars, by contrast, Kerouac, and the story of Dido foretells that never mistook the true nature of the past; they of Madame Bovary, or by echoing them, as knew it to be the source of an ever-shifting the sagas of Faulkner hold the destinies of present in which new readers engaged with the House of Atreus, and the peregrinations old books which became new in the reading of Bouvier pay homage to the voyages of Ibn process. Every reader exists to ensure for a Khaldun. certain book a modest immortality. Reading is, in this sense, a ritual of rebirth. But more than anything else, the Library of Alexandria was a place of memory, of ne- But the Library of Alexandria was set up to cessarily imperfect memory. “What memory do more than merely immortalize. It was to has in common with art,” wrote Joseph Brod- The Library as City-State 171 sky in 1985, is the knack for selection, the generations of librarians whose ethics and taste for detail. Complimentary though this tastes had shaped the collection, by official observation may seem to art (that of prose guidelines based on what Ptolemaic society in particular), to memory it should appear considered “proper” or “valuable,” by bu- insulting. The insult, however, is well de- reaucratic rulings whose reasons were lost in served. Memory contains precisely details, the dungeons of time, by considerations of not the whole picture; highlights, if you will, budget and size and availability. not the entire show. The conviction that we are somehow remembering the whole thing The Ptolemies and their librarians were cer- in a blanket fashion, the very conviction that tainly aware that memory was power. He- allows the species to go on with its life, is cateus of Abdera, in his semi-fictional book groundless. More than anything, memory of travels, the Egyptiaca, had claimed that resembles a library in alphabetical disorder, Greek culture owed its existence to Egypt, and with no collected works by anyone. whose culture was more ancient and morally far superior. Mere assertion was not enough, Honouring Alexandria’s remote purpose, all and the librarians of Alexandria dutifully set subsequent libraries, however ambitious, up a vast collection of Greek works to con- have acknowledged this piecemeal mne- firm the debt of these to Egyptian authority. monic function. The existence of any library Not just Greek; through the collection of allows readers a sense of what their craft is books of various pasts, the librarians hoped truly about, a craft that struggles against the to grant their readers knowledge of the in- stringencies of time by bringing fragments terwoven roots and branches of human cul- of the past into their present. It grants them ture, which (as Simone Weil was much later a glimpse, however secret or distant, into to declare) can be defined as “the formation the minds of other human beings, and al- of attention.” For this purpose, they trained lows them a certain knowledge of their own themselves to become attentive to the world condition through the stories stored here for beyond their borders, gathering and inter- their perusal. Above all, it tells readers that preting information, ordering and catalogu- their craft consists of the power to remem- ing all manner of books, seeking to associate ber, actively, through the prompt of the page, different texts and to transform thought by selected moments of the human experience. association. This was the great practice established by the Library of Alexandria. Accordingly, centuries By housing as many books as possible un- later, when a monument was suggested to der one single roof, the librarians of Alexan- honour the victims of the Holocaust in Ger- dria also tried to protect them from the risk many, the most intelligent proposal (unfortu- of destruction that might result if left in what nately not chosen) was to build a library. were deemed to be less caring hands (an argument adopted by many Western museums And yet, as a public space the Library of Al- and libraries today, as the recent argument exandria was a paradox, a building set aside surrounding the so-called Gospel of Judas for an essentially private craft (reading) which recently proved). Therefore, as well as being now was to take place communally. Under an emblem of man’s power to act through the Library’s roof, scholars shared an illusion thought, the Library became a monument in- of freedom, convinced that the entire reading tended to defeat death, which, as poets tell realm was theirs for the asking. In fact, their us, puts an end to memory. choice was censored in a number of ways: by the stack (open or closed) on which the book And yet, in spite of all the concern of its rul- sat, by the section of the library in which it ers and librarians, the Library of Alexandria had been catalogued, by privileged notions vanished. Just as we know almost nothing of reserved rooms or special collections, by of the shape it had when it was erected, we 172 Education: The Present Is the Future know nothing certain about its disappear- The solid myth of Alexandria also teaches us ance, sudden or gradual. The various stories that a library must impose its own limits or about its end are well known. According to decree its own death. An endlessly-growing Plutarch, during Julius Caesar’s stay in Alex- library requires an ever-expanding home that andria in 47 b.c. a fire spread from the Arse- can take on nightmare dimensions. Legend nal and “put an end to the great Library,” but has it that Sarah Winchester, widow of the fa- his account is faulty. Other historians (Dio mous gun-maker whose rifle “won the West,” Cassius and Orosius, for instance) suggested was told by a medium that as long as con- that Caesar’s fire destroyed not the Library it- struction on her California house continued, self but some forty thousand volumes stored the ghosts of the Indians killed by her hus- near the Arsenal, where they were possibly band’s rifle would be kept at bay. The house awaiting shipment to Rome. Almost seven grew and grew, like a thing in a dream, until centuries later, another possible ending was its hundred and sixty rooms covered six acres offered. A Christian chronicle, drawn from of ground; this monster is still visible in the the Chronicle of Wise Men by Ibn al-Kifti and heart of Silicon Valley. Every library suffers now discredited, blamed the destruction on from this urge to increase in order to pacify the Muslim general Amr ibn al-As, who, upon our literary ghosts, to branch out and bloat entering Alexandria in a.d. 642, was sup- until, on some inconceivable last day, it will posed to have ordered Caliph Omar I to set include every volume ever written on every fire to the contents of the Library. The books, subject imaginable. always according to the Christian narrator, were used to feed the stoves of the public This monstruous aspect of the Alexandria baths; only the works of Aristotle were spared. myth has given birth to many cautionary tales. One warm afternoon in the late nine- Historically, in the light of day, the end of the teenth century, two middle-aged office clerks Library remains as nebulous as its true as- met on a bench on the Boulevard Bourdon pect; historically, the Tower, if it ever existed, in Paris and immediately became the best of was nothing but an unsuccessful if ambitious friends. Bouvard and Pécuchet discovered real estate enterprise. As myths, however, in through their friendship a common pur- the imagination at night, the solidity of both pose: the pursuit of universal knowledge. To buildings is unimpeachable. We can admire achieve this ambitious goal, next to which the the mythical Tower rising visibly to prove that Ptolemies’ achievement appears delightfully the impossible is worth attempting, no mat- modest, they attempted to read everything ter how devastating the result; we can see it they could find on every branch of human working its way upwards, the fruit of a unani- endeavour, and cull from their readings the mous, all-invading, antlike society; we can most outstanding facts and ideas, an enter- witness its end in the dispersion of its individ- prise that was, of course, endless. Appropri- uals, each in the isolation of his own linguis- ately, Bouvard and Pécuchet was published tic circle. We can roam the bloated stacks of unfinished one year after Flaubert’s death in the Library of Alexandria, where all imagina- 1880, but not before the two brave explorers tion and knowledge are assembled; we can had read their way through many learned li- recognize in its destruction the warning that braries of agriculture, literature, animal hus- all we gather will be lost, but also that much bandry, medicine, archaeology and politics, of it can be collected again; we can learn always with disappointing results. What Flau- from its splendid ambition that what was one bert’s two clowns discovered is what we have man’s experience can become, through the always known but seldom believed: that the alchemy of words, the experience of all, and accumulation of knowledge isn’t knowledge. how that experience, distilled once again into words, can serve each singular reader Thanks to the Web, of course, Bouvard and for some secret, singular purpose. Pécuchet’s ambition is now almost a reality, The Library as City-State 173 when all the knowledge in the world seems books in the multimedia library. There is, to be there, flickering behind the siren screen. however, a difference. If the Library of Alex- Borges, who once imagined the infinite li- andria was the emblem of our ambition of brary of all possible books, also invented a omniscience, the Web is the emblem of our Bouvard-and-Pécuchet-like character who ambition of omnipresence; the library that attempts to compile a universal encyclope- contained everything has become the library dia, so complete that nothing in the world that contains anything. Alexandria modestly would be excluded from it. In the end, like saw itself as the centre of a circle bound by his French forerunners, he fails in his attempt, the knowable world; the Web, like the defi- but not entirely. On the evening on which he nition of God first imagined in the twelfth gives up his great project, he hires a horse century, sees itself as a circle whose centre is and buggy and takes a tour of the city. He everywhere and whose circumference is no- sees brick walls, ordinary people, houses, a where. Our society today accepts the book river, a marketplace, and feels that somehow as a given, but the act of reading—once con- all these things are his own work. He real- sidered useful and important, as well as po- izes that his project was not impossible but tentially dangerous and subversive—is now merely redundant. The world encyclopedia, condescendingly regarded as a pastime, a the universal library, exists, and is the world slow pastime that lacks efficiency and does itself. not contribute to the common good. Today, reading is nothing but an ancillary act, and As the myth of Alexandria tells us, this am- the great repository of our memory and expe- bition is not new. We have always wanted rience, the library, is considered less a living to remember more, and we will continue, entity than an inconvenient storage room. I believe, to weave webs to catch words in the hope that somehow, in the sheer quantity And yet, though the book no longer stands of accumulated utterances, in a book or on at the symbolic core of our society, the new a screen, there will be a sound, a phrase, a sense of infinity created by the Web has not spelled-out thought that will carry the weight diminished the old sense of infinity inspired of an answer. Every new technology has ad- by the ancient libraries; it has merely lent vantages over the previous one, but necessa- it a sort of tangible intangibility. There may rily lacks some of its predecessor’s attributes. come a new technique of collecting informa- Familiarity, which no doubt breeds contempt, tion next to which the Web will seem to us breeds also comfort; that which is unfamil- habitual and homely in its vastness, like the iar breeds distrust. My grandmother, born aged buildings that once lodged the national in the Russian countryside at the end of the libraries in Paris and Buenos Aires, Beyrouth nineteenth century, was afraid of using that and Salamanca, London and Seoul. new invention called the telephone when it was first introduced to her neighbourhood in And yet, the solid libraries of wood and paper, Buenos Aires, because, she said, it didn’t al- as well as the libraries of ghostly flickering low her to see the face of the person she was screens, stand as proof of our resilient belief speaking to. “It makes me think of ghosts,” in a timeless, far-reaching order that we dim- she explained. ly intuit or perceive. During the Czech insur- rection against the Nazis in May 1945, when Electronic text that requires no page can ami- Russian troops were entering Prague, the li- cably accompany the page that requires no brarian Elena Sikorskaja, Vladimir Nabokov’s electricity; they need not exclude each other sister, realized that the German officers now in an effort to serve us best. Human imagina- attempting to retreat had not returned several tion is not monogamous nor does it need to of the books they had borrowed from the li- be, and new instruments will soon sit next brary she worked in. She and a colleague de- to the PowerBooks that now sit next to our cided to reclaim the truant volumes, and set 174 Education: The Present Is the Future out on a rescue mission through the streets of language—all this finds its material mani- down which the Russian trucks were victor- festation in that self-portrait we call a library. iously bundling. “We reached the house And our love for it, and our lust to see more of a German pilot who returned the books of it, and our pride in its accomplishments as quite calmly,” she wrote to her brother a we wander through shelves full of books that few months later. “But by now they would promise more and more delights, are among let no one cross the main road, and every- our happiest, most moving proofs of possess- where there were Germans with machine ing, in spite of all the miseries and sorrows guns,” she complained. In the midst of the of this life, a more intimate, consolatory, per- confusion and chaos, it seemed important to haps redeeming faith in a method behind the her that the library’s pathetic attempt at or- madness than any jealous deity could wish der should, as far as possible, be preserved. upon us.

But this is an order that we must, in spite of Does all this answer my question, “Why then all its appeal, view with caution. However do we do it?” In part. Only in part. attractive we may find the dream of a knowable universe made of paper and a meaning- The Library of Alexandria, implicit in trav- ful cosmos made of words, a library, even ellers’ memoirs and historians’ chronicles, one colossal in its proportions or ambitious re-invented in works of fiction and of fable, and infinite in its scope, can never offer us a has come to stand for the riddle of human “real” world, in the sense in which the daily identity, posing shelf after shelf the question world of suffering and happiness is real. It of- “Who am I?” In Elias Canetti’s 1935 novel fers us instead a negotiable image of that real Die Blendung (Auto da Fé), Peter Kien, the world which (in the words of Jean Roudaut) scholar who in the last pages sets fire to “kindly allows us to conceive it,” as well as himself and to his books when he feels that the possibility of experience, knowledge and the outside world has become too unbear- memory of something intuited through a tale ably intrusive, incarnates every inheritor of or guessed at through a poetic or philosophi- the Library, as a reader whose very self is en- cal reflection. meshed in the books he possesses and who, like one of the ancient Alexandrian scholars, Saint John, in a moment of confusion, tells must himself become dust in the night when us not to love the world or the things that the library is no more. In part, we set up li- are in the world because “all that is in the braries to know who we are. world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the But that is surely not all. There is a second Father, but is of the world.” This injunction question. is at best a paradox. Our humble and astonishing inheritance is the world and only the In her novel The Blue Flower, Penelope Fit- world, whose existence we constantly test zgerald says, “If a story begins with finding, (and prove) by telling ourselves stories about it must end with searching.” The story of any it. The suspicion that we and the world are library certainly began with finding: finding made in the image of something wonderful- the books in whatever shape or form, scroll, ly and chaotically coherent far beyond our codex or disk, finding the place in which to grasp, of which we are also part; the hope lodge them, finding a way to work with them that our exploded cosmos and we, its star- within the alotted space. But if the story must dust, have an ineffable meaning and method; end with searching, the second question has the delight in retelling the old metaphor of to be: searching for what? the world as a book we read and in which we too are read; the conceit that what we Northrop Frye once observed that, had he can know of reality is an imagination made been present at the birth of Christ, he did not The Library as City-State 175 think he would have heard the angels sing- secret way, we already know. Not for illumi- ing. “The reason why I think so is that I do nation, to which we can’t reasonably aspire. not hear them now, and there is no reason to Not for experience, since ultimately we can suppose that they have stopped.” Therefore, only become aware of what is already in us. in setting up a library we are not searching for revelation of any kind, since anything re- For what, then, do we search, in our persist- vealed to us is necessarily limited by what ant libraries? we’re capable of hearing and understanding. Not for knowledge beyond what, in some Consolation, perhaps. Perhaps consolation. City as Archive: Contemporary Urban Transformations and the Possibility of Politics

Vyjayanthi Rao

Vyjayanthi Rao is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Interna- tional affairs at The New School for Social Research. She received her Ph.D.in Socio-cultural Anthropology from the University of Chi- cago and was a Post-Doctoral Associate at Yale University prior to joining The New School.

Her research focuses on globalization, development and cities and in particular, on issues concerning infrastructure, violence, memory and the cultural politics of modernity in contemporary and colonial South Asia. Her current research concerns the contemporary urban infrastructure of Mumbai and the impact of global processes upon Mumbai’s urban futures. She has published several articles based on this research in various journals including Public Culture and Built Environment and has a book manuscript in development, titled Glo- balization and the Speculative Ethic: Space, Violence and Subjectiv- ity in Post-Industrial Mumbai. City as Archive: Contemporary Urban Transformations and the Possibility of Politics

“Now let us… suppose that Rome is not a of any singular form of identity and belong- human habitation but a psychical entity with ing. Thus the question of what sort of archive a similarly long and copious past—an entity, corresponds to the city as demographic space that is to say, in which nothing that has once is fundamentally connected to the problem come into existence will have passed away of belonging within the city and to the es- and all the earlier phases of development tablishment of rights to the city. But because continue to exist alongside the latest one… If the city draws together disparate groups of we want to represent historical sequence in people it is also necessary to consider that spatial terms, we can only do it by juxtaposi- the city—as multiple forms of media—might tion in space: the same space cannot have serve as an archive actively producing con- two different contents… It shows us how far nections amongst its residents rather than we are from mastering the characteristics of merely reflecting them. In this paper, I will mental life by representing them in pictorial consider both these aspects through which terms.” Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its the idea of city-as-archive can be elaborated. Discontents They are in fact intimately connected and have a bearing, as I suggest above, on both our understandings of contemporary cities as Cities and Archives well as our understandings of archives.

Understanding the relation between the city and the archive poses numerous interest- Metropolis as Media ing paradoxes, already signaled by Freud’s ruminations on Rome. The question raised It is undeniable that contemporary urban most directly is that of the juxtaposition of experience is a deeply mediated one, condi- various temporalities and the possibilities tioned, in particular, through the dissemina- of representing these temporalities and the tion of cinematic and other kinds of imagery historical experiences they signal in spatial and sensory stimuli. Georg Simmel’s seminal terms. At the most fundamental level, ar- article, “Metropolis and Mental Life,” writ- chives have deep and historical connections ten at the beginning of the 20th century, al- to memory and in particular, to authoritative ready explores the sensory impact of the city forms of memory. The formal characteristics on the urban resident’s perception of space, of archives signify languages through which time and sense of self. “The psychological memory is constituted for different groups of foundation, upon which the metropolitan people. In this context, positioning the city individuality is erected,” writes Simmel, “is as a form of archive raises numerous ethi- the intensification of emotional life due to cal and philosophical challenges that have a the swift and continuous shift of external and bearing both upon how we understand the internal stimuli.” The metropolis is both the nature of archives as well as upon how we cause and the effect of the forms that social understand the contemporary city. relations have taken in modern times, most notably the transformation of social relations The modern city is fundamentally a collec- into relations of calculation. Simmel writes, tion of strangers that exceed the boundaries “the relationships and concerns of the typi- 180 Education: The Present Is the Future cal metropolitan resident are so manifold ness and temporary experiences, as well as and complex that, especially as a result of upon the temporariness of the bond between the agglomeration of so many persons with urban residents, this very notion of the ar- such differentiated interests, their relation- chive itself is problematic. Yet, there is always ships and activities intertwine with one an- a struggle against this sense of temporariness other into a many-membered organism.” For and transition engendered by the ‘metropolis Simmel, this understanding of the metropolis as media.’ as media is fundamental to his theory of the development of the metropolitan personality This struggle becomes most visible in con- type. testations over space and the production of place or meaningful socio-spatial form, en- The metropolitan form itself corresponds to gaging a different notion of city-as-archive. the money economy and thereby becomes a Here, different actors deploy the creation of very particular kind of medium within which an archive through acts of deliberate preser- social relations are transacted. “A person,” vation and memorialization in order to se- writes Simmel, “does not end with the limits cure their place within the pulse of the city. of his physical body or with the area to which Acts of deliberate destruction too are increas- his physical activity is immediately confined ingly deployed as strategies for creating ar- but embraces, rather, the totality of meaning- chives. Indeed, historic preservation can also ful effects which emanates from him tempo- be viewed as much as an act of destruction rally and spatially. In the same way the city as of preservation, as I shall explain further exists only in the totality of the effects which on. In the understanding of ‘metropolis as transcend their immediate sphere.” These media,’ which engenders social exchanges, effects, connected to the advanced econo- the archive becomes an emergent notion, mic division of labor, can be thought of as a a principle of ordering stimuli upon which form of archive through which the modern future transactions are imagined and made metropolis and its residents are constituted. present rather than a given notion of the past The “external and internal stimuli” that are that has been deemed significant and marked thrown up by the metropolis have no preor- for preservation. This sense of city-as-archive dained significance as such but instead work is always in conflict, sometimes productive to produce connections between residents, and sometimes corrosive, with the sense of however temporary and tenuous those con- city-as-archive that emerges in acts of pres- nections might be. They also deeply affect ervation and strategies to inscribe space with the urban personality. Most fundamentally, particular social and political agendas. I now they call into question the role of memory in turn to the built form as another site at which the context of urban identity. What Simmel’s the city emerges as archive. understanding of the metropolis foregrounds is the idea that the city is a form of media, which saturates the life of its residents. This Preservation and Destruction space of saturation is one of rapid change and transformation of stimuli and hence has Urban environments are always in transi- a bearing upon forms of social interaction tion, through incremental additions to the and the reproduction of socio-spatial forms built fabrics, through new infrastructural within the city, better understood as “place.” initiatives and, increasingly, through redevelopment. In the contemporary moment, In most commonsense understandings, ar- such transition signifies vitality and the lack chives are directly related to preservation of of change, sometimes even radical changes, some parts of the past, collectively deemed signifies stagnation. Thus, the most ‘vital’ cit- of significance. In the case of the metropolis, ies of today such as Dubai, Shanghai and founded upon the problem of constant new- Beijing appear to be in perpetual motion, City as Archive: Contemporary Urban Transformations and the Possibility of Politics 181 covered with both construction sites and, in in a colonial city, these neighborhoods have the case of Beijing and Shanghai, with plenty been home to generations of Mumbaikars of demolition sites as well. In other cities, with deep historical connections and roots in such as Beirut, repeatedly destroyed by wars, the city. Yet these citizens today are caught the process of reconstruction sparks off de- a paradoxical situation of occupying some bates around questions of heritage and pres- of the world’s most expensive properties, ervation. However, even if a city is not being closest to the city’s central business district, subjected to dramatic transformations due to while also finding themselves rapidly disen- war or financial investment, the preservation franchised in the ambitious process of rede- of the historic fabric invariably alters the built veloping the erstwhile port and trading city environment of the city by altering its very into a global hub for services. atmosphere and significance. Preservation is undertaken as a means of creating collective In this context, conservation practices amount memory by marking out certain places as be- to what one Mumbai-based architect, Mus- ing of significance. tansir Dalvi has referred to evocatively as “architectural eugenics,” or freezing the Yet the significance of historic preservation building envelope to conform to some im- in the contemporary world is open to debate. age deemed ‘objectively authentic.’ Yet this As the cultural theorist Ackbar Abbas has form of eugenics amounts largely to impos- argued in several articles about Shanghai, ing a particular vision and aesthetics based historic preservation functions not to forge on claims of authenticity that are highly con- collective memory so much as to accommo- testable and do not take into account the ac- date and naturalize change. The “image-city” tual history of these neighborhoods. Treating created by these acts of preservation is then the building envelope as a guide, conserva- retailed to citizens and tourists by politicians, tionists associate these neighborhoods with planners and developers as a source of rev- certain communities even when empirical enue from mass tourism, festivals, rentals and evidence shows the co-habitation of these so on. In places like Mumbai, where major areas by multiple communities. Thus conser- transformations are currently underway in an vation strategies sometimes become projects attempt to turn it into a “world-class” city, of ethnic cleansing and end up erasing the the nascent heritage preservation movement contribution of certain groups to the produc- continues to be dominated by elite citizens. tion of the city. In this way, authoritative nar- Due to a highly particular rent-control leg- ratives are circulated, based on the so-called islation enacted almost six decades ago, a historical expertise of particular specialists. large part of the city’s earliest neighborhoods This process represents one of ways in which have fallen into disrepair. The same legisla- the past is enshrined in the process of erasure tion however, prevents the eviction of long- through recourse to authoritative narrative. term tenants paying rents at rates determined The built environment becomes an archive in the 1940s and therefore has effectively in which the silencing of multiple pasts and stopped the redevelopment of these neigh- diversity is effectively achieved. borhoods. Cities with heterogeneous populations such While developers and politicians have reas Mumbai and Beirut are perhaps in a dif- cently found ways to subvert all these regula- ferent relationship when it comes to the pro- tions and to knock down a number of 19th duction of the built environment as an ar- and early 20th century buildings, the condi- chive than others such as Dubai, Shanghai or tion of these neighborhoods have also given Beijing where the rapid and massive transfor- rise to a vigorous debate over the question of mations of the built environment sends out preservation. As early examples of populist other kinds of signals. In these latter cities, and vernacular, native architectural attempts architecture often becomes a monumental 182 Education: The Present Is the Future tool in an attempt to produce feedback from theorists have pointed out, is the assumption a new world, forged by the forces of contem- of the a priori significance of the information porary globalization. What kinds of signals gathered within the formal archive, usually do these monumental new cityscapes broad- considered to reflect something else, some- cast? In the context of speedy physiognomic thing that is less tangible such as cultural alterations that are increasingly making dif- genius or a higher truth. The authority of the ferent cities alike in appearance, cultural archive in fact rests upon this assumption. specificity as signaled by the built environment has been called into question. In the preceding sections, I outlined the fundamentally ephemeral nature of the flows If archives are associated with the produc- that constitute urban space on the one hand tion and dissemination of particular forms as and the problems of locating any archive signifiers of an absent past, the lack of cul- around what appears to be the least epheme- tural specificity physiognomically signaled, ral aspect of urban space viz. the built en- complicates the project of imagining the vironment on the other hand. In the latter city as archive, at least at the level of built instance too, we are forced to confront the form. New kinds of signals about emergence, fact that urban environments are constituted declaration and resistance to global cultur- by a continuous and cumulative process of al integration are being broadcast by these subtraction and destruction, which forms a new cityscapes. In fact, it might be possible crucial layer of the history of almost all con- even to argue that monumental construction temporary cities. Even historic preservation, I projects, such as those underway in Beijing suggested, ends up being a form of destruc- in preparation for the Olympics signal an in- tion. tention to harvest a new kind of cultural her- meticism, using an international language of In considering the relationship between cit- design and style. How does the city emerge ies and archives, we could do well to explore as an archive—one broadcasting particular the built environment itself as an archive of cultural signals— in such diverse contexts as the city. But given the complexity of both cit- the Asian cities like Mumbai, Beirut, Shang- ies and archives as historical forms, I suggest hai, Beijing and Dubai, described in this sec- the alternative concept of city-as-archive as a tion? To answer this question, we would need tool with which to explore both the complex- to turn briefly to a theoretical elaboration of ities of contemporary cities as well as of the the notion of the archive itself. processes by which archives are constituted. To take this a bit further, the concept of city- as-archive suggests an analogical relationship Navigating Voids between cities and archives in terms of form and raises the question of the limits of each Archives are neither universal forms nor are form. In so formulating the relation between they uniform institutions that collect particu- cities and archives, I suggest that we are able lar kinds of information in the service of par- to interrogate both the limits of the principles ticular, universal projects of history. Rather, by which archives are constituted as well as we might think of archives as languages, the problem of belonging by which the city is whose formal characteristics constitute constituted as a demographic space. memory in different ways for different groups of people. This position assumes that the past In particular, if we conceive of archives not itself, as an absence, is inherently unstable just as institutional forms but also as proces- and is constantly reconstituted as memory ses, this analogical relation between cities through active forms of recollection and and archives begins to acquire a shape that through institutional forms such as archives. corresponds to the particular conditions of The problem of the archive, as numerous contemporary cities. The idea of the me- City as Archive: Contemporary Urban Transformations and the Possibility of Politics 183 tropolis as media connected to perpetual and gists, who claim that it is necessary to study ephemeral flows of information and stimuli, the city not only in its physical aspects but explored above, is a powerful reminder that also by positioning its people and their net- we would need a processual understanding work producing activities as the infrastruc- of the archive in order to grasp the nature ture that allows the city to function (see Si- of these flows. As a principle of order, the mone 2004). archive provides a base upon which history, memory and recollection takes place. Such The physical transformation of cities in the memory structures relations between strang- context of globalization is sometimes ac- ers thereby producing a sense of urban lo- companied by the massive displacement of cality and place. Hence the relationship be- people—either physically as in the case of tween cities and archives and the concept of Mumbai and Beirut or intangibly as in the city-as-archive has a significant resonance, case of the Parisian banlieues, whose inhab- especially in the context of globalization, itants find themselves increasingly disenfran- the profound and epochal socio-economic chised and imprisoned in place, displaced by transformation confronting the world today. being rendered immobile. The “city beyond In sum, I suggest that contemporary urban maps” thus now includes not only the move- form can provide a theoretical apparatus to ment of global economic forces but also the explore the constitution of archives and vice informational layers carried by people as they versa. are being displaced from familiar habitats or dangerous, temporary ones, as they are being rendered mobile. The city itself acquires City Beyond Maps a new relationship to density, the characteristic relationship between people and milieu, Maps and mapping have historically provid- which defines the production of urban local- ed important functional tools in navigating ity. Place-based density is transformed into a the relationship between ‘reality’ and its ab- physically absurd value but is recoded into stractions. I specifically stress the functional the stories that people carry with them across aspects of maps because the concept of ‘real- urban domains as they struggle to reconsti- ity’ is itself highly contested and philosophi- tute their place within the city. For urban re- cal debates on the nature of ‘reality’ are leg- search, it becomes necessary to find ways of endary. In one sense, maps provide anchors mapping these invisible and emergent struc- for the production of archives as they mirror tures of urban information in order to under- the transformations of the urban realm. As stand the processes by which residents are numerous recent analyses have suggested, being re-embedded across diverse geograph- the epochal transformation of society into ical spaces and scales into new networks of an urban one is taking place at a planetary exchange and interdependency. These kinds scale today. Yet the role of architectural plans of transformations provide a way of exploring in shaping contemporary urbanism is reced- the idea of city-as-archive in some depth. ing rather than increasing. As the architect Kazys Varnelis suggests, the workings of the As an example, I will turn here to some of contemporary, information-based economy, the transformations currently underway in obviate “the need for the architectural plan” Mumbai as a way of examining the useful- (Varnelis 2005). In this way, he suggests that ness of the city-as-archive. As is well known, a “city beyond maps” has already come approximately half of Mumbai’s population into existence, one that cannot be mapped is estimated to be living in informal settle- in terms of its visible architecture and infra- ments, which are poorly serviced and largely structure. This insight, about what we might disconnected from the infrastructural grid. call “invisible urbanism” is also a phenom- Popularly referred to as slums, by residents enon that has been studied by anthropolo- as well as planners, politicians and develop- 184 Education: The Present Is the Future ers, these settlements occupy a mere 8% of Meanwhile, speculative capital continues to the total space of the city within its munici- thrive and even profit from these struggles as pal limits. However, they are geographically bets are laid down on the future shape of the spread all over the city and are often in very city and profits realized in the present mo- close proximity to affluent neighborhoods, ment, on the basis of anticipation. forming the very antithesis of the isolated apartheid township, the contemporary Pa- In this context, the challenge for both plan- risian banlieue or the ghetto. This to better ning and politics is the identification of new developed neighborhoods has resulted in forms of general or common interest. Norma- inflating the notional property values of the tive notions of urban planning take infrastruc- parcels of land on which slums are construct- ture as a point of departure and as terminus, ed, even if many of these land parcels only understanding underlying urban conditions exist as a result of painstaking reclamation or in relation to existing infrastructure. Infra- are situated on top of infrastructural facilities structure is seen as providing the organiza- and thus environmentally precarious or are tional glue for an automatically constituted lands whose ownership is locked in dispute. public sphere and an accurate indication of As the flow of real-estate capital has been existing conditions, including demographic liberalized and development itself has been ones. But this form of understanding the ba- privatized, these informal settlements have sis for politics is clearly in danger as urban- become highly prized targets since they stand ism advances, marching to the tune of a “city as obstacles to the complete ‘make-over’ of beyond maps,” an invisible architecture of the city along the lines of Shanghai or Dubai. forces. Here, a new concept of urban poli- In this context, a new form of struggle has tics can be usefully articulated by reference taken shape, one that is different from the to the city-as-archive. Following my earlier struggle to preserve historic neighborhoods analysis, archives can be treated as anchors in Mumbai, which I discussed earlier. in the reconstitution of social relations rather than as reflections of an already existing set As the parcels of land on which these infor- of underlying conditions. Further, if we can mal settlements sit are absorbed into the for- treat density as a reflection of a network of mal, built landscape of the new city, with its information and relationships rather than as aspirations to becoming the next Shanghai, a demographic indicator of the quality and large numbers of residents have been dis- nature of the experience of place, then I sug- placed into new tower-block buildings, built gest that these newly mobile forms of density on designated parcels of land, often at a great can themselves be positioned as a form of ar- distance away from their original homes. The chive. The new city, coming into being, can slum, in one sense, constitutes a material then be read as an archive, and urban po- expression of density in space. But density litical struggles might be repositioned in the itself can be reconceptualized, not merely zone of anticipation rather than in the zone as the spatial occupation of a location by a of nostalgia. given population but also as a network of information and relationships, which can also be detached from space. Thus the displace- The Pedagogy of the Urban ment of these residents can also be seen as a detachment of the density of their infor- This city-as-archive, which includes the re- mal infrastructure of relations and networks constitution of urban density as a key factor, from place itself. While many of the current can provide an important counterpoint to struggles in the city are articulated around understanding how emergent relationships the idea of asserting a right to the city, these within the new city are to be understood. By struggles primarily function to produce po- providing a means of recording and includ- litical gridlock and to maintaining status quo. ing the fluidities of urban informality as vital City as Archive: Contemporary Urban Transformations and the Possibility of Politics 185 information, the city-as-archive provides a away from considering these spatial transfor- lens into the emergent as much as it index- mations as archival evidence in understand- es historical forms. I suggested earlier that ing contemporary urban fabric and politics. rather than highlight the archive’s capacity Instead, we argue for a new methodological to accurately represent a past, that we use move, to posit the transforming city itself as the notion of archive as a way of navigating an archive in the making, a form that will the voids of the present, as a practice of in- have a profound bearing on our understand- tervening into and reading the urban fabrics ing of the past as a history of the present. created by these voids, not for reading the urban fabric as a quilt or a palimpsest of his- Such an approach has practical pedagogi- torical forms, preserved within the archive. cal implications, particularly for the design These voids of the present are created not professions, engaged in harnessing creativity only by environmental destruction, catas- for the production of urban futures. At the trophes or targeted acts of terror but also by broadest level, it enables us to rethink the the quotidian transformations of urban space kinds of tools necessary for projects of urban by politicians, developers and planners. In regeneration, itself a constant feature of con- an age marked both by destruction and the temporary cities. By providing a theoretical stimulation of memory and identities as well apparatus for mapping emergent relations as by the massive proliferation of data, infor- rather than isolating and classifying certain mation, its collection and its organization, forms as belonging to the past and others to we need to rethink the notion of archive to the present, city-as-archive also serves as a encompass a dynamic sense of ordering and methodological intervention into the re-crea- interpretation, unmoored from the politics of tion of everyday relations. In this sense, city- preservation and evidence creation for his- as-archive is fundamentally a pedagogical torical understanding. tool, one that encourages conceptual creativity as the basis for political transformation. In contexts such as Mumbai but also in many Without such conceptual creativity, the ana- other contemporary urban contexts, such an lytic basis for political action remains funda- approach is invaluable for it points to the pos- mentally conservative. If design as a profes- sibilities of a politics based on anticipation sional activity is fundamentally connected to rather than one that is based on known forms imagining and producing the future, then the of place and demographic arrangement. The particular concept of the archive advanced in notion of the city-as-archive enables the pro- this exposition of city-as-archive can provide duction of tools of urban design that take a the basis of that creativity. In other words, very different view of demographic density city-as-archive fundamentally works as a tool and its relation to urban infrastructure. On refashioning our relation to the future itself this view, density would be seen as part of a through its potential to intervene in the edu- mobile and transforming infrastructural land- cation of urban designers. scape rather than as a static indicator to be rearranged through new infrastructural input. In other words, the city’s demographic profile, Conclusion seen through the lens of the city-as-archive foregrounds information that has a bearing Both cities and archives play a central role in on the future rather than information that constituting our understanding of social life. merely has to be reorganized and purged or, The modern metropolis as media constantly in other words, as information belonging to mediates, produces and maintains relations an archive that merely plots historical transi- amongst strangers. Similarly, once we free tions by containing information as evidence. ourselves from the constraints of archives as Thus, beginning with the simple fact of the particular, official institutional forms, we are centrality of spatial transformations, we move in a better position to understand the archive 186 Education: The Present Is the Future beyond its role as a repository of evidence References about the past, always directed toward a pu- tative future. Instead, by taking a more ecu- ABBAS, ACKBAR. 2000. “Cosmopolitan De- menical view of what kinds of information scriptions: Shanghai and Hong Kong,” or activities might be included in an archive, Public Culture, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 769- we begin to see an analogical relationship 786. between cities and archives. In the context of the rapid transformation of contemporary SIMMEL, GEORG. 1950. “Metropolis and Men- cities, it is necessary that we move away tal Life,” in Kurt Wolff (trans) The Soci- from an inherently conservative and preser- ology of Georg Simmel. New York, Free vationist understanding of archives because Press, pp. 409-424 (original given as lec- such a view inevitably influences the way we ture in 1903). perceive urban politics. Instead, we might benefit by taking the form of the modern me- SIMONE, A. M. 2004. “People as Infrastruc- tropolis as media as a prototype for the city- ture: Intersecting Fragments in Johannes- as-archive, a method for navigating the pro- burg,” Public Culture, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. found social transformations of the present 407-429. without succumbing to a view of the past as a succession of historical forms, preserved VARNELIS, KAZYS. 2005. “The City Beyond within an archive that is itself detached from Maps: from Bonaventure to One Wil- the present. Instead, I suggest that the city-as- shire,” accessed online at kazys.varnelis. archive is a way of embedding the past within net (originally published in Pasajes de Ar- the present as an absent but ongoing tempo- quitectura y Crítica, September 2003). ral phenomenon, one that does not treat the city as a palimpsest of historical forms and does not take the archive as merely a repository of those forms. Schooling and/or Educating in the Changing City

Maxine Greene

Maxine Greene: Professor of Philosophy and Education. Emer., Teachers College, Columbia University. Degrees: B.A. Barnard Col- lege: M.A. and Ph.D., New York University. Honorary degrees: Le- high University, Hofstra University, University of Colorado (Denver), University of Indiana, McGill University, Binghamton University; Bank Street, Goddard, Misericordia, Nazareth College, Montclair State University. Organizations: past president of Philosophy of Edu- cation Society, American Educational Studies Association, American Educational Research Association. Philosopher in Residence, Lin- coln Center Institute for the Arts in Education.

Books (selected): The Release of Imagination; Teacher as Stranger; The Dialectic of Freedom, Variations on a Blue Guitar. Schooling and/or Educating in the Changing City

In the late 19th century, the institutions of When the smokestacks appeared on the hor- schooling played a crucial role in the most- izon and new occupations suddenly opened ly homogeneous communities. Schooling down the cobblestone and newly-paved meant, not only the transmission of funda- roads, those who found their very subsist- mental literacy, but imposition of a set of ence threatened had no choice but to load values and beliefs. These were presumably their belongings and their children in carts derived from moral laws which were thought and wagons and move into the confusion of to be fixed and unchangeable; and, for many, the changing city. It is as important to try to they served as the foundation of the mutual- map that city mentally as it is to imagine the ity and coherence that defined each largely responses of the newcomers from the farm- rural community. Continuity could only be houses, fields, and pastures that had to be assured if the codes and patterns of behavior left. There were wooden shacks to be found, (written or not) were made to seem unques- shaky boarding houses and tenements while tionable; and young people were impressed work was sought. Often, children had to be early in their lives with the necessity and the sent to work. Karl Marx, among many, re- security of compliance. Little if any notice ported on the suffering of the young at the was taken of individual difference; and the looms or in the half-lit pottery factories. Her- interests of particular children were seldom man Melville described the frail factory girls taken into account. A norm was established in the paper factories. There were helpless in each school and classroom. Although they wards or spinsters housed with unknown shared experience in accord with rhythms townsfolk teaching in the slowly growing of nature, there was an assumption that the schools. There were the regimented mill- mind-set of each child was at odds with ac- girls, like those in Lenox, some shanghaied ceptable attitudes in the world around. Sub- from farm families, promised a good life and ject matters linked with stress on morals schooling, required to toil and obey. aimed at an equilibrium. If a pupil struck a teacher as being “unhealthily’’ devoted to But people from strange places kept pour- drawing or music the youngster would be ing into cities ill-equipped to house them, told to focus on mathematics or logic in or- heal them, educate them. They experienced der to balance his/her appetites. If a child themselves as strangers, newcomers fated to were simply different, he might be stigma- live their lives with the Other. Some man- tized as stupid, freakish, unteachable. Cur- aged through the cultivation of indifference, riculum content drew from incidents and through experiences of power rooted in con- tasks fundamental to the economy; sowing, victions of a new freedom, to plunge ahead, harvesting, tool-making, weaving. It was to accommodate to the demands of capital- not thought of as vocational training. The ism. Indeed it was capitalism with its focus skills and literacies stressed were part of a on profit-making and exploitation in the taken-for-granted reality, defining the cul- interests of the wealthy that stratified lives ture itself. Village festivals, fairs, church serv- for rich and poor. But now that the old con- ices added to the communal coherence of straints and fixities had “melted away,” hu- things. man energy found multiple modes of expression. Trade and commerce, invention, social 190 Education: The Present Is the Future and scientific experimentation, efforts to in- seeped in like fog under the doors. Those too stitute civic reforms; all expanded in different far from the World Trade Center to see told places at different times. As banks, corpora- the children to keep unpacking their book tions, and giant monopolies were developed bags and get ready for reading; those a lit- in their diverse forms, communities in the tle closer to the towers quietly asked classes traditional sense were less and less likely to to move away from the windows without appear. Certain groups clustered in ghettos exactly knowing why. Then, inexplicably, and slums; there were neighborhood associ- another crash; and some found themselves ations more or less loosely defined. Theatre running in the streets, asking the children to groups and arts centers began taking shape. hold hands, to stay in line. Others moved to There was a minimum amount of homogene- basements; parents ran in; and there was no ity outside of the churches and synagogues. way of knowing who found their young ones The day of shared value, outside the limits of and who did not. Nearer the Center, some orthodoxy, seemed to have disappeared. children saw what they thought were pieces of debris turn into people wearing neckties, Schooling, thought to be an enterprise com- flashing past; others saw what they thought mitted to the process of molding of the young were birds on fire. In the black dust and from without in accord with standards and crowds, teachers shepherded their classes practices emergent from the agreements and across a bridge. High school students, near- shared values defining a particular society, est to the falling buildings, took boats and no longer appeared workable in the new ferries across the river A confusion of mes- cities. Given the extreme variety of tradi- sages, of orders. Empty ambulances; broken tions, interests, and orientations, the strange glass. Spurts of panic: uncertainty about coherence and congeniality of the old com- where family members worked. munity could only be conceived of as a future possibility under the circumstances of a Today, teachers remember being totally con- democracy. Democracy has been described centrated on protecting the children, saving as a “community in the making,” a condition them, reassuring them. Many took refuge brought into being by human beings also “in in routine language as if bringing children the making,” finding their fulfillment in par- downstairs or gathering them in corners ticipation, conversation and dialogue. away from the windows was perfectly normal. But there continued to be experiences Education in the confusions of the city de- of flight and long, trudging walks in the ab- mands deliberate and imaginative action on sence of public transportation. Most unset- the part of persons opening to one another, tling was the shattering of habitual supports affirming their sense of agency, refusing and frameworks. The sense of invulnerability fixities and the taken-for-granted. Education was suddenly eroded, in part because there must always be unfinished, on the verge of was no explanation of what was happening. transforming possibility into practice, mov- For a time there was the gradually expanding ing, pulsating with the changing city. term, “terrorist.” Meanwhile, photographs of missing men and women appeared on walls, If there has been a moment in recent times people carried photos of lost relatives. There where this need for education to be con- was emptiness. Some of children’s great- ceived as a permanent process of transform- est fears seemed realized. The gap widened ing possibility into practice, this has been the between what made ordinary sense and the aftermath of the 11-S tragedy, and the events suspicion that nothing would be certain from that followed. then on. Little ones caught by television, thought the towers were falling over and over. First a muffled crash, not unfamiliar among Some of the children’s questions seemed un- the sounds of the city; but then a silence answerable. There were many teachers who Schooling and/or Educating in the Changing City 191 barred all talk of 9/11 as too upsetting for the there no idea of the worth of every individual young. person? Do we know enough to encourage critical questions? Does one display of bru- Yes, there followed moments when strangers tality justify another? embraced each other on the streets, when people of all kinds tried to think of ways Then there is the perplexity involved in they could help. Children brought poems dealing with what even the children heard and food to firehouses. Flags appeared, for as bombast: the claim of “mission accom- want of any better way of showing connect- plished”; the celebrations of the advance of edness. Feelings of solidarity were expressed. freedom, of democracy. When can we afford In a desire for action, some tried to gather to sow seeds of doubt with respect to the na- into a community to encourage members to tion’s leaders? At the present moment, teach- become healers, to take some part in stem- ers are caught between their own skepticism ming confusion, to help people deal with and the familiar reminders that they should grief, with abandonment. Self-confident sug- follow their lesson plans, remain within gestions came down from above telling lis- the curriculum frameworks, say nothing to teners to return to their normal lives. Then, disrupt the desired order in the classroom. abruptly, an explanation: Saddam Hussein, Forgotten or ignored too frequently is what dictator, murderer of millions, was blamed. happens to the young when irrelevant, “re- Osama bin Laden taunting, boasting of his quired” material is imposed—so-called sub- part, would be hunted down; and Al Qaeda ject matter unrelated to students’ questions or would be crushed to the ground. Then, for all interests. Today, when the young are exposed the lack of evidence that Iraq was threatening to so much, when unanswerable questions us, a “pre-emptive war” was launched. abound, conversation between teachers and students is often blocked by teachers’ fears Blanketed in silence, we watched the at- of saying what they believe. In the shadows tack called “Shock and Awe,” the flames of “No Child Left Behind,” with demands and smoke over the domes and towers black of testing and accountability resting heav- against the sky. Baghdad was presented to us ily on their minds, teachers can rarely pay as an empty city, a kind of movie set. We were heed to young people’s stories, memories, shown no pictures of people killed or wound- fears. They are driven, usually against their ed, of fathers carrying their injured children, will, to a compliance with the notion that the desperate for help. How much was our own young are to be treated as human resources, denial? How easily had we bought the idea schooled in response to the nation’s techno- that we were battling the “axis of evil,” that logical, economic, and military needs. All events must be read in terms of “either-or?” this is complicated (for school people as well And how—what—do we teach the children, as others) by the changes brought about by the adolescents among us? The promises of globalization, by deep splits in the culture, “conflict resolution” faded when we saw the by uncertainties regarding immigration and heart-rending pictures of kidnapped women the role we choose to play in the world. and men pleading for their lives and heard about the beheadings that followed so often. Given the growing opposition to the war and Were we to understand it in terms of cultural to the machinations that drove the country difference only? Were the black-clad men into it, there is more and more unrest ex- posing behind their victims in any way rep- pressed every time an exposure of chicanery resentative of the Iraqi people, or were they a or mismanagement comes to light. Yet ques- radical Islamic minority? But then there were tions as to whether the war was or is worth the appalling pictures of American soldiers the cost and the loss of life, whether we must degrading and torturing Iraqi prisoners, pic- “stay the course” are somehow stifled. The tures of “detainees” in Guantanamo. Was widening gap between what people actually 192 Education: The Present Is the Future know about the war and what they are will- costs of the war. There is factual knowledge ing to do about it is increasingly difficult to to be attained regarding sea levels and flood understand. What is occurring is generally control, even as there is factual knowledge to felt to be unacceptable, and yet the blanket be gathered regarding the voting in Iraq, the of silence remains. We need only recall the constitution, and the interests involved. But 2000 dead recently reported, the thousands the facts alone are insufficient. Imagination gravely wounded, the coffins being loaded must come into play if the young are to reach into trucks on the battlefield, the stunned ex- into a realm of possibility. What would New pressions on the faces of nineteen-year-old Orleans be like, what ought it to be like if reservists who had never been prepared for levees were properly built, if every part of the what lay ahead for them. And there are the population were given the chance to live on young wives waiting at home, many with high ground? What difference would it make young children who have never met their fa- in Iraq if the young were familiar with the thers. Not incidentally (and too seldom not- ways of democracy: critical thinking; partici- ed) tens of thousand Iraqis—men, women, pation in problem solving; the co-existence and children—have died, most of them inno- of divergent points of view? How, in any cent civilians or the families of civilians. case, can we open spaces for orthodoxy and still keep open the possibility of a free soci- For all the unease aroused in young people ety? by what they confront on television, in the press, and in what they hear, they still have It is the idea of possibility that remains im- to be enabled to learn the fundamental litera- portant. Along with it comes the recognition cies. We have probably never known a time of incompleteness. There are always unan- when the young were immersed in the same swerable questions and, because they are ocean of information (and misinformation) as presently unanswerable, the need for new their elders or when there was such a des- perspectives, freshly minted methods, the perate need to make sense of what was be- persisting overhang of doubt, the unlikeli- ing absorbed. Clearly there are many modes hood of any final proof. And the ongoing of sense-making; the common-sense mode, questioning, the vibrancy of dialogue. Adri- the empirical, the religious, the imaginative. enne Rich has written that poetry begins in There are not only the meanings implicit in terror and ends with possibility; and that may the surrounding culture; there are the mean- be true of many art forms. Hamlet begins in ings that develop in children’s and adoles- darkness and suspicion, in the consciousness cents’ cultures. It may be possible to help stu- of something “rotten.” It ends with the dying dents transform information into knowledge Hamlet saying to Horatio: “Absent thee from if teaching were to take place in a context felicity a while, and tell my story.” To tell the of open questions, questions finding differing story is to search for its meaning without ever kinds of expression depending on the ques- being sure of the end. It is to imagine what tioner’s age and life situation. There are con- might lie beyond the presently incomprehen- nections certainly to be sought between the sible, to keep the tower from falling over and terrible revelations of the hurricanes and the over, to begin building anew. The City and its Educating Paths: School, Streets and Youth Mobility

Jaqueline Moll

Jaqueline Moll is an educator specialized in literacy and popular education. She holds a Masters degree and a PhD in Education from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, having completed part of her studies at the Universitat de Barcelona.

She is a professor in the Faculty of Education and in the Postgraduate program of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre. She also teaches in the Postgraduate Program in Education at the Universidade de Brasília.

In 1993 and 2001 she was a member and coordinator of the educational teams of the Porto Alegre Education Department and as of 2005 works at the Ministry of Education in the Lula government.

She is the author and editor of several books, including: Alfabetização possível: reinventando o ensinar e aprender (Ed. Mediação, 1996), Por uma esfera pública: a experiência do orçamento participativo (Ed. Vozes, 2000), Histórias de vida, histórias de escola: elementos para uma pedagogia da cidade (Ed. Vozes, 2000), Educação de Jov- ens e Adultos (Ed. Mediação, 2005), as well as numerous articles. The City and its Educating Paths: School, Streets and Youth Mobility

Is it possible to understand the streets as self-identifying actions by groups that inhabit “a great ignored school” or as a school for the city and explore its multiple territories “those without a school?” Can the streets be- pedagogically, politically and culturally. come part of the educating paths traveled by men and women, especially the new genera- These reflections are not meant to go against tions, in this day and age? the idea of formal schooling or minimize the effects and potential of work done by This text is the product of reflections on these schools. Rather, this approach (re)situates questions, from the understanding that the the school institution within the educational city is potentially educating both because of networks that operate in the city and in the the political, cultural and social relationships city as an educating space and, thus, our ap- which take place in citizen’s daily lives and proach considers both street and school as because of the density of its physical spac- complementary educational grounds. And as es—architectural, historical and natural. a backdrop to that, is the idea of rethinking the public-governmental sphere as an educa- Within the context of a country such as Bra- tional authority. zil, that only as recently as the late 1990s “universalized” access to basic education1 for We intend to consider the educating paths children between the ages of 7 and 14, this that youngsters establish and seek in the ur- debate brings to the fore two different con- ban context. Assumptions such as democra- siderations: on one hand, that of the school cy, coexistence and diversity will be studied institution as an irrevocable social locus for as possible structuralizing elements of useful the educating process of the new generations learning about life in society; elements which and on the other, that of the educational possi- hopefully instill educating actions both in the bilities of the city paths, the streets of the city. streets and in the schools.

From the perspective of the streets we pre- suppose the need to “de-romanticize” what City, Contemporaneity and Reinventing could be understood to be a place of con- the School Space tinual learning and absolute freedom: the streets are not an educating space for those Given the modern context of growing urban without a roof over their heads, without a masses and the complexity of everyday city family, without a school. On the contrary, to life it is harder and harder to reduce these to them—groups or individuals lost and isolat- a linear and categorized analysis, to which ed in the city flux—the streets, as a rule, rep- we resorted until now. resent insecurity, violence and the creation of ghettos. The streets can be perceived as The school institution as a privileged space educating if a path is forged of collective and for education of the new generations is los-

1 Basic education in Brazil is organized in the categories of early childhood education (0 to 6 years old), primary school (7 to 14 years old) and secondary school (15 to 17 years old). 196 Education: The Present Is the Future ing its privileged position as sole educator. • in the medieval city with its walls protect- More and more we realize that individuals ing it against the “barbarians” and, there- educate themselves and are educated in di- fore, all who were “different,” verse and distinct social spaces. Though we may not remember to take it into considera- • in the modern city, forged under the ae- tion, the school consists of a network of so- gis of the emerging capitalistic demands cial spaces (institutional and non-institution- and of the industrial revolution that didn’t al) that creates behaviors, value judgements, differentiate between individuals, turn- knowledge and ways of being and of being in ing them all (men and women, children, the world. “The streets” as a non-institutional young people and the elderly) into poten- experience, is part of this network, an invis- tial workers. ible network to those insisting on rigid readings of the situation. As a space structurally characterized by diversity—ethnic, linguistic, racial, religious, As a growing locus of increasing population economical, generational, and sexual—the we can state that the city becomes the set- city (in particular, the modern city) provided ting in which these networks develop. It is the conditions for the flourishing of differ- worth mentioning that, in the course of the ences thanks, among other reasons, to the 20th century, around 70% of the world popu- anonymity of the masses. Nevertheless, at lation moved into the cities; currently in Lat- the same time it attempted to “civilize di- in America, 3 out of 4 inhabitants live in the versity” through institutional actions forged city, and in Brazil, the urban population rose from the ideals of whiteness, Christendom, from 30% to 81% between the 1930’s and learnedness, adulthood and masculinity. the 1990’s. It is in this polarization (diversity vs. ho- As a part of a powerful movement question- mogeneity) where we find what I call the ing the paradigm of today’s lifestyle, con- founding tension of the contemporary city2 sidering the city as an educating space and which, stirred by the current civilizing crisis reviving the historical and symbolic impor- leads those who live in the city to build new tance of the school, becomes a clearer op- identities and ways of relating to its spaces. tion. This is especially true as the cities are Youngsters, as barbarians in these urban ter- coming to be seen worldwide as basic social ritories, emerge as those who do not speak and political actors in resolving social prob- the language of the ones already established lems and problems of coexistence, as well as there and so, as outsiders, they are the ones in building and consolidating local identities trying to open up other paths with codes, in an ever-more globalized world where cit- ways of dressing, tastes, and ways of being ies are steadily expanding. that we cannot manage to understand. They are the ones who don’t fit into the established Considering the city as a space of human co- social patterns. existence, with its different forms, functions and concepts, we can point to the symbolic From this perspective, the discussion of de- shapes it has taken and the historical roles it mocracy and a new public sphere surfaces has played: as a possibility for the reinvention of the city as a setting for the expression and acknowl- • in the greek polis – the space of budding edgement of human differences rather than democracy, of speech, of the agora, a space for sameness and homogeneity. Sev-

2 MOLL, Jaqueline. Histórias de Vida, Histórias de Escola: elementos para uma pedagogia da cidade. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2000. The City and its Educating Paths: School, Streets and Youth Mobility 197 eral authors take this argument further when generates genocides that terrify us. In this they point to democracy not only as a pos- way, community reflects the city. sibility for, but a condition for the survival of humanity. This is the case of Alberto Me- Analyzing the city from this perspective im- lucci3 when he states that “the crucial fac- plies revising ways of looking at the world tor that changes the meaning of democracy schemes, reviving utopias present in peda- today is that without the recognition of dif- gogical history6 and projecting the city as ferences and without an agreement on the space that is different than what common limits that must be placed there will be no sense would tell us, different from the gener- room for either differences or decisions, just al perception that the city is an increasingly for catastrophe.” (2001, p. 56) unsafe place of fear and dangers; a place in which the only alternative is to isolate oneself Communities, in the macro-city scenario, in the domestic environment as a response to constitute small centers in which networks of the imaginary tyranny of a way of viewing social and personal relationships are woven and living in the world.7 There is room for into day-to-day life with all of their conflicts plenty of cities within a city, with the features and tensions. The movements taking place we are capable of attributing to it. in the large scenarios are reproduced in the communities. The community can therefore be, from the perspective of a polycentric Youngsters and Educating Paths in the context, a small stage for rehearsals for life in City the city. From the street, from the neighborhood, we can become citizens of the world Two recent studies offer new elements to since, as Bernard Charlot4 would say, that consider regarding the paths taken by urban local space can provide access to the adult youth who live in the outskirts of cities: one world, not as an imposition but as a possi- of the studies aimed to hear what young peo- bility of expanding this vital dialogue that ple from the city of Porto Alegre had to say makes us humans. about their insertion in the city8 and the other study brought out elements regarding the Along the lines of the hologram proposed by role of the local government vis à vis urban French philosopher Edgar Morin,5 we find youth.9 the large spaces reappearing in the smaller spaces. So, the everyday tyrannies and intol- Understanding groups of youths within an erance reflect, as in a set of mirrors and, on urban territory to be part of an outsider uni- a smaller scale, the tyrannies and intolerance verse10 that is establishing new ways of being, of the kind of fundamentalist thinking that of expressing themselves and of living—ways

3 MELUCCI, Alberto. Vivencia y Convivencia. Teoría Social para una era de la información. Madrid: Editorial Trotta, 2001. 4 CHARLOT, Bernard. Da relação com o saber. Elementos para uma teoria. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2001. 5 MORIN, Edgar. Introdução ao pensamento complexo. Lisboa: Instituo Piaget, 1991. 6 Reference from TRILLA BERNET, Jaume. Ciudades Educadoras: bases conceptuales Cidades Educadoras. Curitiba : Ed. da UFPr, 1997. 7 It is worth reading Francesco Tonucci’s, La citá dei bambini, (Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1996). 8 BRUNEL, Carmem. A casa, a escola e a rua: espaços de múltiplas práticas no cotidiano de meninos e meninas que freqüentam três escolas públicas da periferia da cidade de Porto Alegre. Doctoral thesis. PPGEDU. UFRGS, 2005. 9 “Juventude, escolarização e poder local,” research carried out in the years 2004 and 2005, coordinated at a national level by Marília Spósito (USP) and Sergio Haddad (PUC-SP) and locally (Porto Alegre and metropolitan region) by Nilton Bueno Fischer and Jaqueline Moll (UFRGS). 10 ELIAS, Norbert; SCOTSON, John L. Os estabelecidos e os outsiders: sociologia das relações de poder a partir de uma pequena comunidade. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2000. 198 Education: The Present Is the Future that threaten and frighten the established About 50 youngsters, less than 1/5 of the to- norms—I propose considering them as sub- tal, said that the spaces they spent the most jects, possible interlocutors whose original- time in, apart from their home and their street, ity regarding modus vivendi and operandi were parks, squares and shopping malls. The may play a part in the institutional and social girls tended to spend the most time at the reinvention of the present. I suggest that we homes of friends and relatives, outside of consider young people as possible agents of their own house. As regards spaces they en- a new present. joyed being in, the girls tended towards their home and their bedrooms, while the boys’ preferred place to be was at the school gym, Youths from the Outskirts and Their followed by their home and events. School Paths was not among the preferences for either boys or girls. Among the least preferred spac- In the first study, carried out in the outskirts es was the church followed by, in the girls’ of the city of Porto Alegre,11 a survey was cases, the football field. conducted, through questionnaires, on 266 youngsters—149 girls and 115 boys,12 160 of At school, the space clearly preferred by whom were in middle school and 106 from both boys and girls was the playground, fol- high school and ranging in ages from 13 to lowed by—in the case of the younger boys— 24. About 25% of these youngsters live in the gymnasium. Thus, they tended towards families whose total income is 1 minimum broader spaces offering possibilities for inter- wage,13 while 129 of them, about 50% of the action, sports, recreation and cultural activ- surveyed group, live in families whose in- ity. come is from 2 to 5 minimum wages. Among this group of youngsters, 218—of which the The responses of these youngsters lead us to majority were girls—claimed to like their consider what educating paths are available neighborhood. Though they pointed out dif- to young people who cannot even afford ferent problems in the neighborhood, only public transportation. For these youngsters, 35 said they didn’t like it. In terms of what the city is a projection of a space to which they considered to be the neighborhood’s they don’t belong. Life is restricted to home, problems and needs, 54 mentioned the lack places close to home and school; spaces they of security, 116 complained about the lack go to on a daily basis that are reasonably of sports facilities, 88 brought up the sub- safe and where they build their identity and ject of cleanliness, 53 wanted a football their relationship with the world. From this field and 11 said they would like places for perspective, we can say that the presence of partying. public institutions, through policies that take these young people into account and allow What is striking here is the sense of being them access to the city, is a defining element closed out expressed by almost 200 young- in their insertion in the city. sters who claim that they don’t move around the city because they cannot pay the public The next step of this study was to look at the transportation fares. Where they generally go daily itineraries of ten of these young people is to homes of friends and relatives. and this revealed the richness of their “created

11 A city in southern Brazil with a population of 1,350,000 and internationally known for its participatory practices in local public management. The Workers Party was in power there between 1989 and 2004 and the city was the site of the first World Social Forums. 12 Two of whom gave no information about their grade level. 13 A minimum monthly wage is 147.28 euros. The City and its Educating Paths: School, Streets and Youth Mobility 199 worlds” within the community context. In the ple become part of the city, especially those “pedagogies”14 applied by these youngsters millions of youngsters who don’t have access we see educating paths forged through their to it or a way of moving around within it? experience of participating in the community radio, in creating a rock band, through the In the context of the debate posed by this stories, poetry and song lyrics, from creating text the elements of “reality” point to the ab- music and dance groups and from their effort sence of a structured public sphere able to to access the world of football. School was welcome and shelter young people living in among the main spaces where these possi- the outskirts of Latin American cities. Their bilities could be brought about. wishes reflect the need for sports facilities, a football field and a space in which to party. The above-mentioned feeling of being left From the perspective of a polycentric city out of the city doesn’t keep young people such places should also exist in the outskirts from creating true universes of meaning, in where the home, providing shelter from the spite of moving in a restricted space and with “streets,” seems to be the best space for co- limited financial resources. existence and learning, especially for the girls. The fear of the “streets” still prevails, The invisible fence that separates them from as well as the sense of insecurity regarding the public space is somehow compensated public places. For these youngsters, school is for by the effort of shaping a private sphere still the main place for social interaction and in which life can have meaning. This idea learning, a space for coexistence, in which leads me to Hannah Arendt, calling up an- identities can be forged and new views of cient Greece: the world developed. School is, for them, the main community space that reflects the city. “The main characteristic of the tyrant was that he deprived the citizen of accessing the From that we may conclude that for young- public sphere, where he could show him- sters living in areas on the peripheries of self, see and be seen, hear and be heard; cities, the school must be the bridge to the that he forbade the space of the polis, he urban universe with all of its multiple pos- confined the citizens to the privacy of their sibilities. This place/bridge will be outcome home life… According to the Greeks, to be of the process of reinventing the forms, times banished into the privacy of their homes and spaces of the school’s intervention.17 was equivalent to being deprived of spe- The “street” is only plausible as an educa- cifically human life possibilities.”15 tional possibility to the extent to which the education and integration of youngsters That thought makes us consider the concept corresponds to the vision of those who live of the public sphere and citizenship and also in the city and create it. Among those who human presence in spaces that transcend the “make” the city are the local public institu- private world and that can turn these young- tions, whose vision and whose actions may sters into citizens. In understanding citizen— allow these youngsters to move around the in one of its common definitions—as a city city, become a part of it and recreate their inhabitant16 one must ask: how do we be- own territory, with educating paths showing come city inhabitants? How can young peo- the way.

14 PAIS, José Machado. Vida cotidiana: enigmas e revelações. São Paulo: Cortez, 2003. 15 ARENDT, Hannah. La condició humana. Barcelona: Paidós, 2005. 16 According to FERREIRA, Aurelio Buarque Holanda. Novo Dicionário Aurélio. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1986. 17 Regarding distinct possibilities in this process of reinvention see Bairro-Escola passo a passo, edited in Brazil by different authors in the educational field, among them UNICEF, Movimento Todos pela Educação, UNDIME, Cidade- Escola Aprendiz, Fundação Educar, Ministry of Education. 200 Education: The Present Is the Future

Local Authorities and Their Paths for to them. In a great many of these projects, Young People which last two years at the most, there is no evaluation of results nor of the projects’ out- The second aforementioned study presents reach, which indicates lack of continuity or preliminary results from the “Youth, School- the fact that these projects are one-off actions ing and Local Power” study, specifically in or band-aid measures. the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre. Its main goal was to identify educational poli- Despite the limitations found, it is worth cies regarding youngsters and adults and noting that apart from the areas that could youth policies with regard to municipal pub- be considered “classical,” such as health lic institutions in nine Brazilian metropoli- and sports, some movements were noted in tan areas.18 This was accomplished through public policies directed towards the “many interviews with local managers and surveys expressions” of youth in the contemporary on actions taken in 2003/2004. In the case context of the cities. Projects and actions in of the city of Porto Alegre there were 134 the area of the arts—modern dance, hip-hop, youth-related projects or actions. graffiti—which can be seen as alternatives to generating work and income, from a self- First contacts with most of the municipal management perspective, are emerging as councils produced reactions of surprise re- novelties coming from the actions of young garding the study: “Policies for/about youth? people and which prompt a relationship with We don’t have any specific ones” and then the local authorities. Projects and actions re- followed by: “Oh, but we have something in lated to environmental questions, sexuality, the Health Department – a project for young- graphic production and the creation of fosters on STD/AIDS” or in the environment rums for debate offer groups of young people, department “… something related to con- who are normally set apart from public life, servation.” These answers show that young the possibility of entering the urban scene. people are not on the city councils’ agendas. Young people appeared in a watered-down From this perspective, the occupation of form in programs for children or programs urban spaces—squares, parks, community for students with problems at school or even centers, sports facilities and theatres—listed programs for the community at large which in the inventoried projects show that the many youngsters took advantage of, espe- ways of being and behaving adopted by the cially in activities related to theater, music, youngsters in the complex city scenario are dance and the visual arts. The student cat- starting to be made visible, expanding the egory did appear repeatedly, since most ac- educational stage beyond the school walls. tivities and projects regarding young people The positive assertions, made by youngsters take place in the schools. who were interviewed and surveyed in these studies, regarding the peaceful use of com- In many of the cities included in the study munity spaces indicates the need to question the youngsters were perceived as a social the popular perception of groups of young group absent from public policies or as one people (especially youngsters living in the that is starting to emerge and, thus, became city outskirts) as threatening and violent. “recipients” of the actions created by public institutions. What stands out in the study is In the school space there are few activities the non-participation of the young people as that go beyond the classical curriculum, and generators of projects, collaborators or eval- those that do exist are related to environmen- uators of the activities or projects targeted tal subjects or to sports. This shows the lack

18 Metropolitan regions of João Pessoa (PB), Recife (PE), Goiânia (GO), Porto Alegre (RS), Florianópolis (SC), Vitória (ES), Belo Horizonte (MG), São Paulo (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ). The City and its Educating Paths: School, Streets and Youth Mobility 201 of connection between the school, the city In this sense, our concepts of educating city and the possible educating paths built or de- or city as pedagogy can broaden our concept sired by young people. Consequently we can of education, allowing us to reinvent school see the real (and symbolic) distance between in the same way we are trying to reinvent the the school institution (with its rituals, tempos city and, within it, the community as a place and subjects) and these new domains cre- for coexistence, dialogue, for lifelong learn- ated when young people’s interests and local ing, with the aim of deepening the meaning political policies come together. of democracy and affirming freedoms.

These processes urge us to make changes About the Streets, the City and that, though methodological are paradigmat- Educating Processes ic changes, that require creating new ways to read the world and to create what Paulo The ideas about city and youth presented Freire called “viable novelty.” These don’t here, based on the concept that youngsters appear as either a new panacea or a new are emerging as new subjects in the urban model, but rather as possible changes in the scenario, can be better understood in the con- short and long term that can only be built text of the intense instability and profound based on new social and educational pacts. crisis regarding the rules on which modern In this regard, the local authorities can play lifestyle has been based. Many philosophers an important pedagogical role by: call what we are living a paradigmatic transition, describing it in terms of everyday • coordinating social forces and subjects, revolutions in the world of employment, in the universe of human relationships, in the • financing actions that emerge from the context of our relationship with the natural needs and demands of this new agree- world, and in the context of nature itself, ment, in the area of scientific production, in the • mediating between different and even op- changes in the way time and space is viewed posing interests concerning the occupa- (especially due to the new information tech- tion of public space. nologies); daily revolutions that question the way we have organized ourselves, pushing From this perspective dialogue with schools us towards the construction of ways of seeing and other institutions regarding our educa- that dare to reinvent what “is already there,” ting projects as a society, is a sine qua non “established,” and leading us to think about condition. Does our society take young peo- the transitory nature of long known models, ple into consideration? If so, how do different once considered unchangeable. social groups—neighborhood associations, environmental groups, business lobbies, so- The whole of educating practices carried out cial services associations, trade unions, po- in the context of the school are receiving the litical parties and local public institutions— impact of these perplexities and instabilities, perceive them? What groups of young people both in relationship to the new generations live and move around in our cities and com- and in terms of the new areas of knowledge munities? What spaces do they occupy? being produced. Our responsibility to the fu- How can we change the minds of those who ture presents us with a basic task: to under- only see threats and problems in the groups stand what is happening in order to create of youths and end up establishing many of new ways of seeing the tensions, challenges the public policies? How can we draw in or and the limits of our own practices and to shape young people as actors in the social create new possibilities for life in the school, process with all of their convictions, beliefs, in the community and in the city. know-how, experiences and, above all, their 202 Education: The Present Is the Future intense creative capacity? How can we offer To achieve this goal we need to ask our- young people the public spaces and domains selves: of the cities with their innumerable educating possibilities? • How do we teach young people the democratic practices of coexistence and diver- This is where a fundamental difficulty lies: sity if our daily practices of coexistence we are not used to dialoging with and getting provoke non-acceptance of the “other,” close to other subjects who make up the so- keep us from listening to them and under- cial fabric, and much less with young people standing their modus vivendi? who, gathered in “urban tribes” according to their identifying characteristics, defy our abi- • How can we think about educating paths lity to understand and accept them. To bring for these youngsters if the city is closed to social subjects closer—among those groups them, if they are confined to their streets of young people—to create new educational and homes, without turning these—parti- pacts considering the city as a whole, with cularly the streets—into places with teach- actions that include the involvement of dif- ing potential? ferent institutions, the use of urban spaces, time for the new generations and the willing- • Is it possible for the city and the communi- ness to open new horizons and make shared ty to develop, beyond their traditional eco- commitments: these are conditions necessary nomic, social and political functions and for turning the city into an educating setting. services, an educating function, regard- In that way, all of the people who live in the ing collective commitment and lifelong city become educators. training, in the promotion and development of all of their inhabitants—children, It is all about starting dialogues in which the youngsters and adults?19 In other words, is “others” can be heard by the public institu- it possible to think about the city and the tions, as well as by other “established” so- community from the perspective of educa- cial subjects. We will not achieve change if tion? the new generations remain confined to the home, the classic school or their poor neigh- • Is it possible to consider the city and the borhoods. community as spaces of cultural and generational coexistence, as spaces in which Our condition as a civilization depends on to learn about human diversity and to dis- these young actors on the contemporary ur- courage intolerance—necessary condi- ban scene. In order to construct educating tions for a democratic life? paths we must take them into account, listen to them, include them as individuals full • Is it possible to consider school as an open of possibilities, not as bearers of problems institution, more coordinated with the so- or needy ones who are dependent on us to cial networks and the surrounding urban resolve their difficulties. Therefore, in think- setting? ing about these paths we are forced to consider broadening our point of view regarding Taking these questions into account, consi- cities, which basically implies having local dering the city with its educating paths and— policy and administrators take into account within the city itself—the network of possi- an educational project in which both school bilities that also includes schools, implies: and street play a role.

19 A postulate presented in the introduction to the Charter of Educating Cities, created in Barcelona in the 1990 and revised in 1994 and in 2004, is here reformulated as a question. The City and its Educating Paths: School, Streets and Youth Mobility 203

• looking at the city differently, perceiv- In this sense, the educating process that takes ing it, with its entangled streets, avenues, place in the agora, in the streets, in the bus, squares and buildings, as a territory of at school, can be the key to coexistence and multiple plots and cultures and therefore therefore to democracy, which means under- of countless educational possibilities; standing and respecting different ideologies, ethnic groups, races, genders, social classes, • discussing who we are, what shared and ways of understanding life, as well as of individual needs we have, what present working together to face concrete problems and future we wish for; that concern.

• taking on—on the part of governments, This whole process means that all citizens, neighborhood associations, business lob- children, young people and adults must see bies, social movements, youth groups, themselves as part of the city, committed to churches, trade unions, universities, and an educational and cultural movement that other actors on the urban scene—educa- allows everyone, as potential educators, to ting tasks in the sense of identifying needs reflect their views off of this great territory- and educational possibilities, in order to offer and create “new viable options” mirror with its topics and problems so that with the population as a whole that will by relearning it, they may dare to reinvent allow more, or at least different, possibili- it. ties in life. The democratic and educating city, a space This “reconceptualization” presupposes un- of many paths is, therefore, a utopia that derstanding the city as a large network of should be revived because it reminds us, educating paths, both in its formal teaching once again, of the dreams we all share of a spaces (schools, day care centers, faculties, happy life on this planet, a sustainable life universities, institutes) and informal teaching based upon solidarity. It reminds us of the spaces (theatres, squares, museums, libraries, city that is more than just what it can materi- mass media, public meeting places, churches; ally produce and, as the historian Jacques Le as well as the traffic, the buses, etc.), whose Goff20 said, it revives the idea of the city as a streets become bridges for coexistence and stage of equality and a feast of exchange, as a learning and where the intentionality of the space of common good, of safety and urban- actions carried out can turn the city into an ism as an invention of beauty—elements that educating space, a space for learning. bring to mind the renaissance cities.

20 LE GOFF, Jacques. Por amor às cidades. São Paulo: Editora da UNESP, 1998. Education and the Just Society

Juan Carlos Tedesco

Juan Carlos Tedesco (Argentina), studied Education Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. He served as university professor and has worked for UNESCO, where he ran the Regional Office for Educa- tion in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC; Santiago, Chile), the International Bureau of Education (IBE; Geneva, Switzerland) and the Regional Office of the International Institute of Educational Planning (Buenos Aires, Argentina). He is currently the Minister of Education for the Republic of Argentina.

He has been a postgraduate lecturer at several universities throughout Latin America in addition to publishing numerous articles and books about the relationship between education and society. These include: Educación y sociedad en Argentina: 1800-1945 (Buenos Aires, 1972); El Proyecto Educativo Autoritario: Argentina 1976-82 (Buenos Aires, 1983); El Nuevo Pacto Educativo (Madrid, 1995), and Educar en la sociedad del conocimiento (Buenos Aires, 2000). Education and the Just Society

1. Introduction enriched by referring to the type of city (or society) we would like or plan to build. In In recent years, analyses of the knowledge this article, we take the idea of building a and information society have quite often just society as the major challenge facing surpassed the optimism expressed in initial us as a civilization. Starting with this gen- perspectives on the democratic potential of eral postulate, some observations and hy- the centrality of knowledge in society. These potheses are put forth, focused primarily at perspectives, justified in various manners, as- the role of education and of the educators sociated the importance of knowledge with a themselves in the process of building this just particular social meaning, where democracy society. and economic growth went hand in hand.1 Now, however, we often see emphasis being placed on the exclusive aspects that create 2. Meaning Deficit uncertainty and risk, which in turn leads to an intensive use of knowledge and informa- First of all, we must make reference to the tion in the economy and in society. With the meaning deficit that characterizes the new same swiftness that typifies contemporary capitalism, where separation from the past social processes, it quickly became appar- and uncertainty about the future lead to a ent that the centrality of knowledge brought strong concentration on the present. Rich- about strong tendencies to privatize both its ard Sennett has stressed the importance of production and its distribution. Capitalism this idea, basing his approach mainly on an based on the intensive use of information analysis of the changes in the way work is and knowledge could be more unjust than organized. In his classic study on “character” traditional industrial capitalism.2 and in his recent essay on the culture of the new capitalism, Sennett argues that this capi- The debate consequently shifted away from talism is based on the idea of “no long term,” education and knowledge in and of them- something that has significant consequences selves and started to focus on the kind of in terms of the training of individuals and the society we want to build based on their cen- processes of cultural transmission, in both trality. More specifically, we could maintain public institutions (schools in particular) and that the concept of the educating city is now in the family.3

1 The most popular version of this optimism is that of Alvin Toffler. See, for example: A. Toffler.Powershift . New York: Bantam, 1991. 2 D. Cohen. Wealth of the World, Poverty of Nations. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1998. Recently, even the Interna- tional Monetary Fund has acknowledged the rising inequality and concentration of income in the world, associated with technological development. See: Daniel Muchnik, “El FMI ahora preocupado por lo social.” Clarín, Buenos Aires, October 15, 2007. 3 R. Sennett. La corrosión del carácter. Las consequencias personales del trabajo en el nuevo capitalismo. (The Cor- rosion of Character. The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism). Barcelona: Anagrama, 2000. R. Sennett. La cultura del Nuevo capitalismo. (The Culture of the New Capitalism.) Barcelona: Anagrama, 2006. 208 Education: The Present Is the Future

Ultimately, saying “no long term” erodes the directly associated with the building of na- possibility of building links of trust, mutual tion-states. While this may not be the appro- commitment and cohesion. At companies, priate place for a lengthy aside regarding the for example, the employees know that merg- history of education, it should nevertheless ers, outsourcing or other changes could one be pointed out that, at least in Western cul- day leave them out in the cold, with no com- ture, the principles of universal, compulsory mitment whatsoever from the business own- education were linked directly to the builders. Today it is advisable to work outside of ing of the State with adherence to a particu- companies and, as Sennett says, indifference lar order, transcending any particularities re- and superficial cooperation are far more use- lated to ethnicity, religion, language or any ful than loyalty and service. The capacity for other factor. This process unfolded in differ- change is considered more valuable than ex- ent ways according to the circumstances, but perience, while the practice of consumption schools and teachers were among the institu- expands into all aspects of social and personal tions and social actors leading the process of life, and is not limited to merchandise alone. building modernity, in both the political and cultural aspects. When this behavior seeps into other areas of social life, such as the family or civic activ- Now there is a great deal of widely-read ity, the tensions and contradictions become literature on the process of modernization. quite significant. The family requires com- Bauman, to mention one of the more promi- mitments and loyalties in both the medium nent authorities on the subject, has described and long terms that express intergenerational the typically modern vision of the world as solidarity. Being a citizen now also increas- that which considers it to be an essentially ingly requires a strong sense of responsibility ordered whole. Control is practically synony- and group solidarity, which requires making mous with establishing order, and the effec- decisions with an eye to the future. This also tiveness of that control depends on adapting poses serious problems for institutionalized knowledge to the “natural” order of things. education, whose purpose has always been Such knowledge is theoretically attainable, the transmission of a society’s cultural her- and rising up in the hierarchy of practices itage and preparation for a particular set of measured by the control/knowledge syn- future plans. From this standpoint, one of the drome also means moving towards univer- main problems facing education today in- sality and away from practices considered volves dealing with the tension generated by to be “provincial,” “particularist” and “local- this meaning deficit, not only in educational ized.”4 processes and in the ties between teaching and learning, but also in the political and Whether spurred on by the necessity for con- institutional processes linked to educational trol or a genuine desire to spread knowledge, activity. education, schools and the educators themselves were all a product of modernity linked directly to the need for specialized personnel 3. The Meaning of Education in Modern capable of transmitting and reproducing the Society new dominant culture.5 In that respect, modern educational systems placed an emphasis We must remember that when modern edu- on the transmission of the knowledge, val- cational systems came into being, they were ues and attitudes linked to the social norms

4 Z. Bauman. Legisladores e intérpretes; Sobre la modernidad, la posmodernidad y los intelectuales (Legislators and Interpreters - On Modernity, Post-Modernity, Intellectuals). Buenos Aires: Universidad Nacional de Quilmas, 1997. 5 Z. Bauman, Ibid. Education and the Just Society 209 required for society to function properly. In in the fact that it brought meaning, a term order for such content to be learned, a strong defined for these purposes in three dimen- emotional charge had to be incorporated sions: foundation, unity and purpose. The into the transmission process. A fundamental foundation of the proposal lay in the idea element in the way citizens were shaped at of Nationhood, democracy and market be- the time when nation-states and democracy ing the legs on which the collective project were being built and consolidated was the would stand; the unity was based on the sig- emphasis on symbolic aspects, rituals and the nificant interconnection of the “images of authority given to the actors and institutions the world” promised by this ideological pro- assigned the task of conveying the guidelines posal whereby everyone had their place in for social cohesion, meaning the acceptance the social structure; lastly, the purpose was of the rules of social discipline. based on the projected possibility of an ever- improving future, of a progressive widening The most exhaustive theoretical explanation of the spaces for participation, freedom and and justification of this system was contri- justice.7 buted by Émile Durkheim in his essays on education, particularly those on moral edu- The evolution of educational activity based cation.6 His entire analysis is based on the on this meaning was not exempt from contra- concern for offering everyone the education dictions and tensions. Knowledge and teach- due to them given their position on the social ing practices also tended toward autonomy. scale, and on achieving acceptance of a new Because of changes in the social structure morality, the secular and republican moral- and because of the teaching culture itself, ity, which was to replace traditional religious education and the educators within devel- morality. oped a strong critical notion of the modern conception of education, and particularly This is why scholastic practices at that time with regard to its reproductive, disciplinary focused so much attention on ritual elements and authoritarian aspects. From classical while bestowing a nearly religious or sacred educators such as Pestalozzi, Dewey, Freinet authority status upon those responsible for and the Activity School movement, to more the educational process (i.e., teachers and contemporary names like Paulo Freire, the professors). Durkheim defined the work of professional culture of educators (far more priests and teachers as a “moral” activity, one than the real educational practices used in of mediation between general values and in- schools) was dominated by principles that dividual subjects, between a type of society accentuated the libertarian possibilities of and the individuals that comprise it. Having education. But this “critical” thought (and a vocation, a calling, and placing symbolic the meaning it gave to the actions and iden- gratifications above material ones: these have tity of the educators) was part of the world been the main characteristics of the teaching of modernity. “Against” the imposing of a role in the framework of the school’s “institu- single order and “against” authoritarianism tional program.” in teaching, the critical educators built both their individual and collective identity. To a In essence, the shaping of citizens based on large extent, that line of critical thinking was the categories of democracy and nationhood built around the contradiction between train- involved specific content, key actors and a ing people for work and shaping people to coherent institutional and curricular design. be citizens and to develop their full potential The socializing richness of this project lay as individuals. It is this scenario that changes

6 Émile Durkheim. L’éducation morale. (Moral Education) Paris: PUF, 1963. 7 Zaki Laïdi. Un monde privé de sens. Paris: Fayard, 1994. 210 Education: The Present Is the Future radically with the expansion of the new capi- the question of social cohesion. What kind talism. of cohesion is possible and necessary in the framework of this postmodern new capitalism? For one thing, we know that it is im- 4. Meaning in the New Capitalism: possible for there to be cohesion, based on Building a Just Society the imposition of the modern universal order, however rational and secular it may be. The literature on postmodernity, the knowl- Also impossible is ascribed cohesion, ethnic edge society and the new capitalism is exten- or religious, which excludes anything differ- sive and well-known. Although each of these ent. At the same time, we also know that so- terms alludes to a different phenomenon, cial cohesion requires basic levels of social their analysis refers to a transformation pro- equality, based on the right to work and to cess that affects all dimensions of society: a compensation that ensures access to the work organization, political organization, goods and services that correspond to hav- cultural paradigms and the processes of ing a decent life. In short, we are faced with building personal identities. The tenden- the challenge of building a society that fights cies toward fragmentation are significant against inequality and respects diversity. The and well known. They are linked to a dual major question mark entails knowing wheth- phenomenon: on one hand, inequality and er the goal of building a just society would social exclusion, and on the other, the explo- be able to garner the backing needed to off- sion of identities and demands for acknowl- set the tendencies toward injustice, which edgement of diversity. From a cultural point derive from the market and the temptations of view, postmodernity is characterized by of cultural domination and control.9 a departure from the conception that there is only one valid, legitimate cultural order, Joining in the effort to build a just society to which all others are subordinate. Par- must be analyzed in a contextualized man- ticularities are no longer synonymous with ner. Nonetheless, the contributions of A. Gid- backwardness and traditionalism but rather dens allow us to postulate that the support claimed as rights, and negating them con- needed for building a just society is reflexive. stitutes an attack against democratic coex- The organic solidarity of the new capitalism istence and justice. From a socioeconomic is minimal and demands citizen behavior standpoint, there are well-known tendencies that is based much more on information and toward the concentration of income and the voluntary support than what was required by social exclusion of vast sectors of the popu- industrial capitalism or by traditional socie- lation.8 The economy and society tend to be ties. However, reflexivity is not synonymous dissociated and generate a scenario where with rationality nor with behavior based the major question mark (and challenge) re- solely on the predominance of the cognitive volves around the possibilities of building a aspect. Advocating justice demands a type of shared meaning, one capable of overcoming reflexivity that can include emotion. There fundamentalist authoritarian cohesion and have been many transcendental historical asocial individualism. developments brought about by the struggle for justice that can only be explained by Raising the question of the possibility of cre- the strong emotional support aroused in that ating shared meaning is, in essence, raising struggle. What is new, however, is the par-

8 For an analysis of the phenomena of social fragmentation in cities, see Loïc Wacquant: Urban Outcasts: A Com- parative Sociology of Advanced Marginality, Cambridge, UK, Polity Press, 2007. 9 A complete analysis of the topic of social cohesion focusing on the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean is available through ECLAC. Cohesión social. Inclusión y sentido de pertenencia en América Latina y el Caribe (Social Cohesion: Inclusion and a Sense of Belonging in Latin America and the Caribbean). Santiago, Chile: 2007. Education and the Just Society 211 ticular expression of emotional and ethical nature. We are experiencing—to borrow an support for justice today requiring the knowl- expression from Gilles Lipovetsky—an era of edge and information necessary to carry it “emotional” morality, a morality without ob- out. ligations or sanctions, a painless and nonim- perative morality, adapted to the new values In this regard, it might be helpful to give the of individual autonomy.12 example of the reflexivity required in promoting respect for diversity. Today, everyone Faced with these challenges, the task at hand has the right to be recognized as who they is to develop a responsible intelligence, one are. But this adherence to one’s own real- that goes above and beyond the idea of a mo- ity, one’s own community of origin, cannot rality without scientific basis and that of sci- be linked with believing that this is the only entific development without moral control. good and legitimate way of thinking. When The first leads us to powerlessness, while the faced with this limited vision, what needs to second could lead us to disaster. The ques- be promoted is “expanded thinking,” which tion mark posed by this definition regards the allows us to step out of our own shoes and role of education in the process of develop- into someone else’s, not just to know and ing that type of intelligence and the social understand that person better, but to know conditions that could foster it. ourselves more deeply.10

The truth is that supporting the idea of a just 5. Just Society and Just Schooling society is nowadays much more demanding in cognitive and emotional terms than it was In this context, the fundamental question in the past. In that respect, we can refer to the regarding educational policy is: what is just claim by Habermas,11 that citizens today are schooling? In that respect, F. Dubet13 pro- confronted with issues whose moral weight vides us with some rather illustrative reflec- is far greater than it used to be. According tions and hypotheses to fuel the debate and to Habermas, we are faced with the need to forge ahead with action strategies. To begin “moralize human nature.” The challenge we with, Dubet states that his reflections are face is to preserve the conditions that pro- not aimed at defining the concept of a just vide the foundation for our awareness that school but rather one that is “the least unjust we act as autonomous individuals, as the au- possible,” which speaks to the difficulty and thors responsible for writing our history and complexity of the problem. Normally, scho- our life. lastic justice is associated with equal opportunity. Dubet questions this view of justice, one whose validity is particularly dubious at These decisions demand heretofore unseen the compulsory and universal levels of edu- levels of responsibility and at the same time cation. He argues that equal opportunity can that responsibility levels for individual and be extremely cruel to the losers of a scho- social decisions increase, there is a dimin- lastic competition designed to differentiate ishing possibility of promoting an absolute individuals according to their merit. A just morality, one based on obligations versus school cannot simply focus on those with demands, be they of a religious or secular the most merits; it should also be concerned

10 Regarding this difference between limited thinking and expanded thinking, see Luc Ferry: Aprender a vivir; Filo- sofía para mentes jóvenes (Apprendre a vivre/Learning to Live). Buenos Aires: Taurus, 2007. 11 J. Habermas. L’avenir de la nature humaine. Vers un eugénisme libéral? Paris: Gallimard, 2002. 12 Gilles Lipovetsky. Le crépuscule du devoir. L’éthique indolore des nouveaux temps démocratiques. Paris: Galli- mard, 1992. 13 François Dubet. L’école des chances. Qu’est-ce qu’une école juste? Paris: Seuil, 2004. 212 Education: The Present Is the Future with those at the bottom of the pack. Even in projects, their social lives and their unique- its purest state, equal opportunity does not ness, irrespective of cognitive performance. necessarily save the poorer students from the humiliation of failure or the feeling of medi- This last reflection from Dubet tells us that ocrity. Meritocracy can be utterly intolerable a just school does not get bogged down by when the pride of the winners is associated the institutional processes of selection, eval- with disdain for the losers. The exclusion and uation, financing and training paths. A just violence experienced today among a large school cannot be neutral toward the cultural number of students show that this scenario content it has to transmit. To put it succinctly, is very real. a just school must be able to offer everyone a quality education where embracing justice The model of equal opportunity and meri- is a central value. This approach has direct tocracy has never been fully applicable. In consequences for the work done by educa- the case of France, the variation in scholastic tors. In that respect, one can postulate that performance between different social cat- embracing justice should be a requisite for egories are still as pronounced as they were entering the teaching profession. Just as doc- in the days when access to schooling was tors in many places are required to take the not universal or was socially unequal. This Hippocratic oath of respect for life, it would results in disappointment, which could then perhaps be necessary to instill professional give rise to the temptation to react by pulling educators with a far greater commitment to back on democratic strategies. As a counter the scholastic performance of their students to such temptations, Dubet proposes three and to the values of social justice, solidarity main courses of action: The first of these in- and cohesion.14 volves policies for a more just distribution of the scholastic offerings, giving more to the underprivileged, furnishing more informa- 6. Conclusion tion about the available educational options and providing flexibility of movement within Building a just society forces citizens to make the educational system. The second course of decisions of a magnitude heretofore unseen: action involves the issue of how the educa- whether or not to include everyone, to mational system handles the weakest students. nipulate our genetic capital or not, to protect In that respect, compulsory education should the environment and nature, etc. The levels be governed by evaluation principles where- of reflexivity required by these decisions by instead of using merit-based selection are also considerable and demand not only testing, there would be a principle of guaran- strong cognitive development but ethical and teeing access to a common good. In compul- moral development as well. How much of sory education, there cannot be winners or these reflexivity levels can be formed through losers but rather a common ground for learn- intentional and systematic educational ac- ing to which all have guaranteed access. tions? What institutional forms would be the Lastly, Dubet argues for the need to ensure most suitable for this function? Who will be equal opportunity on an individual level. This the educators in these training processes? forces us to consider the training of subjects, Placing universal, compulsory schooling in the educational model itself and the impor- the hands of teachers receiving professional tance that model places on individuals, their training through specially designed educa-

14 The idea of extending the Hippocratic oath to other social actors, such as business leaders, for example, can be seen in Otfried Höffe: Ciudadano económico, ciudadano del Estado, ciudadano del mundo. Etica política en la era de la globalización (Economic Citizen. National Citizen. World Citizen: Political Ethics in the Age of Globalization). Buenos Aires: Katz, 2007. Education and the Just Society 213 tional institutions was the response to the for making decisions is far greater for those demand for training from the citizen for the who work in more sensitive areas in terms of nation-state. Will this be the response to the the consequences of their decisions: scien- demands for training made by the reflexive tists, political leaders, business leaders. Last- citizen that the 21st century demands? These ly, these decisions can no longer be spatially issues raise questions as to the training of the limited to the realm of the local or national elite. Although in a democratic society the territory. Responsibility will also take on an distinction between members of the elite ru- international dimension, at the human level. ling class and the other citizens is a dynamic As with all crucial periods in history, the door distinction, the fact is that the responsibility is opened to uncertainty or hope. Governance and Education

Joan Subirats

Joan Subirats holds a PhD in Economic Sciences and is a Professor of Political Science. He is Director of the Institute of Government and Public Policies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Rome-La Sapienza, at the University of California at Berkeley and at Georgetown University in Maryland. He is Editor of the Spanish journal Ciencia Política and member of various editorial boards, both Spanish and international, for academic journals and research centers. He is a specialist in the subjects of governance, public management, the analysis of public policies and social exclusion, as well as in questions of democratic innovation, civil society and decentralization. He contributes regularly to the El País newspaper and other media outlets. Governance and Education

Wikipedia resolving conflicts, characterized by the in- The term governance deals with the process- teraction and cooperation of multiple actors es and systems by which an organization or organized in networks and working to under- society operates. Frequently a government take collective projects. is established to administer these processes and systems. The word derives from Latin ori- It is not a coincidence that we are exploring gins that suggest the notion of ‘steering’. This the theme of governance at a time when the sense of ‘steering’ a society can be contrasted future of education is being debated. Today, with the traditional ‘top-down’ approach of more than ever before, to speak of the future governments ‘driving’ society or the distinc- of education is to speak of the future of the tion between ‘power to’ in contrast to gov- societies we live in and the way we should ernments’ ‘power over.’ deal with collective challenges and conflicts. We could even venture the hypothesis that the greater the educational development, the The 1970s marked the start of a transition, less satisfactory the traditional government which has yet to be resolved, towards alter- parameters that are based on factors such as native models for regulating social conflict in hierarchy and specialization, and the more response to the crisis of traditional forms of necessary it is to look for methods of social government. In this context, neoliberal ideol- accommodation to generate forms of collec- ogy began to form an alternative discourse tive government. However ambiguous it may that, driven by the pressures of financial cap- be to speak of governance and its use and italism during the 1970s (fiscal crisis, capital abuse by many actors in a form that is more strike, etc.), led governments to reduce and often than not hierarchical, what is promising resize their regulatory and tax capacity over about the term is precisely the idea it evokes capital flows. It is in this context that the real of a collective government in an educated, capacity of governments to lead and con- cohesive society. trol social change (crisis of governability) is called into question, suggesting that a market return is the only plausible, efficient and ef- 1. Governance fective means of regulating social needs. The crisis of governability we are referring to has It might seem surprising that at a time when a double dimension, affecting both the fun- representative democracy has spread and be- damental principles of the democratic legiti- come established as a policy regulation sys- macy of states and their ability to ensure an tem around the world, people are becoming efficient response to new demands and new increasingly aware of its limits and deficien- social challenges. As a response to this re- cies. It is precisely in view of these worry- ality, Governance1 is seen as a new way of ing signs of dissatisfaction that new forms of

1 In English, the concept of Governance has acquired significance in comparison toGovernment, understood in this field as traditional government. The term Governance has been translated into some languages, but it is also used as a synonym for “network governments” or “relational governments.” 218 Education: The Present Is the Future government and social participation arise. In ambiguity. According to R.A.W. Rhodes, the recent years, western democracies have ex- word “governance” defines “a new govern- perienced an ongoing rise of voter abstention ment process, a different form of social regu- and a significant fall in affiliations to political lation; a new method for governing society.” parties and pressure groups. Skepticism and However, although the basic definition has a lack of interest in and distancing from tradi- been agreed on, conceptual confusion, am- tional politics based on participation through biguity and theoretical controversy prevail parties, major corporate organizations and in the existing works. Governance has taken elections indicate a certain stagnation of the on a wide variety of meanings: it is a new predominant democratic model. The delega- form of public management, a new system tive trend of our democracies is being ques- of international interdependence, a socio- tioned in a new cultural context marked by cybernetic system, and a series of political the predominance of new, post-materialist networks. Other authors, such as Hirsch, values and the emergence of a more educat- compare governance with democratic ined and perceptive society in which individu- novation: “it comprises the new methods als demand a more active role in political of coordination using networks, partner- processes. ships and deliberative forums that have ris- en from the ruins of the centralized, hierar- Figure 1: Crisis of the traditional democratic chical and corporate representation of the government (prepared by the author) 1970s.”

FUNCTIONAL With a view to bringing some order to the high disparity of criteria, we will present three interrelated propositions which we believe comprise the conceptual core of the new model:

low i. Governance entails the recognition, ac- high ceptance and integration of complexity as an intrinsic feature of the political process LEGITIMACY Traditional Government Complexity is generated by the implicit diversity of multiple actors who bring a variety of values, objectives and prefer- low ences to the political process. It is also determined by the uncertainty caused by permanent change, the erosion of cogni- As shown in figure 1, traditional democratic tive certainties and the volatility of knowl- governments are facing growing difficulties edge. Governing cannot continue to be in reacting efficiently to an environment that the task of a handful of experts who apply is becoming increasingly complex, uncertain proven knowledge; it should be conceived and dynamic. Furthermore, the democratic as a process of social learning where mul- legitimacy of public institutions is weaken- tiple actors offer their knowledge and per- ing before the eyes of citizens who have new sonal views of reality, and try to agree on values, a heightened capacity for critical solutions to problems. This has been the thinking, and are not satisfied with the mere case from a general viewpoint and for technocratic provision of public services. specific policies such as those concerned with the field of education, which has Literature on governance tends to underline been under significant pressure in recent the concept’s complexity and high level of times. Governance and Education 219 ii. Governance involves a government system iii. Governance establishes a new position in which multiple actors take part through for public authorities in government proc- plural networks esses, adopting new roles and using new government instruments In this context, knowledge is dispersed among multiple actors, each with their The result of governance cannot be at- own views of the problems that arise. Au- tributed to “executive” powers, but rather thority is a vague concept that can only be it is a spontaneous, and in some ways an developed in a framework of permanent unexpected, product of complex interac- negotiation. Resources for efficiently de- tion between multiple actors of a highly veloping policies are shared among mul- diverse nature. While the traditional mod- tiple subjects. Lastly, public interventions el made a clear distinction between pub- lead to consequences that are difficult to lic and private spheres, and considered foresee. More specifically, there are three public authorities the only subject of gov- methods for actors taking part in these ernment action and the private sphere as networks to separate government respon- the passive object of government action, sibilities and capacities: governance points at a scenario where the distinction between the two dissolves, a) multilevel government, understood to the responsibility for what is collective is be “a system in which different institu- shared among multiple actors and politi- tional levels share, rather than monopo- cal power is dispersed among a large vari- lize, the process of making decisions on ety of actors. a wide range of issues.” If we work from an educational perspective b) transversality, as an organizational sys- not limited to schools, and understand the tem of the public sector that interrelates connection between education and life, then different subject areas, departments and clearly our idea of educational policy will public organizations in the framework radically expand and demand a much more of shared projects. open and plural approach with more institutional actors involved in its development. It c) social participation, as opposed to the is difficult enough to imagine an approach to traditional notion of society as the sub- school problems from a traditional point of ject of government and public author- view of government based on hierarchy and ity action. Governance underlines the specialization, but even more so if we con- confusing, ambiguous idea of separat- sider lifelong learning from an open, trans- ing public and private spheres while versal perspective. relocating collective responsibilities in a space they both share. 2. Questions On the same note, education offers a good opportunity to exemplify what we Despite what has been said, and precisely behave mentioned above. An educational cause of the ambiguity surrounding the term policy that is subject to intervention from ‘governance,’ a number of questions can be multiple government spheres and requires raised as to the ability to produce democratic transversal approaches to tackle new chal- policies using the new model: lenges. An educational policy whose uni- versalist approach and expansion from 0 a) Governance involves considering the le- to beyond 25 years has led it to establish a gitimacy of representative institutions as wide variety of leading roles, with public the subjects responsible for government and public actors, entities and collectives. action. 220 Education: The Present Is the Future b) If government processes are now shaped experiencing a time of change, and that edu- in the context of networks comprising cation tends to be at the very center of the many varied actors, then where are the tensions that arise in any process of social principles of democratic transparency, re- transformation. Many factors contribute to sponsibility and accountability? How are the central role of education on the public decisions made? Who is now responsible? agenda. It is a well-known fact that profound Who should give an account to citizens? changes are occurring in the elements that laid the foundations of the advanced indus- c) The presence and power conferred to trial society of the 20th century. Such chang- agents such as for-profit organizations in es have thrown into confusion the different this scenario lead us to question the type models of society we are accustomed to as of interests that are defended by these net- well as the role played by education. It is not works, the criteria used to make public de- surprising, then, that tensions and conflicts cisions, who is being represented and how are arising profusely in our educational insti- we can guarantee that general interest is tutions, since they reflect the insecurities and the driving force behind decision-making fears engendered by the new reality. Howev- processes. er, the debate has shifted to the public arena, and issues such as civic awareness and coex- d) To what extent are networks inevitably istence are now being discussed. In this con- horizontal channels for exchange and ne- text of community, district or city, education gotiation between equal actors? Or are and citizenship issues appear to merge. Also they in fact channels that reproduce exist- related is the significant presence of newly ing inequalities and hierarchies? arrived groups of people, who bring along their own habits, forms of interaction, ways All of these questions have a basic theoreti- of using public areas and spending their lei- cal and empirical dimension. In short, gov- sure time or practicing their religion that may ernance is not a simple, unequivocal model collide with what is deemed “correct” and that can be equally employed in any situa- has become “mainstream” over the years. tion. New governance dynamics take on very different forms depending on the context, It is therefore perfectly reasonable to ask: the actors involved and the values, interests What kind of education for what conception and goals that conduct new organizational of society? How do we relate education and frameworks. The situation undeniably leaves citizenship? How do we “govern” education- enough areas in which to advance toward a al policies? The three major areas of sociali- proximity governance, opening new settings zation have traditionally been family, school for a more radical and deeper understanding and work. At present, the impact of the new of democracy. This is particularly significant situation is clearly visible in the productive, when we note that the new logics of govern- social and family spheres, and we should not ance and transversality in policies almost in- be surprised that it has a more or less pro- evitably enhance local governments and ter- nounced effect on education as a whole, as ritorial dynamics as the only ones capable of well as on coexistence and social interaction creating closeness, an integral response and norms. collective involvement based on elements of identity with the local community. We know that in the production field, major technological change has rearranged the coordinates of industrialism. Words like flexi- 3. Education and Governance bilization, adaptability and mobility have replaced specialization, stability and conti- Referring more specifically to the field of nuity. Work has ceased to be linked to each education, we must recognize that we are person’s background and no longer predicts Governance and Education 221 social ties and relationships. This generates en continue to bear primary responsibility for multiple impacts in numerous of directions. care and reproduction. Tensions build due New possibilities have clearly emerged. Peo- to women’s double shifts, while separations ple’s destinies have become less permanent and families where only the woman takes and defined than before. However, at the care of the children are on the rise. All of this same time, people with fewer possibilities at results in new social instability and patterns the outset, with worse conditions in which to of exclusion in which gender is the determin- compete, are much more likely to “be alone ing factor. Meanwhile, jobs that are socially in life” because they can count on fewer “vital essential continue to be undervalued. Such convoys.” Those who have historically lost out is the case of caregivers, who are viewed as on free interaction and capitalist competition carrying out a task of “family love” or having continue to do so, and are in fact more vul- informal, low-paid jobs. nerable and face greater risks. This generates exclusion processes that become manifest in And what about public policies? What ef- new realities related to the field of work: a fect does all this have on educational poli- new kind of youth unemployment, as well as cies? Public policies adopted in the middle structural and long-term adult unemployment; of the 20th century throughout Europe fine- low quality, unskilled work and very low-paid tuned the philosophy of the welfare state: jobs not covered by collective agreement. redistributing interventionism in exchange for free market. The agreement, which was The impact is no less intense from the stand- more or less explicit, has given rise to ele- point of social structures. The traditional ments of conflict. On one hand, there is less industrial society had accustomed us to no- consensus on regulations. On the other, poli- tably stable and predictable class divisions. cies have become less operational and are We are currently witnessing a rapid transi- less capable of incorporating new demands tion from a classist, stratified order to a (dis- and sensitivities. Welfare policies were built organized) social reality with vast forms of on the logic of response to demands that inequality. In the past we had major add-ons were presumed to be homogeneous and dif- and continuations, whereas today we see an ferentiated, and they were handled rigidly increasingly fragmented patchwork of pov- and bureaucratically. Today, for the reasons erty, wealth, failure and success. There is expressed above, demands are increasingly increased individualism, with a proliferation heterogeneous and multifaceted in appear- of risks and questions that often lead those ance, and they can only be tackled from the who can, to look for territorial or institutional political logic of new citizenship in a flex- spaces where they can feel secure with their ible, de-bureaucratized manner. “own kind,” closing the doors to “others.” Of course, fragmentation of society, the What kind of society is emerging? Firstly, there impact of the post-industrial economy on is a clear transition toward a much more com- employment and the insufficient inclusiv- plex and fragmented structure with greater ity in classic welfare policies do not work levels of ethnic diversification, with major in isolation, but are interrelated and often alterations to the age pyramid (with a subse- reinforce each other. Indeed, the dynamics quent increase of demographic dependence), of social exclusion are propagated by these and with a plurality of forms of family life. The relationships. Certain immigrant groups, for entry of women into the workforce is ever instance, occupy the most marginal posi- rising, despite the clear discrimination that tions in the ethnic employment division and remains. However, although these changes face obstacles in accessing social protec- are very positive in terms of returning full tion systems: they are more likely to suffer personal dignity to women, the truth is that academic failure and are highly vulnerable roles at home have hardly changed as wom- to discrimination in the real-estate market. 222 Education: The Present Is the Future

Moreover, dependent and elderly sectors real or potential training activity, everything of the population are often excluded from ends up being the “fault” of education, which social services and have very low coverage is turned into a huge container for collecting rates. Meanwhile, communities living in the everything that doesn’t seem to work, par- segregated outskirts of cities are more vulner- ticularly when the socialization agents who able to long-term unemployment, precarious had accompanied it are missing or have be- labor market integration and academic fail- come vulnerable. ure. In short, reality shows the multifaceted and multidimensional nature of exclusion When discussing education and governance, and the erosion of a concept of citizenship we must defend the view of education as a that has become obsolete. public service. In other words, we must try to establish a better link between education We could say that because there is no col- (and not only schools) and the services and lective sense of a shared project from a so- policies that attempt to enhance citizens’ liv- cial point of view, and with neoconservative ing conditions, while strengthening their ac- positions insisting that we make the most of tive role in the democratic and participatory existing opportunities and that inequality has renovation of traditional welfare policies. no social basis but depends on each person’s Therefore, educational tasks should establish efforts, the idea given to families is “every more networks, foster greater collaboration man for himself.” between professionals from different fields, encourage citizen involvement in education In this context, education appears to guaran- “from the cradle to the grave,” and make a tee better individual opportunities, thus rein- collective effort to resolve integral problems forcing the segmentation and inequitable po- and demand integral solutions. tential that education usually has. Educational policies increase their visibility and social We all educate, and we do so more with our pressure on educational agents, becoming a “noise” (our attitude, our actions) than with central attribute in the individual and collec- our words. In a volume dedicated to the expe- tive ability to face the dynamics of change rience of “educating cities,” we must defend in the production, social and family spheres. perspectives that look for the involvement of But can schools and professional collectives citizens in the “issue of education,” going be- directly linked to education itineraries take yond the educational community per se, and on the growing demands from society? Can encouraging nuclear debates that link educa- they do so alone? These questions have been tion with society, education with citizens. In around for some time, and they have been this context, we should reflect on the defini- either directly or indirectly posed in many of tion of citizen participation and particularly the considerations and expressions of unease on the elements required to make a practical concerning our educational environment. reconstruction of the democratic ideal based on promoting participation and education. Education has spread its influence further than ever before, but this means we must follow a path towards what is now being called 4. Participation, Education, City the knowledge society, in which all aspects of life and social activities contain formative According to a number of writers including components and generate knowledge. One Bauman, Sennett and Castel, the changes of the consequences of this is the idea that mentioned above generate dissociation and any aspect of life can be learned through disaffiliation processes that affect a large formal training and by overcoming former proportion of the population and groups in incompetence. Moreover, when personal or advanced societies. The very foundations of social weaknesses are ultimately linked to a the experience of living in a community, de- Governance and Education 223 fined as a group of people who are “closely limitations) of citizen participation. Experi- interwoven” (Bauman) through many years ences, books, articles, training courses and of shared backgrounds and even longer ex- new professions have turned it into one of pectations of frequent and significant inter- the most popular areas of social sciences and action, are thrown into crisis. Therefore, it political strategy. is not surprising that the community can be represented as a “threat,” a phenomenon that It appears a consensus has been reached results in a loss of authenticity or a danger to regarding the contextualization of current individuality itself. However, we know that demands for citizen participation at a time there are individuals who suffer from isola- when certain aspects of governability that tion and long for a community, a longing that drive traditional governments (representative varies according to the person’s background democracy) are in crisis. Meanwhile, a new and position in the social structure. context is emerging that makes it necessary to move towards new forms of conflict man- If we look closer at the relationship between agement that are more horizontal and com- education and participation in the context plex. The dynamics of governance presented of individualization and community, we re- above highlight the need for citizens to be- alize that, for quite some time, government come involved in decision-making processes structures in representative democracies and to be invited to manage and respond to have lacked mechanisms that enable gov- collective challenges. Participation thus re- ernments to know and consider the interests fers to any type of activity that aims to more and preferences of citizens beyond election or less directly influence political decision- dates. Feelings of dissatisfaction, impotence making. and frustration arising from the passiveness and inefficiency of political leaders distance Participation is also essential in terms of struc- citizens from conventional political partici- turing relationships and building identities. pation channels (elections, political parties, Participation fosters connections and a sense pressure groups) and lead them to search of belonging. One of the problems of cur- for new forms of expression that are usually rent market developments and modern forms grouped under the common denomination of social organization is that individual au- of “social movements.” tonomy can often turn into isolation and un- supportive individualization. In effect, there This situation highlights the need to chan- are many “unheard voices” that need to be nel citizens’ will to participate through new taken into account. It is therefore necessary mechanisms that may enable traditional to create new ways of understanding politics democracy—representative democracy—to and social coexistence, enabling processes narrow the distance between citizenry and of collective identity through dialogue, civic public affairs. It is a matter of recovering education and a balance between individual politics as a res publica, or public matter, interests, private property and the recogni- making the citizen jointly responsible for the tion of wider reciprocal links. This requires decisions made in his or her environment, stimulating values of citizenship. Encourag- without restricting participation to voting ing citizen participation, in its different forms, for political representatives. Meanwhile, the may be a key factor in achieving progress. participation and involvement of policy re- ceivers in their very design, execution and All of this leads us to reconsider the relation- assessment becomes a necessity, rather than ship between public and private. We should an option. avoid falling into the trap of confusing “public” with what belongs to the scope of “pub- Since the second half of the 1990s, many lic powers.” The challenge is to promote studies have been made on the virtues (and public areas in our communities and encour- 224 Education: The Present Is the Future age their everyday use as places for coexist- must be based on significance criteria: par- ence and recognition, without heightening ticipating agents must understand and share the role of governments. From this stand- the meaning of their participation. Secondly, point, the aim would be to achieve greater they must not ignore utility reasons: partici- shared collective responsibility in addressing pating agents must know and be guaranteed the problems that arise from social coexist- the use of their collective involvement. To ence. Thus, “reinventing” politics requires put it more simply, exercising transversality, knowing how to create new forms of col- participation and shared responsibility is not lective action and institutional management merely a sentimental or ideological matter, that can address and demonstrate the value it is also a practical instrument for visualiz- of educational, cultural, human and relation- ing, discussing and balancing a series of in- al wealth, yielding stronger responsibilities dividual, and often conflicting, interests. This and commitments aimed at tackling collec- explains why values of proximity and trans- tive problems. In this context, participation parency should become the basic principles becomes a central issue as a mechanism for of any participatory process. collective responsibility and involvement, an instrument that invites all members of a com- Table 1. Different Conceptions of Participation munity to become citizens. Broader Participation Participation Model If we accept that democracy requires a great- Model er level of public participation in the current Participation: talking Participation: doing and stage of development of our local communities, we should also think about the role and deciding (meeting – transforming (everyday – played by community development and edu- moment) practice) cation in a broad sense. In other words, if we Deliberating and reaching Commitments made see public space as a place for reestablishing a consensus ties between people, groups, activities and the environment by means of knowledge Consultative instrument Binding instrument and recognition, an awareness of interaction and the values that enable cohabitation from Option Necessity a viewpoint of progress and improvement for all, then the participatory reformulation Short term (ad hoc) Medium and long term of representative democracy, particularly on a local level, should take on a leading role. Moment Process Community development experiences are In the context of an key factors in this context. Momentary and isolated ideological and political (“neutral”) Without wishing to simplify, the various forms project of citizen participation can be arranged un- As a medium As a purpose in itself der two major headings: “Participation Mod- el” and “Broader Participation Model.” Table Social opportunity, a Sacrifice 1 provides a summary of the differences be- chance to socialize, etc. tween the two. Source: The author in accordance with DIBA-IGOP Participation should obviously be encouraged (2006): Els Projectes Educatius de Ciutat: Anàlisi de l’experiència acumulada i nova proposta metodològica. while underlining a clear connection with the Regional Government of Barcelona, Col. Guies Me- territory from a viewpoint of proximity and todològiques 7, p. 18. be open to the special needs and features of that territory. All participatory processes must In recent times, new social dynamics have comply with two conditions. Firstly, they opened up new perspectives of education Governance and Education 225 in Europe. Generally speaking, the goal has its traditional functions (economic, social, been transferred from “teaching in the strict political and as a purveyor of services) but sense” to “education in the broad sense.” also an educating function, in the sense Clearly, such a change in perspective en- that its sights are squarely on the educa- tails more than just a change in name (for tion, promotion and development of all its instance, referring to institutional or govern- inhabitants, beginning with children and ment areas “for education” rather than “for youth. (Charter of Educating Cities, 1990) teaching”). In this respect, reference can be made to the recent proliferation of ongoing By working on and studying the concepts of training programs or the spectacular rise in proximity and education linked to a third key the number of students registered in master’s, factor—participation (see previous section)— postgraduate and specialization programs. a new approach appears that exceeds in both It is also worth mentioning the increasingly space and time the meaning of “education- necessary adaptation of programs and cours- al.” Contributions made to the debate on the es in the field of what is generically referred Educating City are a clear example of this to as “adult education.” In short, the educa- new paradigm. tional process is expanding longitudinally: it is becoming increasingly important to under- Table 2 summarizes the main changes to the take lifelong learning. conception of education brought about by this paradigm. However, we must not forget the importance of broadening one’s outlook in a transversal Table 2. Changes in the Conception of Education sense. In general terms, education is seen as something that goes beyond the school, be- Traditional Conception: New Conception: yond what is produced in a formal, regulated teaching-learning context with pedagogical Education Educations and curricular objectives designed with a “Educations,” because Education is school view to obtaining an officially recognized di- everything educates (space) ploma. To summarize, the current framework (spaces) presents areas of learning (i.e., contents, skills, values) that equip people with the Education of children and Lifelong learning tools and skills required to understand and youth (defined time) (time not defined) place themselves in the world they live in. Distance Proximity In the move from teaching to education, political and academic agendas agree on the Sector-based Transversality advisability of including in the educational debate the actors who somehow generate education. If education is not only a mat- Top-down model Participation ter of school teaching, then it is necessary to orchestrate tools for visualizing and har- Centralization Territorialization monizing the role played by all imaginable education agents, including public spaces. It Source: The author in accordance with DIBA-IGOP, is in this context that the experience of “Edu- (2006): Els Projectes Educatius de Ciutat: Anàlisi de cating Cities,” created in 1990 in Barcelona, l’experiència acumulada i nova proposta metodològica. Regional Government of Barcelona, Col. Guies Me- is particularly significant. As expressed in its todològiques 7, p. 16. Charter: These transformations call into question the The city will be educating when it acknow- relevance of the traditional classification of ledges, exercises and develops not only forms of education (formal, nonformal and 226 Education: The Present Is the Future informal education). For example, the last Table 3. The New Areas of Education update of the Charter (November 2004) reflects the scope of the new conception: Education Foundations Criteria (Models) The city’s constant goal will be to learn, exchange, share and thus enrich the lives Space City (urbs) of its inhabitants. The educating city must undertake and develop this function while Time Continuous education (lifelong) undertaking its traditional functions (economic, social, political and as a purveyor City (civitas), social relationships, Social context of services) with its sights squarely on the public space education, promotion and development of Education as a constant and all its inhabitants. The educating city will Everyday life give priority to children and youth, but everyday process with a commitment to including persons of all ages in lifelong learning. Source: Prepared by the author.

The new Charter and contributions made in To conclude, the city and public spaces are the academic and political spheres in recent not merely educational actors and territories. years appear to redefine the definition of edu- Emphasis falls on individual citizens and cation in the 21st century in the framework of their process of educational attainment and the city and public space. The depth of these reception. We educate ourselves in our role redefinitions could be summarized using the as citizens, taking part in collective commit- following criteria: space, time, social context ments, being responsible for what occurs and everyday life. This exercise is expressed beyond our private sphere. This is the con- in the following table: cluding message of a text that has attempted to define and relate views on these times of change, describe new types of participation and governance, and explore the role played by education from a vital and transversal conception of its content and impact. Lifelong Education: A Political Options

Philippe Meirieu interviewed by Joan Manuel del Pozo

Philippe Meirieu (Alès, France, 1949) is currently a university lecturer in Education Sciences, after an extensive career in primary and secondary school education. Professionally he has served as head teacher of an experimental school, Editor in Chief of Cahiers péd- agogiques, Head of the National Institute for Education Research (INRP) and of the Lyon Institute for the Training of University Lectur- ers.

He currently directs the journal Pédagogies and is educational Head of CAP CANAL, an educational channel. He has published some thirty works including: L’école, mode d’emploi – des “méthodes ac- tives” à la pédagogie (ESF éditeur, Paris, 1985, 16º édition, 2005), Apprendre ...oui, mais comment (ESF éditeur, Paris, 1987, 19º édi- tion, 2004), Le choix d’éduquer – Ethique et pédagogie (ESF édi- teur, Paris, 1996, 5º édition, 2006), Frankenstein pédagogue (ESF éditeur, 1996, 5º édition, 2006), Faire l’école, faire la classe (Paris, ESF, 2004), Lettre à un jeune professeur (ESF – France Inter, 2005), Pédagogie: le devoir de résister (ESF éditeur, 2007). In October 2007 he published his latest book: Une autre télévision est possible (Chro- nique sociale, 2007). Lifelong Education: A Political Option

“Nobody educates anybody, we all educate In her view, education consists in determin- each other, ‘mediated’ by the world.” ing what another person is to learn, as spe- (Paulo Freire). cifically occurs in childhood. Hannah Arendt however goes beyond this, and emphasises the fact that if a State attempts to educate it is Introductory note either a totalitarian state, or is bordering on totalitarianism. According to Hannah Arendt, Lifelong education of citizens has been, and the passage to adulthood occurs precisely still is, one of the most fundamental concerns when the subject is able to decide what he/ of the International Association of Educating she should learn. Thus when she states that Cities. Nowadays, knowledge acquired for adult education and democracy are incom- any sort of work seems to require constant patible, she refers to a political problem of updating. However, it is also true that the ap- no slight importance... Which is why I pro- parently easy, ubiquitous access to sources posed to the UNESCO Committee on which I of information cloaks, and at times even preserved, the use of the notion of continuous or vents, access to knowledge. In reality, we lifelong learning, as I believe it underscores need to reassess the challenges of lifelong the fact that under no circumstance are we education within the current context and, saying that we decide what an adult should particularly, more clearly identify the role learn. Indeed, quite the contrary, we are con- that Educating Cities could play therein. vinced that an individual’s very involvement in the choice of what he/she wishes to learn We have asked Philippe Meirieu and Joan or be trained in, helps shape him/her as an Manuel Del Pozo to share their ideas on adult and, at the same time, that involvement these questions. acknowledges and promotes the individual’s status as a citizen. (Pilar Figueras, Secretary General of IAEC) Joan Manuel del Pozo: Philippe Meirieu: It is true that whatever the term used to as- In the first place, I believe we should clarify sociate the responsibility of the powers that the semantic ambiguity surrounding the term be regarding what an individual should lifelong education. In effect, it may be used to learn, it should never be in the vein of life- refer to very different realities that are linked, long education-training of an authoritarian or not, to professional development, and, ilk. Nonetheless, in the Castilian and Catalan above all, it should not be reduced to refer- languages, for instance, the word education ring merely to the latter. Moreover I find my- (“educación/educació”) is not necessarily self questioning just how opportune or not it laden with authoritarian connotations. The is to use the term education when we speak word training (“formación/formació”) is ac- of adults, within the context of the current ceptable, since it is fully compatible with re- ideological debate. Philosophers, such as specting an individual’s autonomy. Hannah Arendt, consider that what charac- terises the adult is that he or she can conti- On the other hand the term learning/appren- nue to learn, but can no longer be educated. ticeship (“aprendizaje/aprenentage”) is of a 230 Education: The Present Is the Future markedly instrumentalist nature, and thus is ertheless, it is not true that democracy re- directly associated with vocational training mains firmly in place. One of the problems or professional development. of the 21st century is that the theocracies, in the geopolitical sense of the word, wield P. M. tremendous power all over the planet. And In Hannah Arendt’s analysis, upheld today that in those states considered democratic, by the majority of theoreticians in demo- theocratic nostalgia remains likewise power- cracy, she defines a totalitarian regime as one ful. It is a natural temptation to those pressed which mistakes the role of the individual. to decide on their future; people who, at the That is, a regime which acts as if children end of the day, would rather others decided were adults and adults children. According for them. The seat of power, which should to Hannah Arendt, one must respect the es- remain vacant, is still greatly coveted, and sential boundary between the time in which thus we must remain constantly vigilant … the child, not yet capable of choosing for it- even of ourselves. So we constantly need to self, needs to be educated by those who de- reaffirm that to us continuous training is es- cide, who know “what is good for” him or sentially something seen from a democratic her, and when the adult, as a citizen, must be point of view. It is the “user”—a word most acknowledged both as a stakeholder in his/ inappropriately coined in this context—that her own destiny and as a player in the life of must decide, and not any kind of priesthood the City. Although the distinction proposed or technostructure. may be questioned from a pedagogical point of view—I personally believe that pedagogy J. M. P. should enable the individual for this essen- Within that context, what do we understand tial transition—, I believe it better to avoid today to be “pertinent knowledge” in the the risk of appearing to conceive continuous area of continuous training? training as the indoctrination of our minors. In the current debate in France—which has P. M. seen a significant growth in authoritarian Today there is nobody that doubts lifelong thinking—Hannah Arendt’s theory is widely education is an unavoidable necessity. They used to discredit any kind of teaching aimed say that any kind of work requires the per- at developing the child’s autonomy in his/her tinent knowledge base to be constantly re- own education. Her theories should not be freshed. But is that really true? It is possible further employed to discredit adult training. that our society may still continue to exist, and even develop, with part of the popula- J. M. P. tion occupied in subordinate forms of work, We speak of lifelong education in the liberal without any need to understand the un- sense of the term, not as a state programmed derlying mechanisms and challenges. And system of education designed to control the that is precisely why I believe the need for citizen. It means education as a spur to au- continuous training does not answer to eco- tonomy. Thus I believe the terms education nomic necessity but to democratic ambition or training can be used indistinctly. ... If we examine the contradictory forecasts made by economists, we cannot exclude the P. M. possibility that the economies of the western One must constantly bear in mind the fact countries may continue to develop, without that democracy, according to Claude Lefort, encountering any major difficulties, even if is a regime in which the seat of power is left we were to keep 15-20% of the population vacant. It is a space which nobody is em- at a very low level of qualification and work- powered to occupy: it is the collective in dis- ing at menial tasks. Whatever some may say, cussion that exercises power, a power which our western economies still require the per- no one person may attempt to embody. Nev- formance of many tasks which can be carried Lifelong Education: A Political Option 231 out without any real culture, qualification or ment of continuous training, in the strictest training … or for which the training would sense of the term, is not something which is cost more than the yield obtained. Given the inevitable: true continuous training is a po- above then, to state that any kind of work re- litical option, a societal option ... We don’t quires the constant refreshment of the knowl- have to sit with our arms crossed waiting. We edge base would obviously be to opt for a so- must take up the battle cry. ciety in which each and every individual, in his/her work, would benefit from collective J. M. P. evolution and would acquire the means by I believe lifelong education to be a right. which to understand and master the world. Such would be a political option, a choice P. M. therefore which would, unsurprisingly, meet Yes, in effect, I fully share your view. To speak certain resistance. of “a right” means to leave the paradigm of supply to one side and consider it insuffi- If in reality our societies truly required the cient to offer no more than training that will general cultural, intellectual and conceptual guarantee things continue to work. It could level of the citizen to be raised, and if our even be said that a multiplicity of supply is economies were unable to survive without not mechanically democratising. This is what that, the kind of television we see in the west- Bourdieu indicated back in the 1960’s, with ern world would be very different to what it regard to developing the supply of culture. is. On the other hand, our school systems He underscored the fact that multiplying the would stop farming out the children with number of options available did not neces- greatest difficulties to vocational training sarily mean that people would buy more programmes, we would not systematically theatre tickets or go to museums more. What reduce them to courses purely aimed at the occurs is that it is the same individuals who so called “manual” trades. It is not certain buy more tickets. As the amount of culture that, in the current liberal configuration, our supplied increases, so do the inequalities. A societies require us to maintain the distinc- parallel is to be drawn with training. In any tion between those that work without under- country today the consumption of continu- standing and those who understand but do ous training is directly proportional to the not “work,” in the sense of not “working” level of initial training. The higher the level of in production, that is, not getting their hands initial training received, the greater the level dirty with manual work, not even in their own of access to continuous training. And the personal lives. There is nothing to guarantee opposite is also true, the less initial training that our economies will require the popula- people receive, the less they will benefit from tion as a whole to have achieved a high level continuous training. The main difficulty is in of training. For example, in France we have reversing this trend and at least attempting established a professional baccalaureate, at- to ensure that a lower level of initial training tended by a third of all the country’s youth. does not prove a handicap when it comes to And everybody considers it normal for these benefitting from all continuous training has young people not to be taught philosophy. to offer. The drama and resentment that some That is to say, normal that a third of all French may feel with regard to our ideas on continu- baccalaureate students, merely because they ous training, derives precisely from this para- are to work at a so-called manual trade, are dox: it represents a second chance only for deprived of the right to reflect on love, death, those who have already benefited from the desire, justice, truth and all the other existen- first chance of going to school, … and is thus tial and political issues. There are those who not in the least democratic. Rather than lev- believe that to be a blacksmith or mechanic elling the differences, our continuous train- one doesn’t need to study philosophy. Con- ing policies would actually seem to tend to sequently I feel convinced that the develop- accentuate them. 232 Education: The Present Is the Future

J. M. P. not require treatment. They are people with And thus the fundamental role of Educating whom one needs to reflect on the kind of al- Cities: to press forwards with action that will ternative that could be offered, and on how allow us to counteract this tendency, so that such alternatives should be suggested to the people can benefit from a higher level of teenager in question. When society refers all training. To achieve this we need to crosslink educational problems to the health or medi- policies and transversally articulate the dif- cal services, it means that it has, in reality, ferent areas and departments involved in renounced education. regulating city life. Nobody can deny the great difficulties many parents face today and instead of stigmatising P. M. them or treating them like people who have Yes, that is obviously essential. We need to be shirked their parental duties, instead of sys- able to create collective components which tematically treating the children with drugs have no more than compartments. To such or placing them on behavioural recondition- ends Bertrand Schwartz, founder and direc- ing programmes (merely to ensure they stay tor of the National Institute of Adult Training calm), it would be far better to establish real in Nancy, proposed that when training, the training spaces. Such spaces should be open, different levels of responsibility should be, at should not assign blame, in order to help the least partially, mixed. He established a meth- parents tackle the problems they face with od based on the analysis of the dysfunctions. their children and for which there is no “off The joint effort made to discern the dysfunc- the peg” solution available, quite simply be- tions, and the difficulties that emerge along cause when they were young such problems the way, establish a dynamic in which each did not exist and thus they are unable to re- individual commits to seek an understand- fer to the educational heritage they received ing of the problem, engages in an exchange from their own parents. with others and discovers new horizons, new needs and a new wish list for training. J. M. P. Schwartz pointed out that when a dysfunc- The Charter of Educating Cities refers to the tion appears, it represents an opportunity, a training of fathers and mothers. It is essential, way to make people reflect on how they can both for the individual and the family. One jointly set out to resolve the problem, thus can educate for complexity, but must avoid harnessing and developing the creativity of education based on automatic solutions. all. It is a good example of how collective, plural, transverse reflection can benefit the P. M. development of training. Consequently parental training should always mobilise professionals of different kinds, with Nevertheless, continuous training is not lim- different areas of knowledge. Such training ited merely to professional development. I should tackle problems of a psychological personally attach great importance to training nature as well as others like access to writ- people in parenting. The northern European ten information, in which we know that the countries have started to look at such issues, family environment plays a decisive role. Of but in my opinion they focus too strongly on course, it is evident that one must work with psychology and psychotherapy. One must the parents on citizen training, the construc- not forget that the problems parents current- tion of norms, the identification of the legiti- ly face are compounded by a want of peda- mate authorities, etc.. gogical reflection on the new issues that have emerged. Thus we see parents with problems J. M. P. because their children are addicted to video Even the politicians have to be trainers. games. They are not necessarily “sick,” do They should put forward continuous training Lifelong Education: A Political Option 233 programmes. The increasing complexity of acting one way or another may have; we try knowledge would seem to require continu- to discern all of the foreseeable options and ous training not to treat any single field of construct all of the possible scenarios: we knowledge in isolation. analyse all of the consequences we are able to foresee in the short-, mid- and long term. I P. M. have even used this technique with children’s That is absolutely essential. The danger we municipal councils, to attempt to make them face in our societies is that we tend to present understand that there are no magically im- the citizen with technical decisions which posed solutions, but rather a series of options highly specialised experts have told us are and possibilities each with its own different inevitable. To reintroduce complexity is to consequences, and that these will depend on introduce freedom, to demonstrate that all the different value options and views of the is coherent and that it is possible to adopt future chosen. different solutions, depending on one’s orientation and priorities. Introducing complex- To me, one of the roles of continuous training ity means opening the road to inventability, is to demythologise the allant-de-soi, that is, since the solution to any complex situation all that is taken for granted; to demythologise must be invented, and not deduced. the magic solutions and knee-jerk responses; to imagine other possible eventualities such J. M. P. as: What would happen if we were to act in Here one must condemn the resort of magic: a different way? If we were to take up other technical magic. Technology is the magic of options? If we were to deposit the money our age. It is mobilised to justify and cloak somewhere else? or, What would happen if political ineptitude, ill political intent, au- fate were not to take a hand in all of this? thoritarianism or paternalism, that is, the For example, when I am leading continuing different ways one may close oneself off to education courses for teachers, I ask ques- democratic dialogue. It is paradoxical. Nor- tions like: How much does it cost the school mally one would assume technology to be and state when children have to repeat a year the antithesis of magic. In principle, tech- at your school?; What would happen if we nology permits us to tackle our problems were to decide to take that money and use it with rigour and excludes magic. But, in re- for something other than paying for children ality, technology offers itself as the solution, repeating years? In today’s society it is impor- against which nobody has the right to pro- tant for training to help people understand test. In philosophical terms, it is the techno- that other possible options for using public science of our times, that is, a science which money do exist, that there are other forms of invades the responsibilities and purposes of social organisation than those which we are life, and which ceases to be science to be- offered, and that decisions are not imposed, come technology. quite the contrary to what occurs in a theoc- racy or technocracy …

P. M. It is no mere coincidence that Harry Potter That is why, with respect to what you have is front page news today; it is because we just brought up, my team and I have devel- have all fallen under the spell of magic. Ours oped a training method that we call the sce- is a world in which we seek to resolve all nario method. We start with the problem, be problems with technical solutions, most like- it of a family, professional or political nature, ly developed by the intelligence of the few, and work on the different components of but which in reality end up short-circuiting the problem together with the stakeholders; the ability of others to use their own intel- we attempt to discover where we may have ligence. Thus technology, the all powerful, an influence and to understand what effects becomes the instrument of our individual 234 Education: The Present Is the Future and collective regression to childhood, of for the sake of the end purpose. Thus we may the temptation to direct everything with the open up new prospects, release ourselves power of the word, or of our expression. We from the influence of the organisation and of dream of a world in which collective discus- mere management. It gives us a key to the sion has disappeared, from which contradic- future, instead of remaining incarcerated in tions have been erased, in which tension has an infuriating reproduction of the past. been suspended. A world in which each and every one of us can sit in the seat of God. J. M. P. However, such a world would represent the I believe, then, that instead of merely teach- most terrible return to barbarism, for god’s ing knowledge we should place the empha- are always at each other’s throats. Citizens, sis on developing a taste for knowledge, for on the other hand, know they are not gods learning and for the truth, a taste for exigen- and that is why they can and, indeed, must cy... discuss issues. Thus they need to denaturalise and de-technify problems to reveal the chal- P. M. lenges and thus be able to choose. Continu- That is true on all levels. Children have the ous training is essential if we are to return right to perfection in the simplest of things man to the world of modernity, to return to since we should always demand of ourselves freedom, responsibility and temporality. the highest level possible, regardless of how we are classified. The child has the right to be J. M. P. expected to be perfect in each and every act, The problem with our civilisation is that it as well as the right to be helped to achieve is a civilisation with means, the purpose of said perfection. When we do something ap- which is not known. Our civilisation is the parently banal, it does not mean it has to be first in the history of humanity to possess so mediocre. It can even be perfection itself, of many refined means at the service of such the most absolute purity. The Chinese cal- confused purpose. We have so many “how ligrapher, whose writing achieves the utmost to’s,” but so little knowledge of what they are simplicity, also attains perfection, as does the really for. cabinet maker, the engineer, the farmer or the surgeon… Any human act has access to P. M. perfection, and should always be performed Moreover, the confusion is so great that with such an aim in mind... Unfortunately, means are mistaken for the ends. After a cer- our society tends to mistake perfection for tain point, as there is no clear purpose, all the social status of a task, exigency for elit- we are left with is the means. For example, it ism. is not the purpose of a school to organise the children in classes, but a means, one which This is an area in which continuous train- has proven itself effective and useful since, at ing has a fundamental role to play: to make some point in its history, it has helped the edu- people internalise the exactitude or exigency cation system to progress substantially. None- of any activity whatsoever—from cookery to theless, it is no more than a means. However, artistic creation, from craft work to political after a time people come to believe it to be action—to allow people to grow and commit the end purpose: they no longer think of the themselves to a task which leads them to use end purpose of the school—to learn and to their increasingly sophisticated knowledge, learn together—and it is sufficient for them to to set themselves challenges and then excel, ask themselves how to make the classes meet to develop personally and thus to contribute with the demands placed on them and their more and more to the collective. If this is not timetables … The end purpose is forgotten as all firmly embedded during childhood and the means is totemised. To me, continuous throughout an individual’s training then, with training has the duty to question the means regard to knowledge, we will always find Lifelong Education: A Political Option 235 ourselves in a utilitarian, “economic” (in the ing training via citizen exchange is, without strictest sense of the term, as established by a doubt, one of the most important missions Adam Smith) relationship. That is, to expend of Educating Cities. the minimum effort possible to achieve the greatest possible number of useful effects. A J. M. P. true human being will only enter into such There are other notions I would like to intro- a relationship with an action if, beyond ma- duce, such as the spirit of cooperation and terial and technical efficacy, something else solidarity, notions of highly significant value takes place on a different plane, on a sym- from a democratic point of view. They lead bolic level. to the exclusion of paternalism and consist in seeking a situation of equality in order to P. F. learn and exchange. In this respect, work- When a city’s educational conscience be- ers offered additional training opportunities comes more visible, what changes in collec- should never have to run the risk of losing tive life could one expect to see? their jobs. Training should guarantee their finding a new job, more fitting to the new P. M. skills they will have acquired. City policy in the area of training has often- times consisted in opening up spaces of encounter, mobilisation and exchange. As far P. M. as I am concerned, my interest is strongly To permit people mobility within their eco- drawn to a movement that has been grow- nomic and social space is, once again, one ing in France, in a somewhat marginal way, of the greatest challenges of continuous train- and is called networks for the reciprocal ex- ing. In effect, it is far too frequent that human change of knowledge. It a movement inspired society assigns definitive posts to individuals. on the one hand by Paulo Freire or Iván Illich In terms of inhuman society, they will incar- while, on the other, by local dynamics (the cerate people in such posts. Training offers the movement first emerged in Orly, just outside possibility of escaping such incarceration, of Paris). It permits the cities to weave a fabric avoiding the fate of one’s sociocultural legacy, of training networks between different indi- of avoiding the individual being classified as viduals. With the “Tree of Knowledge” soft- a being radically incapable of thinking any ware, developed by the philosopher Michel other way or of becoming anything else be- Serres and colleagues, it is fairly easy to do cause of his/her pertinence to one particular nowadays. This software tool permits one to ethnic group. Contrary to the utopias of the identify and exchange knowledge and skills 19th and 20th centuries, our modern societies between different people, without necessari- must be societies of assumed mobility ... To ly having to go through the institutional struc- me, a society that progresses is a society in ture nor incur any sort of cost. Better yet, the which one’s position is not unavoidable, that cities may become instances that stimulate is, a society in which individuals may project the exchange of knowhow, knowledge and a future for themselves different to the situa- skills in such a way that people of different tion in which they currently find themselves. cultures, sensibilities, trades and ages may No longer are they condemned to continue come to know each other and reciprocally where they are. benefit in a serious, deep way, generating new solidarity through training. We must be This would then lead us to a banality: from able to connect those that have the skills and this time forward we should change trade are available with those in need thereof. We several times during the course of our lives. must be capable of engendering encounters, Nonetheless, this should not be considered however improbable they may seem, to pro- as simply obeying the commands of the mote inter-training. To contribute to develop- great enterprises that require more flexibil- 236 Education: The Present Is the Future ity from their workforces. It may also be a long has fallen on our western democracies; right granted to the individual, to seek pro- the want of a spirit of participation. Some- fessional change when he/she wants change thing to which many citizens offer a rather and believes him/herself capable of greater singular response: they say they do not feel self-realisation in a different line of activ- themselves competent to participate in the ity. When I was director of IUFM (Univer- public arena. Together with the usual dis- sity Institute for Teacher Training) in Lyon, I course on politicians (“politicians are cor- developed a device by which to make such rupt, they are too distant from the people …”), change, for people from different trades who there is part of this problem which directly wanted to start teaching. The device has giv- affects continuous training: citizens declare en excellent results; highly motivated people their failure to understand politics and their with a wealth of professional and personal inability to participate in the public debate. experience that decide to go into teaching This should not be forgotten as it contains a and thus bring supplementary dynamism to hidden demand for people to come to feel any school. Here then, a change of trade is a themselves socially competent. In effect, if way of achieving self-realisation and of help- we speak to these people we discover they ing a public institution to better achieve its have great interest and indeed raise the fun- mission. damental issues. And if, as politicians, we do not tackle the question of these representa- In fact, we should refuse to impose house tions for “citizen competence,” the people arrest on anybody’s professional identity. will not go out and vote. Thus the problem We should refuse to involve ourselves in the is to know how to develop a training pro- deadly logic of a society that classifies, se- gramme which will permit people to com- lects and pigeonholes individuals, labelling mit themselves to the collective in a lucid them with indelible ink. We tell them that it way. is possible to make something else of yourself and act differently. Beyond the mere techni- P. F. cal issues of work management, a progres- But here we face a fundamental deficiency: sive society is one in which the person, as a we find ourselves wanting in political peda- whole, may develop their own life project, gogy. We would seem to be incapable of and not remain condemned to reproduce explaining to the citizen what is being done, the project others have determined for them. and what is going to be done. It is the re- And we must help individuals to achieve this, sponsibility of the politician to explain to the provide them with the means they require to citizen why certain policies are adopted or make their project a reality. Politically speak- certain actions taken. This is a basic issue for ing, this lies at the heart of the dynamics of Educating Cities. democracy. J. M. P. J. M. P. We need a continuous training programme I fully agree. But moreover, the concept of that will allow the politicians to explain to citizenship could be made complete with people just what their daily work consists of. this political aspect. That is, the individual In some cases this is done, but not to the ex- does not only have the right to their own tent that it should be. It is necessary if people autonomous individual project, but also the are to understand the collective process, to right and duty to participate freely in collec- feel motivated to participate, to do far more. tive projects. This is yet another side of our But to achieve this, politicians must come society which is still somewhat lacking. We closer to the citizens, in order to explain the are all familiar with the criticism that for so choices to be made. Lifelong Education: A Political Option 237

P. M. ferent forms of artistic expression, and use Faith must be placed in people’s intelligence. them in our lives. Some years ago I took part in a series of TV broadcasts on how taxes were used. I com- P. M. pared the cost of building a school to, for ex- I do not agree at all with the idea that cul- ample, the cost of building one kilometre of tural exigency is intrinsically elitist. It is a motorway. In the same vein, I explained the long held belief that if culture is widely dis- cost of an educator, and that of a prisoner. A seminated and democratised, it will become prisoner costs 1.5 times more than the sal- diluted, mediocre. As if a few of the chosen ary of an educator. We need to learn to talk could guarantee the goodness of paradise! about such technical issues as taxes and the As if by sharing it, the knowledge were to use of public moneys in a lively, involving lose its qualities! On the contrary, knowl- way, spelling out what room there is for ma- edge has an extraordinary quality: the more noeuvre. We need to modernise such ques- it is shared, the better it is possessed and the tions of finance, to escape from this demobil- better command one has over that which is ising opacity, so that the citizen understands given. The more it is shared, the more exact- just what things cost, the social costs in the ing the knowledge will become... mid- and long term. In effect, one of the significant problems is that the politicians never In particular, the exigencies related to lan- talk about the social costs, the costs with the guage, to the exactness, the precision and consequences deriving from their choice. the beauty of expression is a constituent, Victor Hugo said: “When we open a school, constructive demand of the human condi- we close a prison.” tion. I have always focussed my pedagogical work on exigency; I have always asked my- At present in France we massively suppress self how to be exacting and how to convey it all aid to associations (especially those deal- in such a way that another will adopt it and ing with juvenile delinquents), and instead so progress … I am very sensitive to the way invest the money in the building of closed humanism has offered us this principle of educational centres (prisons for teenagers). perfectibility which permits us to excel. If I It’s an option, but one that brings serious battle in the schools, it is for the principle of problems along with it. the perfectibility of both what we do, and of ourselves. Through our work we contribute J. M. P. to our own perfectibility, and that of human- Is there a space for progressive humanist ity as a whole. education? Greek philosophy associates humanism and elitism: of truly cultivated men I often say that culture is what brings to- there cannot be many... Many people today gether the inner self and that which is uni- still believe that if you speak properly then versal or, rather more modestly, “universalis- you are cultivated and elitist. If we say, for able”... Greco-Roman mythology speaks to example, that our students should speak me of things that are infinitely personal and properly, there are those who would say that intimate—my relationship to life and death, ours is a humanist and elitist programme. my relationship with others, my fear of being To me, one of the great purposes of life is to devoured by them and, in turn, my desire to know, recognise and enjoy the beauty which devour them—things which Hesiod or Ovid many, unfortunately, have been unable to ac- manage to give form to with a linguistic and cess. This is something that I believe should symbolic beauty which is capable of reaching be incorporated into continuous training: we out to us all. All culture—Western and Afri- should all have a better knowledge of the dif- can, Oriental and American Indian, but also 238 Education: The Present Is the Future scientific and academic literary culture—can P. F. help us build ourselves and discover that hu- And, from that point of view, we should also manity which makes us deeply supportive of analyse the role the Association of Educating others. Cities is to play in the future. I hope we will continue travelling that road together. J. M. P. We are symbolic creatures. The individual constructs him/herself via symbols. 3

Educating Cities: 20 years Educating Cities. International Congresses

Eulàlia Bosch and the IAEC Secretariat

The 1st International Congress of Educating as disconnected are in fact part of a common Cities took place in Barcelona in November dynamic, one that is increasingly difficult to 1990. An assemblage of 63 cities from 21 see and hence to recover at the level of the countries around the world discussed the im- politico-cultural processes through which portance of education for good governance the city educates us.” (pp. 56 & 72, 1st Inter- of urban life. The first international meeting national Congress of Educating Cities. Final was driven by the steadfast resolve of Bar- Papers; Barcelona, Spain; November 1990) celona’s mayor, Pasqual Maragall, to create public awareness about the inherent educa- Public urban space was presented as a place tional capacity of contemporary cities. of memory, a meeting point and a platform for urban transformation. The complexity of The presentations made at the 1st Congress human relations implied in this multifaceted highlighted some aspects of the urban expe- concept of the contemporary city served to rience that, being so linked to everyday life, underline the need for the participation of often go unnoticed, not only by many local children and young people in general, which government representatives but also by many at that time were social groups with little say professionals in the educational sector. The in public matters. debate on the city as a breeding ground for education, which emerged from the presen- Thus, the message put forth at that first inter- tations of Saskia Sassen, Fiorenzo Alfieri and national meeting was that local governments Roland Castro, was a fine example of the should strongly encourage the identification change of focus towards which this new edu- and recognition of other actors and settings cational forum was aiming. In the words of as educational agents, in addition to families Saskia Sassen: and schools. This meant opening the door for all citizens to participate, while inviting edu- “To speak of the city as landscape or stage is cators to view the city as a huge center of to speak about the economic, political and resources at their disposal. cultural processes that constitute the city and assume distinct visual forms. The cen- The 1st Congress ended with the approval of tral business district dominated by corporate the initial Educating Cities Charter, which office buildings, the spaces for organized defined the principles and values that the culture with their theaters and museums, participating cities undertook to promote in the neighborhoods where the working class their political activities. The Educating Cit- lives. These visual forms declare themselves ies International Documents Databank was to us; they tell a fairly straightforward story. created to provide a permanent link between But if we are going to pursue the theme of the the cities. It is managed by the City of Bar- conference—the city as it educates us—then celona. more than mere description of visual forms is called for. Then we need to uncover what * the city tells us about the broader narrative contained in its landscape, in its diverse built The cities attending the 1st Congress expressed spaces. [...] The different urban spaces we see willingness to develop the contents of the 242 Educating Cities: 20 years

Educating Cities Charter and agreed to meet Among those invited to speak at the Con- two years later in Gothenburg. Additionally, gress was Paulo Freire, who talked about the Permanent Inter-Congress Committee the importance of infusing justice and equal was formed, consisting of the following cit- opportunity into the policies of a city at the ies: Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham, Geneva, service of its people: Gothenburg, Montpellier, Rotterdam and Tu- rin. The primary function of the committee is “It is important to state that it is not enough to decide the location and dates of the fol- to recognize the city as educating, independ- lowing congresses, collaborate with the host ently from our wishes or desire. The city be- city and investigate the possibility of creating comes educating from the need to educate, an organization that promotes communica- to learn, to teach, to know, to create, to im- tion between cities and encourages actions agine, and all of us, women and men alike, of solidarity in accordance with the princi- infuse its fields, its mountains, its valleys, its ples of the Educating Cities Charter. rivers; infuse its streets, its squares, its fountains, its homes and its buildings, leaving the From 1990-1992, the Permanent Committee footprint of a given time, the style and taste was active in designing the content for the of a certain epoch. The city is culture, and Gothenburg Congress; the Barcelona Sec- creativity, not only because of what we do in retariat collaborated during those two years it and with it, or what we create in it and with of preparation, providing criteria and expe- it. It is also culture because of the proper aes- rience. Meanwhile, the Secretariat worked thetic aspect or the mere horror we give it. with cities that had taken part in the first Con- The city is us and we are the city. But we must gress as well as others, in order to publicize not forget that what we are contains some- the Charter, supply material for the Database thing of what was. Something coming to us and get new cities to join the movement. through the historical continuity we cannot escape—yet upon which we can work—and through the cultural traits we inherited. The committee was operational until 1994, when the International Association of Edu- While educating, the city is also educated. cating Cities was created. Much of its task as an educator is connected to our political stand and, obviously, to how From November 25 to 27, 1992, some 900 we exercise power in the city and the dream participants from 130 cities and 43 differ- nd and utopia that permeate our politics in the ent countries met in Gothenburg for the 2 service of what and whom we render it—the International Congress. From day one, the politics of public expenditure, cultural and Congress endorsed the Charter’s ideas and educational politics, the politics of health, opted for a central theme that called for transport and leisure. The very politics about education beyond traditional education cen- how to stress one part of the city’s memory ters: Lifelong Learning in the Educating Cities. or another, through the mere existence of The purpose of that theme was to extend the which, the city exercises its educational role. education of children and young people to Even in this, our political decisions can in- become lifelong training. Like the previous terfere…. edition, the Congress program included the framework papers as well as the presentation Since there is no education without educa- of experiences that could potentially serve as tion policies that establish priorities, aims, points of reference for participating cities; a contents, means, and infuse dreams and uto- total of 75 experiences were presented. One pias, I don’t think it would harm anyone in noteworthy aspect of the Congress was the this meeting to dream a little. Let us be a little involvement of the city’s different agents in adventurous and risk thinking about certain organizing the event. concrete values that might be incorporated Educating Cities. International Congresses 243 into our educational desires and those of the celona delegation for a contribution on the educating cities as we head toward the end common objectives of all those cities, in the of a century, and the end of a millennium. hope of clarifying the nature of the organisation jointly created two years ago at the One of these dreams to struggle for—a possi- First Congress of Barcelona, Educating City, a ble dream, but one where the concrete reali- concept which is growing strongly and rapidly. zation demands coherency, courage, tenac- ity, a sense of justice and the strength to fight, Where are we heading? What are we looking from all those who give themselves to it—is for? What is our objective? The delegates at the dream for a less ugly world, where the Gothenburg formulated the question jointly: inequality diminishes and where discrimina- what are our common objectives? The con- tion based on race, sex and class are a mat- cept of Educating City is not an abstract idea ter of shame and not of proud affirmation or but the concrete expression of Educating constant, purely hollow regrets. Cities grouping together, of the objectives common to all the Educating cities which as- This is essentially a dream, without the re- sembled for the first time in Barcelona, those alization of which the democracy we talk so which met in Göteborg, those which made much about, especially today, is a farce. the firm and public commitment of becoming Educating Cities, those which we will be What kind of democracy is it that finds cli- meeting in two years’ time at the Third Con- matic explanations or reasons of genetic in- gress and all those which will become Edu- competence for the sufferings of millions of cating Cities over the years. starving and rejected, forbidden to read the word and badly reading their world. We should ask ourselves right from the beginning what are the common objectives of Another fundamental dream, which we the Educating Cities because it is these ob- should incorporate in the teaching of the jectives only that Educating Cities should educating cities, is the one about the right have in common. The cities which have we have in a true democracy to be different gathered with the intention of exchanging and, by extension, the right to be respected experiences on the long road of education in those differences.” (pp. 18-19, Farrington, differ from each other, and it could even be Freire, Revans, Sapp: Four of the main speak- said that they must differ greatly precisely be- ers at the 2nd International Congress of Edu- cause they have the extensive and complex cating Cities; Gothenburg, Sweden; Novem- common objective of becoming Educating ber 1992) Cities.

For many of the participants, it was clear that In the same way as the particular character the concept of Educating City was in itself and personality of each different teacher becoming an instrument for better under- responsible for the education of pupils is a standing the urban phenomenon, without very forceful and essential factor in educa- any exclusion, and of its mechanisms for tion—which is always a matter of relation- management and reproduction. ships between people—similarly the specific character of each city—and we notice it all In this respect, the message delivered by the more as it is more characteristic—influ- Marta Mata, Councilor of Education for the ences the development and the character of City of Barcelona, was fundamental (tran- its citizens, adults, young people and child scribed below). ren alike.

“The organisers of the Second International Indeed there exist differences even between Congress of Educating Cities asked the Bar- the citizens of the same country and the same 244 Educating Cities: 20 years social background; for example, the citizens gle love. Or is it two? A love of the city and a of Gothenburg consider themselves different love of education, the training of individuals, from those of Stockholm. These differences humanity itself. Or maybe these are one and already stand out quite clearly in the alpha- the same thing: humanity, the human com- betical list of papers presented by the cities munity, the city as creator of human com- present at this Congress in Gothenburg. munities.

The significance of being born, of living and As Educating Cities, we started from this two- working in Adelaide, Barcelona, Berlin, Bo- fold reality and joined together under one logna, Budapest or in Cerdanyola del Vallès, single idea. What idea? We shall endeavour that active pugnacious little town near Bar- first to answer the question with ten premises celona, shows us how deeply the character which define this concept of man and the hu- of its citizens is shaped by the city and its man social grouping which we call the city. characteristic features. 1. The city regroups people into a single There are elements of diversity between cit- space. It offers the possibility, in varying ies: their history, either ancient or more re- degrees of quality, of living in proximity cent, its remaining monuments and archives, with others while preserving privacy, of their rate of development, the changes they sharing public services, of having neigh undergo, sometimes dramatic, occurring bours who can help one and whom one erratically or in sudden bursts, their urban can help and above all with whom one development, their festivals, their provision can communicate. of services, their geographical situation (different continents, on the coast, in a plain, in 2. In varying degrees of generosity, town high mountains, their climate). How much planning provides public spaces, streets, better we are able to know and understand squares and parks, and communication, the citizens of Gothenburg now that we whether physical or personal. know the specific character of its climate and its way of life. 3. The city is a variable source of work, providing employment which each individual The linguistic differences are even greater, seeks and may choose according to his since languages codify all the other differ- interest and his requirements and which ences and mark the character of each individ- will, in turn, produce goods and services ual, as Paulo Freire said. Even in education of mutual benefit. there are wide differences between cities; for example between Barcelona, the seat of the 4. The city provides health assistance through First Congress, which has no competence in careful and sophisticated health care and the education system itself and which has must become a provider of health itself built only a small number of schools and through the recuperation of its ecological Gothenburg which is totally responsible for balance. its education system and which has built and managed its schools and colleges for more 5. The city provides culture, be it plentiful or than a century. scarce, popular or elitist, pluralistic or uni- tary: it provides music through its concerts, There may be many differences, many dif- fine art in its museums, theatre, sports as ferent languages, many different cities but well as ways of life, a deep-rooted culture they all have a single love in common, as the and naturally education. We shall be dis- Catalan poet Salvador Espriu said. One sin- cussing education in greater detail later on. Educating Cities. International Congresses 245

6. The city is, to varying degrees, a supplier merated, however positive. In order to be an of more or less personal and dedicated Educating City, it is also necessary to fulfil, social services aimed at giving assistance or get closer to fulfilling some of the condi- to those in need, providing solidarity and tions which we discussed at our first meeting security. in Barcelona and defined in a Charter, the Charter of Educating Cities. 7. The city provides a possibility of dialogue between people with the same interests The twenty items of the Charter of Educating and situations who associate in order to Cities explain and contain ten basic commit- cultivate these interests, to discuss them ments, based on one fundamental commit- and have a collective voice to assist dia- ment which Mrs. Farrington recalled on the logue with other city groups. first day: the development of the individual and the development of mankind, the indi- 8. The city also provides organisation, more vidual and mankind being the epitome of na- or less democratic, more or less partici- ture and the basis of society. This requires a patory. Starting with dialogue between public undertaking on the part of cities which collective and between individuals, it de- must change from being “educative,” as they fines its objectives, elects its leaders and all are, to becoming “educating” cities as builds its future. those who wish to do so have become.

9. A city is located inside a territory and It is not so much a problem of vocabulary should protect its ecological balance and and the meaning of the terms “educative” its relations with neighbouring popula- and “educating” which each language will tions, with their daily influx of commu- have to resolve; the question is more fun- nication and contributions in every sense damental than that: the city influences the of the word and in all fields, thereby at- education process inexorably, but there is tracting new citizens. Cities are the nerve nevertheless a danger that it will impose its centre of nations; they give them shape influence. In order to be truly educating, the and character. influence must be clearly defined as such, and freely accepted. 10. Finally, a city is a concrete voice made up of the voices of all its citizens whether The city, like an individual, can be consi- they were born there or came there from dered to be educating when its objective is to outside; it is a concrete voice in the col- liberate, to draw out the pupil’s potential, to lective voice of the world. It cannot sur- help develop his ability to become a free in- vive alone; it cannot exist alone; it needs dividual. This is not achieved with concrete to engage in dialogue with other cities in formulae but with the will to go forward, with order to develop its own personality, dif- a twinge of fear and emotion in the heart of ferent from the others, based on common the teacher. interests but with its own unique characteristics and aspirations. Because there is an element of fear in the task of helping each individual, whether a One of these aspirations, education, is mani- new-born child, a new acquaintance or a festing itself in the present gathering of cities new arrival, to develop his own personality who wish to become Educating Cities. at his own pace and to play an active role in his own history in solidarity with the history However, in order to become an Educating of his fellow citizens and also outsiders in an City, it is not only necessary to be a city with ever greater circle which has the city as its the ten attributes which we have just enu- nucleus. 246 Educating Cities: 20 years

These are the requirements of an ised training for parents in the education Educating City: of their children and offer young people before adulthood new perspectives, new 1. The city must guarantee all its citizens the horizons in a changing world that neither right to education, the right to take an ac- the family nor the schools are in a positive part in society, according to age, per- tion to give them and which they cannot sonal circumstances and in accordance develop themselves. with the educational processes in force, which are at present very diverse. On the first day of the conference, Mr. Bengtson of OECD, talking about his study To this aim, the city must not only proof Lifelong Learning in different cities, was mote compulsory education (schools and telling us about the college-work-city en- formal education) but also stimulate in- vironment triangle in adults and how this formal extra curricular institutions and environment generates the will to partici- educational projects which are outside the pate in their own education in order to formal education system but are related to close the triangle. it and remove the obstacles and negative influences on education from city life so 5. To stimulate human solidarity, through as- that it may also itself become an informal sociation which we mentioned previously, source of education. promoting it in sectors and areas where it is scarce, so that all forms of life, all issues Above all, the city must coordinate all and all citizens may be a part of and par- these sources of influence on citizens and ticipate in, city life. change from playing a passive “educative” role to becoming an Educating City with It is the responsibility of the Educating City the will and the means to do so. to promote, stimulate and facilitate association between adult citizens, who will The first mandate of the public coordi- be able to participate on an equal level, nation of educational resources is self- which will then help to educate children evident. However, it will need to be ex- by reinforcing their ability for social parti plained. cipation.

2. The second mandate is to provide clear 6. So that the trend of participation and di- and comprehensive information on edu- alogue can establish itself and become cational resources available in the city at free-flowing, the Educating City will have all levels. This information must be avail- to provide its citizens with training in each able in an appropriate form to all sectors and every language used in their social and all levels of the city. environment.

3. The third mandate is to organise the city Historically, schools were created to teach through town planning in such a way as the written word, a basic requirement in to prevent the creation of ghettos or to our history and in modern times. Children dismantle them so as to avoid the mar- were taught to write as well as to read ginalization of minorities and majorities, and it was even noted that the best way to to provide meeting places to promote learn to read was to learn to write. Today, communication, dialogue and coopera- as cities are permeated with a whole dition between generations. versity of languages, which people speak and understand and frequently are only 4. The fourth mandate is to promote and set able to understand, we cannot leave our up, if necessary, the possibility of special- citizens unarmed, succumbing blindly to the force of new messages. Educating Cities. International Congresses 247

With the whole variety of languages which 1. Coordination of educational projects our citizens are exposed to, from the lan- in the perspective of permanent edu- guage of transport to the language of film, cation. through the language of machines, musi- 2. Information. cal language, which is invading our lives, 3. Urban development, town planning. the specific languages of art, architecture, 4. The specific training of non-profession- urban planning, they must not only be al teachers. able to read them, they must also be able 5. Association. to write them. 6. Knowledge of urban languages. 7. The integration of immigrants. Indeed, we cannot read freely, critically 8. The city’s identity. and creatively if we do not know the art of writing every one of these languages, The responsibility for achieving all these whatever the cost. objectives must lie with the local government or City Council which has access to 7. The Educating City must above all respect all the resources. Whether they are plen- those who bring in new languages, new tiful or scarce, they make progress pos- customs, as should those who come to sible. settle there. They must encourage their own language, leave behind their fears These services either come under local and break their silence and help build the government such as town planning, lo- city through the diversity of their contribu- cal transport or street cleaning, or under tions, thus forcing it to remain active, to central, regional or local government integrate, to become more complete and depending on the country in the case of more open to outside influences. health, education and safety. These services come from public or private initia- 8. An Educating City must not only have tive, are more or less social, more or less its own historical identity, physically dis- commercial, more or less mixed. But the played in its museums, in its libraries and coordinating authority, the final control its urban development; it must also be must be in the hands of the local city gov- open to change, its own constant renewal, ernment which is in a position to achieve accepting new languages as well as the old and coordinate the implementation of the ones, regenerating itself through the par- common objectives of the Educating Cit- ticipation of its citizens in the knowledge ies. of what is past and of what is to come, the unknown as Paulo Freire was telling us For this reason we are asking for the final yesterday. undertaking to come from the local government of each city and for its signature An Educating City is conscious of its of the Charter. geographical situation and of its history which are always present but which Those who are interested in their city be- are above all developing into the future, coming an Educating City but who are building its future, its identity and its role not responsible for its government have in the world context. two options: the development of comprehensive education projects and taking ac- 9. Considering all these functions and com- tion to get their local government, which mon objectives, each Educating City is the only authority able to achieve it should have someone who is responsible completely, to sign the Charter and there- for each of the following functions: by undertake to achieve all the common objectives of the Educating Cities. 248 Educating Cities: 20 years

10. To round off the ten commandments Bologna is offering us the possibility of and in order to retain an open mind, we strengthening and broadening the con- need to add something to the Charter of cept of Educating City with its work on Educating Cities; not a small afterthought ancient and new cultures, the differences but something very important: those cit- between established and imported cul ies who wish to become Educating Cit- tures, the definite problems which are ies must construct a framework for their posed by them and the possible and won- achievements, pursue their good work derful solutions. and share their ideas and experiences with other cities which are interested in But we shall not discuss them here. New insights will be added to the Charter of them and in turn accept and assimilate Educating Cities. In the meantime, our or- theirs in an open system of feedback and ganisation will be going through its own enrichment. learning process. It is, I repeat, an organisation of cities under the government of It is from these principles that the pro- leaders who have been democratically posal to form an International Associa- elected. But a city is composed of citizens tion of Educating Cities arose, with the and it is for this reason that we have pre- aim of providing the Educating Cities sented this paper today, so that you may with a constant point of reference and an all, if you so wish, spread the word of established means of stimulating educa- Babel, of the Educating City in your own tion and to pass the torch from one Edu- cities and let it take the form of a total, cating City to another. responsible commitment.

This Association has two extremely im- We await these cities, joined together by portant tasks. All cities all over the world these common objectives.” (pp. 17-22, with the common objectives of the Edu- Lifelong Learning in Educating Cities. 2nd cating Cities wish to associate because Congress of Educating Cities; Gothen- we firmly believe that we have a role to burg, Sweden; November 1992) play in the making of the history of the world and humanity with our doctrine * and our work. We also wish to ensure that our ideas will gradually spread to all The proposal to create the International As- corners of the globe. sociation of Educating Cities, presented by the Permanent Inter-Congress Committee, was enthusiastically received by the official The idea to present ourselves as Educa- representatives of the cities gathered together ting Cities began in Barcelona, which in Gothenburg. was preparing to host the historical world event of the Olympic Games in an Between 1992 and 1994, the Permanent atmosphere of peace and freedom. Committee became known as the Executive Committee and after a few changes were In Göteborg, the idea began to develop made, it was now formed by official repre- in the industrious context of a city deeply sentatives from: Barcelona, Birmingham, interested in questions of employment Bologna, Chicago, Geneva, Gothenburg, and the relationship between education Lilongwe, Rennes and Turin. and work and lifelong learning which is the training of individuals seen as com During this period, the Committee worked to plete human beings combining their prepare the Statutes and collaborated with the work, their leisu re and personality. City of Bologna (Italy) on the organization of Educating Cities. International Congresses 249 the 3rd International Congress. The Congress- as an emerging urban phenomenon. This led, es were gradually becoming established as a yet again, to the expansion of the Congress meeting place where cities could exchange framework, which already offered a theoreti- and compare experiences on a certain topic, cal scope and a setting for presenting educa- and stimulate thought and discussion about tional experiences and was now inviting as- the Educating City, with collaboration from sociations and volunteer groups working in expert advisors. the area of immigration to take part.

In 1994, the halls of Bologna’s Consiglio With the parallel activities and projects or- Comunale hosted the following General As- ganized, as had been done for the previous sembly of Cities. The Statutes of the Interna- two editions, the venues and daily life of the tional Association of Educating Cities (IAEC) organizing city also became a reference point were presented, leading to the creation of for those attending the international meeting. this organization, which brings together lo- The city of Bologna offered the Congress or- cal governments committed to the Educat- ganizers some of its most emblematic building Cities Charter. Forty of the 63 cities that ings and municipal services for hosting the helped prepare the Charter in 1990 joined meetings and conferences. The underlying the Association. Since then, more than 300 idea was to bring the Congress closer to the cities have added their names to the list. Time general public and demonstrate how the his- has shown that there are plenty of reasons for tory of the city, its economic system, social an association of cities to be founded, devel- relations, politics, etc., are reflected in the oped and strengthened. city. It aimed to promote the relationship between education and existing cultural herit- To ensure that it functions properly, the As- age, both in the immediate vicinity (streets, sociation comprises three constitutional bod- neighborhoods and districts) and in muse- ies: the General Assembly (supreme govern- ums, libraries and other metropolitan institu- ing body encompassing all associated cities), tions. the Executive Committee (responsible for the direction, management, operations and Perhaps it was this multiplicity of voices representation) and the Secretariat, entrusted with carrying out the plan of action approved wishing to be heard at the Congress that led by the General Assembly, handling day-to- the inaugural speech to be replaced by a day operations, and administration. The as- round table, where Umberto Eco, with these sembly agreed that both the Secretariat and words, asked participants to voice their opin- the President’s Office should remain in Bar- ions on the transformation process in Europe: celona, the city giving impetus to the move- “Europe will gradually become a federation ment. of cities, where contact between metropolis and different languages may take place and The 3rd International Congress of Educating commercial and cultural links will emerge Cities was held in November 1994 in the city that cross traditional borders. Therefore, it of Bologna. The theme was: Getting to Know may be necessary to get cities ready for this Ourselves and Recognizing Each Other: For type of encounter.” a New Geography of Identities. The general rise in migratory processes was a new real- Interestingly enough, the round table reached ity becoming recognized as the fundamental the same conclusion that Paulo Freire did in path of the changes implicit in the moderni- Gothenburg: tolerance is a great virtue that zation of urban life. cities must possess and the International As- sociation of Educating Cities must encour- In Bologna, a debate arose on a subject that age. Without tolerance, democracy will not was very new at the time: multiculturalism advance. 250 Educating Cities: 20 years

More than two hundred cities attended the generations and the differences of gender, opening of the Congress. Everyone present class and ethnic group), pathologies gener- heard and then discussed the text with which ated by a mono-cultural city, by the ‘mon- Franco Frabboni tried to define the core con- ster city’ that is disorganised, materialistic, cept of the meeting: the multicultural city. liberalist, productive as a result of margin- alising and submission of the weakest, low- “My mission is to consider, during this clos- risk social groups (immigrants, unemployed, ing plenary session of the third International handicapped). Congress of educating cities, the analysis of materials and projects discussed and devel- 2nd Theory: the multicultural city must pursue oped by the work commission called ‘The the profile of an ecosystem producing dis- function of public and private social and ed- tributed cultural interconnections, based on ucation agencies in a multicultural reality.’ a pact-alliance between the formal system, the school, and the informal system of edu- This work commission has compiled six reports, benefiting from a mix of codes, orals, cative entities (families, local organisations, icons, video, etc., and an extensive discus- the private-social sector, churches) in view of sion by way of conclusion. an integrated education system based on the idea of continuous education. The materials for scientific consideration and socio-cultural projects produced by the 3rd Theory: the multicultural city must rise to group H have been condensed and distilled the challenge of expanding services and so- into one manifesto forming a Decalogue of cio-cultural offer, by which it is possible not 10 theories; a sort of inventory of problems only to respond extensively to the demands as previously defined by Furio Colombo. of a collective, but also to create new and different social cultural and axiological de- These are the 10 words of the language used mands. by public and private sectors in a city we have defined as project-city, a multicultural 4th Theory: the multicultural city demands and intercultural city. of public schooling pluralism of knowledge, values and cultural codes. This means not These ten theories deal with socio-cultural only transmitting and developing culture, but issues of a superstructural nature requiring also searching and encountering other cul- solutions, by the highest authorities, to the tures. structural problems of a city attempting to define itself as multicultural, that is, the ma- 5th Theory: the multicultural city requires a jor problems of work, housing, health and multiplication of the efforts of families regard- others. ing their presence, solidarity and responsibility. It also requires parents to teach their chil- The following is a description of the 10 theories: dren awareness so that they may identify for themselves the important differences, similar 1st Theory: the multicultural city is called to to the indispensable alphabet for reading, so battle social pathologies (isolation, separa- that in the future they may better describe the tion, solitude), cultural pathologies (double differences of others. standards, both in the codes of the mass media—when the ether is monopolised— 6th Theory: the multicultural city requires of as well as in the anthropological local- local organisations, town halls, provinces, isms) and existential pathologies (forma- regions a triple political and institutional tion of hierarchies and conflict between function: Educating Cities. International Congresses 251 a) To govern the city by a function of coordi- from the child city, an indispensable proto- nation of macro-funding projects, initially type model, perhaps, for authentic diversity.” spread to the public and private sectors; (pp. 208-209, Getting to Know Ourselves and Recognizing Each Other: For a New Ge- b) To directly manage services and socio- ography of Identities; 3rd International Con- cultural offers when certain sections of the gress of Educating Cities; Bologna, Novem- city (neighbourhoods, peripheral zones) ber 1994). do not benefit from these; * c) To develop new projects and to experiment with meta-services, the latter not The city of Chicago hosted the 4th Interna- necessarily directed at users but at agen- tional Congress of Educating Cities in 1996. cies, public institutions and private service The organization traveled to the Americas for providers. the event, whose theme was: The Arts and Humanities as Agents of Social Change.

st 7th Theory: the multicultural city requires that Since 1990, the year of the 1 Congress, the the private associative sector, the non-profit cities providing impetus for the International third sector, construct an organic and inter- Association had put considerable effort into connected network of urban micro-projects getting local governments interested in a broad, far-reaching concept of education. addressing the immediate needs of the com- th munity and directly managed by users, from New to the 4 Congress was the emergence those groups suffering high rates of marginal- of some clearly visible links between politi- ity, diversity and exclusion. cal structures and the cultural life of the general public. 8th Theory: So, the multicultural city must Musician and composer Wynton Marsalis commit to promoting a high quality of life, was invited to open the Congress and some using a regulation plan of social and civil of the sessions were held outside the central coexistence and solidarity with the ability to headquarters of the Congress at the Art In- transform the multicultural aspects, under- stitute of Chicago and the Chicago Cultural stood as the addition of cultures, into inter- Center. cultural aspects that is, a dialogue and interaction between cultures. In his opening speech, Marsalis talked about

th the role played by the arts, particularly po- 9 Theory: the intercultural city requires that etry and music, in understanding the human men and women, citizens of the city, have condition: the capacity to decentralise, to step outside of “You like to read Shakespeare’s version of their own way of thinking in order to return, what happened to Julius Caesar because you having dialogued with other ways of think- know Marc Antony didn’t say that. No way ing, other thoughts, other writings, so that could he have been that poetic. He prob- their own thinking is put into relative terms ably just said, ‘Now it’s over with.’ But the and opens up new perspectives, new hopes, poetic fact makes it so great that you want other ideals thus becoming a nomadic way to believe that’s what he said. He said what of thinking or migratory thinking. Shakespeare said that he said.

10th Theory: the intercultural city both re- And that’s where the arts come in, because quires and also permits all citizens to become the arts are a matter of reenactment. The first actors and protagonists in the decisions and person that played a trumpet probably picked modifications of its multiple morphologies up an elephant tusk. They looked at it, saw a 252 Educating Cities: 20 years little hole in it. Maybe they heard the wind bring about specific projects to subsequently blowing through it, and they said: [Marsalis share on an international level through the plays a note on his trumpet]. Now somebody Documents Databank and, in person, at the else heard it. When they picked up that el- biannual Congresses. ephant tusk, they said, ‘I want to play this elephant tusk just like old Ulu played it, so * I’m going to play: [Marsalis plays trumpet].’ The fact is, that didn’t really sound anything For the International Association of Educa- like Ulu, but this is an example of the poetic ting Cities, the 20th century came to a close fact as opposed to the cold, hard fact. in the city of Jerusalem, host city for the 5th Congress, which took place in March 1999. Louis Armstrong hears Buddy Bolden play. The central theme was: Taking Heritage and Now, you know nobody has a recording of History into the Future. Buddy Bolden, but we know that he really liked to play in the key of B flat, so maybe As occurred in Chicago, the selection of spe- Buddy Bolden went: [Marsalis plays trum- cific venues for presenting papers took on a pet]. Louis Armstrong hears that and to him special meaning: museums, cultural centers it sounds like: [Marsalis plays trumpet]. He and auditoriums responded enthusiastically would tell you, ‘Well, I’m just trying to play to the invitation to open their doors to the like Buddy Bolden.’ We have to realize that participating cities in 1999. It is particularly the poetic fact lives on because it takes a noteworthy that the Congress chose to meet phenomenon and makes it greater. It makes in the city of Jerusalem to exchange experi- the baking of a cake for somebody a majestic ences and proposals for the future in the ar- act of soul. eas of heritage and history.

We always have to separate the poetic fact Two new elements came into play: the im- from the lie because each can be confused portance of material and immaterial heritage with one another. The lie really takes a lot of and the urban presence of religions. energy for it to resonate. It doesn’t harmo- nize with things around it, but the poetic fact One significant aspect of this Congress, harmonizes. It harmonizes. And because it which gave a new direction to the IAEC, was harmonizes with things that are true about the Decalogue approved by the organiza- human nature, it resonates. And because it tion’s General Assembly, which stated: resonates, it has an echo, and it lasts forever and ever and ever, and that’s the importance • The Association trusts in the validity of its of the arts. That is the importance of the reen- message and in the utility of the concept actment that is at the center of the arts. The of Educating City as a service to the gen- memory of poetic fact—that’s what makes us eral public. who we are.” (p. 7, The Arts and Humanities as Agents for Social Change. 4th International • The Association will make every effort to Congress of Educating Cities; Chicago, USA; introduce itself into the core of all univer- September 1996). sal cultures.

In Chicago, the Congress of Educating Cities, • The association defends a global concept now a consolidated structure, once again ex- of education that shall permeate all as- panded its spectrum by exhibiting art along pects of city life and involve everyone. with the presentations of experiences and speeches. As a result, the periods between • It is imperative that city mayors take the congresses provided a broad record in which lead in educational activities insofar as cities had access to enough examples to they are the ones with global vision. Educating Cities. International Congresses 253

• The educating cities cannot and should 1. Appropriation of city space by the people: not renounce any opportunities for edu- planning and practices cational dialogue aimed at improving the conditions for coexistence and quality of 2. The memory and identity of the city life. 3. Local development, solidarity and interde- • Compliance with the principles of the Edu- pendence cating Cities Charter deserves an application of global policies where actions are 4. Diversity as an educational resource for derived from the best strategies. the city and for schools: New models of participation and citizenship • The exchange and assessment of experi- 5. Education, training, employment and lei- ences is a valuable asset of the Educating sure: The strategic role of the city Cities movement. At this Congress, the presentation by • The principles of the Association’s Char- Raul Pont, former mayor of Porto Alegre ter and Statutes shall be analyzed and, (1997-2001), highlighted how important it is when appropriate, revised in light of social for an Educating City to have its citizens par- changes and the new millennium. ticipate in matters of public concern:

• Citizens’ opinions should be the principal “How do we reduce the delegation of power source for updating the principles behind to a minimum? This is the central question the Educating Cities movement. for us, the principal question that should concern educators and committed politicians in- • The educational values emerging from the volved in creating a city that educates, builds different forms of cooperation between and produces citizenship. Readdressing the cities should be recognized by Educa- subject of reducing the delegation of power ting Cities as a source of updates, without implies countering the growing loss of legiti- forgetting that the city has a primordial macy in representative democracies and cre- responsibility for the development of its ating participatory mechanisms of democracy citizens within a framework of coexistence where citizens can truly create their present and personal and collective progress. and build their future at every moment. There are basically three elements that we would like to focus on in considering this subject: * first is the need for true participation by the

th people. It is impossible to create a city that The 6 International Congress of Educating produces and builds citizenship if there is Cities was held in November 2000 in the no real participation by the people. Citizens city of Lisbon (Portugal). A variety of circum- must have a space in which to discuss the stances led to a delayed start of the Jerusalem budget. Take, for example, our experience Congress and, as a result, the Lisbon Con- of some years with a Participatory Budget, gress was held just a few months later. where the city budget was put forward for discussion; this idea soon found its way to The meeting in Lisbon, whose theme was the school level through the School Boards The City: An Educational Space in the New that involve parents of the students, the com- Millennium, addressed many of the topics munity, the school teachers and administra- that had emerged as fundamental in previ- tors. And so, a very rich experience—the Par- ous Congresses. Its program was divided into ticipatory Budget applied within the school five main areas: system—grew out of an idea that the city was 254 Educating Cities: 20 years already carrying out on another level. When not simply limiting it to technical experts and teachers, students, parents and members of specialists on the subject. In order to do so the community take part in discussion of we made a substantial change, with the city how resources earmarked for maintenance council’s approval, to the previous City Plan- of, and improvements to, the schools are to ning Guidelines, adding a new element: the be used, they become more involved in the integration and right of people in the differ- management of the school. This process that ent neighborhoods and the different districts worked with the schools is also valid with re- of the city to participate directly with the City gard to social service policies and a number Board in charge of carrying out the plan. This of other areas. In our eyes, participation by was accomplished through regional forums the people is decisive and essential in any where citizens can make their voices heard process of transforming a city into one that on specific issues with regard to planning for educates and that truly builds citizenship. the neighborhood, district and city in which they live. Experience has shown that this is This brings us to the second basic element, a viable process, and perfectly feasible in a which is direct involvement of the people. democratic setting. They must participate in this process because it is impossible to take on responsibility as The third element that we found important citizens unless they can exercise this right di- is a respect for peoples’ capacity for self- rectly. That possibility of speaking in public, organization. From our point of view, these of using a microphone. Most citizens have mechanisms should strengthen, respect and never had the experience of organizing a stimulate the self-organization of the com- community meeting, have never had the op- munities so that they can have decision- portunity to make democratic decisions, to making power and the potential for action. create mechanisms so that decisions can be Our adult literacy programs for those who both collective and democratic. All of that have never had the chance to go to school, involves a learning process for which there is and our other support programs guarantee- no substitute. The process is not in the hands ing everyone—regardless of age—the right to of the officials, the local government or the a basic education, essentially take into ac- political parties. Certainly the government count the demands and decision of the in- and the parties should encourage the people, dividuals themselves, not the proposal, idea but they, the people themselves, must have or knowledge of the head of the government. the means and the possibility to directly ex- From the moment we allowed people to exercise that right. press themselves and handed over decision- making power to them, our schools began We can say from our experience that it is filling vacant after-school hours with courses exciting to see how these people, men and for young people and adults, precisely be- women on the street—when given the op- cause those people saw—thanks to debate portunity, when handed the microphone, and discussion on topics affecting their area when given access to a group meeting—can of the city—the chance to claim their right to express their needs, defend their interests, this kind of service to which they had never and also act with solidarity. They are capable previously had access. of making decisions that are not just guided by their own personal interests, by a specific This type of self-organization gives people problem in their home or on their street; the concrete powers that allow them to discuss process makes them grow and understand the the budget, decide public policy, establish complexity of modern life. I can give an ex- regional municipal councils on subjects ample of an experience we had that involved such as education, health, traffic, and child- opening the discussion on the City’s Guide- ren’s and adolescents’ rights. Mechanisms lines for Urban Development to the public, like these create organizations with a broad Educating Cities. International Congresses 255 social base, independent of the political par- a central page where the Secretariat regularly ties, that can exert pressure on the govern- publishes general-interest news and where ments which, in turn, can redirect resources each associated city, thematic or territorial and reorient the public budget to the benefit network can have a web page to publicize of the people.” (pp. 34-36, La ciudad, espa- their activities. Thus, the portal provides not cio educativo en el nuevo milenio [The City: only general information about the Associa- An Educating Space in the New Millennium]. tion, but also news from the associated cities 6th International Congress of Educating Cit- and networks. Additionally, the site offers on- ies; Lisbon, Portugal; November 2000.) line access to the Document Databank.

* The presentations were grouped into five a- reas, which varied considerably with respect The Finnish city of Tampere organized the 7th to those featured in Lisbon: Congress in 2002, whose theme was: The Fu- ture of Education: The Role of the City in the 1. The role of the city in creating and main- Globalized World. taining educational systems

Over the first dozen years of the Interna- 2. Modern teaching environments: local and tional Association of Educating Cities, sig- global networks nificant changes were transforming the lives of individuals and, consequently, the cities 3. Values: ethical and ethnical aspects of where they lived. During that same period teaching (1990-2002), two terms became established around the world: globalization and Inter- 4. Equality, inequality and marginalization net. 5. Teaching and employment Thus it was no coincidence that a city in Fin- land—a country noted for its use of the latest In Tampere, new terminology was required technology in the production of consumer in order to continue the dialogue on Educa- goods as well as in its teaching methods— ting Cities—new words and new concepts for would be the one to host this Congress. Nor designing new realities. The Congress spoke does it seem surprising that at the entrance of education as a set of educational systems, to the Congress venue was a bus equipped at a time when the world had, seemingly with computers and permanent Internet con- overnight, assimilated the idea of a computer nections for Congress attendees to use for network supporting a single world market. personal or professional purposes. The bus, known as Netti-Nysse, drove around the city The proposal was by no means exclusive to as part of a larger project called eTampere the Congress. For several years, a new con- that the City Council developed in conjunc- ception of the world had been emerging, tion with various companies and universities one that was forcing all of the social sectors in the city with the aim of promoting knowl- to reconsider their plans and development edge, business, public digital services and strategies. Notably, however, the Congress citizens’ acquisition of the skills required in proposed—simultaneously and with consi- the knowledge society. derable force—the philosophical aspects that were to be redefined based on these changes: The Congress also saw the unveiling of a new the ethical and ethnical values of teaching, project: The Virtual Educating City (www.ed- equality, inequality and marginalization. cities.org), a new portal designed to promote mutual exchange and learning between cit- In combining the transformation occurring at ies. The site is operational today, consisting of a global level with the social repercussions 256 Educating Cities: 20 years being generated, the International Associa- defined projects of interest, and this again tion of Educating Cities provided a necessary has all kind of consequences for the process perspective for responsibly steering urban of learning. life through this new stage of clearly percep- tible change. Educator Manuel Castells sum- The issue then becomes, in general terms, marized it as follows: when we think about society at large, how to, on the one hand, unleash this creativity, this “Changes of mentality are always depen- productivity, this innovation, but at the same dent on the transformation of the basic social time how to manage this process of constant structures of society, and particularly on pro- change in a way that does not disintegrate duction structures. This flexibility, this culture society, in a way that does not disintegrate of freedom, this individual project is based individuals. People need increasingly flex- on the transformation of the world. It’s based ible personality systems, innovating enough on the emergence of flexible labor and an in- to constantly adapt to a changing environ- dividualized relationship between labor and ment, at the same time strong enough so as management. It’s based on the emergence of to not disintegrate in this constant process of organizations that are based on networking change, in which they have to redefine the and, therefore, networks of individuals rather parameters of their life, to reconstruct their than vertical structures. It’s based on a pro- systems of behavior. cess of communication, which is global and local at the same time. Global production of We need innovation and at the same time we media but local customization of media and also need values, but not too many. If you adaptation to people’s needs and values. It’s have too many values, you are paralyzed; based on a process of crisis of traditional ide- but a few good, firm, solid values that do ological systems such as official churches or not move when everything else changes and political parties. It’s based also on the crisis moves. The relationship between a flexible of patriarchal family and on the traditional personality system that combines constant forms of the nuclear family. It is through this adaptability to a constantly changing envi- process of material change of the world we ronment, and the ability to define the roles live in that we see the emergence of the indi- on the basis of their values. Innovation is vidual and the individual project as a source most effective when it is both competitive of reconstruction of society, and this is the and cooperative at the same time, and this material that the process of learning has to cooperation is the social dimension or, oth- work on. erwise, the structure of innovation.

This cultural and socioeconomic shift uses Within this new kind of sociotechnical para- and develops a new technological environ- digm, what are the transformations that we ment that is marked by the Internet. It is not see in the school as a learning environment simply one technology; it is the key technol- and in the city as a learning environment? ogy that organizes the metaparadigm in the The most important thing is a school adapted same way. Internet and computer networks in to this type of economy and society. It’s not a general are equivalent to the role of electri- school that transmits knowledge; it’s a school city in the industrial society. It is not about in which the essential model must be ‘learn- one way of doing things; it’s the tool, the in- ing to learn,’ to install in people’s mind the struments through which this network indi- capacity of learning to learn throughout their vidualism, this individual project-based soci- life, the autonomous capacity of reprogram- ety, develops. In other words, the Internet is ming themselves throughout their world, not the instrument of isolation and individu- and throughout their personal life. To some alization; it is the instrument of connection extent, there are no models to transmit any and networking on the basis of individual longer, and therefore innovation is risk; there Educating Cities. International Congresses 257 is freedom, but freedom to light the light that but each required reviewing in light of the one develops. Very simply, the knowledge present situation where cities did not have that was transmitted ten years ago in the uni- equal access. versity cannot be used today. Knowledge that was transmitted ten years ago, today has to One of the main objectives of the Genoa be constantly reprogrammed; and to some Congress, which led to the concept of shared extent, knowledge that was transmitted with- city, was to reconsider urban life through a out adapted capabilities is knowledge that concept of education that, without ignoring is blocking the development of new things. school systems, was being introduced into It’s not only useless, it’s harmful.” (Cities and public institutions as a result of the perme- Learning in the Network Society. 7th Interna- ating influence of international communica- tional Congress of Educating Cities; Tampere, tion networks. Finland; June 2002) Participation is the very foundation of the The 8th International Congress of Educating shared city, and the contemporary democra- Cities was held in Genoa, Italy, in 2004, un- cy that aspires to build a sustainable future der the title: Another City is Possible: The Fu- for everyone. Once again, an idea already ture of the City as a Collective Project. present in the previous gatherings of this movement was heard throughout the con- The Tampere Congress placed the debate gress: to steadfastly defend tolerance as an of the IAEC member cities on a new plane, undisputable value of the educating cities. which required detailed analysis. The aspects of urban life that the cities had provided to The members of the congress in Genoa con- the forums for debate at the Congresses had cluded that tolerance should be strengthened now acquired new signs of identity. The way to match the extent to which migratory pro- new technologies were facilitating things cesses had intensified and spread; and that brought together very different geographical schools and cultural centers needed to start areas in a surprising manner. Many of the is- appropriating unto themselves the various sues and problems that in the past had been political, linguistic, religious and social is- restricted to local areas were now the object sues of the public towards whom their educa- of global attention. tional and cultural offerings were directed.

The final program of the Congress declared The city could no longer rely solely on the the following: “A well-shared educational initiative of the political powers in office, and cultural project in the city is a funda- and instead ought to seek ways for public mental pillar of any local sustainable devel- participation to generate new, creative input opment theory that is able to positively com- in order to understand the emerging social bine local society not only with the stimuli, phenomena. If the public were aware of the but also with the potential loss of structure importance and weight of their own voices caused by globalization.” in the development of urban life, then they would consider themselves as agents of The environment and sustainability, the change and local life would not crumble as identity of cities subjected to strong inter- a result of globalization. At the Congress’ national competition, continuing education opening ceremony, the mayor of Genoa, marked by the constant change in produc- Giuseppe Pericu, gave this explanation: tion and distribution systems, new health needs, healthcare and prevention programs, “Today’s society is increasingly fragmented, the need for agreements as a form of man- people live much more individually in com- aging public life…none of these issues were parison to the past. They are increasingly new to the Association of Educating Cities influenced by mass products coming from 258 Educating Cities: 20 years different parts of the world. We have an in- tion was to initiate brainstorming about the exorable tendency to lose our cultural iden- conditions for the internal development of tity; community is not forming but is disin- individual cities and the capacity for collec- tegrating into individuals. There is a strongly tive development among the member cities. felt need to recreate, insofar as possible, a series of community mechanisms. These can In an attempt to delve deeper into the con- only be constructed on the knowledge and cept of participatory democracy, the Genoa sharing of reality as well as with major and Congress proposed issues such as: formal minor objectives defined by the majority of education establishing links with continuing citizens.” education in the urban environment, local networks maintaining an acceptable level The activist tone of the Congress’ central of health care, the sustainability of everyday theme (Another City Is Possible) was clearly life and its implications for school programs, appropriate in light of the objectives pro- the opening of educational and artistic cen- posed. ters to the general public without excluding anyone, the use of public areas as meeting An updated version of the Educating Cities points and spaces for coexistence, etc. Charter was presented at the Congress. It was the result of a process in which all member The Lyon Congress took the list of specific cities were invited to contribute. The aim was elements that each city could make its own to respond to the need to adapt the Charter and added a new section featuring an analy- to the urban, educational and social trans- sis on the different ways of sharing objectives formation taking place in the cities, while and cooperating between cities. maintaining the initial spirit of the Barcelona Declaration. Presentations made at this congress revolved around four central areas: The new Charter consists of a preamble and three sections: “The Right to an Educating • Lifelong education: formal and informal City,” “The Commitment of the City” and education “Serving Its Inhabitants.” The charter covered themes such as lifelong learning, access for • Human relations in the city: living togeth- everyone—particularly for those with func- er, democracy and equality tional disabilities or dependencies of any type—to all urban services, buildings and • Urban spaces and the times facilities, along with access and training in information and communication technolo- • Cooperation between cities gies, sustainable development, etc. Digital solidarity was proposed as an answer * to the inequalities created by and within the network: “The struggle against digital fractur- In 2006, Lyon played host to the 9th Interna- ing entails developing infrastructures aimed tional Congress of Educating Cities. The vari- at connecting the network so that interactivity ous proposals from the Genoa meeting were is extended to the creation of online content, now to be analyzed as essential components going beyond electronic commerce. Digital of a new humanism that needed to start de- insertion in the networks of social agents in- fining itself. The topic of discussion for the th9 volves training in new tools as well as cultur- Congress was: People’s Place in the City. ally and linguistically diverse content.”

Naturally, this was an overly ambitious goal The attempt to mold all the aspects reviewed to work out in just a few days, but the inten- at the Congress into a new conception of hu- Educating Cities. International Congresses 259 manism brought a truly mistreated concept There, the Association’s cities will meet, pre- into the fore in our contemporary world: pared to invest in the comprehensive train- peace. At this Congress, it became clear that ing of every individual and in the public as a a number of administrations felt a responsi- whole, with the aim of overcoming exclusion, bility and were aware of the benefits of con- while being aware that education reduces in- tributing to the democratic development in equalities and is a fundamental element for other areas of the world; therefore, they were social cohesion. The conferences and ex- willing to cooperate with administrations change of experiences within the framework from other countries on international projects of this Congress will generate thoughts and of cooperation and decentralization. In addi- ideas on how to advance and confront the tion, it was clear that the cities decided to challenges involved with the coexistence of work in the area of international relations in different cultures. order to influence regionalization processes and international policies from the viewpoint The new leading role and revaluation of cit- of the cities and the public. ies, both politically and socioeconomically, have convinced local governments that tasks Diplomacy between cities is the tool avail- such as the renewal and reconversion of the able to local administrations to contribute to productive base, the creation and mainte- creating situations of stability where mem- nance of the urban infrastructure, the main- bers of the public can live together in an tenance of acceptable levels of quality of life environment of peace, democracy and pros- and the coordination of social-integration perity. In this respect, many proposals were mechanisms should be considered goals that carried out at municipal level: twinning and cities can not achieve in isolation. Therefore, other ties between cities in different coun- cities from all around the world turn to inter- tries, technical aid, advice in the develop- national cooperation in search of solutions ment of municipal politics, cooperation with for their local development requirements the public and civil organizations, awareness and in search of shared and coordinated so- programs, the promotion of mutual compre- lutions for addressing common problems. hension at the local level, training programs, Thus, the Congresses organized by the IAEC international solidarity, the creation of coali- are heartily welcomed by current member tions and coordinated action, etc. cities and by the gradually emerging new member cities. Educating about and for peace was defined as a focal point from which to review future * * * projects and lines of action. Perhaps in the same way that Educating Cities suggested to local governments that they consider educa- Charter Of Educating Cities tion as a component of their activities rather than maintaining it merely as a sector in itself, The cities that were represented at the 1st making it part of the municipality’s different International Congress of Educating Cities, departments. At the same time, the Educating held in Barcelona in November 1990, set Cities Charter was in itself a commitment to forth in the initial Charter the basic principles peace. that were to constitute the educational driving force of the city, theirs was the convic- The central theme of the next Congress, to tion that the edification of their inhabitants take place in the city of São Paulo in April could not be left to chance. The Charter was 2008—Building Citizenship in Multicultural revised at the 3rd International Congress (Bo- Cities—rekindles this desire for and commit- logna, 1994) and in Genoa 2004, in order to ment to peace. improve and adapt its concepts to the new challenges and social needs we face. 260 Educating Cities: 20 years

This Charter is based on the Universal Dec- the great challenges of the 21st century: laration on Human Rights (1948); the Inter- firstly, “investing” in education, in each in- national Covenant on Economic, Social and dividual, to increase his or her ability to ex- Cultural Rights (1966); the World Declaration press, affirm and develop his or her own hu- on Education For All (1990); the Convention, man potential, with its uniqueness, creativity which was adopted by the Word Summit on and responsibility. Secondly, promoting the Children (1990), and the Universal Declara- conditions for full equality so that everyone tion on Cultural Diversity (2001). can feel respected and can be respectful of others, capable of entering into dialogue with others. And, thirdly, unifying all these Preamble factors so that we can create, city by city, a true knowledge society that does not exclude Today more than ever the city, large or small, anyone, for which we will have to provide, offers countless opportunities for education. amongst other things, easy access for all the However, the city can also be influenced by population to the information and communi- educating forces used in a negative way. In cations technologies that can allow everyone one way or another the city contains within to achieve their potential. itself major elements for integral education and training that makes it at one and the Educating cities, with their formal education- same time a complex system, object of edu- al institutions, non-formal interventions (for cational attention and a permanent, plural, educative purposes external to the formal multi-faceted, educating agent capable of education system) and informal interven- counteracting inimical educating elements. tions (neither intentional nor planned) will collaborate either bilaterally or multilaterally The educating city is a city with its own per- in the exchange of experiences. In the spirit sonality, forming an integral part of its nation. of cooperation, educating cities will aid each Therefore, its identity is interdependent with other in supporting study and investment that of the country it belongs to. The educat- projects, either in the form of direct coop- ing city is not self-contained; it has an active eration or in collaboration with international relationship with its environment, with the bodies. other urban centres in the nation and with cities in other countries. The goal of this re- Humanity is not only living through a stage lationship is to learn, exchange and share of changes, but also an authentic change in experiences and thus enrich the lives of the stages. Persons must educate themselves for inhabitants. the sake of their critical adaptation to and active participation in the challenges and pos- The educating city must undertake and de- sibilities opening up as a result of the globali- velop this function while undertaking its sation of all economic and social processes, traditional functions (economic, social, po- so that they can intervene, through their lo- litical and as a purveyor of services) with its cal world, in a complex international sce- sights squarely on the education, promotion nario, and in order to remain autonomous and development of all its inhabitants. The subjects in the face of a flood of information educating city will give priority to children controlled by economic and political power and youth, but with a commitment to includ- centres. ing persons of all ages in lifelong learning. On the other hand, children and young peo- The reasons which justify this function are ple are no longer passive subjects in the life social, economic and political; orientated of their society, and, therefore, their city. The especially to an efficient, coexistence-based United Nations Convention of November 20, cultural and educational project. These are 1989, which further developed and consid- Educating Cities. International Congresses 261 ered binding the principles of the Universal expressed as the negation of the other and as Declaration of 1959, made children citizens mutual mistrust. The educating city is aware with full civic and political rights. Thus, they of this and does not seek simple unilateral so- can enjoy the rights of association and par- lutions: it accepts this contradiction and puts ticipation that are suitable to their level of forward processes of knowledge, dialogue maturity. and participation as the best way forward of living and coping with uncertainty. The protection of children and youth in our cities no longer consists merely of protecting Therefore, the right to an educating city is them as such. It is also important to find them hereby affirmed. This right must be under- a proper place next to adults who have the stood as an effective extension of the funda- civic virtue of finding satisfaction in inter-gen- mental right to education. There must be a erational coexistence. At the beginning of the true fusion, in the phase of formal education 21st century, all generations are clearly more and adulthood, of the resources and educa- and more in need of life-long learning oppor- tional power of the city with the ordinary tunities that are constantly being updated. development of the educational, labour and social system. Global citizenship is now in the making even though we still lack a global demo- The right to live in an educating city must cratic structure, even though many countries constitute a relevant guarantee of the prin- still have not been able to attain and con- ciples of equality for all, social justice, and stitute a democracy that is effective while territorial balance. being respectful of their genuine social and cultural patterns and where democracies This emphasises the responsibility of local with a longer standing democratic tradition governments in the sense of developing all can feel satisfied with the quality of their the educational potentialities that the city has democratic systems. In this context, cities in within itself, incorporating the principles of all countries must act, in their local dimen- the educating city into its political project. sion, as platforms for experimentation and consolidation of a democratic citizenry, as promoters of peaceful coexistence through Principles ethical and civic values education, respectful of the manifold nature of the possible differ- 1. THE RIGHT TO AN EDUCATING CITY ent forms of government while acting as the drivers of widely representative, participa- -1- tory mechanisms. All the inhabitants of a city have the right to Diversity is inherent in the modern city and enjoy, in liberty and equality, the means and the feeling is that it will increase even more opportunities for education, leisure and indi- in the future. Accordingly, one of the chal- vidual growth that the city offers. The right to lenges facing the educating city is to foster a an educating city is understood as an exten- balance and harmony between identity and sion of the fundamental right of all to educa- diversity, taking into account the contribution. The educating city constantly recommits tions of the communities of which the city is to the lifelong education of its inhabitants in comprised and the right of all those living in the most varied ways. And to make this pos- the city to feel that their own cultural identity sible, all groups, with their own particular is being recognised. needs, must be taken into account.

We live in a world of uncertainty that is giving In city planning and government, suitable ground to a quest for security, which is often measures will be taken to overcome every 262 Educating Cities: 20 years type of obstacle that restricts the exercise of of education. No matter what the scope of the right to equality, including physical bar- these powers may be, they shall put forward riers. This will be the responsibility of both a broad and integrated education policy, in the municipal government and other levels order to include all the modalities of formal, of government that affect the city. The citi- non-formal and informal education and the zens themselves will also be committed to different cultural manifestations, sources of this task on an individual basis as well as information and paths of discovery of the re- through the various associations to which ality of the city. they belong. The role of the municipal administration is, -2- on the one hand, to set down local policies that are seen to be possible and evaluate The city will promote education in diversity their effectiveness, in addition to obtaining as well as understanding, international soli- the legislation required from other central or darity and cooperation and world peace. This is an education that fights against any form of regional administrations. discrimination. The educating city will foster freedom of expression, cultural diversity and -6- dialogue in equal conditions. It will also avail itself of both avant-garde initiatives and those In order to undertake appropriate action, the of popular culture, no matter what their ori- persons responsible for municipal policy must gin. It will contribute to correcting inequali- obtain accurate information on the situation ties that arise from cultural production based and needs of the inhabitants. Thus, the city solely on mercantile criteria. shall undertake studies and surveys, which it shall keep up to date and make available -3- to the public and shall establish channels that are constantly open to individuals and An educating city will foster dialogue be- groups that allow the formulation of specific tween generations, not only as a form of proposals and general policies. peaceful coexistence, but also as a way to seeking out common projects shared by Furthermore, the municipality in the course groups of persons of different ages. These of its decision-making in any area of its ju- projects should be orientated towards civic risdiction shall bear in mind the educative initiatives and actions whose value consists and training-related impact of the decisions precisely in their cross-generational charac- made. ter and in the use of the respective skills and values of the different age groups. 2. THE COMMITMENT OF THE CITY -4-

The municipal policies of an educational -7- character shall always be understood as referring to a broader context inspired by the The city must know how to discover, pre- principles of social justice, democratic com- serve and display its own complex identity. munity spirit, quality of life and the edifica- This will make it unique and provide the ba- tion of the individual citizen. sis for a fruitful dialogue with its inhabitants and with other cities. Its customs and tradi- -5- tions must be compatible with international ways of life. In this way it will be able to offer The municipalities shall undertake to ex- an appealing image without spoiling its natu- ercise their powers effectively in matters ral and social environment. Educating Cities. International Congresses 263

At the same time, the city shall promote the -10- knowledge, learning and use of the languages that are spoken therein and use them as The municipal administration must equip the an integrating element and factor for social city with spaces, facilities and public serv- cohesion. ices that are suitable for the personal, social, moral and cultural development of all its -8- inhabitants, paying special attention to children and youth. The transformation and growth of a city must be governed by a harmony between its new -11- needs and the preservation of buildings and symbols of its past and of its existence. City The city must guarantee the quality of life planning must consider the enormous im- for all its inhabitants. This requires creating pact of the urban environment on the devel- a balance with its natural surroundings, pro- opment of all individuals, on the integration viding the right to a healthy environment, as of their personal and social aspirations, and well as the right to housing, employment, lei- resist the segregation of generations and the sure and public transportation, amongst oth- segregation of people from different cultures, ers. At the same time, the city shall actively who have much to learn from each other. promote health education and the participation of all its inhabitants in the best practices The organisation of the city’s physical urban of sustainable development. space shall meet the requirements of accessibility, encounter, relations, play and leisure -12- as well as a greater closeness to nature. The educating city shall pay special attention to The educational project that is explicit and implicit to the city’s structure and system, the the needs of the handicapped, the elderly values it promotes, the quality of life it offers, and children in its town planning, facilities the celebrations it organises, its campaigns and services, in order to guarantee them a and projects of all types, must be the subject city environment that is friendly as well as of reflection and participation, together with respectful of the limitations that they may the necessary means that can help people have, without their having to renounce their grow personally and collectively. maximum independence possible.

-9- 3. SERVING ITS INHABITANTS

The educating city shall encourage citizen -13- participation from a critical, co-responsible point of view. To do so, local government The municipality will assess the impact of must provide people with the information all cultural, recreational, informative, ad- they need and foster, from an integrated per- vertising-related and other types of activi- spective, orientation, and educational activities offered, and of the realities which make ties in ethical and civic values. a direct unmediated impression on children and youth. In such cases, the municipality At the same time the educating city shall use will take non-authoritarian action in an at- its institutions and civic and social organisa- tempt to provide a rational explanation or tions to stimulate citizen participation in the interpretation. The municipality will ensure collective project, taking into account pri- that a balance is struck between the need for vate initiatives and other forms of spontane- protection and the need for the autonomy ous participation. necessary for discovery. The municipality 264 Educating Cities: 20 years will also provide educational forums and de- is their own. The city shall strive to foster so- bate, including exchange programs between cial cohesion amongst its neighbourhoods cities, to enable all inhabitants to fully accept and inhabitants of all walks of life. the changes generated by the urban environment. -17-

-14- Intervention that minimises differences may take various forms, but it must always be The city will make an effort to provide par- based on a comprehensive view of the per- ents with the education they need to help son, on a model shaped by the interests of their children mature and make the city their each individual and the rights to which all own in a spirit of mutual respect. In the same are entitled. Any meaningful action must vein, projects will be developed for educa- guarantee coordination amongst the various tors in general and people (private individu- administrative bodies involved and between als, or public service personnel) who under- the services provided by these bodies. The take educating functions often without being city shall also foster the cooperation between aware they are doing so. The educating city administrations and its citizens freely and will also assure that the police and civil pro- democratically organised in institutions in tection forces that depend directly upon the the so-called tertiary sector, non-governmen- municipality act in concert with these pro- tal organisations and similar associations. posals. -18- -15- The city will encourage the formation of as- The city must offer its inhabitants the per- sociations as a form of participation and civic spective of occupying their place in the so- co-responsibility, in order to channel action ciety: it shall provide them with the neces- that provides service to the community and to sary counselling for personal and vocational obtain and divulge information, material and orientation and make it possible for them to ideas in order to promote the social, moral participate in social activities. In the specific and cultural development of the individual. area of education-work, we should under- At the same time, the city shall contribute to line the close relationship that should exist educating activities so that people can par- between educational planning and the needs ticipate in decision-making and planning of the labour market. and in the management processes involved in the life of associations. Thus, the city shall define training strategies that take into account social demand and -19- shall collaborate with trade union and employers’ organisations in job creation and in The municipality must guarantee sufficient, formal and non-formal life-long training. comprehensible information and give incentives to its inhabitants to inform themselves -16- of what is going on. Taking into account the value involved in selecting, understanding The city must be aware of the mechanisms and treating the large flow of information of exclusion and marginalization that affect currently available, the educating city shall it and of their various forms, and develop the establish resources within everyone’s reach. affirmative action policies needed. Special The municipality will identify the collectives concern is needed for newly arrived persons, that require special attention, and will place whether immigrants or refugees, who have at their disposal specialised information, ori- the right to freely feel that their adoptive city entation and help centres. Educating Cities. International Congresses 265

At the same time, the city shall establish tolerance, participation, responsibility and programmes for training in information and interest in things public, its programmes, her- communications technology for all ages and itage and services. social groups in order to fight against new forms of exclusion. *****

-20- This Charter expresses the commitment of the cities undersigned to all the values and The educating city must offer all its inhab- principles expressed herein. It defines itself itants, as a necessary, growing objective for as being open to revision and expansion in the community, education in the values and respect of all such aspects that swift social practices of a democratic citizenry: respect, evolution may impose in the future. Testimonials

The following is a collection of testimonials from mayors of member cities of the International Association of Educating Cities. These testimonials help us understand how the Educating Cities Charter is applied in different places far and wide: Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Budapest (Hungary), Córdoba (Spain), Dakar (Senegal), Genoa (Ita- ly), Lomé (Togo), Montevideo (Uruguay), Rennes (France), São Paulo (Brazil) and Vallenar (Chile). They give us a good overview of the daily practices of some cities that have made education the backbone of their political activities, demonstrating their concern for improving the quality of life for all citizens, both individually and collectively. In the IAEC, these and many other cities have found a platform for dialogue, exchange and action, where they can share their day-today difficulties and successes. Belo Horizonte: A City that Educates!

Fernando Damata Pimentel, Mayor of Belo Horizonte

Educating in a city is not a simple task. It the age of 6 attend the 191 Day Care Centers truly represents a challenge in changing the set up in conjunction with the city govern- metropolis into an educational object itself, ment. The City Hall First School Program is a and providing that all its public spaces can national reference in terms of a quality infra- offer educational experiences to its inhabit- structure for the attendance of children up to ants. It is a never-ending challenge. It is on- five-and-a-half years of age. going, and requires political commitment on the part of the city’s leaders who, in the end, We have various different projects with re- will make the difference in the conception gard to health, the BH Life Program standing and execution of public policies in different out among them. The core of this program situations. is the organization of basic health attention through the Family Health Program and the In Belo Horizonte, the coordinating city of organization of care units with their users at the International Association of Educational all levels of assistance within the public health Cities Brazilian Network, we could cite sev- system, and based on the following fun- eral policies that illustrate our efforts: damental guidelines: guaranteeing access, trying to provide those who turn to the health With regard to education, the Integrated unit adequate attention and the best han- School program is already benefiting about dling of their case; creating a tie between the 14,000 students between the ages of 6 and health teams and the families in their care 14 in 50 schools within the municipal net- through building relationships of trust and work. These students have full-time activities, mutual responsibility; assuring thoroughness which provide them with a broad, quality ap- in care giving, with teams providing users prenticeship. Children and adolescents oc- with the appropriate guidance for each case; cupy their after-school schedule with cultural using multi-specialty teams, since the goal of and educational offerings, participating in ar- the BH Life and Integral Health programs in tistic/cultural and ecological/environmental defense of life depends on the joint and co- projects, sports, and language classes. The ordinated action of all team members; help- activities involve not only schools but also ing the user to become more autonomous NGOs, universities and the community itself. and responsible for his/her own care; and With the Integrated School, different places encouraging people’s participation in the in the city such as museums, cinemas, thea- planning and developing of actions involv- ters, parks, libraries and cultural centers are ing both the government and citizens in the transformed into educational centers. area of health care.

The First School Program has built and main- As regards urban renewal we can cite the tains 44 city-sponsored Infant Education Vila Viva (Living Village), which is an urban Units (UMEIs), where more than 13,000 chil- social and environmental program that is dren spend their day. The majority are chil- changing the lives of the 46,000 inhabitants dren whose mothers have no one with whom of Aglomerado da Serra, the largest shanty they can leave their child. Above and beyond town in Belo Horizonte, which occupies an the units, more than 20,000 children up to area of more than 1.4 million square meters. 270 Educating Cities: 20 years

The program promotes citizenship values of and decisions. In Belo Horizonte, not only its inhabitants by means of the urbanization the municipal government but also citizens, of alleys, through construction of residential the private sector and other government bod- units, eradication of dangerous areas, build- ies have a parcel of responsibility and clear ing of parks with sports and leisure equip- tasks in the permanent construction of a ment and the refurbishing of fountains. In commitment towards building citizenship. In addition to that are community development that model, government and society build on projects, environmental and health educa- each other, acquire responsibilities and share tion efforts and vocational training programs. solutions. Encouraging its citizens to partici- The actions taken make it possible for citi- pate in the decisions that transform the city’s zens to have access to basic services such as reality is a good path. The exercise of democ- public transportation, treated water, waste racy and the promotion of coexistence with collection and sewer treatment. The program diversity, together with strong encourage- began with an in-depth study of the lives of ment to know the city’s own history and local the inhabitants—Specific Global Planning of culture, is what probably sets an educating the Aglomerado da Serra—which was set up city apart from the others. The encourage- in three stages: data survey, the elaboration ment of people’s participation is perhaps the of a diagnosis of the main problems and the biggest tool for change and for support of the definition of priorities and necessary actions principles of an educating city: transparency, to address them. One of the sustaining bases dialogue with the city, the shaping of citizens of the program is community involvement, who are conscious of their rights and du- shaping citizens to become leaders in the ties. In this regard, the city of Belo Horizonte community and carry on the process so vital stands out. Here the government’s actions are to the Vila Viva project of informing fellow discussed with the people in different ways. citizens on environmental issues and how Citizens are involved in the decision-making to improve the quality of community life. process through several formal channels Among the main subjects stressed are cor- such as the municipal councils; and informal rect waste disposal, water conservation and channels when the public government turns maintenance of public areas. to the community to encourage dialogue and involve it in distinct stages of public policies: Another aspect of the program is the support defining needs and planning and carrying it provides to generating employment and in- out the resolutions of those. The participa- come, in partnership with the Human Work tory budget is an example of this, allowing Studies Center of the UFMG (Universidade citizens to become involved in decisions re- Federal de Minas Gerais). One example of garding the allocation of public resources. this partnership is the Dressmakers’ Cooper- In 2006 we took this a step further by ex- ative, which makes the construction workers’ panding the process and making it digitally uniforms. Another example is that 80% of accessible. That resulted in the participation the 450 workers in civil construction projects of more than 200,000 citizens. live in Aglomerado da Serra itself. Thus, being an educational city is not sim- The municipal government’s social policies ply about creating efficient educational poli- are also present in the program through the cies. It is much more than that. It is about building of public facilities such as the BH deepening democracy and allowing people Citizenship Space, Municipal Child Educa- to become a part of the process and the end tion Units of Child and Health Centers. result of public actions, and also about sharing responsibility and power with those who Nonetheless, in order for a city to become tru- are, after all, the major day-to-day educators: ly educational, it must share responsibilities the citizens. An Educating District of Budapest

Gábor Demszky, Mayor of Budapest György Alföldi, Architect

Dear Reader, Renewal Programs in Budapest

I warmly welcome you on behalf of the citi- The capital’s administrative structure deter- zens of Budapest. Our city has been a mem- mines how the city develops and how that ber of the International Association of Edu- affects the lives of its inhabitants. A two- cating Cities for several years now and I am tiered administrative system ensures that especially pleased that Budapest is the re- most tasks are accomplished: in addition to gional center in Central and Eastern Europe. the Budapest City Council there are 23 district councils working in the capital. These The aims of IAEC are universal and I am con- councils have a voice in city-scale develop- vinced that member cities can benefit a great ment policy, although much still remains to deal from the experiences of their fellow cit- be done in terms of fine-tuning this coopera- ies. I am pleased to present to you a short tive effort. description of one of our major projects in the city, namely the urban renewal program In 2004, the Budapest City Council and the of the Magdolna Quarter. I hope that reading Józsefváros local government made a com- this presentation will provide you with use- mitment to integrated social urban renewal ful information and will be of benefit to your by creating a consortium: Rév8—Józsefváros city as well. Rehabilitation and Urban Development Ltd. It developed the Magdolna Quarter Pro- gram1 as a medium-term renewal project for Magdolna Quarter, Budapest – a 15-year period. In 2005, the City of Buda- Józsefváros District pest decided to launch a number of socially/ culturally-based urban renewal pilot projects The Magdolna Quarter Program (Budapest– in several areas of the city. Three urban re- Józsefváros) was launched in 2005 in Hun- newal areas were focused on in Budapest for gary. It is a pioneer project designed to re- 2005-2008: Ferencváros (9th district); the so- new a disadvantaged urban district with the called Dzsumbuj by Illatos út, Köbánya (10th involvement of its residents and is based on district); and Bihari út, Józsefváros (8th dis- a broadly encompassing social, cultural, and trict), the Magdolna Quarter. technical program. The Józsefváros Quarter—the 8th district of Budapest—is 34 hectares in size, with ap- Conditions in the Magdolna Quarter proximately 12,000 residents. The quarter is the largest poor metropolitan area in Buda- A large number of disadvantaged families— pest. for the most part Romany families—live in

1 REV8 “Regeneration Program in Budapest – Józsefvaros, Magdolna Quarter program 2007” avaliable at http:// www.rev8.hu/csatolmanyok/eng_dokok/eng_dokok_2.pdf 272 Educating Cities: 20 years the Magdolna Quarter. The unemployment mented in small steps, by saving buildings rate is the highest here for all of Budapest of architectural value and constructing new and the district as well, and the proportion of housing. the working population is the lowest in the city. The education statistics also speak for Our programs include: 1) Building renewal themselves: the proportion of people without with tenant involvement; 2) Public space primary schooling is high and the number of renewal with Greenkeys;2 3) Community those with university studies is low. This is Center; 4) Educating Program; 5) Crime pre- one of the weakest areas in Józsefváros as re- vention; 6) Employment, Entrepreneurs Pro- gards economic potential and the Quarter’s gram; 7) Community Development Program; position on the employment scale. The crime 8) “Living Courtyard” Program. rate is high in spite of improved public security. Another serious problem is the use and trade of drugs as well as the long history of The Community Center and the prostitution in the quarter, which has practi- Educating Program cally disappeared in public areas. A complex will be created in the abandoned former Glove Factory providing a space for The Model Renewal Program alternative cultural and training programs and a public cultural space for neighbor- The general purpose of the program is to in- hood residents. An important feature of the troduce an urban renewal scheme in Hun- building is its openness and multi-functional gary where all of the program elements are capacity. built upon the active involvement of those living in the quarter. It should act as a cata- An important aim of the Community Center, lyst for public programs and thereby develop in addition to focusing on community devel- a uniquely-shaped and attractive part of the opment and providing consultation services, city by creating new public and cultural spots is to support the Erdélyi Primary School edu- and renewal of the existing areas. cation program by offering special sessions focused on fostering creativity and awareness The social aim is to improve the overall among children from different social and cul- standard of living by providing appropriate tural backgrounds attending the school, and living conditions in three ways: involving lo- at the same time, providing the opportunity cal residents in the program, strengthening for them to test themselves, as well as to play the unity of the local community, and main- and learn together. taining social diversity. It is most important for children in disadvan- The economic aim is to improve the genera- taged circumstances to be able—through de- tion of income and self-reliance in the area veloping their own knowledge and skills— by developing the local labor market and to overcome those blocks built up over the thereby reducing long-term unemployment. course of generations. In addition to tradi- The environmental aim is to expand public tional education, more attention should be and green areas in both size and quality. This paid to creativity, freedom and openness. The will be achieved by creating a sustainable proposed digital visual and arts program, in living environment through the continuous addition to being an asset for the school, upgrading of buildings. This will be imple- could be a true alternative for the young in-

2 See the Greenkeys web page (Urban Green as a Key for Sustainable Cities): http://www.greenkeys-project.net/hu/ home.html An Educating District of Budapest 273 terested in video, photo or other media and of the quarter, offering new, expansive pro- for other young people from within or out- grams and encouraging the development of side the quarter. the Community Center programs.

The cultural events are designed to bring The Kidpix “Digital Childhood” creative edu- people of different cultural backgrounds to- cational art program began in 2006. Once gether and encourage acceptance through a week, a four-hour period is set aside for the openness and playful nature of the ac- teacher education and a two-hour period tivities. The variety of organized programs is dedicated to the children. Fifteen chil- allows everyone to choose his or her own dren and twenty teachers participate in the favorite activity. To date there has been no project. Since the educational program is pri- institutionally organized space in the district, marily computer aided, the school needed to cultural or otherwise, in which to spend free bring its computer-rooms up to par, which time. The local urban renewal management was completed in October. offices for the quarter will also be located in the building. A Swedish educational pilot project, the “Tricky Fox,” sponsored by the Swedish Embassy and the Swedish Institute was The educational program is a key element launched in 2006. The weekly project offers in the quarter’s renewal. As a part of this a biweekly/2-hour interesting activity for ele- program the Erdélyi Primary School will be mentary students from grades 1-4. Fifteen transformed, an institution with new edu- pupils participate in the program. In Decem- cational tasks will be created (Community ber a little book was created with the help Center) and stress will also be placed on kin- of the children. The program involves close dergarten education. cooperation with libraries.

The renewal of the Erdélyi Primary & Second- The development work is meant to be coor- ary School is fundamental, as it is absolutely dinated with the Erdélyi Primary & Second- essential to have an open education facility ary School educational program, supporting providing both quality education and oppor- disadvantaged pupils in order to ease these tunities for continuing education and courses children’s transition from kindergarten to for adult training. The primary effect of the primary school. Currently, the majority rep- institutional reorganization will be to draw resentation of Romany children in the two in the primary school—with its nearly 100% kindergartens of the quarter does not reach Romany student body at present—as well as the segregation level of the primary school. to provide an opportunity for disadvantaged The kindergartens should also be connected young people (and adults) in the quarter to to the primary and secondary school pro- obtain a certificate by continuing their pri- grams as well as to those of the Community mary school education: a prerequisite for Center. many skilled-worker jobs. The Community Center and the school to- The opening and operation of the recreat- gether host both the ”Public Area Renewal ed school that also provides arts education Plan” and the ”Employment and Training” could contribute to change in the longer programs. term, given that it leads to an appreciation of the value of learning and work, and the usefulness of both. The Educational District

Moving children into the secondary school The main purpose of our program is to stitch should “open” the school to the residents together the already-torn social fabric. With 274 Educating Cities: 20 years an eye to this, we have made it our priority— responsibility for their own futures. Commu- apart from improving housing conditions— nity center programs will target social “drop- to rebuild the social network: to provide the outs”. means for various social and cultural strata Thus, this program is entering unchartered to have a voice of their own, represent their territory, not only in Hungary, but in Eastern own interests, and establish proper social Europe as a whole. We planned our program contacts. The renewal of the school’s educa- in accordance with the example provided tional program is the first step towards help- by the Educating Cities program and other ing different generations of local inhabitants EU programs, but there are no guidelines at gain these skills, and inspiring children to present to measure the success of our efforts. learn. The second step is to develop a system In light of this we developed an intelligent, for lifelong learning, as the adults living here constructive, and flexible approach which missed out on this first step in their lives; they will allow us to see—year by year—if we are must be lured back so that they may improve on the right track. In the interest of success we their social skills (to establish new contacts) must learn all the time and continue on the and develop a competitive edge in the labor path that we have chosen—this is the third market. In this way they will be able to take phase of our educational district project. Córdoba, An Educating City

Rosa Aguilar Rivero, Mayor of Córdoba

After twenty almost-consecutive years of po- The Principles in the Charter of Educating litical action based on equality, social justice Cities are those that, since 1990, have served and freedom, we can say that Córdoba—true us as points of reference in order to build our to its historical roots—has positively estab- own individual model. lished itself as an Educating City. Staying firm and in line with those princi- The premises that have served as necessary ples in a competitive, consumer-oriented points of departure in order to achieve this and utilitarian society such as ours, has not are the following: been—and still is not—without its difficulties. Day-to-day work and a coherent overall • The right to education, plan based on coordination among the different city departments, citizen participation, • Education as a tool of social change, and transparency and information, have served as our governing tools. • The city educates. We would like to spell this out in the follow- Government action has an impact on the ing chart indicating the principles and aims present and future lives of citizens, on their that have materialized in concrete actions: quality of life and on the city’s identity.

THE COMMITMENT OF THE CITY (Section 2 of CITY ACTIONS the Charter of Educating Cities)

Art. 8: “City planning must consider the enormous Two Master Zoning Plans. impact of the urban environment on the VIMCORSA, municipal corporation for subsidized development of all individuals.” housing. Two Strategic Plans for the city. Accessibility Plan.

Art. 9: “The Educating City shall encourage citizen Participatory Budget Process. participation from a critical, co-responsible point Citizen Participation Guidelines. of view. Subsidy Program for citizen groups.

Art. 10: “The municipal administration must equip Network of Civic Centers (10 throughout the city). the city with spaces, facilities and public services Network of sports facilities. that are suitable for the personal, social, moral Network of libraries. and cultural development of all its inhabitants, Network of Social Service Centers. paying special attention to children and youth.” Educational Center: Road Safety “La Ciudad de los Niños” (Children’s City) Park Córdoba Zoo. Playground equipment in all of the parks and squares in the city. Museums: Julio Romero de Torres Museum, Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (Fortress of the Christian Monarchs), Archeological Museum. 276 Educating Cities: 20 years

THE COMMITMENT OF THE CITY (Section 2 of CITY ACTIONS the Charter of Educating Cities)

Art. 11: “Creating a balance with the city’s natural Botanical Garden Foundation. surroundings, providing the right to a healthy Program of Compliance with Agenda 21. environment…” Riverside Renovation Program.

Art. 12: “The city’s educational project …, Celebration of the following International Days: Universal the values it promotes, the celebrations it Children’s Day, Day of Disabled Persons, Day of Peace organizes…must be the subject of reflection and and Non-Violence, Day for the Elimination of Racial participation…” Discrimination, among others. Public School Festival. Guitar Festival. National Flamenco Art Competition. Biennials of Visual Arts and Photography. Cosmopoetic. Celebration of Córdoban patios, gates and balconies.

Art. 14: “The city will make an effort to provide Parents’ School. parents with the education they need to help their Family Orientation Service. children mature…” Support program for the AMPAS (parents and teachers school association). Cooperation with the University, unions and associations for educational renewal, and with the Center of Teacher Training through conferences, seminars, meetings on educational training.

Art. 15: “The city must offer its inhabitants the Municipal Institute of Economic Development and Labor. perspective of occupying their place in society…” Social Participation Programs.

Art. 16: “The city must be aware of the Local Immigration Board. mechanisms of exclusion and marginalization that 1st Immigration Plan. affect it…” Unit for Social Intervention for the prevention of child begging.

Art. 17: “The city shall also foster the cooperation Local Council for Social Cooperation. between administrations and its citizens freely 1st Social Cooperation Plan. and democratically organized in institutions in the so-called tertiary sector…”

Art. 18: “The city will encourage the formation of Participatory Budget Process. associations as a form of participation and civil 2nd Citizen Participation Guidelines. co-responsibility, in order to channel action that Creation of District Councils and Local District Boards. provides service to the community…” Member of the Commission of Local Authorities for Social Inclusion and Participatory Democracy. Member of the World Social Forum. Participant in the URB-AL Program.

Art. 20: “The educating city must offer all its Educational Program “Educate for Peace, Coexistence and inhabitants, as a necessary, growing objective Solidarity” (pre-school and primary school). for the community, education in the values and Educational Program “Solidarity: everyone’s task.” practices of a democratic citizenry: respect, “Fathers’ and Mothers’ School” Program. tolerance, participation, responsibility and interest in things public…”

Finally, I wish to make clear that the Córdoba politicians to manage to turn ideas into proj- project is the result of the work of many and ects and the projects into reality. of the strength of citizens, specialists and The Way Things Are in Dakar

Pape Diop, Senator and Mayor of the city of Dakar

The realm of education is of prime impor- We raise awareness, we inform, we define tance to every human society, above all for and we contribute to the education of the developing countries and, in particular, their population, in particular our youngsters, in local authorities. order to make them model citizens and advocates of peaceful cohabitation between Sweeping changes are taking place nowa- people from different ethnic, cultural or reli- days in local development in most of our gious backgrounds. countries. This is true of Senegal, for example, where, under Law 96/07 of 22 March 1996, education now falls within the new ar- Unfailing Support for National Efforts eas of powers transferred to local authorities, thereby acknowledging the existence and The desires and aspirations of minorities are importance of these bodies. systematically identified and taken into account in order to prevent the build-up of frus- In a context of this nature, the construction tration or radical opposition characterised by of a developed, peaceable and lasting ur- struggles for power, uprisings and civil wars. ban environment demands that the training and education of social stakeholders in civic Within the strict realm of knowledge, in ad- awareness and citizenship—encompassing dition to our bold and determined policy on values, relationships with others, ways of life, universal education, in which we place great etc.—should fall increasingly and perma- importance on schooling for girls, we have nently within the remit of the management directed our efforts towards the Directorate of our local authorities. of Education and Culture (DEC) by creating a modern infrastructure reflected in the exist- The policy of Dakar City Council on this is- ence of a commendable blueprint for schools sue is close to that laid down by the govern- (the ratio of establishments to the number of ment of Senegal, the purpose of which is to pupils), as well as other laudable results-driv- achieve sustainable development, peaceable en initiatives. social integration and the participation of all citizens in the life of the nation. We support a government that devotes 40% of the national budget to education, where- Our strategy is in essence based on willing- as the target for Africa stands at 20%. This ness, listening, collaboration and communi- policy has resulted in the democratisation of cation in order to achieve true popular sup- education, above all in the realm of nursery port for our actions, an indisputable factor in schooling and playschools, as demonstrated building social cohesion. by the Case des Tout-Petits (Tots’ Cabin), a project set up by Senegal’s head of state that This is the purpose behind the creation of has been welcomed by UNESCO. Dakar Municipal Radio, which is intended to serve as a link between the municipal au- We also encourage citizens’ access to the thorities and citizens. information and communication technolo- 278 Educating Cities: 20 years gies through training and social and profes- an opportunity to evaluate every category of sional placements. This programme is aimed stakeholder, be they civic or institutional. at children who drop out of school and at housewives and unemployed young adults. The experience of the city of Dakar is undoubtedly modest, yet it confirms our optimism regarding the proposition of a new Collaboration Accord urban culture that is more productive and which promotes the citizenry through part- In view of the close involvement of citizens nership management of the city. in the development of the city, we are drawing up a useful and friendly collaboration ac- It encourages the commitment of every element in the city and it fosters activities and cord between the municipal authorities and projects set up by citizens working to help development agents based on awareness and our city take its place among the ‘Educating mobilisation around the issues of education cities’ and directing their efforts determinedly and training. towards the emergence of a knowledge city.

This accord embraces the two major federa- Nevertheless, this experience in Dakar, like tions of the association movement: the Col- others elsewhere in poor countries, will lective of Local Development Committees unquestionably need the support of organi- and the Alliance of Development Movements zations such as ours and of development and Associations. These bodies are arenas for project partners if it is to remain on course reflection, consensus and action and provide and to spread. The Educational Dimension of Local Government Policies in Genoa

Marta Vincenzi, Mayor of Genoa

Participating in what? Participating over three years, clarity to the original con- How? cept with regard to the political and institutional aspects. Discussion was focused on This year, Genoa Educating City will cel- the function of local government in the de- ebrate its eighth year. It is perhaps too brief velopment of territories, in keeping with the a time to be able to evaluate the possible international debate dealing with connection success and concrete results but it is enough models as well as urban and social changes time to observe the ground covered and to witnessed, or perhaps even suffered, in other imagine future directions to be taken. cities, considered as veritable laboratories. The same aims were discussed during the The analysis and reviews of its history, espe- 10th Congress of the International Associa- cially those of 2005, underline the need to tion of Educating Cities, held in Genoa in reweave the threads of this project with the November 2004. Perhaps not all of the an- present changes—political and social, global swers and solutions were found or applied, and local—taking place at this time while however, the risk of using only local refer- considering new projects, other tools and ences was avoided. varying commitments. The initial proposal placed such issues and The need to bring the Genoa Educating Cities concepts on the table as government, gov- map up to date is a question extending from ernability and representation along with the growing democratic demand for effec- those concerning the public domain, col- tive participation and the search for space by lective decisions and decentralization. Ini- public services operating in wider educative tiatives, seminars and debates were used to contexts. broaden the circle of dialogue and opinions among the movements, groups and individu- The initial proposal in December of 1999 als who, in the 70s, lived through the first was intentionally characterised by the extent great period of participation in our country, of involvement and philosophical content those who combined their own professional while offering a vehicle for the theme of col- interests with civic commitments, and those lective construction of an educating project who were just beginning public life. for the city. Certainly, it was a cultural project aimed at sharing a vision: the idea of a city This debate has been gradually broken down for people and, above all, their relationships. by the confrontation of different forms of The town authorities supported this idea of authority and the demand to participate in combining its own capacities and those of decisions regarding the common good. Dif- the citizens involved, individually and on an ferent points of view, subjects and languages organizational level, interacting in given mu- coexist and conflict: from influential institu- tual spaces in order to define the quality of tions to enlightened political leaders, from life in the city together. examples of civil coexistence formed at the foundations of society to projects promoted Later, development of this idea brought, by the town hall, and from central govern- through a participatory process evolving ment policies to territorial relationships. 280 Educating Cities: 20 years

The question of dialectics between power and create relationships, to work on differences participation is part of the complex discus- and to maintain the confidence generated. sion linked to the postmodern meaning of de- Thus the debate was centred on individuals mocracy and the attempts, still in progress, to believing in overcoming membership and combine the transformations of the evolutions individualism using a concept of partici- of western democratic systems with the pres- pation that remains to be developed in the ence of an idea of plural and changing power. wake of research based on values, idealism and passions and that should be promoted Issues related to this discussion can be seen as an engine for social unity for groups and today in some of the local best practices, organisations. A choice was made to discuss well-defined results and isolated responses the pact, before subsequent developments, for quality in our city, but which are faced, as a sustainable form of collective return, however,—accompanied by a chorus of de- conceived as something based on fiduciary nunciations—with the absence and inability capital rather than being solely based on the of traditional politics to provide ideas and in- economic components of social dynamics. struments. Certainly, in many cases these are The eugenics identity is composed of all this efforts that perhaps may be too isolated to be data. read, interpreted and understood perfectly. The profound belief driving this debate is that In reality, the discussion on these aspects has emergency actions, disorganised and disori- not been, and still is not, easy because con- ented, are useless whereas time for consid- flict arose on the ground in the wake of the eration and a certain distance regarding eve- crisis of the State of well-being models. The ryday life are required in order to adopt new differences, the dysfunctions and the with- points of view, to discover new horizons, and drawals that have been building up over time to sort out complexities, etc. Proposal of this cannot be resolved using legal engineering of participation was strongly ideal, because it the concept of subsidiarity, tributary to Euro- attempted to give priority to the quality of pean law and, today, constitutional law. The citizenship while recognizing the existence political praxis affected by issues such as so- of multiple routes of access to public life cial unity, public responsibility and citizen- through which people, citizens, active and ship, in reality, are deeply compromised by conscious groups, could be reached. the collision and the instability of two fronts: the search for new public-private associative Thus, today, after almost a decade following relationships and that of the serious reorien- the experience of the Eugenia pact, after a tation of public resources. period of consideration of services and of the establishment of other actors in society, The Eugenia proposal (named after the Ge- and also after having begun, in 2004, a so- noese attempt, the Eugenia Pact) in fact was cial planning process for the city supporting quite commendable in that it elaborated, interventions and resources linked to the in- confronted and reconsidered questions volvement of citizens, the public administra- about the future of the city through an inter- tion (Civica Amministrazione) is introducing pretive framework that spoke of overcoming participation as the first point on its own po- the management, administrative and bureau- litical agenda as a method and a substance cratic approximations while highlighting of government. wealth and the undeniable aspects of other rapprochements. So, that participation continues to be a political question linked to the growing demands Symbolically, this represented a place for for democracy and the duty of citizens to development, testing and comparing posi- concur with decisions having a significant tions, knowledge and expectations solely to impact on daily life of neighbourhoods and The Educational Dimension of Local Government Policies in Genoa 281 territories. Often these decisions are defined must be constructive, must define a frame- as “public” from a procedural and adminis- work for thinking, build proposals of a dis- trative point of view whereas, in reality, they course aimed at enlarging the public space are experienced as “private” decisions from for openings and not for violations, for ex- the procedural and political point of view in changes and not for attacks and for conflicts the broadest sense. Certainly, this kind of de- but not for destruction. cision is distanced from the recognition and approval of a shared public sphere. The project to draft the Genoa Social Bal- The work that the public administration at- ance Sheet (Bilancio Sociale de Genova), tempts to implement, while giving meaning with regard to relations with other countries, to the words of the Educating Cities road- is in keeping with the city’s social regulations map which states that the educating city will and planning that have already been imple- promote the participation of citizens from a mented. Measurements of the impact of local critical and responsible point of view, is togovernment policies regarding the well-being day centred on an analysis of the existing of citizens is both an important milestone for participation tools and those that remain to an administration and a fundamental begin- be built. ning for the spread of practices and tools for More dedication and commitment is re- listening to and acting upon collective par- quired to promote technical, procedural and ticipation. administrative participation while appreciat- ing its significance and power: citizens must Otherwise, all of these objectives belong to know how to use the tools put at their dis- a final purpose symbolised by a leap forward posal through legislation. in quality, the construction of a veritable Project for Genoa, a project that the public The urban centre is among the instruments administration is promoting but cannot com- to be evaluated and that, by applying the plete alone. resolution on architectural quality of the urban and rural environment approved by the The dynamic aspect of this project should Council of the European Union in 2001, confirms that urban democracy is indeed a be expressed through the ideas desired and central point between municipal administra- put forth by young people and that the city is tion and the population. open to and capable of providing. Our idea of Genoa Educating City continues to reflect Indeed, the belief that urban regeneration awareness that cities require a new definition and cohesive social unity not only provide of the political function: as a practice that quality of life in our cities but also help us cannot dispense with the rapprochement of to combat exclusion and marginality, is fun- knowledge and the appropriation of reality damental. as a purely phenomenological element, but that can also never interrupt the continuum In the wake of other cities who have estab- of service, proximity and respect. lished the centres, Genoa hopes to establish and maintain dialogue and discussion on major urban development processes, announc- We would hope that all of the efforts imple- ing and discussing them within a framework mented by local government to support ef- of listening that will place the concept of co- forts to reconstruct communities for society responsibility in decision-making at the cen- will fill this ever-growing void in relations tre of debate. The different visions of reality between institutions and society. To What Extent Is the Capital of the Republic of Togo, in Western Africa, an Educating City?

Lodé Aouissi, Mayor of Lomé

Lomé, the national capital of Togo, is a coast- neighborhood, sports, leisure, and much al city with over a million inhabitants that has more. consolidated itself nationally and throughout Western Africa as a driving force for the so- Thanks to its cosmopolitism, the city of Lomé cial, economic and cultural development of is wide open to the world. It educates every other cities in both Togo and the inland sub- citizen in the fight against racial discrimina- Saharan countries. tion, and towards tolerance and acceptance of others. The city districts facilitate the co- Lomé is a city that offers a wealth of edu- habitation of different social strata (rich and cation and training opportunities for young poor) without any marginalization. The habi- people and adults through its numerous tude of respecting others is still alive, which schools, improvement and literacy centers, demonstrates the richness of traditional val- vocational training centers, etc. ues that include showing consideration for the elderly, children and youth. Family life These resources, whether they belong to the educates people about their responsibility private or public sector, are open to all of the towards others from an early, impressionable city’s inhabitants looking for a very positive age. cultural environment. Everyone is welcome to make use of the many cultural centers as The city educates about maintaining a well as the sports, social, health, and com- healthy environment. Collective actions are munication infrastructures. The media (press, organized to improve the city’s healthiness radio, television) are in the process of de- through the Lomé Clean City Operation. The velopment, while Internet access is assured municipality invites every citizen of Lomé to thanks to a high density of cybercafés in the participate in cleaning up their city. urban area. The city also educates about civic-minded- The city has a number of unique symbolic ness and prevention (security, traffic, heath, places and structures that leave lasting im- etc.) through the associative movements that pressions with inhabitants and visitors alike, transmit mass education. The abundance of such as the “Colombe de la Paix” traffic cir- meeting places is an asset for Lomé that re- cle, the city’s main symbol. Lomé is consid- mains, above all, an important transit point, ered to be a messenger of peace, an educat- a crossroad of encounters and intercultural ing city for peace, and a haven for peace. exchanges.

Living in Lomé gives you a different citizen Lomé creates, for all its citizens, spaces that experience, one that enables you to avoid are propitious to urban actions and the de- isolation and instead belong to a commu- velopment of debates and activities to pro- nity that is linked through religion, activities, mote local democracy. Montevideo: A Learning Space

Ricardo Ehrlich, Mayor of Montevideo

The early space of exploration that opens can vary from city to city—the urban space is up beyond the family sphere, inevitably an educating space in and of itself. One reads becomes an important point of reference a city, just as one reads nature: you read a throughout life, surpassing time and distance, building, you read a public space, you read when those elements are attained that create the design of the public services. Sometimes a sense of belonging, that create identities the messages are limited, and other times and are linked to those involved. These are overflowing with warmth and poetry. reference points one comes to love, contexts in which one feels loved and which engender A city, a local space, must open doors and this initial bond of belonging; with the inflec- paths to follow, to explore. Paths which lead tions of a language, the profiles and colors to unique experiences of personal discovery, of a landscape, the smells, tastes and sounds paths which are taken once and again, just that one discovers in public spaces. like children’s stories which are told and re- told and generate security and confidence. Urban spaces which generously open them- But these doors and paths must also lead to selves to people, continue creating reference learning and the discovery of abilities that points in the course of one’s life and for all are not only developed within the spheres of of one’s life: for those born in their midst, for those adopting them in one period or anoth- formal education and not only meant to sup- er, and for those who visit and discover them port those spheres. for the first time. The beauty, culture, history or material richness of these spaces are not The city should be, for all, from the time a sufficient if that subtle bond of belonging child takes his/her first steps and throughout isn’t established. life, a space for learning. That is what builds quality and dignity of life. That is what builds Taking care of the human spaces in the city is city and society. Giving priority to urgent is- what gives it this special quality and is key in sues and battling against exclusion should the creation of social coexistence and cohe- not diminish the importance of building sion. But that includes—and very much so— spaces for learning, for discovering skills and recognizing the role of the city as a learning acquiring abilities; on the contrary, these are space. Beyond the link with the formal edu- necessary building blocks for a cohesive so- cative system and its different levels—which ciety committed to the principles of fairness. Non-Formal Education: An Initiative for the Residents of Rennes

Edmond Hervé, Mayor of Rennes

In my view, the mayor of an educating city A) Principles must perforce have a conscious and comprehensive concept of his or her action. There are some in our societies who are engaged in promoting “non-formal education,” a form of education that has sprung from the I. Exposition world of employment, cities, associations, trade unions, political parties and the organi- We need to build “a new equality,” an equal- sations that work with educational establish- ity of knowledge. Civilisation and the knowl- ments. edge society are poised, waiting for us. It is our job to identify the existing social, eco- Every piece of knowledge needs to be passed nomic and financial inequalities, but also the on and to be useful. cultural, educational and scientific inequalities. It is our task to identify the regional di- Non-formal education is not opposed to for- vide that these inequalities are a part of. By mal education, that is to say, academic and accurately diagnosing them, we will make it continuing education leading to qualifica- easier to select and mobilise the resources tions. likely to reduce them. It is politic for us to find the connection that The second point to be made is that there is will unite them and ensure that they comple- no longer a “time for education” restricted to ment each other. the first stage of life. The time for education is always with us. This search concerns not only the realm of education. It governs the relationship that Education throughout the length and breadth should exist between our institutions, and so- of our lives, in every aspect of life, this is the ciety is underpinned by institutional respon- challenge that faces us in modern times. sibility and social solidarity.

The third point is that public schools in France Democracy and effectiveness both enjoin us have ranged themselves against society in to engage in a dialogue that encompasses order to impose the values of the Republic, society as a whole, including employers and namely liberty, equality and fraternity. There employees. have been reasons for these “schools as sanc- tuaries” and they have had their successes, In recognising the “Educating city,” we con- but it is now evident that we need to make secrate this society-wide dialogue. them more open. In effect, these terms describe the mobilisation of all the elements of the city for the II. Solutions benefit of the creation and distribution of knowledge. These are founded on principles, a method, ethics and organisation. 288 Educating Cities: 20 years

To talk of the “Educating City” is to suggest modesty (the limits of schools has to be ac- The primacy of communication and exces- knowledged) and exigency, since we need sive sensitivity towards the media and pub- to make a complex system function, to bring lic opinion prompt changes in direction and about co-education and to abandon the uni- leave the authorities disoriented. lateralism of yesterday. Good organisation calls for good relations between the decentralised tier of the state B) An Example of the Methods and decentralised authorities (in the case of France, regional, departmental and city). I believe that every collective, every public institution, ought to have an “educational Turning to the city, we should note the importance of relations between towns and cit- initiative” that is in keeping with its compe- ies, a level of apprehension that is perfectly tencies and properly coordinated. legitimate at a time when a sense of multire- gional belonging is developing. By way of an example, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Rennes University More specifically, in the building of non-for- Hospital, I have insisted that the hospital’s mal education, we can see the contribution strategic plan should include “education in made by three essential entities: cities, the health” under two headings, for people both association movement and companies. inside and outside the establishment. • Cities: these are centres with a wealth As mayor, I see the shared educational ini- of resources near at hand. Imagine the tiative as based on partnerships, all-encom- knowledge that can be extracted from passing, forward-looking, specific, firm and clean-ups, improvements, transport, twin- open to the public. An initiative with these ning arrangements, energy consumption, characteristics will serve to mobilise, inform, history, demography, local democracy, regulate and establish contracts. etc.

• The association movement: regardless of C) Ethics the challenges associations are constantly forced to face (changes in actors, level of An initiative of this nature ought to be inter- professionalism, territorial remit, demands disciplinary and pluralist, and it should infor support, limited resources, etc.), the volve the realms of education, instruction movement complements the representa- and training and citizens. tion of society, harbours skills, is capable of adapting to new circumstances, puts democracy into practice, and supports lasting as well as temporary constructs, D) Organisation institutional and social structures. It brings difference to life. The watchword should be trust rather than suspicion (the principle of precaution derives • Companies: these too play a part in the specifically from suspicion, does it not?). realm of non-formal education.

For reasons of economics, a solution should They survive on knowledge, they keep it be found to the legislative crisis (in other up to date and they anticipate it. Let us words, its content, meaning and effective- take a construction company as an exam- ness). ple: it needs to be familiar with its mate- Non-Formal Education: An Initiative for the Residents of Rennes 289

rials, to protect the environment, to bear To achieve this, the educating city must re- the neighbours in mind, to safeguard the instate the idea of the future in the collective health and safety of its employees, to cal- civic consciousness. culate and assess, etc. Doing this in turn calls for a philosophy sim- Like cities and associations, companies too ply termed laicism. need formal and non-formal education. Laicism is not limited solely to the relationship with religion or schools but concerns III - Conclusion society as a whole since it involves freeing oneself from the religious, financial, tech- The steps taken in non-formal education are nocratic, partisan and media powers-that-be and from subservience to the moment or the good for democracy and the values of equal- ephemeral. ity, liberty and fraternity. This laicism inspires an approach intended to We need to win the battle and establish the benefit individuals and society, and conduct need for it and its meaning. that eschews exploitation and manipulation. São Paulo, an Educating City

Gilberto Kassab, Mayor of São Paulo

A member of the world network of Educat- cial and educational plan of the former ad- ing Cities since 2004, São Paulo was born to ministration was maintained while introduc- educate in 1554, and has continued to do ing changes designed to add functionality so ever since. Over four centuries ago, the to the facilities. Thus, children in daycare Portuguese Jesuits climbed the Serra do Mar and preschool stayed on the ground floor and, on reaching the Piratininga plateau, re- and were not moved to the upper floors— alized it was the perfect location for building something done in the original project that a school. Since then, this site where the city made it difficult for employees and parents of São Paulo was founded—has been known to move about, especially those with small as the Pátio do Colegio. children.

Today, one of the City’s main programs is Taking care of education is part of the history called São Paulo é uma Escola (São Paulo Is and tradition of São Paulo. From its earliest a School). It encourages students to spend years, “the Portuguese colonists mixed with more time at school, where they are offered the indigenous people, giving rise to an origi- an extracurricular array of cultural activities, nal society, and leading São Paulo to be con- sports, recreation, arts and crafts, and so on. sidered the most Brazilian of cities, creating The spaces at many schools are used to the a new pattern, formed by Portuguese, blacks full for a variety of workshops and other ac- and the indigenous.”1 tivities. Interculturality constitutes the very nature The program is not solely about getting young of this city. To get an idea of how far back people out of the streets, though this is cer- that goes, figures from the census carried out tainly a common objective and one deserv- in 1893 indicate that, “of the city’s 130,775 ing of many projects aimed at this segment of the population. More than that, São Paulo inhabitants, only 59,307 were Brazilian; the é uma Escola champions the universal right remaining 71,468 were foreigners: Italians (35% of the total), Portuguese (11%), Span- to participate in activities that enrich the so- 2 cial capital of students and teachers alike, in ish (4%) and German (2%).” addition to providing continuity to the educating spirit of the capital city. Furthermore, In São Paulo, many different races, cultures, concern for continuity is a hallmark of the languages, values and beliefs have always current administration, which has sought to lived together. Brazilians from all states find cultivate—rather than abandon—the initia- their second birthplace here. Immigrants from tives of its predecessors. every continent settle here to start families, in perfect peace, without the slightest trace of Such was the case, for example, with the the ancestral enmity that caused such strife Unified Education Centers (CEUs). The so- back in their homelands.

1 Toledo, Roberto Pompeu de. A capital da solidão, uma história de São Paulo, das origens a 1900. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 2003. 2 Ibid. 292 Educating Cities: 20 years

As mayor, and in consideration of the right With the recently launched Comunidad to the city, to aesthetic fruition and to new Protegida (Protected Community) project, spaces that open the door to new social people and their environment are top pri- exchanges, we now undertake an arduous ority—not vehicles. Thanks to this measure, battle to rescue the urban landscape. The residential neighborhoods should remain Cidade Limpa (Clean City) project aims to free from alternative flows of traffic caused recover the architectural identity, harmony by vehicles trying to avoid congested areas. and history of the buildings and monuments The measure is still in its pilot stage, but the that constitute our city’s heritage. The proj- wider sidewalks, additional landscaping and ect involves establishing regulations for the expanded meeting points will undoubtedly placement of billboards and identification lead to citizens enjoying a new relationship plates and advertising, where lack of control with their neighborhoods and their city. and abuse hid the true city from its inhabitants and created a chaotic atmosphere that In São Paulo, new generations are being demanded prompt corrective action. brought up to live together, without prejudic- es, and openly discuss contrasts and differ- The Cidade Limpa project is underway, re- ences. In this respect, the City Council sup- ceiving broad support from the local popula- port for the Gay Pride Parade is noteworthy. tion and making a surprising impact. Similar In 2007, the event brought more than three to an archaeological dig, it reveals a new million people together on Avenida Paulista. city, one that was unseen for at least three This happens to be another legacy of past ad- generations. Many young people have ex- ministrations. pressed surprise on discovering—along the very same streets and avenues where they The intrinsically educating nature of the city have always walked—the city as described is also revealed in the urbanization of fave- in stories and appearing in photographs from las (shanty towns) such as Paraisópolis and their grandparents and great-grandparents. Heliópolis. In all the favelas undergoing the process of urbanization, the improvement of Continuing with the issue of quality of life, physical and environmental conditions has we will finally control pollution by imposing made a huge impact on the sociability and a regulation on all motor vehicles. Given the self-esteem of residents. Councils have been topography of the city—which faces huge set up in all the favelas, formed by represent- difficulties every winter in trying to rid the atives of the residents, public authorities and air of contaminants—we can no longer post- the social organizations working there. pone the introduction of this environmental protection measure. This is an educational When we promote aid programs for those line of action that will raise citizens’ aware- living in the streets, and when we provide ness of their duty to the city in which they skilled employees to offer these people a de- live and breathe. cent shelter, the city is also educating. This is a contentious and controversial subject. The municipal government has also signed However, if we realize that the right to the the Earth Charter and the set of measures city presupposes certain rules for coexistence proposed by the UN to conserve the plan- and limits designed to protect public space, et’s environment. A number of actions will then it will be easier for us to join forces to be carried out by the different departments find solutions that are respectful of needs and of the City Council. These include: build- desires, and offer dignity to the people living ing schools according to specific ecological in this situation. guidelines, the use of eco-friendly materials, incentives for reducing water and power There are many examples of how São Paulo consumption, and so on. coordinates its public policies and sectorial São Paulo, an Educating City 293 actions based on the concept of the educat- Council offered a wide variety of events to ing city. One of these is the Virada Cultural. the citizens of São Paulo, who now consider On the most recent occasion of this festival, the Virada Cultural as a can’t-miss event on held May 5-6, 2007, 3.5 million residents of their calendars. São Paulo were able to attend, free of charge, 350 events at 80 different locations throughout the city, for 24 hours nonstop, including: Through its efforts to develop better, more theater, dance, music, shows, movies, cho- sensitive and capable citizens, our City ral singing, sarões (soirées), pop concerts, Council is adding to the legacies of the edu- lectures, and so on. Once again, the City cators who founded São Paulo. Vallenar, an Educating City: An Ongoing Challenge

Juan Horacio Santana Alvárez, Mayor of Vallenar

On July 8, 1998, at the initiative of Mayor of two educational centers of higher learn- Juan Horacio Santana, and with the unani- ing—the headquarters of the Universidad de mous agreement of the municipal council, Atacama and an environmental technology our city formally joined the International As- center—at the two points where the river sociation of Educating Cities (IAEC). That de- enters and leaves the city. The establishment cision started a process aimed at developing of these centers is expected to be a decisive our city by focusing primarily on education. step forward in the process of incorporating It marked the start of a search for paths for- this new urban space in the city, generating ward that has enabled us to build this dream private investment that will in turn lead to the by working together with the community. creation of new centers of cultural, recreational and commercial activity. The next step was to set up a working committee to identify the best way to move forward For their part, municipal departments have with the initiative. A short time later, the city also worked on a number of projects. The created a department to coordinate projects Transportation Department has created an with the community and schools. Through its educational campaign featuring a character various departments, the local government is called “Transitín,” aimed at raising awareness carrying out efforts that are gradually moving in road safety. Activities are carried out with us onto the right path, while maintaining a schools, and groups of child traffic inspectors broad perspective that stresses integration of convey to their peers and family members the all members of the community. In this con- importance of responsible road behavior. text, it is important to open up intersecting spaces for participation and innovation. Health campaigns are undertaken by the Val- lenar Educating City Community Committee. New perspectives are gradually emerging. This committee was set up for the purpose In terms of urban priorities, a very rundown of improving specific health indicators based area (where the Huasco River passes through on a broad approach that seeks to change be- the city) needs to be restored. The plan is to havioral patterns which can improve quality urbanize this area, create a number of green of life. The committee is, first and foremost, areas, and build sports and community fa- participatory and focuses on generating col- cilities. These projects will generate multi- laborative partnerships, providing training, functional spaces for outdoor activities and maintaining an intersectorial scope and provide areas where people can meet and building a network of diverse participants. participate, thus improving quality of life for residents. Additionally, in order to promote the participation of organizations, a competitive fund Construction and development of this project was created to finance projects based on the is ongoing. Given the cost and the scope of “educating city” principles. Financing has the undertaking, it is being carried out in stag- been provided for projects related to herit- es. One aim is to correct a situation in which age, sports, art and the environment. Those the city has turned its back on the river. The receiving assistance are based on principles project will include the eventual creation such as participation, working in collabo- 296 Educating Cities: 20 years rative partnerships, freedom of expression, all vision. The aim is to advance the devel- intergenerational dialogue, quality of life, opment of the city by: maintaining our iden- the intersection of education and innova- tity, strengthening the community, improving tion, and valuing identity and origins. This is social harmony, and receiving participation a very valuable undertaking for us because and input from all areas. it enables organizations to plan, develop and carry out actions aimed at making Val- At the same time, we recognize our weak lenar an educating city, while leaving them points and are conscious of the need to ad- enough autonomy to ensure the creation of dress them. When the Educating City Project new spaces for community-developed inno- got underway in Vallenar with the creation of vation. a working committee to develop and implement the idea, it was believed that this office Other community efforts are geared toward should go above and beyond municipal au- providing support for those in need. For ex- thority. However, as it became operational, ample, at the end of the year, a time when the committee faced ongoing changes as it family budgets are overstretched, the cam- strived to find the best way to shape the ex- paign known as “Vallenar Puro Corazón” perience through a formal plan of action. (Vallenar Pure Heart) is run to guarantee that everything needed for a proper holiday meal Over the last 10 years, a number of successful is delivered to the homes of those who need efforts have been carried out. More and more help. The campaign ensures that all local people in the city know about and identify people are able to enjoy a family gathering with the project in broad terms, as an un- during the festive season. dertaking aimed at bringing everyone (local government and the community) together to The campaign engages community organiza- build an educating city. Nevertheless, there tions in an activity that employs the princi- is still much to be done. The efforts already ple of solidarity, within the framework of the underway need to be better integrated, and concepts that define an educating city. Now all municipal work—planning, general man- nine years running, the campaign is proving agement and corporate image—needs to be to be increasingly successful. Neighborhood more clearly defined to convey a message residents’ associations participate in the deci- that is consistent with the values and prin- sion-making process for the campaign, work- ciples of the educating cities project. An ef- ing with health centers and schools in each fort also needs to be made to recruit other area. Together, these groups form area com- cities to the project and generate develop- mittees that define how the campaign will ment links with these twin communities. This be carried out, who the beneficiaries will be, step will also contribute to strengthening the and how the packages will be delivered. overall project.

The projects described above exemplify the The challenge is great. We need to join forc- effort being made by this local government to es and act with collective determination. We build an educating city by working hand-in- need to believe that together we can build hand with the community. We see education a better city, one that draws us all in and as a complex human activity, not simply a effectively facilitates each individual’s de- matter of developing skills and competen- velopment, one that provides opportunities cies based on a defined set of objectives. for growth and strengthens the local govern- This understanding underlies every decision ment, which has made the decision to pursue related to the development of our city and a development option based on working and the specific actions taken based on our over- learning together with the community. Epilogue Epilogue

Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO

Koïchiro Matsuura (Tokyo, Japan, 1937) has been serving as Director- General of UNESCO since 1999. He studied at the University of Tokyo School of Law and received a B.A. in economics from Haverford College, USA. Mr Matsuura began his diplomatic career in Ghana, leading to a lifelong passion for the cultures and people of Africa. During a highly accomplished diplomatic career, he served as Counsellor at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., as Consul General in Hong Kong, and as Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, where he was Japan’s Sherpa for the G-7 Summit.

In 1999, while serving as Japan’s Ambassador to France and chairing UNESCO’s flagship World Heritage Committee, he was elected by Member States to his first term as Director-General of UNESCO, a position he continues to hold following his re-election in 2005. Mr Matsuura has authored numerous books on UNESCO, international relations, the intersection between diplomacy and development cooperation as well as a history of the G-7 Summit. Epilogue

Challenges to Cities in the 21st Century accelerated urban development? What, in particular, can UNESCO do? With the world population growing annually by about 70 million people, urbanization is taking place at an unprecedented scale and UNESCO and Cities: Education for pace. This means that the battle to attain the Sustainable Urban Development Millennium Development Goals will be won or lost in cities. Unless major investments are The United Nations Decade of Education for made in urban development over the next Sustainable Development (2005-2014), of two decades, the majority of the growing which UNESCO is lead agency and interna- urban population in the South will face the tional coordinator, provides a framework for risks of poverty, deplorable housing condi- stakeholders at all levels to move forward in tions, poor health and sanitation, poor nutri- building sustainable and inclusive urban envi- tion and low productivity. Yet, notwithstand- ronments. The Decade draws attention to the ing the threat of increasing urban poverty, vital role education can play in tackling such cities are also engines of development and challenges as poverty, wasteful consumption, environmental degradation, urban decay, social change, as well as centres of commu- population growth, gender inequality, health, nication and cultural expression, innovation conflict, and the violation of human rights. and inter-cultural exchange. The Decade is also a framework for collaboration and networking, calling on all those International events such as the World Urban engaged in addressing these development Forum III, held in Vancouver, Canada, in June challenges to work together in partnership. 2006, attest to the important and complex roles that cities play as: Education and training are the most valuable assets of cities in the context of globalization. • areas that generate riches—but also social Cities offer many opportunities for educa- exclusion and segregation; tion. At neighbourhood level, the school is a unique means of establishing connections • valuable places of heritage; between global problems and local life, of enabling change and facilitating acquisition • spaces that suffer the greatest attacks on of the knowledge and skills required to func- the environment; tion as an active and responsible citizen. Lo- cal authorities have a strategic role to play • spaces where ways of life and societal val- in making these means of training and ex- ues combine modernity and tradition; pression available. In this area, the role of the International Association of Educating Cities • places where collective identities are re- (IAEC) is of a catalytic importance. Partners defined. such as United Cities and Local Govern- ments, Metropolis and UNESCO National What needs to be done in order to maximize Commissions and Centres also contribute to the opportunities and minimize the risks of these actions. 302 Epilogue

UNESCO views cities as the main centres of ticular, is becoming an increasingly fragile thought and action when it comes to edu- resource. UNESCO’s International Hydro- cation and learning about sustainable de- logical Programme (IHP) seeks to improve velopment. To maximize this potential, the knowledge of hydrological processes and to UNESCO Chair “Growing up in Cities” at develop approaches for the assessment and Cornell University (USA) has established a sound management of water resources. A platform for children and city profession- particularly novel project deals with “Urban als aimed at empowering children to shape Water Conflicts,” seeking to define the differ- their urban existence and encouraging city ent types of water-related conflicts in cities. mayors to involve children in urban manage- Another innovative initiative is the “SWITCH ment (e.g. in Bangalore, India; Johannesburg, Project” for urban water management, coor- South Africa; and Trondheim, Norway). dinated by UNESCO-IHE, which aims at developing efficient and interactive urban wa- In addressing daily living conditions and ter systems and services for the world’s newly sociocultural issues, the activities of the emerging megacities. UNESCO Chairs “Landscape and Environ- ment” (Montreal, Canada) and “Urban Poli- Urban sprawl and pollution adversely affect cies and Citizenship” (Lyon, France) clearly the natural environment and biodiversity show that people are at the heart of urban de- both inside and outside cities. To minimize velopment challenges. Their specific knowl- their effects, UNESCO, within the framework edge, know-how, identity, social links and of the Man and the Biosphere programme settlement patterns are vital to forming effec- (MAB), upholds the integrated ecosystem ap- tive policy decisions. proach to urban management, applying the biosphere reserve concept to the city and its Lifelong education, a concept at the centre of hinterland. UNESCO’s priorities, covers basic schooling, adult and community education, technical and vocational education, and higher edu- Fighting Exclusion cation—vital elements engaging the responsibility of local authorities, who themselves In large cities, education policies have to often need capacity-building. Inculcating cater for highly contrasting populations. concern for the environment is a basic part Providing education for all, in particular for of education for sustainable development. girls, people with disabilities, the poorest All age groups must learn about the need and immigrants, is complicated and requires for an economical consumption of energy the expertise and collaboration of numerous and raw materials and the importance of re- partners. utilization and recycling—and accept the resulting changes in lifestyles. If everyone The joint UN-HABITAT/UNESCO initiative possesses the requisite knowledge, skills and “Urban Policies and the Right to the City: will to live sustainably, then conflict manage- Rights, Responsibilities and Citizenship,” ment, decision-making, project development launched in 2005, seeks to promote ‘inclu- and choice of appropriate technologies will sive cities’ and targets mayors, municipalities, be greatly facilitated. city professionals and international NGOs by providing information kits, capacity-building training seminars and examples of best prac- Balancing Urban Growth and the tices. Environment The intention is not to propose an interna- As cities grow in population and sprawl in tional normative instrument on ‘the right to size, they place a huge strain on natural re- the city,’ but rather to promote an interna- sources and the environment. Water, in par- tional research project identifying best prac- Epilogue 303 tices in the field of law and urban planning The World Heritage Cities Programme was such as inter-religious municipal councils, established in the framework of UNESCO’s citizens’ municipal charters on rights and World Heritage Convention, along with net- responsibilities, the participation of women works of cities such as the Organization of in urban management, and the spatial and World Heritage Cities, which aims at en- social integration of migrants in cities. All hancing the exchange of experience at the these areas are included in the UN-HABITAT international level. The Vienna Memoran- campaign on urban governance, and in both dum on World Heritage and Contemporary UNESCO’s strategy on human rights and the Architecture and the Declaration on the Con- Organization’s Universal Declaration on servation of Historic Urban Landscapes, both Cultural Diversity. drawn up recently, serve as guiding tools for the integrated management and planning of historic urban areas. Reinventing Local Democracy by Promoting Empowerment IAEC’s Role in UNESCO’s Actions for The city is an essential link between the in- Urban Sustainability dividual and the state, and a major instrument in promoting democratic citizenship. IAEC is a major partner of UNESCO in such UNESCO programmes include projects like projects as the Coalition of Cities Against the “International Coalition of Cities against Racism and the joint UN-HABITAT/UNESCO Racism,” “Working together with Migrants” initiative “Urban Policies and the Right to and research projects about cities and social the City: Rights, Responsibilities and Citi- transformation, urban policies and demo- zenship.” IAEC’s Charter for Educating Cities cracy, the renewal of historical cities and the is an excellent example of an international training of city professionals. normative tool addressing education for citizenship and the rights and responsibilities UNESCO accords high priority to the needs to be shared by local authorities and urban of disadvantaged and marginalized groups through actions that enable local communi- dwellers. ties to voice their needs and participate in decision-making processes. The International Consequently, it would be highly beneficial Programme for the Development of Commu- if IAEC would encourage the involvement of nication (IPDC) provides wide-ranging sup- cities that are already very active in the IAEC port to media and communication develop- network to join UNESCO initiatives for cre- ment projects in urban areas. ating inclusive urban societies, in particular the joint research project on indicators and parameters for inclusive cities, which will Making the City a Place for be launched in February 2008 at the World Intercultural Dialogue and a Living and Conference on Development of Cities in Por- Liveable Cultural Heritage Space to Alegre, Brazil.

Throughout history, cities have been cradles Furthermore, the contribution of IAEC cities of civilization and major forces for intercul- to the UN Decade of Education for Sustain- tural dialogue. Initiatives such as the “Crea- able Development would be a solid asset for tive Cities,” “Cities for Peace Database” or launching innovative initiatives to promote “Culture in the Neighbourhoods” illustrate education for new forms of citizenship, cul- UNESCO’s efforts to promote pluralistic poli- tural pluralism, and the sustainable use in cit- cies supporting the diversity of cultural iden- ies of natural, cultural and human resources tities and expressions at the local level. for future generations of city-dwellers.