Chapter in the General Narrative of the Restructing of Global Industrialism That Occurred in Response to the Economic Crisis of the 1970S‘ (Buck Morss 2000: 264-265)
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Places of Culture From Cultural Institutions to Culture-led Urban Development in Budapest By Judit Veres Submitted to Central European University Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors Professor Judit Bodnár Professor Ayse Caglar CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2015 CEU eTD Collection Abstract The thesis elucidates the emergence and trajectory of four urban cultural spaces in Budapest. Within a span of a mere decade a series of cultural places, under such nicknames as ‘Transformer‘ (1998), ‘Pothole‘ (2002), ‘The Palace of Arts‘(2005) and the ‘Whale‘ (2008-2012) appear in Budapest. A former industrial electric transformer house, an earlier socialist bus-station, hitherto socialist railway shunting yards, and turn-of-the-century warehouses are revamped into novel cultural spaces indexing a structural shift from a socialist, industrial city to a service-oriented metropolis in the European Union. The thesis approaches the emergence and trajectory of these four urban spaces in terms of ‘culture-led urban development’, a program and rationale of neoliberal urbanization. The thesis shows that the four cultural spaces mark different stages in a process of increasing neoliberal urbanization and through the four different forms it also formulates a critique of the concept and program of ‘culture-led urban development'. The thesis builds upon four case studies constructed and analyzed through a combination of ethnographic methods such as participant observation and seventy-five semi-structured interviews, complemented with a reading of urban strategic materials, urban development programs, plans and designs, of various media outlets from the daily press, to online portals, forums and blogs on urban development. Instead of clear-cut divisions and radical breaks before and after 1989, the thesis elicits continuities and gradual shifts through the biographies, careers and involvement of actors - cultural workers, entrepreneurs, cultural managers, architects, developers, municipal and state actors - that take part in the production of these cultural venues. While the discourse of entrepreneurship prevails throughout, it undergoes subtle but important alterations. From more alternative and competing visions of the eighties we can witness a slow consolidation towards hegemonic urbanism. CEU eTD Collection i Statement I hereby state that the thesis contains no material accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions. The thesis contains no materials previously written and/or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgment is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Judit Veres Budapest, December 31, 2015 CEU eTD Collection ii Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... i Statement ................................................................................................................... ii Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Constructing the scene: The Transformer, the Pothole, The Palace of Arts and the Whale ......................................................................................................................... 1 The expediency of culture .......................................................................................... 5 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 11 Roadmap ................................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 1 Theorizing the City .................................................................................. 17 1.1. Re-imagining cities in the twenty-first century: neoliberal culture-led urban development ............................................................................................................. 17 1.2. Re-assembling cities: from cultural shrines to meeting places ......................... 19 1.3. Bridging culture and political economy ............................................................ 21 1.4. Against a moving map of neoliberalism ........................................................... 24 1.5. Performing the entrepreneurial city ................................................................... 27 1.6. Party politics and liberalism .............................................................................. 30 1.7. Recalibration of power relations ....................................................................... 33 1.8. Civil society as a 'conceptual portmanteau' ....................................................... 35 1.9. The Municipality of Budapest ........................................................................... 37 Section II From Mundane Places of Culture to Spectacular Visions .................... 40 Chapter 2 Trafó Constructing the Transformer ..................................................... 45 2.1. Continuities rather than radical breaks .............................................................. 46 2.2. Mundane Places. Fast-forward. Trafó 1998-2014 ............................................. 49 2.3. Mills and Transformers ..................................................................................... 54 2.4. Pioneer squatters ............................................................................................... 56 2.6. The entrepreneurial alternatives in the 80s-90s ................................................. 58 CEU eTD Collection 2.7. The cargo cult of foreign funding ..................................................................... 65 2.8. The Opening Event, 1998 .................................................................................. 68 2.9. A small place after all ........................................................................................ 70 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 83 Chapter 3 From the Nation’s Pothole to the Aquarium ........................................ 85 iii 3.1. Digging the Nation’s pothole ............................................................................ 86 3.2. Permanently temporary ..................................................................................... 93 3.3. Independent by accident .................................................................................... 95 3.4. Tucked under concrete ...................................................................................... 98 3.5. Civil society redux .......................................................................................... 101 3.6. Let it speak! ..................................................................................................... 106 3.6. Genuine tenants ............................................................................................... 112 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 115 Chapter 4 MuPa spearheading an urban mega-project. Private-public partnership uploaded............................................................................................... 120 4.1.1. The ersatz city .............................................................................................. 120 4.1.2. Spearheading the Millennium City Center ................................................... 123 4.1.3. Urban megaprojects everywhere .................................................................. 126 4.1.4. The rationale of urban mega-projects ........................................................... 128 4.1.5. The political economy of place .................................................................... 131 4.1.6. The MCC/The Millennium City Center ....................................................... 133 4.1.7. Performing the public interest ..................................................................... 137 4.1.8. Constructing exceptionality.......................................................................... 142 4.2.1. Divided visions ............................................................................................. 146 4.2.2. Constructing the National Theatre ............................................................... 148 4.2.3. Producing the Palace of Arts ........................................................................ 150 4.2.5. Where designs are made ............................................................................... 152 4.2.6. Constructing the local ................................................................................... 153 4.2.7. A Chronicle of serendipities ......................................................................... 156 4.2.8. Where is the global? ..................................................................................... 159 Conclusion. City builders in the making. ............................................................... 164 Coda ....................................................................................................................... 170 Chapter 5 The production of a flagship project in Budapest .............................. 172 5.1. The lure of iconic architecture ........................................................................ 174