Culture and politics of the city
Alternately conceived as an interministerial and contractual policy, as a policy directed towards the public, or even as a method of public action, the policy of the city has a dual territorial and social dimension. While spatial planning aimed to accompany modernization and urbanization, to plan the development of the national economy, and to promote the emergence of regional metropolises, the policy of the city - appeared during the 1970s in various forms in all industrialized countries - aims to reintegrate territories in the urban dynamics. One of the main objectives of a cultural development policy is therefore a “return to common law” of the neighbourhoods of the city policy. Alongside a policy of democratization of culture, supported by cultural facilities, and artistic education, the Ministry of Culture has taken into consideration artistic projects integrating a dimension of social cohesion. What they have in common is to mobilise people who, because of their social position, have difficulty accessing cultural goods and services, and who are redoubled by a negative representation of their living environment, but also their ability to integrate into a common world.
The actions conducted or supported by the deconcentrated services of the Ministry of Culture in the field of city policy concern all its fields of intervention - from archives to live performance, from the living environment to audiovisual, from public reading to cinema - and the tools that serve them - art education, citizen participation, mediation.
They cover only a part of the operations carried out by the regional Directorates for Cultural Affairs and public institutions or other institutions that contribute to the objective of democratization of access to culture: pricing, opening up programming to new forms…
The common denominator of these actions is to highlight the process of acquisition, the experience of another dimension of existence, participation in a project.
Some of the projects supported directly originate in a context of urban transformation: the destruction of a neighborhood, a renovation operation, the demolition and reconstruction of a city, placed in a historical and memory perspective.
Others link knowledge and know-how of heritage, architecture and urbanism with the sensitive experience of the participants, promoting a dialogue with developers on the evolution of the city.
The function of artistic practices and cultural mediation in professional and social integration are also present.
The location of places or projects in the geography of the city is often decisive for their ability to allow the development of a new practice of culture.
The involvement of cultural institutions in these projects is multiple: they are sometimes at the origin of the actions carried out, therefore integrated into their policy of creation, dissemination and transmission; they constitute support points, as resource places, reception and training.
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