Creative People? Collaborative Spaces? Innovative Places?
According to the event’s website – politicians, private consultants, architects, community development advocates, culture workers, and public space activists are meeting to plan the future of urban policy.
According to the conference’s website, these are exciting, new boundary blurring partnerships because…
“The new imperative to collaborate is rooted in the need to solve persistent multi-dimensional problems and a growing appreciation of how collaboration fuels innovation. It is blurring boundaries between audience and creator, hgdksl anoi ksdjhf….”
Aaack! We’re lost!
Let’s step back and ask:
Whose success are these stakeholders discussing?
Is everyone invited to the table to collaborate?
As people ‘break down’ barriers to create ‘new platforms’ for dialogue about cities in these workshops – what kind of cities are they envisioning?
Isn’t education underfunded? Aren’t governments slashing library budgets? Are these the education transformations they mean?
Isn’t work becoming increasingly precarious or unavailable? Isn’t housing increasingly unaffordable for most people? Aren’t social services for the poor increasingly underfunded and overburdened? Is this the “collaboration for collective interest” that conference planners envision?
What is the city for? Who gets to live here? Who decides?
Creative Class Struggle urges you to question the Creative Cities phenomenon routinely celebrated at Creative Places and Spaces and in cities across the world.
Thanks for visiting. Come back soon!
