Creating the Ordinary City: Creative Policy and the making of Place and Community in Small Cities

创意城市话语往往是非同寻常的；它们是关于伦敦、纽约、巴黎等全球明星城市创意经济的故事，或者是关于创意在底特律等国家戏剧性的经济救援中所扮演的角色的故事。然而，正如“普通城市理论”更广泛地论述的那样，我们需要用中小普通城市的故事来反驳这种非同寻常的叙事。事实上，英国的城市发展政策近年来已经转向更多地关注所谓的“中等城市”。此外，正如对创意城市话语的批评所表明的那样，需要实证材料来证明与创意及其社会和经济可能性相关的有时“离奇”的主张。更重要的是，我们需要批判性地与其他创意接触，探索各种形式的创意--日常的、通俗的、业余的--这些形式可能会与创意城市占主导地位的经济“创意”并驾齐驱，甚至是批评。这篇论文旨在探索考文垂、斯旺西和纽卡斯尔这三个英国中小城市的“普通”创造力。它通过深入的民族志工作来做到这一点，参与到这些创意城市的日常创作空间和不同形式的实践中。其结果将是一篇论文，通过将创意城市范式和其脚本、普通城市主题和对社会正义的关注结合在一起，对主导的创意城市政治进行多维批评。具体地说，它将质疑(英国)较小和中等规模的城市如何使用和调整创意城市政策来促进经济增长，如何将主导的创意空间形式和策略从大城市迁移到小城市，在社区和场所建设实践中动员它们。此外，这些“普通”城市的日常和本土创意如何与主导的创意城市范式并驾齐驱，挑战主导的创意城市范式，提供创造场所和社区的替代手段。对于学术界和非学术界的利益相关者来说，这项工作将对以下方面至关重要：对创意城市政策及其发展的持续批评，对创意及其对社区和场所营造的重要性的不断演变的讨论，以及对我们普通城市空间中的其他创意城市和其他创意的欣赏。

Creative city discourses are often extraordinary; they are stories of the creativeeconomy of global star cities- London, New York, Paris, or of the role of creativity indramatic economic rescues of the likes of Detroit. Yet as the 'ordinary city thesis' arguesmore generally, we need to counter such extraordinary narratives with stories of midsizeand small, ordinary cities. Indeed, UK urban development policy has shifted inrecent years to focus more on so-called 'mid-sized cities'. Further, as the gatheringcritiques of creative cities discourses demonstrate, empirical material is needed toground the sometimes 'outlandish' claims associated with creativity and its social andeconomic possibilities. What is more, we need to critically engage with 'other' creativecities, exploring forms of creativity - everyday, vernacular, amateur - that might sitalongside or even critique the dominant economic 'creativity' of creative cities. Thisthesis aims to explore the 'ordinary' creativities of three small-mid size- UK cities,Coventry, Swansea and Newcastle. It does so through in-depth ethnographic workengaging with the everyday creative spaces and diverse forms of practice in thesecreative cities. The result will be a thesis that develops multi-dimensional critiques ofdominant creative city politics through a co-joining of the creative city paradigm and itscritiques; the ordinary city thesis and concerns with social justice. Specifically, it willquery how smaller, mid-sized cities (in the UK) are using and adapting creative citypolicies to catalyse economic growth, how dominant creative spatial forms and tacticsmigrant from larger cities to smaller ones where they are mobilised in practices ofcommunity and place making. And further, how the everyday and vernacular creativitiesof these 'ordinary' cities sit alongside and challenge dominant creative city paradigmsoffering alternative means to make places and communities. For academics and nonacademicstakeholders alike, this work will be crucial for; the on-going critiques ofcreative city policy and its development, the evolving discussions of creativity and itspotential for community and place making and for an appreciation of the 'other'creative cities and other creativities within our ordinary urban spaces.