Applying the Cultural District Concept as an Approach for Boosting Future Development of Cairo City
Abstract
The notion of ‘cultural district’ or ‘cultural quarter’ is not new. Cities have always had spaces for entertainment, arts, and cultural consumption, whether as scattered venues across the city or in clusters of entrepreneurial activity. Cultural districts are geographical areas which contain the highest concentration of cultural and entertainment facilities in a city or town. Cultural districts have a role to play if it is well defined inside the cities. It could be a catalyst for development as well as enhancing the image of the city. Thus, corresponding policies towards the recognition of these places and consequently adopting suitable plans for its development will result in economic benefits to the city. Although the fact that ‘cultural districts’ have been well identified in many international practices as well as in the literature, the concept is still vague in the developing countries. Cairo is possessing several places where culture is the main focus involving important intellectual and creative components. The city centre, Old Cairo, Khan El Khalili, Coptic Cairo are all districts with high potential of cultural and creative activities. They are a sound strategic investment for boosting the economic fortunes of the city. Thus, a dedicated plan should be tailored considering its capacity for local development and the recognition that culture could be facilitated for more benefits.
This paper aims to address the notion and characteristics of ‘cultural districts’ and apply this concept to re-frame some specific areas inside Cairo and to explain how culture and creativity can act as a driver for identifying solutions to the main development challenges they face. The viability of cultural districts is discussed regarding the designation of potential territories, required and supporting legal frameworks, contributing stakeholders, ending by adopting a management plan that could lead to territorial competence and efficiency within the city. The research targets the area of Al Fustat specifically as a potential territory for applying the discussed notion. The paper is organized in two main parts to achieve its objectives: The first part is the theoretical part which discusses the definitions of cultural districts and its associated characteristics. The paper demonstrates the classification of cultural areas within the city and focuses on policies and approaches that govern them. The second part analyses some international experiences of cultural areas to conclude the “cultural districts model”. And consequently apply them to the Egyptian context, for future consideration of the culture and its role in development plans.
Full text article
References
Al-Fustat Ceramics Center. (n.d.). Retrieved January, 2017, from https://archnet.org/sites/5065
Afify, A., 2009. Policy Directions in Urban Health in Egypt; Towards Slum Improvement Approach. In
Fifth WHH Conference.
AuthentiCity (2008) Creative City Planning Framework, A Supporting Document to the Agenda for Prosperity: Prospectus for a Great City. Prepared for the City of Toronto. Available at: http://www.torontoartscouncil.org/TAC/media/tac/Reports%20and%20Resources/City%20of%20Toronto/creative-city-planning-framework-feb08.pdf [Downloaded: 18 October 2015].
Baeker, G. (2007) Creative Connections: Saskatoon builds its creative city. Municipal World Magazine 117 (9) pp. 9-12.
Baycan T., Girard L. F. and Nijkamp P. (2011) Creative and Sustainable Cities: A New Perspective. In:
Girard L. F., Baycan T. and Nijkamp P., eds. Sustainable City and Creativity: Promoting Creative Urban
Initiatives. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Available at: https://www.ashgate.com/pdf/SamplePages/Sustainable_City_and_Creativity_Ch1.pdf [Downloaded: 18 October 2015].
Brooks, A. C., & Kushner, R. J. (2001). Cultural districts and urban development. International Journal of
Arts Management, 4-15.
Cairobserver. (n.d.). Retrieved January, 2017, from http://cairobserver.com/
Clark, T. N. (2004) The City as an entertainment machine. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Cohendet, Patrick, David Grandadam, and Laurent Simon. ”Rethinking urban creativity: Lessons from
Barcelona and Montreal.” City, Culture and Society 2.3 (2011): 151-158.
Darb 1718. (n.d.). Retrieved January, 2017, from http://www.darb1718.com/darb1718/
Eisinger, P. (2000). The politics of bread and circuses building the city for the visitor class. Urban Affairs Review, 35(3), 316-333.
Fanzini, D. & Rotaru I. (2012) The Italian cultural districts as a model for sustainable tourism and territorial development. In: Journal of tourism challenges and trends, Vol. V, No. 2, p. 11-34
Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. And how it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community
and Everyday Life. New York, N.Y.: Basic Books.
Florida, R. (2008) who’s your city? How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. New York, N.Y.: Basic Books.
Girard L. F., Baycan T. and Nijkamp P. (2011) Sustainable City and Creativity Promoting Creative Urban Initiatives. Available at: http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781409420026_sample_948772.pdf [Downloaded: 18 October 2015].
Grodach, C., & Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (2007). Cultural development strategies and urban revitalization: A survey of US cities. International journal of cultural policy, 13(4), 349-370.
Kim, W. B. (2011). The viability of cultural districts in Seoul. City, Culture and Society, 2(3), 141-150.
Kovacs, Jason F. (2009). The Cultural Turn in Municipal Planning. A thesis presented to the University
of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Planning.
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Available at: https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/4514/Kovacs%20Json%20F PhDthesis_.pdf?sequence=1 [Downloaded: 18 October 2015].
Landry, C. (2008). The Creative City. A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. 2nd. Edition. Near Stroud: Comedia.
Landry, C., & Bianchini, F. (1995). The creative city (Vol. 12). Demos.
McCarthy, J. (2005) Making spaces for creativity: designating ‘cultural quarters’ 41st ISoCaRP Congress
Available at: http://www.isocarp.net/data/case studies/588.pdf [Downloaded: 15 November 2015].
Mercer C. (2006) Cultural Planning For Urban Development and Creative Cities. Available at: http://www.kulturplan-oresund.dk/pdf_h/Shanghai_cultural_planning_paper.pdf [Downloaded: 18 October 2015].
Montgomery, J. (2003) Cultural Quarters as Mechanisms for Urban Regeneration. Part 1: Conceptualizing Cultural Quarters. Planning Practice & Research, 18 (4) pp.293-306.
Montgomery, J. (2004). Cultural quarters as mechanisms for urban regeneration. Part 2: A review of four cultural quarters in the UK, Ireland and Australia. Planning, Practice & Research, 19(1), 3-31.
Murray, G. & Baeker, G. (2006) Culture + Place = Wealth Creation. Municipal World, 116 (9) pp.13-14.
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), 2012, STATE POLICY BRIEFS, Tools for Arts Decision Making. Available at: http://www.crt.state.la.us/Asets/OCD/arts/culturedistricts/homepage/NASAAStateCulturalDistrictsPolicyBrief2012-1.pdf [Downloaded: 15 December 2016].
Nassar, H. and Hewitt, R., 2012. The Relocation of al-Fustat Pottery Village: Evaluating the Results of
Urban Redevelopment. International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 1(2), pp.367-381.
Patrick Cohendet, David Grandadam, Laurent Simon (2011) Rethinking Urban Creativity: lessons from
Barcelona and Montereal. In: City, Culture and Society (2) 151–158
Roodhouse, S. (2010) Cultural Quarters: Principles and practices. Bristol: Intellect.
Stubbs R. (2014) National Cultural Districts Exchange 2014, State Cultural Districts: Policies, Metrics, and Evaluation. Americans for the Arts Available at: http://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/pdf/
/by_program/reports_and_data/toolkits/cultural_districts/issue_briefs/State-Cultural-Districts-Policies-Metrics-and-Evaluation.pdf [Downloaded: 15 December 2016].
Van Der Borg, J. and Russo, A.P. (2005) The Impacts of Culture on the Economic Development of Cities.
European Institute for Comparative Urban Research (EURICUR) Erasmus University Rotterdam. Available
at: https://www.wien.gv.at/meu/fdb/pdf/intern-vergleichsstudie-ci-959-ma27.pdf [Downloaded: 18 October, 2015].
Wynne, D. (1992). Cultural quarters. In: D. Wynne (Ed.), The culture industry: The arts in urban regeneration (pp. 13–23). Aldershot: Avebury.
Zukin, S. (1995). The Cultures of Cities, Blackwell Publishers, Malden, MA & Oxford, UK.
Authors
Copyright (c) 2019 The Academic Research Community publication
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution: other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
With the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher's final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher's request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author's own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- The Work is the Author's original work;
- The Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- The Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- The Work has not previously been published;
- The Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- The Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author's breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 7 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher's use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Article Details
