Friction in the Creative City

Christiaan De Beukelaer

doi:10.1515/culture-2021-0001

Abstract

Abstract The Indonesian city of Bandung presents itself as an “emerging creative city.” This raises the question of how an “emerging” creative city can attain realisation: when and where is the creative city accomplished? The formalisation of the creative city creates friction – to borrow the term from Tsing. This friction manifests in two ways. First, through its ontological opacity (what is the creative city?), Mould contrasts the “Creative City” (the mainstream understanding of the term) with the lowercase “creative city” (the more grounded, subversive understanding of the term). Second, through political contestation (how and for whom is the creative city?) which Peck and Theodore question through the notion of “fast policy,” in dialogue with the notion of “slow policy.” However, rather than being a dead end, this article argues that “friction” can repoliticise the creative city by challenging the depoliticisation that occurred through its formalisation.

Highlights

The Indonesian city of Bandung presents itself as an “emerging creative city.” This raises the question of how an “emerging” creative city can attain realisation: when and where is the creative city accomplished? The formalisation of the creative city creates friction – to borrow the term from Tsing
While this article builds on the particular case of Bandung in Indonesia,1 it raises more general questions about how friction surrounds the creative city, in both theory and practice
Through an exploration of these areas of friction, I propose a theoretical framework to rethink what Andy Pratt calls the “cultural contradictions” of creative cities: Friction serves as the lens through which to understand the tensions between “the nature and the livelihood in the existing creative city” in contrast with “the more general rhetoric in favour of creative cities” (Pratt 124). Rather than approaching this conflict as an analytical dead end or a source of insurmountable political or ideological conflict, I argue friction may repoliticise the creative city by challenging the depoliticisation that occurred through its formalisation, by making explicit that the “bridge we stepped off is not the bridge we stepped on” (Tsing 85)

Summary

Introduction

The Indonesian city of Bandung presents itself as an “emerging creative city.” This raises the question of how an “emerging” creative city can attain realisation: when and where is the creative city accomplished? The formalisation of the creative city creates friction – to borrow the term from Tsing. While this article builds on the particular case of Bandung in Indonesia,1 it raises more general questions about how friction surrounds the creative city, in both theory and practice.

Results

Conclusion