Litter and Monuments

Abstract

The hype that dominates so much of urban governance today has made it impossible to miss the claim that the 21st century is the century of the city. The statistics routinely cited by bureaucrats, politicians and planners confirm that more than half the world’s population now lives in cities. With the number of city dwellers swelling, the urbanization of more and more of the world will only develop in significance in all kinds of ways. The combination of population growth and increasingly complex urban environments has profound implications for city life. Forecasts of a new, utopian era of opportunity appear as often as warnings of dire environmental catastrophe: unparalleled economic innovation driven by the finely tuned engines of “creative” and “postindustrial” cities on the one hand (Florida, 2002; Landry, 2000) and an imminent “planet of slums” on the other (Davis, 2006). But what exactly does it mean to claim that this is the age of the city, an “urban age”? Beyond the facts and figures that appear repetitively in urban development and renewal strategies, what are the consequences for the relationships between citizens, immigrants, tourists, and outsiders, as well as the many others who inhabit, and frequently struggle within, the city today? Regionally and globally cities have emerged as increasingly important players. In the context of globalization, cities create and shape connections on a worldwide scale, taking an active role in the formation and conduct of international affairs and world politics, financial flows and economic networks, as well as new forms of city-based cultural linkages, organization, and political engagement. In this sense, cities are caught in a paradoxical tension as both milieu and actors, and they are increasingly charged with a presence and power on the global stage that can compete with that of the nation-state (Calder & de Freytas, 2009; Sassen, 1991). At the same time, cities are seeking to establish themselves as dynamic and attractive cultural centers with viable local economies. In an era of international competition for people, capital, ideas and investment, cities today are ever more conscious of the importance of establishing a distinctive edge, feel and buzz—an urban “brand” that will beckon business and tourism. Constantly in search of a market niche that will hopefully translate into a competitive advantage over other city rivals, cities have become more and more entrepreneurial, adopting place-marketing and branding strategies. The so-called new creative industries built on the production and consumption of profitoriented cultural and symbolic goods are central to these strategies of city branding. Through such industries, cultural production and consumption become imbricated in extensive networks