1st International Seminar 24-25 November 2016

The case of Athens

Georgia Tseva, Phd student, Harokopio University, gtseva@hua.gr

P. Delladetsimas, Professor, Harokopio University, pdelladetsimas@hua.gr

Aims of the Research

• Search for cultural and artistic initiatives and their social and spatial expression in the city of Athens.

• Search Socially Innovative practices within the aforementioned initiatives.

• Focus on the role of the governance of the innovative practices.

• Analyze the impact of these socially innovative practices in mobilizing new resources and being drivers for change.

Research Questions

• How the role of cultural industries has been developed in Greece and what is their impact (economic etc.)?

• What is the spatial expression of the cultural industries in Athens today? Issues after city branding strategies?

• Are there any innovative cultural groups and/or practices that have a development impact? Do they create cultural scenes? Do they co-create a new development plan for the city? In what sector?

• Is new institutional building an essential process to the mobilization thus impact, viability and credibility of the aforementioned groups and/or practices? In other words, is a reordering of action between state, market and society a possible scenario?

Hypothesis

• Culture can be the connection between different policy goals towards urban development and social mobilization.

• Social Innovation in governance, synergies and social networking is thus needed to unlock development strategies and avoid fetihism.

• Athens has a latent dynamic related to older economic activities that have decayed but had created collective memories and spaces with a particular character we can argue that these could be the places or change. “Soft actions” are thus needed; new practices and activities bringing together different actors and using new technologies but not per se in order to renovate this dynamic.

Theoretical Context

• Cultural and Creative Industries (definition, specificities, historical development, statistics and contemporary challenges).

• Creative clusters (institutionally or spontaneously developed).

• Cultural Scenes. • Urban Regeneration. • Culture led urban regeneration / gentrification. • Social Innovation. • Governance.

Employment and the creative sector (Avdikos, 2014)

Public Expenditures in Cultural Services (EU28, Eurostat)

GDP per sector (2000-2013, Athens, ELSTAT)

,0

500,0

1000,0

1500,0

2000,0

2500,0

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011* 2012* 2013*

Arts, entertainment, recreation, other service activities, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods and services producing activities ofhouseholds for own use, activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies

Trend of individual and group exhibitions (2007-2014, ELSTAT)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Context

• The role of Athens, categorization of the development path and relation to the cultural capital.

• Deindustrialization pattern and building stock

• Cultural capital – the conceptualization of the city center and its spatial expression.

• Statistical analysis.

• Funding Mechanisms and government and municipal expenditures.

• Economic crisis and responses to it (e.g. commodification).

Athens: municipal units and new infrastructure (Municipality of Athens 2016)

Social-Demographic Characteristics

• 1. Population Change (ELSTAT, PANORAMA, Municipality of Athens)

Social-Demographic Characteristics

• 2. Age (ELSTAT, PANORAMA, Municipality of Athens)

Social-Demographic Characteristics

• 3. Citizenship (ELSTAT, PANORAMA, Municipality of Athens)

Greek

EU

non EU

Socioeconomic Characteristics • 1. Income 2012 (ELSTAT, Municipality of

Athens)

Socioeconomic Characteristics • 2. Income change 2009-2012 (ELSTAT,

Municipality of Athens), relation to inequalities

Socioeconomic Characteristics

• 3. Unemployment (ELSTAT, Municipality of Athens)

Land uses and housing (ELSTAT, Municipality of Athens)

Informal spatial clustering of the main cultural economic activities

• Concentration in the city of Athens • Theaters: Syntagma Square, Omonoia Square, Patision street,

Metaksourgeio, Psirri, Gkazi • Bookstores and Publishers: Eksarxeia, Akadimia • Media: Kifisias Avenue • Cinemas • Museums • Peiraeus street:

– large number of cultural organisations, museums, theatres, music stages, galleries, design offices, fashion designers, etc. heterogeneous in their operation.

– Combination of historical elements with traditional crafts. – Street in transitions and diverse uses.

• Sygrou Avenue: combination of cultural organizations, cultural park and music stages.

Categorization of the new cultural scenes.

• Actors and Agents mixing.

• Public-led initiatives.

• Bottom-up initiatives.

• Tourism-led initiatives.

(Andre; Gabriel & Estevens, 2016)

Tourism-led initiatives.

• Relation to regeneration programmes, visitors flows and policy goals (Cultural Centre Stavros Niarchos Foundation).

• Athens as a cultural heritage destination (Acropolis Museum).

• Mainstrean culture with no distinctiveness (bars, restaurants).

• Modern cultural spaces availability and new multicultural identity but no strategic relation to tourism.

• Role of the Municipality.

Public-led initiatives

• The role of local and regional entities (universities, vocational training programmes mostrly on digital arts, marketing and new educational models e.g. Fablab, e-digima, master programmes.

• Municipality of Athens (initiatives): Synathina (Ergo Athina): online platform of the municipality – networking of actors and volunteers working of fields such as health, education, urban development, culture, technology etc. and promoting the improvement of the quality of life – innovation award/ Eurocities network synathina.gr Examples of initiatives: • Caravan project: a digital platform formation with aim to document narratives in

Metaksourgeio area • Neon Community Project: local arts projects, reuse of abandonded buildings e.g.

Kypseli - municipal Cinema Stella • Consultation on the role of the public market in Kypseli with arts projects and local

participation • Smaller exhibitions like Atopos, film festivals, entrepreneurship seminars • Foundation of the Center for the support of entrepreneurship

http://www.developathens.gr/el/node/399 (supported by Develop Athens and Technopolis (InnovAthens hub).

Bottom up initiatives.

• The problem of listing small initiatives. • Ideological issues and gaps on managing the cultural capital:

communitarian practices (e.g. Exarcheia) and issues of accessibility. • Need of a case study that have impact in transforming places, raise

consciousness and increase visibility, create new modes of representation and encourage mobilisation (based on Andre, 2016; Moulaert, 2016).

• Pilot interviews and scaling up: opportunity of getting reliable information for smaller bottom up initiaves.

• Other case studies: Atenistas, Meeting Place, St.a.co., Among the Ants (projects)

• Progressively support of the municipality or other institutions • Is support by institutions making them categorized as partnerships

(actors mixing)?

Actors and Agents mixing

• Festivals and Exhibitions.

• Result of Bottom-up initiatives?

• Which Actors?

• Project form

• Kaos, Remap, Athens Bienalle, Pedio_Agora Project.

Case Studies

• Romantso

• Technopolis

• School of Fine Arts

3 CASESTUDIES REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AFOREMENTIONED CATEGORIZATION AND WITH AN INNOVATIVE DYNAMIC AND A SPATIAL DYNAMIC.

ROMANTSO

• Goal: reactivate an abandoned part of the city and raise involvement of the public in a wider dialogue on arts.

• a project that was created as an idea of BIOS (a cultural center focused on mixing different cultural expression started by two artists), has scaled up and works as a cultural hub. It uses the renovated an important building that of the former Romantso magazine in Omonoia square an extremely degraded area and offers services to new businesses.

• Contributes at networking small businesses on the cultural sector and works as a cultural center.

• Focus: the innovational character and the impact at the area.

Technopolis, Gkazi

• 1992: start of the gentrification of the area.

• Technopolis as museum and cultural center.

• New users and flows, increase in land values mostly related to commodified cultural activities in the area.

• Ergo Athina and the role of Technopolis as an entrepreneurial hub.

• Focus: the innovational character and the impact at the area

School of Fine Arts

• Public institution of Higher Education.

• Peiraeus street (Tavros Municipality), old industrial building stock.

• New users mostly students

• FOCUS: latent dynamic, impact at the area, relation to the Municipality of Athens and the metropolitan Region.

Discussion

• Link between type of initiative and response to crisis?

• Sustainability of practices/initiatives?

• Common framework between the case studies?

• Role of Social Innovation?