“近代中国的城市·乡村·民间文化”学术研讨会综述

“近代中国的城市·乡村·民间文化”———首届中国近代社会史国际学术研讨会于2005年8月9—11日在青岛举行。这次研讨会由中国社会科学院近代史研究所、青岛大学主办,首都师范大学、山东大学、中山大学、山西大学、苏州大学、贵州师范大学等单位协办。来自美国、日本、韩国、新加坡、中国港澳台与内地的100余名学者参会,提交论文90余篇。这是1980年代中期中国社会史复兴以来,中国内地举办的首次比较全面涵盖近代社会史领域的学术研讨会。社会史复兴20年来,在中国社会史学会举办的10届学术年会上,近代社会史的比重不断增加,吸引了越来越多…     

Culture, Class and Urban Policy: Reconsidering Equality

This paper considers the emerging policy agenda for urban–social renewal in relation to academic debates about equality and difference. Signalling problems with prevailing political and geographical approaches to class, the possibilities offered by a poststructuralist engagement with issues of equality are discussed. Policies for social regeneration and inclusion are analysed with regard to their approach to working–class cultures and are argued to be reductive and contradictory in core respects. More progressive and integrated understandings of class–cultural relations, such as those presented in the work of Nancy Fraser and Pierre Bourdieu, are identified as necessary to a meaningful concept of social justice for contemporary urban social policy.     

Creativity,Culture and Urban Strategies: A Fallacy in Cultural Urban Strategies

Two fields of knowledge have been of special importance for the emergence of culture-led urban planning in Norwegian cities: one concerns the understanding of the potential of culture as an economic driving force in urban regeneration, while the other focuses on the emergence of the concept of the “creative class” and has drawn attention to the importance of competence and creativity in urban development. Despite clear connections between the two fields, it may appear that false connections have been made in regeneration strategies in a number of cities. Based on analyses of the culture-led urban strategy of Kristiansand, a small Norwegian city, these knowledge fields are discussed and it is claimed that there seems to be a fallacy in how they are treated in the culture-led urban strategy. The fallacy concerns the way that creativity is equated with culture and further how theories about the emergence of the creative class are equated with a culture industry approach to urban planning. Questions are raised about the potential of culture industry strategies and it is argued that the potential for growth in small cities may not be as great as the public debate and research conducted in large metropolises might suggest.