Arts & International Affairs: 2.3: Autumn/Winter 2017 | Page 96
ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
and the public are mingling in co-working spaces, fab labs, living labs, maker spaces, cre-
ative hubs, and incubators. Together, they are inventing a new society of collaborations
and enterprises.
The international community of cultural workers is cosmopolitan with a global mind-
set. They are concerned about issues such as nationalism, xenophobia, environmental
protection, and climate change. However, this sensibility is not preventing pride in their
cultural roots and desire to share their stories. Regional cultures (Bavaria, Catalonia,
Corsica, Flanders, Scotland) enhance the expression of European diversity and promote
democratic participation.
In parallel, the consumption of culture is changing and becoming more focused on
shared activities. Events and festivals based around music, street art, theatre, film, spo-
ken word, or food create opportunities for people to get together. Cultural consump-
tion is an excuse to celebrate together. This culture is about making friends and creating
more opportunities for sharing. It is about co-producing among peers, and informal or
project-based initiatives which are often carried out by independent freelancers working
outside corporate settings, but who, at the same time, are in some way connected to such
environments.
This trend, this new way of working, favors collaboration as opposed to competition,
establishing solidarity and partnerships, and new forms of entrepreneurship driven by
social rather than economic goals. It offers a vision of society and its structure, in which
the nation state will be one unit of integration among others, but in which cities will
co-exist. A societal vision that will be post-capitalist, driven by knowledge, and fore-
sees cultural stakeholders playing a key role in developing a new social ideology based
on creativity and innovation. This society might be divided by new sets of values—one
promoted by the technologists and scientists, and one by the cultural workers. Creative
parks or innovation hubs often group both skills to generate innovation and creativity in
an interdisciplinary spirit. Cities have a role to play in encouraging both worlds to con-
verge and collaborate, to enable us to imagine tomorrow’s world.
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