Cultural heritage in socio-economic development: local and global perspectives.

In Japan, there are also examples where heritage conservation and urban redevelopment have been successfully integrated, especially in middle and smallsized Japanese towns. Kakiuchi (2000) illustrates the trend, referring to the case of Nagahama, located in Shiga Prefecture. This small town of 50,000 inhabitants was built as early as the 16th century, but like other towns during the 1980s, it stagnated and went into economic decline. In 1988, a public-private co-operation project was initiated to reverse the decline by rehabilitating cultural heritage and encouraging a particular cultural industry. The preservation of a building from the Meiji era (1868-1912), originally constructed as the Kurokabe bank and scheduled for demolition in 1987, triggered an ambitious project. The town council together with private companies set up a new kind of third-sector enterprise--Kurokabe Inc.--as a joint venture with capital of 40 million yen from the city government and 90 million yen from eight regional companies. Its goal was to encourage economic activity in businesses other than pre-existing industries and further promote the image of Nagahama city. Both traditional and modern crafts of glassware were used as the basis of the town's development strategy. Old houses in the vicinity were renovated and became shops, restaurants and galleries. At present, the town's central square comprises around thirty buildings, mostly converted from old structures such as warehouses, merchant houses and so on.

The project turned into a catalyst for further cultural development of the town, attracting more people involved in pre-existing performing arts and events. It also became a base for further public-private cooperation projects, capital investment projects and new developments. What is more, the initiative spun off a centre for regional regeneration in 1998, which now operates independently. This centre functions as a bridge between local government, shops and citizens, providing information and coordinating services for various events. Overall, the project has been recognized as a telling example of the way in which cultural heritage restoration and reuse can be combined with a specific cultural industry to promote urban regeneration and revitalization (Kakiuchi 2000).

The urban regeneration efforts in Nagahama have been underway for over 15 years. By 1998--only a decade from its beginning--annual sales were estimated at almost 900 million yen and visitors were numbered at 1.8 million per year, indicating that a balanced expansion of an important cultural industry was obtained. Local public opinion is quite positive. The public appreciates Kurokabe's upgraded regional image and cultural standards, the creation of new tourist venues, the protection of the historic landscape and the contribution to the local economy. Kurokabe square has turned into a lively area, welcoming more than 2 million visitors annually, half of whom are return visitors. However problems still remain: Depopulation of the city centre continues, and less than 10% of the two million visitors to Kurokabe actually stay overnight in the city (Kakiuchi 2003).

Analogous cases include Kanazawa, a city praised for its endogenous development characterized by a balance of environment, culture and economy, and Otaru, once a business capital and fishing port of the northern Japanese island Hokkaido, which now relies to a large extent on its unique natural landscape, history and rich cultural heritage, combining restoration and adaptive reuse with the development of traditional crafts and industries.

Europe

After significant developments in the international arena took place--where the role of culture in achieving sustainability and development was recognized and reflected in development policies--broad-scale national and regional endeavours became possible in Europe. One such seminal event was the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development held in Stockholm in 1998, where the 150 represented countries agreed to make cultural policy one of the key components of their endogenous and sustainable development (UNESCO 1998). In this way, a path was created for integrative policies on regional and local levels in both urban and rural settings.

Awakening to the potential of culture in development is not only a modern phenomenon, having its roots well back in the past. In the course of time, in different countries around the world, culture has been increasingly dependent upon governments, but governments have also been increasingly dependent upon culture as an essential element within economic development strategies at many scales (Graham et al. 2000). In urban Europe, incomes from visitors attracted by historic and other cultural interests and values have been an important part of the economy and development of great historic, artistic, educational and cultural centres for centuries. Well-known examples include Florence, Venice, Rome and Naples in Italy; Madrid and Seville in Spain; Paris in France; Cologne, Bonn, Munich, Nuremberg and Dresden in Germany; Vienna and Salzburg in Austria; Amsterdam and The Hague in the Netherlands; and Brussels, Antwerp and Bruges in Belgium. European cities are host to some of the world's most ambitious current development programs led by cultural heritage initiatives that are seen in Athens, London, St. Petersburg, Vilnius, Istanbul, Quito, Sana'a, Tunis, Salvador, Havana, Mexico and elsewhere. A major success in cultural heritage use that led to economic and social regeneration is the historic centre of Prague, unique in Europe for being spared direct war damage.

Furthermore, initiatives of this kind are observed in cities and towns that have never been typical tourist attractions. One such example is the city of Bradford in England, which in the past had been dominated by the textile industry. Over 25 years ago the City Council decided that, particularly with its traditional woollen industry in steep decline, Bradford could not compete with more affluent parts of the country in terms of economic and social development. It started establishing a distinctive market niche and chose culture--both historic and contemporary--as the focus of its modern-day development (Boylan 1995) in an attempt to create a new image for the city to replace the old one of "dark, satanic mills." Most recently, the city became one of the contenders for 2008 European Capital of Culture and gained international attention and acclaim for its bold vision for regenerating the city centre.

Boylan also notes that close parallels to this case can be found in many other European countries, particularly in areas of urban decline following the closure or major down-sizing of traditional urban industries, as, for example, in part of the Ruhr valley in Germany and the coalfield areas of the France-Belgium border. Another example comes from Grainger Town in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where public sector funding for the purposes of conservation was used as leverage for private sector money, creating 1,900 jobs, 522 new homes and 70 restored old buildings (Pendlebury 2002). Plenty of examples in Eastern Europe similarly illustrate the increasing symbolic significance attributed to cultural heritage--perceived as an expression of identity and a constitutive element of society--in local and national development policies (Weber 1995). During recent turbulence and transitions, these countries--which are re-inventing and re-evaluating their traditional values and identities--have searched for a more stable marker to shape new development and have found it in their more distant heritage. This has allowed them to re-emphasize both the uniqueness and common roots of their heritage in efforts toward reunification within Europe.

Rural revitalization

Likewise, cultural heritage is estimated to play a significant role in rural revitalization. Already in 1987-1988 the Council of Europe had launched the European Campaign for the Rural World. It aimed to involve governments in the development of rural regions, preserving their historical continuity and conserving the quality of their multiple and diverse resources: from natural and environmental heritage to historical and cultural values; from architectural and artistic goods to languages, the human dimension, and working and living conditions. The Campaign focused on the necessity of multipurpose policy for rural areas to be able to reverse their decline. Again, cultural heritage was recognized as a generator for rural revitalization, and rural revitalization was simultaneously seen as a way to safeguard the unique cultural heritage in which Europe traces its roots and identity. In addition, survival of the European rural world was seen as a basic condition for stable and long-term economic development of the whole European community, filling the gap between rural and urban regions (Ashworth and Larkham 1994).