Cities: Living Labs for Culture? Case Studies from Asia and Europe (2nd edition, May 2016)
In an era of strong urban branding, cities are embracing distinctive approaches to include cultural policies within their development strategies. In today’s creative cities, impressive cultural infrastructures and rooted community initiatives are feeding each other to create unique local identities. This publication by ASEF maps some of the most compelling examples of Asian and European cities facing the cultural inclusiveness challenge: cities as incubators for cultural leaders and laboratories for transformative cultural policies; capitals of culture initiatives and cities networks as opportunities to broker inter-regional, cross-sectorial and intergenerational understanding are just some of the key ingredients to this conversation among cities across the two regions. The 27 case studies from more than 40 included in the publication offer good opportunities for knowledge exchange between cities in Asia and Europe and provides learning arenas for artists, arts managers, educators, urban planners as well as public sector representatives. The publication also explores the intersections of creative cities with the creative economy, high technology and heritage management which are on the agenda of the 7th Asia-Europe Culture Ministers’ Meeting (ASEM CMM7) (22-24 June 2016, Gwangju, Korea).