In his WHITEpaper 'Cultural Placemaking', CULTURALproducer, ARTmaker, designer and creative director of Cultural Capital, Mark McClelland explores the emergent work of cultural placemaking. As an award winning artist and designer, Mark is framing a visionary approach to CITYmaking, and he shows how contemporary actions can repair and mitigate the damaging homogenisation that has characterised urban development for more than a century.
Cultural placemaking develops places in which we experience a sense of belonging. These are the places that animate the flourishing of our human spirits — delivering a civic legacy for generations to come. In business organisations the concept of CULTURAL CAPITAL is also being in ways that is not that far away from the interrogation of the concept in PLACEmaking and CULTURALlandscaping.Mark McClelland in his WHITEpaper 'Cultural Placemaking' base as it is upon reflections gleaned over the ten years of his practice in the operation, 'Cultural Capital' he founded. During that time, he brought his ARTmaking and curation practices to the urban realm. McClelland has established a point of view about the forces that have shaped our cities and he explores the consequences of the dynamics 'modernism' and the INVESTMENTmindset that in the last half of the 20th C that have been driving forces the CULTURALlandscaping of cities and urban 'placedness'. McClelland goes on to introduce the practice of cultural placemaking – a way of integrating art and creative practice into our urban environments in ways that encourage our human natures to flourish.
McClelland's thoughts are neither definitive nor prescriptive. They’ve grown and developed along with the progress of his practice — and his own experience within it. The concept will continue to evolve and McClelland shares some of these observations and ideas with many of the capable and dedicated people with whom he has worked.
This paper is simply an expression of hisown way of seeing things, looking back on ten years of Cultural Capital’s distinctive practice. His starting point is an observation that today’s cities are burdened by a contradiction. Though typically regarded as the pinnacle of human achievement, cities often feel inhuman, cultural baron or at best ONEdimensional.
Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron coined and defined the term 'cultural capital' in the essay "Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction" (1977). Bourdieu then developed the concept in the essay "The Forms of Capital" (1985) and in the book The State Nobility: Élite Schools in the Field of Power (1996) to explain that the education – knowledge and intellectual skills – of a person provides social mobility in achieving a higher social status in society.
If we are to usefully talk about CULTURALcapital an interrogation of it requires us to muse upon the notion of INVESTMENTcapital in order to build some kind of foundation upon which to contextualise our interrogations.
What Is IINVESTMENTcapital? Invested capital is the total amount of 'money' raised by a company by issuing securities to equity shareholders and debt to bondholders, where the total debt and capital lease obligations are added to the amount of equity issued to investors. In 'housing' the situation is not all that different given the MINDset that a 'house' is a WEALTHstore first and HOMEplace as a consequence.
The 'KEY TAKEAWAYS' being:- Invested capital refers to the combined value of equity and debt capital raised by a business/investor, inclusive of capital leases.
- Return on invested capital (ROIC) measures how well a business/investor uses capital to generate profits and/or grow wealth.
- A business's/investors' weighted average cost of capital calculates how much invested capital costs the business/investor to maintain.
Most of us are familiar with the concepts of financial capital and human capital. They’re the resources that companies draw on to produce goods and services. They represent a company’s foundation for generating value and profits today and continuing to be viable and relevant in the future.
But for an individual in today’s labor market — whether you’re in the midst of changing jobs, looking to re-energize your career, or simply wanting to strengthen your job security — it isn’t about your financial resources or even your skills. Another type of capital is even more important.
- One being SOCIALcapital; and
- And the other being CULTURALcapital.
Depending on one's career stage, most people have probably encountered some aspect of workplace politics. People form cliques, bosses value some skills over others, and some personality types thrive while others face an uphill struggle.
Most 'workers' probably also know something about the corpurate culture. And if you’re considering a new job, ask former employees, read company reviews, and discuss it during your interview.
But even if you’re a veteran of workplace dynamics and feel up-to-speed on corporate culture, you’re leaving potential on the table and missing opportunities to set yourself up for success if you don’t understand the types of capital that matter at work.
Having a solid grasp of the differences between SOCIALcapital and CULTURALcapital and how they function in a workplace is critical in regard to being 'a success'.
Likewise, learning how to build and use these important forms of capital has become all important and in many respects sadly so.
In a ONEdimensional PLANINGmindset the imperative has evolved into a one-size-fits-all paradigm where some imagined 'lowest-common-denominator' has become the measure of that PLACEmaking must conform with, and sadly so.
In local governance, and in the vernacular, the space within which 'the rubber hits the road' there is good evidence to suggest that the PLANNINGmindset and PLACEmaking find themselves seriously at odds with each other.
For instance:
- When local governance's 'management operatives' deem that their 'constituency does not need to make a profit' it is evidence of a serious disconnect; and
- When local governance's 'planning operatives' assert that "cultural landscaping" is a noun and "not a doing word/phrase"; and
- When local governance's 'planning operatives' assert that the concept of 'military crest' can be used in defining planned zoning etc. etc;
points to bureaucratic humbug and subjective self-serving administrative imperatives that is seemingly driving PLACEmaking in all too many local governance jurisdictions.
Such subjectivity should have nothing whatsoever to do with the CULTURALcapital and/or the CULTURALlandscaping that goes on in PLACEmaking. ... [pers. com Launceston Town Hall circa 2015] Importantly, it is argued that PLACEmaking. is entirely the business of local governance and its 'purpose for being'.
'Land zoning' pertains to the set of state and municipality laws which ensure that a piece of land is developed for the correct purpose to meet the need of the population within a defined area. Without such considerations, rural landscapes, towns, cities, streetcapes etc. would be a hotchpotch of inconsistent properties. While there is some veracity ton this MINDset it pays too little attention to the CULTURALcapital that lends to places their 'placedness'. It is lamentable when 'zoning' drives CULTURALlandscaping to a point where placedness is driven by autocratic TOPdown decision making that is careless of the geography and the diversity of cultural sensitivities and sensibilities that have shaped placedness for eons .
On 12 Sep 2023 the Australian Broardcasting Commission aired its Program 'BIG IDEAS'.
There were four guest speakers: Mark McClelland, Elizabeth Farrelly, Alison Page and Craig Kerslake and the concept of CULTURALcapital was canvassed and interrogated from the standpoint of designing cities in ways that allow people to feel and celelbrate their placedness again.
In the deliberations it was noted that some local government jurisdictions in Australia had moved proactively to transform 'Planning Departments' into 'Placemaking Departments'. Somehow the apparent implication that investment driven housing infrastructure that is seemingly being endorsed by 'governance' delivers sterile CULTURALlandscapes within which CULTURALcapital is diminished becomes all too obvious. Sadly, the paucity of current investment driven PLACEmaking becomes all too clear as does the increasing disempowerment of Communities of Ownership and Interest.
Likewise, the counterproductive social imperatives attached to 'housing' as a WEALTHstore is becoming increasingly pronounced. In Australia this is evidenced by ever increasing numbers of people who lose their HOMEplaces ostensibly due to MARKETforces.
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