Where Is Berlin? Cultural Commons and Urban Policy Among Real and Virtual Walls
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2612-0496/9126Keywords:
social dynamics, urban strategies, cultural commons, art system, localisationAbstract
“Poor but Sexy” is Berlin, in a well-known institutional slogan. The city has experienced a unique evolution since the end of World War II and the Cold War years, attracting creative talents who crafted a metropolitan and cosmopolitan network of fertile connections and exchanges. Berlin appears to be structured in micro-areas: kiez8 is the urban and social unit, a small commons where shared views and actions define the neighbourhood. Since the fall of the Wall, the Berlin community has lived in a multiple-layered town whose dynamics revealed many contradictions, due to the virtual walls and maps that end up opposing to the elaboration of a consistent metropolitan strategy. This article discusses the role of cultural commons in urban development, which do not fit a unique model or mechanism. An effective administrative action can encourage the diffusion and location of creative industries and cultural enterprises, generating a sustainable value chain for Berlin’s identity, based upon cultural commons.
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