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Newcastle Gateshead Quayside: Cultural investment and identities of resistance

The news that, in the aftermath of the bidding process for the UK's representative for the European Capital of Culture in 2008, the UR government is investing 15 million [pounds sterling] in the Urban Cultural programme, raises some key issues about the way we think about culture and, in particular, about urban culture, as a source of resistance to globalisation. There is always an overwhelming temptation to conceive of identity and resistance in a misleadingly fundamentalist way. But resistance is as much about the habitual and the symbolic as it is about the isolated, heroic act (Thrift, 1997). In what follows, I will suggest that the cultural developments in the NewcastleGateshead Quayside development can, counter-intuitively perhaps, provide a renewed focus and confidence for the revitalisation of regional cultural identifies that, in turn, amounts to a complex and contradictory form of symbolic resistance to the homogenisation of globalism. Many commentators felt that NewcastleGateshead would win the UK nomination to become a contender for the title of 2008 European Capital of Culture. The investment of millions of pounds in the Quayside--a former industrial site with no previously existing leisure or cultural facilities--and into developments such as the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, The Sage Gateshead Music Centre and the Millennium Bridge, on the back of the apparent success of Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North, certainly stimulated a degree of public confidence and regional pride. This much is indicated by ongoing longitudinal research into the social, cultural and economic impact of the Quayside, which illustrates not only increased cultural attendance at and awareness of such developments, but also that the Quayside is playing an increasingly significant role in the way the people of the region perceive themselves (Bailey et al., 2004). The regeneration of the Gateshead site, driven by iconic cultural projects, has somehow managed to complement the consumer-led Newcastle waterside economy, which encompasses restaurants, bars and an emerging retail sector. Unlike other reconfigured waterfront sites, NewcastleGateshead Quayside apparently retains its stubbornly democratic character, with its market and night-time crowds appearing to sit happily alongside the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts, which has itself far exceeded initial visitor targets. The fact that NewcastleGateshead won the 'popular' BBC television viewers' vote shortly before the official Capital of Culture announcement, certainly reinforced the view in many quarters that Newcastle-Gateshead 'deserved' the nomination. Cultural investment on the Quayside appeared to be contributing to a 'feel-good factor' in NewcastleGateshead and in the region beyond. In the end, however, the nomination was awarded to the city of Liverpool. But more interesting than the question of who won and why was the way the bidding process highlighted the increasingly high profile of culture, most notably on the urban regeneration agenda. This reflects a broader debate preoccupying the cultural sector and politicians alike; a debate typified, perhaps, by Richard Florida's work on the creative classes, in which he argues that, 'The combination of where we live and what we do has come to replace who we work for as a main element of identity' (Florida, 2002: 229). In Florida's version of events, we live in a world of less and less secure social ties, in which 'the city allows you to modulate the experience: to choose the mix, to turn the intensity level up or down as desired, and to have a hand in creating the experience rather than merely consuming it' (Florida, 2002: 232). On the surface, he appears to describe a highly-adaptable society underpinned by processes of flexible specialisation. The creative classes are shown as playing an increasingly important role in constructing identity for cities and their people. …