POLIS :

Course Philosophy

The MA in European Urban Cultures (Polis) offers a specialist programme aimed at graduate students from Europe and elsewhere with undergraduate degrees in subject areas such as the social sciences; cultural and leisure studies; art, design and architecture; urban theory and planning; cultural marketing and management. The course is also targeted at professionals and administrators eager for the latest experiences, ideas and insights in urban cultural policy.

A number of features will make the learning experience distinctive on this course:

a joint curriculum developed by the four universities allowing each to offer courses and project work associated with staff expertise and research interests
a multidisciplinary approach drawing on disciplines such as urban theory and planning, sociology, cultural and leisure studies, cultural management, architecture and design
a 'project work' unit based on the current research programmes of the staff involved in delivering the course
an explicit European and transnational comparative perspective an opportunity for students to travel in Europe and spend time studying and living in four European cities in an international student group
an opportunity to experience a cross-national diversity of academic contexts and a cross-national diversity of urban development projects.

The philosophy behind the development of the Polis was to address the need for a programme which brought together the interdisciplinary expertise to examine contemporary issues relating to the importance of cultural change in urban development and re-development in Europe. In today’s globalizing context, cities play a primary role as centres of economic and cultural development. Urban governments are faced with the difficult task of repositioning their cities in a restructuring economy. Faced with a major de-industrialization, there is a need to attract new investment capital and new business activities in a highly competitive transnational market. At the same time, cities carry the major part of the burden of the transformation of Western European cultures into poly cultural societies.

Within these restructuring dynamics, culture plays a central role. First, culture (e.g. the media, design, architecture, fashion, the arts) is regarded as a major resource of economic opportunity in job creation, inward investment and capital development. Second, culture can be of help in creating the distinctive and innovative environment, able to attract high quality labour, and the research and development that industries are looking for. Third, culture can be of help in creating an open and enabling environment, capable of bridging the differences between social, ethnic and language groups.

In order to fully exploit the innovative and supportive role of culture in European urban development it is necessary to develop new knowledge and a new professionalism, able to cross the boundaries between a variety of disciplines normally kept apart. Here, one might think in particular of the disciplines of the arts and design, culture and leisure theory, urban and spatial planning, and marketing/management.
At the same time, there is a necessity to draw into account a European transnational perspective, e.g. an outlook on the European economic, political and cultural space within which urban developments have to be situated and evaluated. This not only vis à vis each other (the position of a city within a European inter-urban system), but also vis à vis the system of nation states and the European Union.
Finally, in order for this professionalism to promote an open, poly cultural attitude, it needs to be based in a cross-cultural educational experience. At the same time, such an experience contributes to the dissemination of knowledge and skills across Europe with regard to the role of culture in urban development policies.

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