Introducing the CIUTAT project...

CIUTAT (the Catalan word for 'city') is a longitudinal research project which examines the impacts of major cultural events on the international, national and local image of their host cities. The project commenced in September 2003.

As more European cities compete in (re)producing and promoting themselves for tourism and culture using similar mechanisms (for example, the Cultural Capital of Europe event), their ability to create uniqueness diminishes and this often leads to the ‘serial reproduction’ of places or even ‘placelessness’. A frequent response is the staging of major events, which are seen as more flexible and distinctive carriers of the ‘symbolic capital’ of the city. Such events have been termed the ‘image builders’ of modern tourism – creating opportunities for cultural consumption and the attraction of tourists, offering not just short-term benefits in terms of visitor spending, but also positioning a city as a desirable place to live, work and visit.

Such strategies based on the production of territorial urban space for tourism / cultural objectives generally aim to enhance (or modify) the image of the city, conveying images of the destination and its wider region for the generation of longer-term benefits; the building of social capacity and cultural capital of citizens and the physical legacy of (re)produced urban cultural space. These events are often embedded within major urban regeneration schemes and therefore have major physical implications for residents, for visitors and for the ‘sense of place’ in the host city. However, the image dimension of such events is rarely evaluated.

The aim of the CIUTAT project therefore is to critically evaluate the effects of major international cultural events on the image of and the urban space within European host cities, using Barcelona as a case study. The research will adopt a multi-stakeholder perspective on the image impacts of the Universal Forum of Cultures 2004 (Forum Barcelona 2004) event on the Catalan capital city of Barcelona; twelve years after it hosted the 1992 Olympic Games. The Forum – a UNESCO-supported event – proposes to be similar in spirit and scale to the Olympics and International Expos, but based on world cultures; specifically on cultural diversity, sustainability and conditions for peace. Controversially, the new Forum site is located in an acutely disadvantaged area of the city (Sant Adrià de Besòs / Poblenou) and is only one of several new major urban regeneration schemes for this neighbourhood which have been greeted with some resistance from residents.

The CIUTAT project will focus on the degree of convergence and divergence between the city images held by visitors to Barcelona, residents of the areas adjacent to the Forum site and policymakers in the cultural, tourism and urban planning sectors. The case study will take place in three periods: before, during and after the Forum Barcelona 2004 event; permitting evaluation of the differential image effects on Barcelona over the course of the event as well as the degree of convergence and divergence between the city images held by different stakeholders. Wider inference will be made as to the social justice aspects of the (re)production of urban space for major cultural events.

CONTEXT     FORUM BARCELONA 2004     NEWS     CONTACT    HOME