The discussion on the creative industry and urban development is well-documented. In time of austerity, and in cities such as Bristol which entrepreneurial governance logic is dominant, culture, arts and creative industries are considered both as driving force and victim of urban development. The growth in number of creative workspaces through cultural planning is an example of projects which on the one hand support individual creatives and limited types of cultural production, and on the other hand are not accessible to producers who work at the margin of creative industry and whose production demand specific infrastructures.

To resist tokenising artists in urban development processes and safeguarding the diversity of culture, Urban Backstage project critically examined collective and anti-speculative infrastructures for cultural production in sites of Elephant and Castle in London, the Barras in Glasgow’s East End, and in different locations in Marseille. Through interviews with those using, designing, organising, and managing sites of cultural production, and mapping spatial adaptations, the project aims at foregrounding the voices of small-scale independent producers, and illustrating alternative ownership and financial models, management and governance models as well as a range of adaptive capacity of spaces and organisations.  These urban backstages are usually not included on the local authority’s cultural infrastructure maps, nor are the social values created in such places acknowledged.

This project suggests a diverse and flexible understandings of creatives and cultural infrastructures in cities that contribute to more accessible and inclusive spaces, recognising grassroots urban governance and collective actions. It suggests revisiting cultural values, and the ways in which equality and diversity for culture are entangled with demands for creative economy in urban planning and place-making.

Elahe Karimnia is a Senior Lecturer in Critical Urban Practice at UWE Bristol. Her work is at the intersection of urban design and critical theory. She is interested in creative spatial practices through which public space is appropriated and publicness is emerged. As an advisor and former associate at Theatrum Mundi, Elahe collaborated in a 3-year research project: ‘Urban Backstages’ and has co-published books and articles in relation to collective cultural infrastructures. Elahe is a practiced architect and urban designer with a PhD in urban planning and decision analysis.

Theatrum Mundi is a European centre for research and experimentation in the culture of cities with a mission to help to expand the crafts of city-making through collaboration with the arts, developing imaginative responses to shared questions about the staging of urban public life. Based in London and Paris, Theatrum Mundi works through performance, design, publishing, research and teaching with partners across Europe and the Mediterranean.