Brussels, 28-30 April 2011
Palais des Académies
Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique
Rue Ducale 1, 1000 Bruxelles
This symposium aims to confront empirical research, its work methods and ethical commitments, when it
takes on the study of elites in the city. The speakers will analyse the methods influential groups use
or have used to shape the city. These methods include coalitions, technical/legal inventions, academic
know-how and professional expertise, lobbying, residential strongholds, and many more. The symposium is
thus intended to stimulate debate on the production of urban space and its enmeshed power relations,
today and in the past, as well as to explore the fieldwork done in order to tackle theses issues.
more information here
All over Europe, cities are faced with the challenge of using cultural resources to re-position their
city in an increasingly culturally and economically diversified European space. Related to this is a
clear recognition of the growing importance of cultural resources for economic and community
development. This produces new opportunities and challenges for local cultural planning and management.
In order to fully exploit the innovative and supportive role of culture in European urban development,
it will be necessary to develop a new socially and culturally sensitive professionalism, able to cross
the boundaries between the arts, design, urban and spatial planning, public policy and the market,
artistic creativity and cultural management.
The MA in European Urban Cultures 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.
