As the existing cities focusing on the manufacturing industry experience economic recession, researchers began to seek new ways to develop a city and culture gained traction as a new solution. In this environment, the interest in culture started to gr...
As the existing cities focusing on the manufacturing industry experience economic recession, researchers began to seek new ways to develop a city and culture gained traction as a new solution. In this environment, the interest in culture started to grow among Europe and the United States and many cities are developing cultural cities to enhance their competitiveness.
This research selected and analyzed Gwangju and Yokohama as examples to observe various features demonstrated while developing cultural cities based on cultural city development projects in Korea and Japan and to suggest measures for efficient policy making. By comparing Gwangju which entered a period of transformation in becoming a cultural city with the construction of the Asia Culture Center and Yokohama which succeeded to become a cultural city led by the local government, this research would like to gain meaningful implications in developing cultural cities in the future.
For this, this research went through the preceding research on cultural cities centering on the past policies. First, studies on the notion of a cultural city and various analysis elements needed to develop a cultural city were observed. Second, based on the observation, this research set comparative variables between cities and conducted an analysis to deduct similarities and differences using the comparative method.
The implications deducted as the result of the comparative analysis on the examples of Gwangju and Yokohama are like the following.
First, in the institutional aspect, the cultural city development project of Gwangju is carried out on a stable basis of the Special Act on the Development of an Asian Cultural Hub City, but in the case of Yokohama, no institutional background was created since the project was planned and conducted by the local government.
Second, to build trust and cooperation between various main agents participating in the cultural city development project, the Development Committee for the Hub City of Asian Culture Project designed the overall plan and the local government worked together to carry out some parts of the project or to create a cultural environment base. In the case of Japan, the overall planning was carried out by the Division of Creative City and the City Center Vitalization Review Committee not only reviewed the plan but also performed as a coordinator.
Third, the Asian Culture·Art Vitalization Program and BankART 1929 were designed for a certain period of time to form a core location utilizing a historical construction and were operated by selecting a project supporter. For this, each local government adopted a support system in the form of subsidies and helped the operation of the business and formed a core location.
Political suggestions deducted based on the implications are like the following.
First, cooperation between many main agents should be built to develop a cultural city. For this, measures to draw out cooperation and effort in a real sense should be designed. To make this possible, the research suggested the reestablishment of the role of the Development Committee of the Hub City of Asian Culture Project so that it can build the cooperation system between the central and the local government and readjust their roles.
Second, a system that enables various civil main agents to demonstrate their merits in their own fields in developing a cultural city should be built. In administration, new methods for more active support and flexible business procedure should be adopted and for this, creating a consultative body to link state and administrative organizations and civil main agents participating in the development of a cultural city in various ways within the city can become a solution. Therefore, there is a necessity to adopt a consultative body for the Hub City of Asian Culture Project benchmarking the Creative City Network of Japan.
By applying the comparative method, this research analyzed the Gwangju Hub City of Asian Culture Project and the Yokohama Creative City Plan in the current situation in which various alternatives are being sought to overcome the limitations of the existing policy regarding cultural cities. In order to create a new cultural city which goes beyond the cultural city development projects until present, the research to vitalize a consultative group to understand the current policy enforcement method, and then to build an integrated support system and guarantee the consistency and thrust of the policy will be necessary.