COVID-19 had devastating effects on cities around the world. Alongside the loss of life and health, the pandemic had a wide range of socio-economic consequences for urban communities, including damaging impacts on city cultural life.
A new report published today, Creative Recovery? The Role of Cultural Policy in Shaping Post-COVID Urban Futures highlights how city policymakers responded to the pandemic in support of culture, and what the consequences might be for the future. Working in collaboration with the World Cities Culture Forum, a network of 42 cities across the globe, academics from King’s have analysed extensive data, including 270 new policy measures from cities in five continents, to explore how cultural policy has helped with city recovery.
The project brought together an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, the Department of Geography, and the Policy Institute. This collaboration was supported by the King’s Together Multi and Interdisciplinary Research Scheme and King’s Culture.
The research addressed three questions:
- How did city cultural policymakers respond to COVID-19 in support of culture?
- What was the role of the World Cities Culture Forum?
- What are the implications of these cultural policy responses for post-COVID urban futures?
The key findings and implications provide a global picture – with cities from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires, Toronto to Tokyo all part of the study, also including Austin, Hong Kong, Lagos, London, Paris, Milan, and more besides.
The authors of the report were Dr Jonathan Gross – Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, Dr Lucy McFadzean – Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, Dr Kirstie Hewlett – Policy Institute, Dr Luke Dickens – Department of Geography, Professor Philip Hubbard – Department of Geography, Professor Roberta Comunian – Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries and Dr Niall Sreenan – Policy Institute.
