engleski

Participatory Governance as a Driver for Inclusive Cities: Croatian example

Contemporary approaches to local cultural policy are investigating the possibilities that reach beyond the economic ideology of using arts in boosting cities’ potentials for economic growth and competitiveness. These new paths are based on sensitivity to local issues, inclusiveness and participation, and inciting citizens' participation in cultural planning and governance. This paper explores Croatian cultural policy by analysing emerging models of participatory governance that stem from the context of post-socialist legacy and democratic system that is still evolving. The paper analyses the examples of the so-called socio-cultural centres in Croatia set up by non-governmental and non-profit associations based on participatory governance of resources. It further investigates possibilities for wider inclusive arrangement where the emerging organizational formats of socio-cultural centres could represent new models of post-modern public institutions that empower citizenship, foster social ties and develop as polygons of exchange and intensive public discussions. In that sense, socio-cultural centres are imagined and constructed as spaces that, in the context of prevailing models of urban cultural development, recognize “the risks of exclusion associated with the existing cultural and urban strategies and seek ways to engage the population as a whole by making space for the full spectrum of their diverse interests” (Matarasso, 2015:135). Thus, we question how socio-cultural centres respond to the current structural policy deficits by becoming hybrids representing and fostering inclusiveness, rather than competitiveness as a guiding principle of local cultural development.

emerging models of participatory governance ; Croatian cultural policy ; the examples of the so-called socio-cultural centres in Croatia

Rad je napisan na engleskom jeziku i objavljen je u prijevodu na francuski.