Workshop: Local connections: Culture and the Quality of Life of Cities

Rapporteur: Jean-Paul Baillargeon
Speakers: Michel de la Durantaye, Departmenet des sciences du loisir ei de la communication sociale, Universite du Quebec a Trois Rivieres,
Colin Mercer, Cultural Policy and Research Unit (CPRU), Nottingham Trent University

Michel de la Durantaye started his presentation by explaining the Canadian situation from the point of view of social cohesion and quality of life research. There are different approaches and conceptions of social cohesion used by Canadian researchers. He situated this theme from the perspective of social bonds and the weakening of these social bonds - a result of a civil society which is becoming, in his view, less and less civil and more and more anguished and cynical in the western world.

The speaker stated that the elimination of certain statistical deficiencies, and the elaboration of Canadian and International comparative data on municipalities and territorial communities, will give a new and different point of view of the social bond issue in a more restrained territorial context. The sense of belonging is closely linked to the quality of life within local and territorial areas.

He claimed that the globalisation of the economy has the effect of enhancing local and regional identities. While national and provincial cultural policies are linked to the macro-social aspects of identity, they do not contribute much to the formulation or expression of local identities but local cultural policies do. Also they cannot be regarded as an independent reality, cut off from the social environment.

The cultural and social life of the community must therefore be taken into account. Questions of well being, education and health are all linked to the more global social question of the quality of life of individuals and communities.

Recently, the Canadian Policy Research Committee has prepared a synthesis report of the last two years for the Research Project on Policies (PRP) (February 1999, Economic Growth, Human Development and Social Cohesion in a Globalizing Context/ Draft). Its first conclusions state that "the social cohesion issue is more complex and requires a more elaborate data analysis".

The authors of the report maintain that "the situation of the economically and socially marginalised groups seems to worsen, a situation which is partially hidden by the economic growth and incomplete statistics". Among the causes of the uncertainty of Canadians towards their future, the authors cite social and cultural exclusion. However, they do not know if social cohesion is linked to a national sense of belonging.

The context of globalisation of exchanges puts intermediate levels of governments, such as the Provincial and Federal governments, in difficult situations concerning social cohesion. The local and regional governments or administrations, e.g. in the Toronto, Montréal areas) are geographically and socially better located to intervene effectively and more often to counter the social bond deterioration process.

In the light of urban structural reorganisation in Canada, it is becoming increasingly obvious that arts and culture services or the arts and culture councils of the municipalities, centred on programmes consisting of a variety of activities, are more efficient or pertinent if they are not associated with the problems inherent to local and regional community life, and are approached jointly with the responsible organisations or in accordance with the other municipal services. These municipal services are now facing realities that could weaken social bonds and thus social cohesion; e.g. job precariousness, unemployment, layoffs and personnel reductions, businesses closing or moving to other areas in the world market, impoverishment of the young and the elderly, and new forms of violence and insecurity that accompanies them.

Rapid development of these situations calls for a new description of public services and the arts and culture, particularly at the municipal level, inasmuch as these public administrations are considered, geographically and politically, as dispensers of first line services to more pluralistic and heterogeneous territorial communities for which the needs and cultural interests are varied.

The speaker complained there are no significant overall indicators, capable of being accountable locally, for the relation between population structure (socio-demographic), social bonds and cultural practices. The lack of these indicators is not without consequences on the decisions taken by local councillors and others.

He stressed that it is necessary to develop more sophisticated and significant tools or measuring instruments, to determine the role of arts and culture in society and communities. Canadians are trying to develop a general model capable of configuring and integrating all the significant variables, which will not only indicate the role of arts and culture in the reconstitution of social bonds in relation to the quality of life, but would also help public decision-makers strategically in their political decisions.