Cardiff, a worldly city:the cultural and social reinvention of a european capital

Abstract

This doctoral thesis, embedded in the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies, offers an analysis of the cultural and social reinvention that Cardiff, the capital city of Wales in the UK, has experienced since the 1980s. In the late nineteenth century, Cardiff was dubbed the world’s ‘coaltropolis’ and the coal industry was underpinned by an increasing multiethnic working-class labour force. However, as the demand for the ‘black gold’ declined throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the city endured an acute process of deindustrialisation in tandem with high levels of unemployment. The need to address this reality and to diversify its economic base, as well as to attract global investment and international tourism, led Cardiff’s policy makers to adopt a sound re-imag(in)ing rationale that aimed at positioning the Welsh capital as a leading business and tourism destination. Driven by the buzzword triad of civic boosterism, cultural regeneration, and consumption upheaval, new attractive landscapes embodied in urban renewal projects have bolstered the city’s economic rejuvenation and have assigned new values, meanings and symbols to Cardiff’s social and cultural spheres. A rich assortment of aesthetically seductive venues, offering an eclectic year-round programme of events and an extensive range of consumer experiences, coupled with an escalating culture and creative industries sector, resonate the potential of culture as a springboard for economic growth and have accounted for the emergence of new social and economic identities in the city. Moreover, new ways of memorialising the city’s past and history have sprung up in Cardiff’s newly-created public spaces; historical events and individual and collective memories have been turned into functional resources under the umbrella of a mainstream consensual discourse that is subjected to the present ideology of the aestheticisation and commodification of everyday life. There seems, however, to be little room for dissident and minority discourses and practices that risk undermining the official authorities’ (over)ambitious goal to turn Cardiff into a “world-class European capital city”. Yet the underrepresentation of some of the city’s groups and communities is being challenged by an expanding civil society that is committed to catering for the Welsh capital’s most unprivileged and deprived residents. Cardiff presents itself today as an enticing worldly city that epitomises a quintessential case of urban reinvention, cultural regeneration, and social transformation. Nevertheless, this thesis contends that Cardiff must still pursue and endorse a set of key priorities that would contribute to reinforcing the city’s (diverse) human dimension and to turning it into a more liveable and inclusive capital city.