Cultural policy as conflict transformation? Problematising the peacebuilding potential of cultural policy in Derry-Londonderry – UK City of Culture 2013

Cultural policy has long been leveraged as a vehicle of urban regeneration.
The cultural capital initiative has proven so attractive in this regard that it
has spawned numerous ‘national’ variants. A prominent example of this is
the UK City of Culture title. In a significant departure from the orthodoxy
of economic regeneration, when the inaugural title was bestowed upon
Derry-Londonderry, its remit was widened to include a promise of conflict
transformation and peacebuilding. The research presented below is
concerned with an interrogation of the relationship between cultural policy
and conflict transformation. Drawing on extensive research conducted in
Derry over a period of three years, examples of ethno-cultural contestation
are identified which problematise claims of conflict transformation,
illustrating instead how the title was incorporated into an existing zero-sum
framework of ethno-politics. It further problematises the location of much
the spectacle along a narrow corridor of regenerated riverfront, claiming that
this space obfuscates rather than transforms conflict. It concludes by arguing
that the relationship between current models of cultural policy and conflict
transformation is complex and problematic, and calls for further enquiry.