Lionel Arnaud

Identity as a project: art and sport in the service of urban development policies

In a context where the local elites have understood that they could use culture to try and create a sense of belonging, of unity, beyond social divisions and conflicts, art and sport are more and more used by local government in order to contribute to their development policies. Based on various surveys carried out amongst institutional and community actors in Birmingham, London and Lyon, this paper shows how these cultural intermediaries have helped the cultural productions of ethnic minorities change from the status of fringe cultures to the status of resource for local development. Sublimated in sport and artistic performances, their identity must now become a project able to connect to a wider environment and not to withdraw into their domestic world – and finally to adapt their cultures to social and economic transformations.