Abstract
Following more developed countries in shaping and reinventing cities to be recognized in the creative and cultural economy, the Philippines meets the same urgently-felt need to turn global in the context of its urban and contemporary setting. Thus, this chapter explores the narratives of visual artists, collectives, and some of the pioneers of Cebu, the Philippines’ UNESCO creative city for design recognition, the conditions within some of its development projects, and the creative negotiation processes of selected creatives. Positioned in a three-fold lens, it pays attention to the official narratives of Cebu's creative city discourse. It also contemplates the independent artists and creative community discourse and makes sense of the negotiation strategy within the place branding implementations in Cebu and the everyday creative tactics of creatives that may affect the outcome of current developmental efforts. By utilizing qualitative empirical methods of online ethnography, primary and secondary data, triangulation, and visual methodology, findings pinpoint lingering urban problems that manifest more in the working-class struggle as a form of dominating creative class control on culture. Although both government and private sector negotiate to deal with its perceived deficiencies, it still lowers the value of social relations in the locality because it inscribes to Western concepts that do not fit the local structure but influences city planning practices and implementation. However, independent creative practices and local narratives present a counter-discourse that may stagnate official implementation projects and undermine programs.
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Neo, R.Y. (2023). Art and the City: An Exploration of Creatives’ Lived Realities in the Context of Cebu’s Place Branding Initiative. In: Chatterjee, U., Antipova, A., Ghosh, S., Majumdar, S., Setiawati, M.D. (eds) Urban Environment and Smart Cities in Asian Countries. Human Dynamics in Smart Cities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25914-2_15
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