Urban geography of arts: The co-production of arts and cities

International audienceSince the end of the 20th century, culture in general (Zukin, 1995), and art in particular (Miles, 1997), have been ever more present and visible in cities. Because they are increasingly understood as an integral part of the urban fabric in a post-industrial era, they are often promoted as key-drivers in urban (re)development strategies (Paddison & Miles, 2007; Zukin, 1995). Consequently, art is not only taking up space in cities all around the world, but its function and its relationship to the urban environment are being redefined. Art is not only conceived as a specific object installed in an urban context, but it is also seen as a tool capable of participating in the making of the cities themselves. In this process, cities are aestheticized or “artialized” (Roger, 1997) while, in return, art is urbanized. Because of its increased spatial and urban dimension, art is thus becoming a subject, as well as an object, and a method of investigation for geographers (see for exemple: Amilhat-Szary, 2012; Blanc & Benish, 2016; Hawkins, 2013; Volvey, 2010), and particularly for urban geographers (see for exemple: Boichot, 2012; Debroux, 2012; Grésillon, 2014; Guinard, 2014; Molina, 2010; Zebracki, 2012).Nevertheless, as highlighted in previous thematic journal issues, studies dealing with the relationship between art and cities are still fragmented, either by geographical area (primarily North America, Europe, East Asia and secondarily Middle East, Africa, etc. ) or by type of arts (public art, visual art, music, dance, films, literature, poetry, etc. ). By bringing together innovative and original research which invests different urban contexts – notably beyond the so-called global North/South and East /West divides – and various kinds of arts, the current thematic issue proposes overcoming these fragmentations by building bridges between cities and arts. With this in mind, its aim is to raise epistemological, theoretical and methodological issues, caused by the fact of studying interrelations between arts, cities and societies from a spatial perspective, in order to strengthen the “urban geography of arts” approach. As such, this issue aims at developing a more general framework for a better understanding of the production of cities – as defined by Lefebvre (2000 [1974]) – by and through arts. If this process is common to various cities around the world, it is too rarely questioned or at least very often investigated only through the lens of gentrification (Cameron & Coaffee, 2005; Cole, 1987; Ley, 2003), an approach which has been increasingly criticized (Debroux, 2012; Vivant & Charmes, 2008). This issue is thus an attempt to look at the role and place of arts in cities and their societies without necessarily referring to gentrification, a process that could obscure other phenomena. Reciprocally, it also investigates the consequences of urbanization on arts in order to determine to what extent arts are urbanized and socialized themselves and to what extent urbanization could modify them. The goal of this special issue is therefore to explore the mutual influences of arts and cities, or to put it another way, the co-production of arts and cities.To do so, the issue includes seven articles examining diverse types of arts (contemporary art, public art, street art, graffiti, performance and literature) in various urban contexts – be they by the size of the cities considered or their location (Berlin, Budapest, Calais, Cape Town, Clichy-sous-bois, Gaza, Grenoble, Johannesburg, Montfermeil, Montreal, Paris, Stockholm, Weston-super-mare). In each study, the capacity of arts to participate, to transform or to contest the way in which cities are constructed, and reciprocally, the capacity of cities to define, to modify or to challenge the way arts are produced, are analyzed. More specifically, the role of arts in contributing to the making of more inclusive, participatory and democratic cities or, on the contrary, in reinforcing and legitimizing the exclusive and selective processes of making cities is scrutinized by all the papers. Depending on the arts considered, on the ways they are produced and on the urban contexts in which they take place, at least three types of interaction between arts and cities are explored in this issue. Some authors stress the mutual influence between arts and cities that leads to a normalization of both arts and cities and to the imposition of a rather elitist arts-based urban model. Others consider the potentialities for some arts and artists to resist the dominant artistic and urban norms by creating disruptions that challenge these norms. And lastly, a number of authors go even further in suggesting that arts and artists can not only contest norms but can also propose alternative ones, be they urban, artistic or research-oriented