Kulturens betydelse och effekter som utvecklingsstrategi : En fallstudie om kulturhuvudstadsåret och kulturdriven tillväxt i Umeå

This study aims to identify how cultural development and the European cultural capital event applies within the context of city development in Umeå. Furthermore, the study aims to examine how the European cultural capital event affects the local cultural actors. The analysis is a case study based upon how local and municipal cultural actors use culture to develop the municipality of Umeå and how the European cultural capital event has affected their work. To answer the aim of the thesis six semi-structured interviews was performed with cultural actors both within the municipality and private sector. This was to get wide-ranging information about cultural development in Umeå. The method to extract information was through thematic analysis of the preformed interviews, this allowed me as researcher to fully analyze the extracted material. The results of the study reveal that culture permeates city development in Umeå. Primarily the municipality makes great effort to make the city development rich with culture. Despite the effort culture is not a certainty in urban development and it is a constant political struggle to maintain and emphasize the importance of culture in city development. The study revealed that some actors feel that culture has become too commercialized in the municipality’s effort to generate urban growth, especially in the wake of the European capital event. All interviewed actors indicate that the European cultural capital event has had a great impact on their work and working methods. Primarily internal collaborations between the municipality and private cultural actors have been identified as meaningful, due to the many possibilities it brought, for all actors and the lack of collaboration in the post cultural capital Umeå is missed. There is an underlying understanding that all actors want to collaborate again but the lack of resources and common goals interferes.