La culture comme ressource : des groupes musicaux populaires au sein du processus de réaménagement urbain à Rio de Janeiro
This master’s thesis treats the interaction between local actors in popular musical culture and the public administration in the context of the public-private project of renewing the port of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Porto Maravilha. The study is centred on the idea that this interaction is based primarily on the ways that « culture » is understood and used as a resource that can add value to urban space, differentiate groups from each other and bring support for the processes of autonomization and legitimation of social actors.  New urbanist paradigms, such as that of the « creative city »  (Landry, 2005), propose that local culture be integrated into the development and realization of projects through the participation of artists who are perceived as a fundamental source of creativity for making the city more competitive in an increasingly urbanized world. In this vein, the Porto Maravilha project is inspired directly by cases of successful creative urban renewal, and aims to stimulate local culture, while idealizing the port of Rio as a “new postcard of Brazil”.  Starting from the observation that local actors see the potential of their cultural activities for becoming an important resource in this context, we analyse the strategies and discourses they develop, as well as the resources to which they have access in order to affirm agency.  Besides their intentional actions, we analyse their day-to-day cultural practices.  Moreover, we question the way that the administrators of the project understand the local actors’ musical activities and how they manage the needs and creative contributions of these groups.
creative city culture as resource agency cultural practices