Cultural policy makers have become increasingly concerned with notions of place and local identity, and are introducing strategies designed to create a sense of place and belonging, involving the work of artists, architects, planners and local communities. By focusing on the city, this subject considers the symbolic and material past, present and future of place as it has been interpreted through the arts, architecture, story-telling and popular culture and recent developments in cultural and urban policy designed explicitly to constitute and affirm local cultural identities. Using the explanatory and methodological insights of cultural studies, this subject gives students an understanding of the negotiated nature of art and place and the complex relationships which exist between its production, consumption and representation. This knowledge is enhanced through the study of selected case studies where students are called upon to connect theory and practice by evaluating the contribution these spaces make to the arts and to the cultural 'life' of the city.

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