Studiereis Berlijn voor beleidsmakers

Berlijn: identiteit als wapen in de stedenstrijd

Overal in de wereld concurreren steden met elkaar om bewoners, bedrijven, bezoekers en bollebozen. Om als stad aantrekkelijk te zijn, is je identiteit belangrijker dan ooit. Iedere stad dient te kijken naar zijn eigen, onderscheidende identiteit waarmee het kan concurreren. Maar, waar kijk je dan naar in een stad? Hoe ontdek je wat een stad uniek maakt? En, tenslotte: hoe bepaal je vervolgens wat jouw stad uniek maakt?

Berlijn is drie dagen lang onze casus, inspiratiebron, laboratorium en werkplaats. Bij thuiskomst heb je scherpere inzichten en kun je betere keuzes maken in de positionering van je eigen stad of streek.

Deze studiereis wordt georganiseerd vanuit de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen. Voor meer informatie, neem contact op met Roy van Dalm: 06 - 53 53 72 87 of mail: roy.van.dalm@inter.nl.net of roy.vandalm@han.nl

Identity as a weapon in the battle between cities

The city is the place where money, products and ideas come together. No wonder cities all around the world compete with eachother for the favours of inhabitants, business, visitors and talent. This calls for urban attraction strategies. And in order to be attractive as a city, your identity in this competition is more important than ever. The future of cities lies in their distinctive character, not in a karaoke strategy copying others.

By Roy van Dalm


Globalisation has created a level playing field for cities. Or so we thought. For, the playingfield may be levelled, but the players are certainly not equally distributed across the turf. Talent and capital have a tendency to concentrate and multiply in some places and be drawn and sucked away from others. In the global competition between cities we get to see what we call the Matthew Effect: to those who have shall be given and in abundance, but from those who do not have anything, even what they have shall be taken.

The effect is a diminishing number of fast growing and flourishing cities, and a growing number of cities on the losing side. On this effect in the US, urban specialist Carol Coletta, from the CEO’s for Cities network, told me that out of the 51 American megaregions only 16 are growing. The other 35 are actually shrinking. This concentration of capital, creativity and talent poses a definite threat to middle-sized cities. Do they have the power and critical mass to withstand the competition? Take the extreme example of the eastern German city of Hoyerswerda. This former socialist model city was the fastest growing city of the German Democratic Republic. Until the wall fell. Now it has shrunk from 70.000 inhabitants to barely 35.000. Everyone with any talent and ambition has long since left. Empty tenement buildings are now being inhabited by wolves, slinking in from across the Polish and Czech borders. And this is Germany, not some third world country.

Stay away from karaoke
In order to be successful in this fierce competition, cities need to have – what Simon Anholt calls – a competitive identity. ‘Dare to be different’ says Carol Coletta. In many cases however, city authorities do not go for distinctive character, but for karaoke. They choose to imitate for instance the concept of the creative city, believing that artists and designers are the cure to all urban ails. But the real point of the creative city is that creativity is used not as and end but as a means to address urban challenges.

If a city wants to succeed, it should follow the concept of what I call the Triple A City: Authentic, Activating, All-inclusive. It has to be authentic in the stories it tells about itself. It has to stimulate people to be actively participating. And it should include all people. In the end this means that every city eventually can only succeed by being itself.

Written for: Future Cities Forum Ostrava

The psychological make-up of a city

I wonder what the best approach would be to determine the psychological make-up of a city. In Oslo and Warsaw I took the following approach. I asked some key cultural innovation drivers to describe their city to me as if it were a person. 'If Oslo is your friend, what would he/she be like?' This is a branding approach, making personae for a product. The problem is that cultural innovators are just one group to ask. Probably, immigrants would have a completely different picture of the city. Carol Coletta (CEOs for Cities) told me in Tilburg that she liked the idea that Manchester described itself as a collection of short stories, because the city (or any city) is too complex to make 1 single story. Is that the risk of all citybranding? That no single idea can capture something as organic and complex as a city?

A Talent for taste

The Spanish region of Navarra, where I am now blogging from Pamplona, is trying to figure out what it should do about its talent. There is research here. There are artists and designers. But, walk thru one of the narrow cobbled streets of this city and you know where its best talents are. You can smell it from the bars, bodegas and restaurants: this is a region with a knack for good taste. It's brimming with great cuisine and best of all are the pinxtos - tapas, but then more elaborate. Petite works of art; great creations for the palate. And they cost next to nothing in bars like Niza (a national pinxtos prizewinner) or bodegas like Otona. If I were to promote Navarra I would have a slogan like 'Come to your senses, come to Navarra'.