Europe began from unions of cities

It is obvious that the image of Ukraine has been di­storted during the last century. The roots of many cities, towns, and villages were purged, denied, torn out of the memories, and a convenient myth was created and embedded instead of real history. The former image cannot be brought back, but, probably, that is not ne­cessary after all. We just need to return the most precious pieces of it. Though it happens slowly and half-heartedly, but restoration and re-branding is under way in some cities. Let us take Ostroh as an example. Being famous for the first uni­versity in Eastern Europe, during Soviet time it turned into a depressive “town with a mental asylum.” Nowadays, when the Ostroh Academy has been open for 18 years, this is hard to believe in. Restoration and re-branding have to be happening on a deep level, plain marketing is not sufficient here, although it can all be started with little things like freshly painted buildings and balconies adorned with flowers.

Last week an Internatio­nal forum “Yelysavethrad, a Creative City” took place in Kirovohrad. Local officials say it started the “creation of a long-term program on strategic development of Ki­rovohrad that involves marketing and branding of the territory,” says UNIAN. Char­les Landry, British expert on innovation technologies and on city development, was the forum’s special guest. He “took the pulse of the city” for five days by getting acquainted with its political and culture elite, representatives of local businesses, and students. Russian and Ukrai­nian experts on city development and branding also participated in the forum.

Of course, some might say that one is no better than the other, and Yelysaveta [Rus­sian Empress Elizabeth, wife of Hetman Rozumovsky, a Ukrainian. – Ed.] is no better alternative to Kirov. But at least her hands were not co­vered with blood. And besides, Yelysaveta was Ukrai­ne’s “daughter-in-law.”

In its articles The Day has been appealing to the traditions of Magdeburg law in Ukraine multiple times. And editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna always says that Ukraine used to be a part of the European community. That is why the renewal of the long-forgotten traditions of municipalism and unions between cities is of such great importance now. After all, this is nothing but internal work that shows our desire to be a part of Europe. Who should place the accents while re-branding Ukrainian cities? Who would provide the resources for it? Are the local officials ready for these changes? The Day talked to one of the participants of the conference in Kirovohrad, director of Kyiv Center of Social Studies. Volodymyr LUPATSII.

It seems the process of returning to the most precious values and the renewal of the country’s image has finally started. What is your vision of this process?

“First of all, it was about the strategies of city develop­ment, because the majority of Ukrainian cities are going through an identity, perspective, and self-determination crisis. The identity crisis has happened because the conditions and the style of life have changed. The market institutions emerged, but the self-realization, symbols, me­­morials in most of the Uk­rainian cities have stayed basically the same since the Soviet era. Therefore, the key question for the majority of Ukrainian cities is how to balance what they are today, what they think of themselves, how they represent themselves in the modern world. The crisis of self-determination is a result of the absence of the decent local municipal institutions, and this deprives the community of the ability to initiate any innovations in the area of city organization and functioning.

“The third problem is that though a lot has been done to improve this, there are no city development strategies that would step aside from administrative, technocratic models and move closer to the models that are oriented towards the establishment of social and cultural innovations, initiatives, on creating a human-friendly environment. All of these problems were discussed at the forum in Kirovohrad. And if you talk about branding directly, this is the question of overcoming the identity crisis. A lot of cities are facing a dilemma: either they are going back to history, old symbols, or they are looking for an identity that is based on a future pro­ject. And right now this question is still open. Quality branding should be viewed as the first step towards the ability to look at ourselves from a different perspective, to position the city in a different way in the eyes of its dwellers, investors, and in the national social and cultural space.”

Who else can and must be busy with the defining of accents in the image of a city?

“I think this issue relates to the launching of a certain process in which opinion leaders will be defined first, the representatives of the city’s artistic class. Afterwards, these people have somehow to organize in a network of sorts, in public consultative bodies. And after that they can ask for the services of experts in the sphere of branding, image-making, and PR. At the end of the day, the process of institutionalization of these public consultative bodies must take place. That is, institutions must be created which would monitor the si­tuation, correct and modify it. A strategy is good when it is open for change.”

How realistic is it to introduce such a model now?

“All this is quite indivi­dual, it depends on the acti­vities of the communities and public leaders present today on the oblast and municipal levels, and on their administrative style.”

Are you saying that certain regions can remain “deep-frozen”?

“I am convinced that today we can speak of five to seven places where a certain progress is under way, where people take the pro­cess of strategic development se­rious­ly. Generally I would say that, since regio­nal leaders directly interact with large masses of people, they are much more exposed to the negative effects of stag­nating reforms. The prob­lem is that now this stratum of administrators hardly speaks out.

“We need to highlight the very fact of such an event being held in Kirovohrad, because it concerned the entire central region. Meanwhile, central Ukraine is different from its border regions. Today this region is most discriminated against, because it is deprived of the opportunity to make a living on transborder trade and all sorts of operations. Thus, it is not a mere coinciden­ce that it is the center of Ukraine where the question was raised about the necessity to reconsider the strategy. We should count on the development of socio-cultural initiatives and the use of creative potential. It is still unclear if all this is going to be implemented – but we have alrea­dy got some positive groundworks and progressive innovations in Vinny­tsia. Cher­kasy and Poltava can also boast of something. I would like to avoid sounding politically incorrect and emphasize the age criteria, but I must say that the young ge­ne­ration is obviously trying to apply present-day technologies more widely, even in administration and mana­gement.”

As The Day happens to know, the authorities and public figures of the Donbas have come up with an idea to create a special project which, by means of culture facilities, would emphasize the region’s industrial heritage and thus improve its public image. At this stage, it is too early to speak of any details. We will only say that the initiators refer to the experience of Germany’s Ruhr, where art centers are opened in the premises of the neglected plants and factories. Extra Schicht, or the Night of Industrial Culture, is an annual festival in the Ruhr since 2001, which embraces 22 cities and towns, and boasts of an audience of 200,000 guests.

“There is no doubt that Ukraine needs re-branding as a whole. It should be absolutely clear that you cannot base on the non-existent things,” says Stanislav FEDORUK, a public activist from Donetsk. “Chernivtsi, the city of poets known of the European scale, from Celan to Andrukhovych, has opted for real strategic advantages, which can interest a potential tourist from Ukraine or from abroad. The same is true of Ostroh and Kamianets-Podilsky. Therefore, we should look for highlights in each region’s real history, those sites and symbols which are inherent to them.

“Undoubtedly, most of today’s mayors and governors are looking for opportunities (especially on the eve of Euro-2012) to improve their cities and regions’ image, and show a pragmatic interest in it. So far, Donetsk has been a half-open page for the world, but a lot is being done to create the city’s recognizable image. The Donetsk City Council has sanctioned the creation of the city’s new symbols, and is widely using them for the promotion of the city. The motto of these transformations is ‘Power and Beauty!’ It shows the city’s potential not only as a center of heavy industry, but also a city developing its leisure and entertainment infrastructure.

“The old view of the region’s industrial image as a drawback should be dismissed. The experience of our German and Polish colleagues proves that industrial culture is in demand, it is popular, it allows to look at industrial sites from a new perspective and offer visitors and tourists new, fascinating stories. Moreover, it allows to create a new format in perceiving your home country, whose authen­ticity can be alluring for the world.”

Cultural developments, branding, and the impact which such cultural initiatives have on society were the subject of The Day’s conversation with Tetiana YERESKOVA, Ph.D., associate professor at the Donetsk State University of Ma­nagement, and Illia KONONOV, Doctor of So­cio­­logy, professor, chair of philosophy and sociology at the Shevchenko Natio­nal Pedagogical University in Luhansk.

1. Regions like the Donbas are not many, and they have always struck people’s imagination as totally industrial. Can the Donbas join the so-called European “club of industrial centers of culture”?

2. What impetus can large-scale cultural events give the Donbas?

3. How could the historical Donbas fit in the concept of a large-scale European art project?

4. What impressions does the combination of apparently incompatible things create? For instance, football and classical music, for isn’t Donetsk the city of Serhii Prokofiev?

5. Despite increasingly intense agenda of Donetsk’s cultural life, with events which ambitiously claim to meet European standards, it is still perceived as the city of football and coal. What can change the si­tuation? Is Donetsk ambitious enough to become one of Europe’s cultural centers? What place Luhansk can claim on the Ukrainian and European cultural maps?

Donbas’s new impressions

TETIANA YERESKOVA: DONETSK HAS HAD EUROPEAN CULTURAL TRADITIONS SINCE ITS FOUNDATION

1. “Yes, it can – with the help of those people who are fairly aware that the legacy, left by the Soviet culture and the Soviet past, should be used in such a way as to exploit its other functions. Indeed, it is nothing uncommon for Europe to turn such regions into centers of industrial culture. The Donetsk region fits the description: it has a lot of neglected buildings which can be turned into art centers. The problem of Donetsk is actual­ly the branding problem. If we have any associations, they are mostly either with the Soviet past, or with the new images, such as Donbas-Arena, for instance. Yet the culture industry has deeper layers. This is what will enable Ukraine to join the countries, which develop their industrial regions at the account of culture. They do it in America, Poland, and Germany. I am not quite sure as to how ready the residents of Donetsk to accept it. But I think that a good beginning is half the battle.”

2. “I can see two aspects in this event. Firstly, Donetsk will join other European cities. Outward attribute will play the role of prestige. Secondly, and this is much more important, this event will change the Donetsk region. I believe that if we send ripples internationally, and a number of European papers write that Donetsk joined in the action, we will get proper attention at home, too. Perhaps for people it will become another cultu­ral event. But, on the other hand, such ‘ordi­nary’ cultu­ral events cause deep changes in people’s minds, in their attitude towards modern culture, and to their city.

“I don’t think that today the residents of Donetsk are prepared to accept this initiative as a true cultural industry. But artists and the ‘new intellec­tuals’ will welcome this cause and, I believe, put some effort in it. Meanwhile, the ‘ordinary’ public’s reaction depends on mass media. Still I think that the most inte­resting thing will happen afterwards: when Donetsk becomes part of the European cultural-industrial trend, then even the bystanders will want to jump on the bandwagon.”

3. “New meanings should (and can) be created around John Huges’ name. On the one hand, it seems as if we knew everything about that period. But on the other, we never looked deep. I think that is where we should start. That is, before speaking about the Donbas of the space era, we should dig deeper into history and uncover Donetsk in its relations to the classical Western culture. We can emphasize, for example, that even at the time of its foundation, classical European education was available in this industrial city. Clearly, only people from certain walks of life had access to it. Yet it is worth mentioning and showing, because our city has more than one dimension to it. This is actually the problem with Donetsk: we are only seen from one angle. If we are able to show other things, the perception of our city will change. This alternative can interest our young people. ‘Do­netsk of the space era’ is somehow too exotic for us, while ‘Do­netsk and the environment’ is close, and of course, this is very important. But those deeper-lying things would also be very interesting to the young people: they would see their city from an absolutely different angle.”

4. “I would not say that they are absolute opposites, they are simply diffe­rent. And it is very good that they exist, and every resident of the city can find something to his liking. For some, Do­netsk is important as the center of football. For others, it is a city of classical music and ballet. Maybe, drawing borderlines is not so important at the moment. Let everyone find something for themselves.”

5. “You say that Donetsk must become a cultural center. But why does it have to be one? This city is a huge conglomeration. It is a cultural center by default, it cannot be anything else – especially a large city like Donetsk. But the needs of the city’s residents are ano­ther matter. What can mass culture give them? Today, Donetsk has all mass culture facilities, it is no worse than any other city. But perhaps, we need a different culture today, which requires a more serious interpretation and understanding.”

ILLIA KONONOV: FOR THE DONBAS, THE TRANSITION TO THE ECONOMY OF KNOWLEDGE IS VITAL

1. “I think it has actually become one of such centers. Perhaps, the Donbas can be compared to Slask in Poland, the Ruhr in Germany or Wales in Great Britain. It is one of the most powerful industrial centers. Can you call them depressive? No, perhaps not. Of course, now the Donbas is problem-ridden. This is true of its economy, as well as its culture and social sphere. It has been problem-ridden for the last 20 years. I would even say that after 2010 this situation has even become worse, but this is a subject for a separate discussion.

“Speaking of the Donbas, it has many dimensions. From ethnocultural perspective, the Donbas is a synthesis of Ukrainian and Russian cultures, it was one of the centers of the semiosis of modern cultures. Therefore, it would be a gross mistake to perceive it as a region with a poor culture.”

2. “The Ruhr [Germany’s largest industrial area. – Ed.] must have completed its evolution. Polish sociology operates with a notion of ‘the archive region,’ that is a region which has remained in memory. I doubt that the Ruhr is one now. It has undergone a comprehensive reconstruction. As far as the Donbas goes, its peak of industrial development fell on the mid-1970s, when the Ruhr was pulling through a crisis. We have also had these problems.

“The Donbas does not need symbols, which tie it to the past. On the contrary, it needs something that will be rooted in the future. I believe that for the Donbas, the transition to information economy is vital, which is often labeled ‘post-industrial economy.’ Information economy, or economy of knowledge, is of crucial importance. It is important for the Donbas to emphasize its cultural openness, the mi­nimum ethnic confrontation – that is, to­le­rance, enthusiasm, and ambition. And of course, we need creativity, resourcefulness, and achievements in the science. Unfortunately, in real life we did just the opposite: instead of overcoming the crises, we have come back to industrial society, and in its most costly branches at that, such as metallurgy and chemistry.”

3. “Of course, speaking about our region’s place among others, we should keep its history in mind. You can hardly bind the essence of a city by one name, even a famous one. Speaking of the Donbas’ history, we must mention ethnic boundaries between the Russian and Ukrainian organisms. They are not confined to any frames, they are rather wide contact areas. And as far as intellectual history goes, it consists in these two cultures’ cultural interaction and in the shaping of what I call the ‘dominating structural coalition’ in the region’s structure.”

4. “Football has long turned into the game of the wealthy and performs other functions, in addition to being just a sport. To a great extent, it has turned into a manipulative tool, used to create a sense of solidarity between those who have never shared any bonds, any solidarity: between the ‘upper crust’ and the lower classes.

“How does sport coexist with the classics? Easily. Often, the synergetic effect is missing. What can help here? The free press, perhaps. We have such press, but it, too, is fragmentary when it comes to culture.”

5. “Luhansk has lost a lot of the opportunities it used to have. I think it can fit the modern world only owing to its classical universities. I believe this is exactly what allows it to claim to be a modern, cultural city.”

Interviewed by Kateryna YAKOVLENKO, Donetsk