Return My Ostrava
  WHY OSTRAVA?

During the transition to a post-industrial society, traditional industrial cities undergo complex economic, social and urbanistic transformations. If they can offer nothing more than their industrial past, they face being deserted by the younger, more educated and more qualified section of the population. This begins a vicious circle, as the people who leave are precisely those who would be capable of helping the city develop in the future. The city is left with an ageing and poorly qualified population; former industrial cities that used to be economic powerhouses thus become the site of growing social problems.

In a situation where public funding will be scarce, it is not possible to rely on socially disintegrating cities being rescued by the state.

The examples of old industrial cities in Western Europe (e.g. in the Ruhr, Lorraine, the English Midlands and North, or southern Belgium) show that innovation is driven by small groups of local people who come up with carefully thought-out visions of restructuring.

A key role in kick-starting this type of development is played by culture and cultural activities in the widest sense of the word. These activities are important in two ways.

Firstly, cultural development can act as a brake on undesirable migration by young and educated people; it may even reverse the process. These people leave a city due to the lack of job opportunities commensurate with their qualifications, but also due to the lack of opportunities for leisure and cultural activities.

Secondly, cultural activities are important because they are often an accompanying feature of the transition to the post-industrial service-based economy. The growing levels of qualification in these service sectors go hand in hand with higher expectations of an active cultural life.

Ostrava represents a unique case in the Czech Republic. It is a city that is now in a similar situation to that in which the northern French city of Lille found itself twenty years ago (loss of job opportunities in the mines for men, loss of textile industry jobs for women, multi-ethnic social mix, location in a peripheral border region). Over two decades, Lille has managed to solve many of these restructuring problems, and now presents itself as the cultural heart of Europe.

In 2009 – 2011 a grant project funded by the Czech Science Foundation will study Ostrava’s current situation and determine the optimum route for future development. Emphasis will be placed on the identification of potential cores of cultural innovation; the researchers (sociologists and economists) will draw inspiration from relevant experiences in cities such as Lille and Manchester. The aim is to determine how Ostrava’s image can be changed in order to avoid the city becoming a focus of social problems and to help it to become a focus of cultural innovations.