Listening to Urban Spaces : Artistic Explorations of Heterotopia

The focus on urban policies that leverage creativity, including arts and culture promotion, has been consistently growing in recent times. What should be focused on, especially from the perspective of arts management and cultural policy, is the trend toward focusing on creative city policies to promote the characteristics of one's own region, attract people to the region, and revitalize industry through arts and culture. These policies have been supported by various arguments that have asserted the superiority of the creative city. On the other hand, however, political and social challenges have also been pointed out in relation to creative city policies. Previous discussions on issues have pointed out that policies tend to exacerbate capital inequalities and risk promoting gentrification, unaffordability, segregation, and inequality. In addition to the discussions, from the perspective of the sociology of cultural production, this paper points out that the creative cities have inhibited and marginalized people's democratic practices of cultural expression, complexity, and vernacularity. On the other hand, it also points out that art projects with citizen participation have the potential to elicit cultural production and social networks that can counter these challenges. This study uses the results of a field survey through purposive sampling and participant observation at the “Tokyo Festival” and in Toshima City conducted between April 2016 and March 2021.