The destructive distance between the ideological discourse and the practical management of the 'creative city'

In this paper I will use three illustrations to illustrate a gap between the discourse of the“creative city”, and the way the concept is managed at the street-level. The illustrationsdraw attention to the phenomenon of the problematic inclusion of a certain definition ofskateboarding into the concept of “the creative city”, but spatial exclusion of other formsof street skateboarding from the city space. I will hence raise a critique about how theconcept of the “creative city” tries to conceptually incorporate street-level cultures, butignores the practical, everyday life of these cultures. To do that I use the case of skateboardingto show how it is defined as “in place” in the discourse of the “creative city”,but still defined as “matter out of place” in the practical management of city space. Thethree illustrations in this paper will show how clashes and disputes are inevitable whenonly a certain narrowed-down definition of these subcultures is included into the discourseof the “creative city”. As the illustrations indicate there is a need to address thedistance that has been created between the discourse of the “creative city” and the realityon the streets.