Project part-funded by the European Union
Cities on the Edge
Cities on the Edge was conceived as an international collaboration between six port cities – Bremen, Gdansk, Istanbul, Liverpool, Marseilles and Naples – and their cultural organisations. At Liverpool’s invitation, these six cities have come together in Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture year to examine their roles as historic ports.
The project seeks to explore some of the issues these cities now face, such as the contraction of port activities, the gentrification and regeneration of dock areas, displacement of the working class population, and the impact of migration.
It also aims to capitalise on these cities’ special strengths – their traditions of dissidence, irony, tensions with their national political, economic and cultural establishments – and mobilise their imaginative and intellectual resources, putting their artists and intellectuals in the lead, and encouraging them to explore the multiple meanings of ‘edge’ in the six cities.
The Cities on the Edge programme of events incorporates a series of exchanges, debates, conferences, films and publications emphasising not only the shared glories of the Cities on the Edge, but their shared problems.