Strategic Cosmopolitanism in Urban Space: Marseille's Year As European Capital of Culture

From Shenzhen to Toronto, cities have embraced cosmopolitan ideals in search of recovery, revitalization and competitive participation in the global economy. This paper asks why cosmopolitanism has been so appealing in urban spaces even as its primary tenets of openness, welcome and tolerance are opposed to the increasingly popular nationalist, xenophobic, and Euro-skeptic movements throughout Europe. The EU has intensified investment in cosmopolitan cultural projects to promote EU belonging and legitimacy. This paper looks at one such project, Marseille’s year as European Capital of Culture, Marseille-Provence 2013 (MP2013). This yearlong program of festivals, dances, art exhibitions, and theater was the culmination of Marseille’s €7.5 billion urban renewal campaign. The municipal association directing MP2013 argued that the program would make Marseille globally relevant, economically competitive and politically crucial to the broader Euro-Mediterranean. MP2013’s strategic cosmopolitanism was so powerful because it promised to cultivate collectivities beyond the nation-state, make the city attractive to tourists, talent and investment, globally connect the city’s people and financial systems and enable mobility. However, even as MP2013 promoted cosmopolitan ideals, Marseille was labeled the most racist city in France and the right-wing Front National party gained in popularity. Cosmopolitanism thus figures prominently in two possible European futures. Its failure signals the continued importance of the nation-state, retreat from global systems that have failed so many and suspicion of the Other. Its success augurs a future with stronger global connections, faster mobilities of goods, people and finances, and greater senses of belonging with those who are far off.