Charles Landry

For the hockey player, see Charles Landry (ice hockey).

Charles Landry (born July 1, 1948) is an author and international adviser on the future of cities best known for popularising the Creative City concept. His book The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators became a movement to rethink the planning, development and management of cities.^[1]

Charles Landry
Charles Landry in July 2011
Born	1948 United Kingdom
Occupation	Writer, urban planner
Nationality	British
Subject	Urban planning
Literary movement	Comedia
Notable works	The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators
Website
charleslandry.com

He is credited for his attempt to rethink city making through his work on intercultural cities, the psychology of cities, creative bureaucracies and the measurement of creativity in cities – the latter developed with Bilbao and now assessed through in-depth studies of 25 cities.^[2][3][4]

Early life

Charles Landry was born in 1948 and brought up and educated in Britain, Germany and Italy. Landry was born in London to German parents who had escaped from the Nazis. His father Harald was a philosopher and Nietzsche specialist and his mother an artist. He was educated at the Nymphenburger Gymnasium in Munich, Keele University in Staffordshire and Johns Hopkins in Bologna where he was assistant to Lord Robert Skidelsky. His dissertation was on problems of post-industrial society.^[1]

Career

Landry was assistant to Lord Kennet, a former Labour government minister, on the Europe Plus Thirty an EEC study on forecasting (1973-1974) commissioned by Lord Ralf Dahrendorf.^[5] With colleagues he started Publications Distribution Cooperative in 1976, a company focused on distributing alternative literature and media for the then burgeoning system of non-mainstream publishers and bookshops.^[6] In parallel he was a specialist bookseller focusing on radical publications.^[7]

In 1978 he founded Comedia, a think tank, publisher and consultancy. Comedia undertook much of the early work highlighting the importance of cultural resources as well as a methodological framework and evidence for what is now known as the creative economy, formerly cultural industries. Its publishing programme provided some of the intellectual backdrop to the emergence of cultural studies, involving authors such as Dave Morley, Ken Worpole, Geoff Mulgan.^[8] The provocative What a way to run a Railroad: An Analysis of Radical Failure (1985) assessed how the high failure rate of radical projects could be understood, but in the aftermath Landry was criticized as being ‘a left wing Thatcherite’.^[9]

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Comedia supported a changing group of people developed projects concerned with urban life, culture and creativity and the future of cities including Franco Bianchini, Phil Wood, Sir Peter Hall, Jude Bloomfield and Naseem Khan. After producing more than 100 books Comedia publishing was sold to Routledge in 1988. Initially Comedia's publishing wing was most well known for research and projects on the future of cities. Later Comedia's research became better known with long term projects including Culture at the Crossroads,^[10] The Art of Regeneration,^[11] and Creativity at the Heart of Culture.^[12][8]

Publications

• The Civic City in a Nomadic World (2017)^[13]
• The Creative Bureaucracy & its radical common sense with Margie Caust (2017)^[14]
• Psychology and the City (2017) with Chris Murray^[15]
• The Digitized City (2016)^[16]
• Cities of Ambition (2015)^[17]
• The Fragile City & the Risk Nexus (2014) with Tom Burke^[18]
• Culture & Commerce (2013)^[19]
• The Creative City Index (2013) with Jonathan Hyams^[20]
• The Sensory Landscape of Cities (2012)^[21]
• The Origins & Futures of the Creative City (2012)^[22]
• The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage (2007) with Phil Wood^[23]
• The Art of City Making (2006)^[24]
• The Creative City: A toolkit for urban innovators (2000)^[25]
• The Creative City in Britain & Germany (1996) with Franco Bianchini & Ralph Ebert^[26]
• The Other Invisible Hand with Geoff Mulgan (1995)^[27]
• Libraries in a world of cultural change (1995) with Liz Greenhalgh & Ken Worpole^[28]
• The Creative City with Franco Bianchini (1994)^[29]
• Borrowed time? :the future of public libraries in the UK (1993)^[30]
• What a way to run a railroad: An analysis of radical failure (1985) with Dave Morley, Russell Southwood, Patrick Wright^[31]
• Here is the Other News: Challenges to the Local Commercial Press (1980) with Crispin Aubrey and Dave Morley^[32]
• Where is the Other News: The Newstrade & the Radical Press (1980)^[33]
• The Other Secret Service: Press distributors & press censorship (1980) with Liz Cooper and Dave Berry^[34]

References

1. Helgesen, Sally. "Charles Landry Knows What Makes Cities Great: Distinction, Variety, and Flow". strategy+business. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
2. Landry, Charles (2018). The Civic City in a Nomadic World. Nai010 Publishers. ISBN 9789462083721.
3. Landry, Charles; Caust, Margie (2017). The Creative Bureaucracy & its Radical Common Sense. Comedia. ISBN 9781908777089.
4. Landry, Charles; Murray, Chris (2017). Psychology and the City: The Hidden Dimension. Comedia Publications Limited. ISBN 9781908777072.
5. Communities, Commission of the European (1976). The Futures of Europe. preface: Cambridge University Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 9780521213264.
6. Atton, Chris (2002). Alternative media. SAGE. p. 7. ISBN 9780761967705. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
7. "Charles Landry". The Conversation. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
8. "Comedia: Thinking about creative cities". www.comedia.org.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
9. Body-Gendrot, Sophie; Carré, Jacques; Garbaye, Romain (2008). A City of One's Own: Blurring the Boundaries Between Private and Public. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 205. ISBN 9780754675020.
10. "Culture at the crossroads". www.spiked-online.com. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
11. "The art of regeneration: urban renewal through cultural activity". JRF. 1 March 1996. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
12. "Think tank: Cultural diversity breeds creativity". The Guardian. 23 February 2005. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
13. Landry, Charles (2017). The Civic City in a Nomadic World. nai010 publishers. ISBN 9789462083882.
14. Depository, Book (2017). The Creative Bureaucracy & its Radical Common Sense : Charles Landry : 9781908777089. ISBN 978-1-908777-08-9.
15. Landry, Charles; Murray, Chris (2017). Psychology & the City: The Hidden Dimension (Illustrated ed.). Comedia. ISBN 9781908777072.
16. Landry, Charles (2016). The Digitized City : Influence & Impact 2016. Comedia. ISBN 9781908777065.
17. Landry, Charles (2015). Cities of Ambition. Comedia. ISBN 9781908777058.
18. Landry, Charles; Burke, Tom (2014). The Fragile City & the Risk Nexus. Comedia. ISBN 9781908777041.
19. Landry, Charles (2013). Culture & commerce : the Royal Academy & Mayfair. near Stroud: Comedia. ISBN 978-1-908777-03-4.
20. Landry, Charles; Hyams, Jonathan (2012). The Creative City Index: Measuring the Pulse of the City. Comedia. ISBN 9781908777027.
21. The sensory landscape of cities. Comedia. 2012. ISBN 978-1-908777-01-0.
22. The origins & futures of the Creative City . Comedia. 2012. ISBN 978-1-908777-00-3.
23. Wood, Phil; Landry, Charles (2008). The intercultural city : planning for diversity advantage (Repr. ed.). London: Earthscan. ISBN 978-1844074365.
24. Landry, Charles (2007). The art of city-making (Reprint. ed.). London [u.a.]: Earthscan. ISBN 978-1844072453.
25. Landry, Charles (2001). The creative city a toolkit for urban innovators (Repr. ed.). London: Earthscan [u.a.] ISBN 1853836133.
26. al.], Charles Landry... [et (1995). The creative city in Britain and Germany. London: Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society. ISBN 0905492935.
27. Mulgan, Geoff; Landry, Charles (1995). The other invisible hand : remaking charity for the 21st century. London: Demos. ISBN 9781898309819.
28. Landry, Liz Grennhalgh & Ken Worpole with Charles (1995). Libraries in a world of cultural change (1. publ. ed.). London: UCL Press. ISBN 1857284690.
29. Bianchini, Charles Landry and Franco (1995). The Creative City by C. Landry & F. Bianchini (First ed.). Demos in Association with Comedia.
30. Borrowed time? : the future of public libraries in the UK. Bournes Green, Gloucestershire [England]: Comedia. 1993. ISBN 1873667450.
31. al.], Charles Landry ... [et (1985). What a way to run a railroad : an analysis of radical failure. London: Comedia Pub. Group. ISBN 0906890802.
32. Here is the other news : challenges to the local commercial press. London: Minority Press Group. 1980. ISBN 0906890004.
33. Berry, Dave; Landry, Charles; Cooper, Liz (1980). Where is the other news? : the newstrade & the radical press. London : 9 Poland St., W1V 3DG : Minority Press Group. ISBN 0906890012.
34. Cooper, Liz; Landry, Charles; Berry, Dave (1980). The other secret service : press distributors & press censorship. London (9 Poland St., W1V 3DG) : Minority Press Group ; Hadleigh : Campaign for Press Freedom. ISBN 0906890152.

External links

• Official website
• Charles Landry's own column on 2010LAB.tv