Tribes and cultural dynamics in the construction of a relationship with the city: Fantasporto - Oporto International Film Festival

Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47. ISSN 1989-600X 33 Tribes and cultural dynamics in the construction of a relationship with the city: Fantasporto - Oporto International Film Festival Ana Pinto de Lima School of Accounting and Administration of Porto - Polytechnic of Porto. CECEJ – Center for Business and Legal Sciences [email protected] Cristina Tereza Rebelo University Institute of Maia Communication and Society Studies Center - University of Minho [email protected] Sandrina Teixeira School of Accounting and Administration of Porto - Polytechnic of Porto CECEJ – Center for Business and Legal Sciences [email protected]/[email protected] Resumen: El presente trabajo de investigación focaliza el estudio de generación de la identidad de una ciudad y la forma como esta es vivida por los individuos cuando participan en un evento cultural que se celebra regularmente desde hace unos años. Las conclusiones permiten evidenciar que mientras se celebra el festival, los participantes alteran la forma como viven la ciudad. Al crear una forma específica de vivir la ciudad, se integran en una tribu y la imagen de la ciudad conectada con el evento se materializa en un fenómeno identificador de la ciudad de Oporto. Palabras clave: Identidad de ciudades, cine fantástico, marketing de las ciudades, tribus urbanas. Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study the identity creation of a city and the way the city is perceived by people who attend an annual cultural event - Fantasporto. The results revealed that the identification of the group with the event and the way it experiences the city takes that identity and the celebration into the characterization of the city. By creating a particular form of experiencing life in the city they become part of a tribe and the image of the city connected to the event acts as a city identifier for Oporto. Keywords: City identity, fantasy cinema, city marketing, urban tribes. Recibido: 15 de octubre de 2015 Aceptado con modificaciones: 30 de mayo de 2016 Ana Pinto de Lima, Cristina Tereza Rebelo y Sandrina Teixeira Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47, ISSN 1989-600X 34 1. Introduction From a sociological point of view, cities represent dynamic spaces for social interaction among various audiences consisting of people with a strong cultural diversity who respond to different stimulus, and may even lead to collective movements of celebration and ritual practices. In the present context, consumers are more informed and interlinked, they are organised around common goals, values and passions, allowing for a quicker and more effective mobilisation. These consumers are the target of this study, and the venue is the 33rd Fantasporto – the annual film festival held in Oporto, which contributes to worldwide recognition of the city. Fantasporto, considered by the Variety magazine as the largest film festival in Portugal, integrated the week dedicated to international competitions for Fantasy Films, featuring movies and short films, the directors’ week, the official section Orient Express and Portuguese Cinema (movies and schools). Over the course of three decades of existence, Fantasporto secured an important role as a cultural and media event characterizing and distinguishing Oporto city as an annual meeting point for fantasy film lovers. The moments of celebration, ritual practices and cult of fantasy cinema taking place annually characterize Fantasporto as a place with a strong social nature which influences the identity of Oporto city. After a brief literature review, the results and the main conclusions are presented. We aim to understand the way the attendants experience Fantasporto cultural event, the apparent outlines of urban tribes in those groupings and their role in building the identity of Oporto city. 2. Overview 2.1 City Identity and symbolism Historically, the concept of regional identity adopted several conceptions. During the time preceding the 19th century rebellions, the identity was basically based on language and religion and practically everywhere in Europe the nationalisms have made up new development models. Cooperation between economic, social and political stakeholders helps to foster the idea of a Nation. This way, countries implemented linguistic and cultural standardisation, which enhanced political unity and trade. This economic model prompted unequal development, not only among the various countries, but also within each country. Due to industrialisation and urbanisation, territories were divided into central and peripheral areas, and the central areas imposed their cultural model to the peripheral ones, which lost their economic freedom, their political independency and mainly their collective identity (Guindani & Bassand, 1982). Nowadays, regional and local cultural disparities are seen as an added value by local policy, while social and economic differences are arbitrary. Hence the urge to reduce the latter and keep the former. It is therefore urgent to fight regional identity and development dissolution, and reinforce development and collective identity. Tribes and cultural dynamics in the construction of a relationship with the city: Fantasporto - Oporto International Film Festival Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47, ISSN 1989-600X 35 The relationship between identity and territory is a dynamic process built over time and is driven by a person’s or group’s feeling of belonging towards the living space. This feeling of being part of a space/territory leads to deep rooting and is only understood in the symbolic dimension of the relation with the space. This results in a physical geographic scenario, where symbolism and culture meet history, a place with past and future, changing the space and perceiving the regional identity phenomenon. Thus the identity of a territory includes “the capacity of a region vis-à-vis its environment, mobilising resources from the past and the present” (Ratti, as cited by Calheiros, 2005: 70, adapted). For this author, the view of a region as an open system is supported by the relationship between an internal organisation and exogenous flows, and “consider the region as an open system means to analyse its movement, dynamics and the orientations that change and position the region in relation to other metasystems" (2005: 70, adapted). The concept of identity is thus linked to notions of emotion or affection, involving related matters such as culture, memory and image. By stating that identity is the way a person or a culture envisions itself to be (Ratti, as cited by Calheiros, 2005: 70) explains that our identity is the result of our adaptation to the social and cultural environment and it is in a process of learning “that (…) the individual tries to find social fulfilment, i.e., fulfil his self-image”. In a complementary process, “the individual’s interiorized self-image can be found in his environment, to which he adheres or is opposed to. In order to be himself he has to identify himself with another individual, without diluting himself in the other” (2005: 70, adapted). In a different context, territory identity is firmed “in the movement of its establishment” and the permanent changes that happen throughout history “define the ontological status of the process”. In the threshold, “awareness of the equality of the group sharing the territory is of major importance: in these spaces, communication gives way to the building of an identity, self-recognition in the other” (Sousa; Pedon, 2007: 134-135, adapted). Castells (Castells, 2000, as cited by Coelho, 2006: 6) considers that identity is a source of the meaning and the experience of a whole people, and also a building process. According to this author, identity can be made up in 3 ways: 1- Legitimising identity: introduced by dominant institutions in society with the aim of expanding and rationalising its dominance towards social players; 2- Resistance identity: created by players who are in positions stigmatised by the logic of dominance, thus building resisting and surviving barricades based on principles that are different from those influencing the institutions in society; 3- Project identity: when social players, using any kind of cultural material available to them, build a new identity, capable of re-defining their position in society, and by doing so, they seek transformation for the entire social structure. Ana Pinto de Lima, Cristina Tereza Rebelo y Sandrina Teixeira Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47, ISSN 1989-600X 36 Even though the approximation of local and regional consciousness has a romantic slant, there is complicity between the relations of proximity and the identity in communities. With globalisation, the concept of a unified and stable identity seems to have been broken, and it is no longer perceived as a single identity, but as composition of multiple identities, sometimes contradictory or not resolves. Globalisation plays an apparently paradoxical role, by allowing the local and regional to be enhanced. The concept of defensive identity comes associated with resistance to global chaos, and “people cling to themselves and to what they own (…) defending and taking the space and everything the space represents; everything they own or what they defend becomes their identity” (Castells, 1996, as cited by Coelho, 2005: 136, adapted). According to latest researches in social psychology, regional identity is also a law of attraction or rejection, and aims at developing a positive social identity based on the feelings generated from the comparison with belonging groups. We may then observe that when this positive identity is not achieved, individuals tend to adhere to a more positive group or they will try to change the group they belong to. Therefore “these statements are also valid for the positive or negative evaluation that the regional players do on their belonging and level of involvement in the progress of a certain region.” (Calheiros, 2005: 71, adapted) In this way, regional identity is a concept marked by numerous driving forces; thus a compound concept. The territorial “living” by group members is influenced by a set of representations outlining the territory limits, which results in an exclusion/inclusion configuration. Those who are outside and those who are inside, or as Norberto Elias (2000) put it, “the established and the outsiders”. A relevant statement is supported by the notion of imagined communities used by Ferrão (2008). According to this author, the experience of life in the city for thousands of people is autonomous with respect to the recognition by the actors. So, the metropolis is based on everyday experience of many actors, individual and collective, often without explicit translation in the respective cognitive maps: the metropolitan experience is not followed by an equivalent degree of metropolitan consciousness. When establishing the concept, Ferrão (2008) refers to a scale of collective identification implemented by the institutions to substantiate social practices, rooting them in people and their daily routine, spreading the meaning of the imagined communities, creating related interpretation maps, asserting that “the construction of imagined communities (…) implies de existence of institutions that produce collective meaning for the new identification scale (…) and this shall only be fulfilled if there is an extended sharing of feelings of belonging to the same territory” (adapted). In fact, the territory cultural expression has many forms where creativity is seeded and can boost other creative outbreak (Pratt, 2013). There are multiple possible ways to accomplish this and the involvement of civil society public, private and associative sector is required. He stresses “the metropolitan sporting and cultural events, territory-based associations and the role of media in revealing and disseminating the meaning of this new imagined community, as well as the importance of school for creating new cognitive maps and facilitating metropolitan networks to share ideas and experiences. (Ferrão, 2008, adapted) The mission is to engage and develop the city in both symbolic and cultural domains. Tribes and cultural dynamics in the construction of a relationship with the city: Fantasporto - Oporto International Film Festival Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47, ISSN 1989-600X 37 Take the case of Oporto city, which has recently seen a great increase in attention due to the competitions on ‘the best tourist destination’. The Best European Destination award strengthened the pride of belonging to the city, and ultimately, strengthened the identification with the city and its symbols, which seem renewed. This renewal builds on the tradition of localism associated to Oporto, pointed out in the literature and by many well-known figures: Maybe we can surprise Porto into an identity for the difference to the outside and homogeneity over the interior. A statement of a unique singularity, unrepeatable and inimitable. Romantic and prosaic, archaic and cosmopolitan, traditional and revolutionary, liberal and bourgeois, rude, firm and melancholy, Porto for us is the Portuguese city par by excellence. The character of Porto is its verticality, is its directness, imbued with a frank and loyal rudeness (Veiga, 2007). Conceptual centring of the identity associated to the territory and the feeling of ‘being from Oporto’ became more and more complex, and the old questions on “who are we?” e “where are we going to?” gain a new dimension, even by the metamorphisms resulting from globalisation, urgent cosmopolitanism and universality. The relationship identity - territory is a process in motion. The individual or collective sense of belonging is related with space experience. That feeling of an integral part of the space/territory results in deep rooting and is only understood in the symbolic dimension of the relationship with the space. This results in physical geographic setting, where the symbolic mixes with cultural history, place of the past and the future, transforming the space and designing the phenomenon of regional/local identity (Rebelo, 2013). 2.2 Marketing and cities The doctrines of marketing have leveraged other areas, such as politics, sport, nongovernment institutions, and also territorial bodies or places, such as cities and regions (Martinez, 2012). The contribution of the events to the formation of country perceptions remained unknown until the investigation on place branding emerged (Keith, 2004: 108). As with sports events (Brown et al, 2001 & Gilmore, 2002), cultural products (such as films, books, music) and events also affect the reputation and image of countries, with longer-term effects, although this area is still absent from scientific research (Keith, 2004: 108). Those responsible for place branding must be aware of this new context so as to reflect place branding and marketing strategy. It is therefore essential to “identify and build an identity based on the place distinctive cultural resources to ensure the success of the place branding and marketing” as the “place cannot be reduced to the simple condition of ‘product’” (Bianchini & Ghilardi, 2007: 281, adapted). The cultural sector, which ranges from architectural and urban resources to museums and events, has been a privileged space for building and rebuilding the distinctive brands of cities, positioning them at a global and increasingly competitive scenario. Culture represents a resource with economic potential, especially as part of a local tourism development policy (Fortuna, 2002). In view of this, there is a growing awareness that places must invest in the recognition of unique identity expressions on which the key attributes of a brand aimed at ‘promoting’ competitive advantage factors Ana Pinto de Lima, Cristina Tereza Rebelo y Sandrina Teixeira Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47, ISSN 1989-600X 38 within the framework of the competition between places should be built. Close by this is the relevance of new elements of the cultural issues, developed with creativity for the new rising generations (Martinez, 2012). The application of marketing approaches to cities, often under the authority of public bodies and working in the area of urban planning, is not only about adopting an additional tool to solve problems, but mainly about adopting a new management philosophy (Ashworth & Voogd, 1995). Place marketing “became more than just a tool used to ‘sell’ an area and attract organisations and tourists. It is presently regarded as a key element for place planning and development” (Fretter, 1993, as cited by Bradley, Hall and Harrison, 2002: 61, adapted). Being considered an important tool for the development of local economy (Barke & Harrop, 1994). Based on a contemporary formulation of the 4P rule, several authors tried to define marketing mix for places (countries, regions or cities). Ashworth and Voogd (1990) propose what they call the “geographic marketing mix”, replacing the initial letters “Price, Product, Place and Promotion” by “promotional”, “spacial/functional”, “organisational” and “financial” measure. Hall & Hubbard (1996) suggest that in order to accomplish goals for places, it is necessary to combine policies from different areas, such as advertising and promotion, larger regeneration of infrastructures, art and cultural heritage, mega events, cultural regeneration and public-private partnerships. Vermeulen (2002), as cited by Kavaratziz (2004) also points out the importance of prejudices, desires and collective memory. The image of the city originates only in part from a physical reality and is based on well-worn prejudices, desires and memories that take shape in the collective memory. The author asserts it is not the city but the image that has to be planned, and it is important to determine and broaden the values that make cities a unique place, as cities should be ‘living’ and well-thought structures. Consumers nowadays have a better awareness, more information and, above all, are more demanding with regard to what they want to buy. These changes that are happening result in part from the new communication paradigm emerging from the consolidation of internet as a global communication and information system (Bonilla, 2009). These consumers interact in real time, influence and share ideas and opinions on companies, products and services. This makes it easier to broadcast information and special consideration will be given to collective mobilisation phenomena, such as, consumer tribes. For the groups experiencing the cities where they live in or which inspire them, a new movement emerged called urban tribes, which clearly reflect globalisation of our societies and modernise concepts involving culture, history and passion. 2.3 Urban tribes Seeking a feeling of belonging and a common passion, motivated consumers look for a meaningful bond to create group involvement, celebration and ritual practices. Today’s society is full of tribes bound together by brands, services, products, interests, ideas and values. Tribes are networks between people who are linked by values such as places, individuals, products and brands (Cooper, McLoughlin & Keating, 2005). Companies need to follow this trend and avoid mass marketing strategies, focusing on tribal marketing actions, customized to the value of the connection shared by the consumers. Tribes and cultural dynamics in the construction of a relationship with the city: Fantasporto - Oporto International Film Festival Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47, ISSN 1989-600X 39 Postmodern age proved to be a period of extreme consumption disturbance and thus of unpredictability of consumers’ behaviour. Postmodern individuals tend towards a free choice, with no social limits or constraints, being in line with their preferences, which are non-socially dependent (Cova, 1997). Even with post-industrial age, urban economies proven to be the cultural and local leaders more preoccupied with culture (Novy and Coulomb, 2012). Indeed, the essential quality of goods and services for postmodern individuals is zero defects and their main virtue is serving and complying with their needs in a customized manner. A product use-value can be functional (tangible attributes), symbolic (intangible attributes), or a mixture of both. What seems to matter is the person in his/her independence and individuality when compared to others. The instability of the consumers’ preferences indicates the free choice of the postmodern individual in all areas of everyday life. Postmodern individual lives in a perpetual social movement and is thereby unpredictable. With no orientation, the individual succumbs to the temptation of trying everything, as if consumption was like a game, which makes him less loyal to the products (Cova, 1997). The absence of references and meanings in everyday life regarding free of choice reinforces the idea of a tribal individual who regards consumption less as a direct way of giving life a meaning than as a way to form links with others in the context of one or more reference communities. The consumption system is then at the service of social links: links are more important than things. Therefore, the goods and services that are valued are mainly those that through their linking value permit and support social interaction of the communal type (Cova, 1997). Tribalism, which is characteristic of the postmodern era, requires a redefinition of the value of goods and services, since it must serve both the person as an individual and also contribute to the unification of the group, "among many" and "between two". It is not the producer who sets the connection value of his product; it is the people who use it who will give it some meaning. Each person can then assign different meanings to objects. Thus, extreme consideration is given to the linking value of a product or service, contrary to its "universal use" (Cova, 1997; 2002). Consumption is therefore perceived as an act surrounded by strong emotional relationships between consumers and products/services. Recognising and sharing this linking value unifies the members of the group (Cova, 2002). The word ‘tribe’ refers to the re-emergence of quasi-archaic ancient values: a local sense of identification, religiosity, syncretism, group narcissism, the common denominator of which is the community dimension. These tribes try to revive the community archetype of the village or the district, but they are not communities clearly definable in spatial terms, as technical means of communication can be used to form virtual tribes in which face-to-face contact is not compulsory. The term ‘tribe’ has been used to characterize some groups seen as marginal or antisocial in societies. However, nowadays, the inherent characteristics of a tribe have been widely studied and considered in market analysis. All societies have tribes and there is no way to avoid them, as we can see with tribes like skaters, snowboarders, Ana Pinto de Lima, Cristina Tereza Rebelo y Sandrina Teixeira Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47, ISSN 1989-600X 40 DJs, surfers and Harley-Davison, Lomo, Hello Kitty, Star Wars, Apple and Harry Potter fans. Segmentation based on tribes goes beyond psychographic or demographic criteria, since one of the consequences of tribes is the emergence of true apostle consumers. In his insights about the US election, Seth Godin (2008: 55) in regard to tribal marketing asserts that: “Motivating the committed outperforms persuading the uncommitted”. Emotion and communion lead individuals to the reintegration of rituals and transcendence in everyday life. Individuals are connected and moved by shared feelings and specific symbols. Forming tribes gives them the possibility to reinforce values and share experiences (Schouten & McAlexander, 1995; Cova, 2002). Information gathered during interaction and by people emotionally linked tend to be valued more (Pinto de Lima & Brito, 2012) Tribes’ major common factor is passion and emotion sharing among the members of the community (Maffesoli, 1996). Also Cova (2002) adds that tribes are inherently unstable and do not act according to any parameters set by modern society. However, sharing emotions, lifestyles, new moral beliefs and practices of consumption is common. Members express their commitment symbolically and through rituals, and their relationship is based on the sharing of emotions and passion. Tribes are permanently flowing and cannot be accounted by neighbourhood relations or exchange intensity. They exist due to the involvement of their members and the demonstration of this involvement through symbolism, rituals, and objects or places of praise. (Re) building of meanings shared through experiences, rituals are the most reliable form of maintaining tribal identity in postmodern societies (Cova, 2002). In the large urban centres, the number of urban tribes has proliferated acknowledging the existing cultural diversity, ranging from musical tastes and artistic preferences to politics and fashion, in a way that those groups become part of the city and of its characterization. The significance of tribal symbols does not exist by itself; it is fabricated within the tribal culture, and is interpreted and negotiated within a specific subculture. The meaning conferred on products and services is related to the collective experiences that establish an opportunity to affirm, evoke, concede, or revise these meanings. Tribes emerge from their affiliation with common passions and compatible tastes, leading to celebrations of connections between consumers and the materialization of consumption in goods and services. The awareness of the importance of a lifestyle for young people fosters the development of particular and complex significance and interpretation of symbols, leading to the formation of tribes that are sometimes invisible to socially established categories. Tribal identity favours homogeneity, fashion and trends, which contributes to internal cohesion and differentiation from other groups. Each individual may belong to several tribes and play different roles and take on different functions for each. The new consumers communicate and identify themselves through symbols; they identify themselves and identify their tribe in the emergence of so many tribes (Cova, 2002). Tribal marketing is a new trend following and seeking to know the emotive side of consumers. Seeking to know in detail the personality, the feelings and motivations of Tribes and cultural dynamics in the construction of a relationship with the city: Fantasporto - Oporto International Film Festival Revista Comunicación, Nº 14, año 2016, PP. 33-47, ISSN 1989-600X 41 the ‘tribe’ members so as to customize the products/services accordingly. According to Cova et al., (2007: 22, adapted) “(…) tribal marketing would prefer a more personal relationship between the organisation and the consumer. The firm should enter the tribe carefully and share the same language, emotions and rites”. It is a concept that cares about knowing and assessing personality, motivations, feelings and, following that, businesses customize their brands and products. The brand should be central and a tribal marketing strategy must support and reinforce the connections between members, creating unique, special bonds. Nowadays, we can find more and more tribes that need to be constantly encouraged to consolidate and affirm their union. Indeed, affectivity is what mobilises identities and bond creation between individuals in this new context emerging in cities (Maffesoli, 2005). When acting collectively, tribes use the spaces of the city for meeting and celebration, whether in events or organised activities, interpreted and recreated by the group. Cities live off of social dynamics that characterize their past, present and future and can create bonds between their visitors who live the experience of urban culture and identity. 3. Methods In this study we chose an exploratory research in order to "find issues for consideration, ideas and working hypotheses" (Quivy & Campenhoudt, 2003: 70, adapted). According to Malhotra & Birks (2006) this type of approach is used as a first step towards a descriptive survey. The main purpose of these studies is the description of a phenomenon related to the survey subject matter, which in the current study is Fantasporto (Oporto International Film Festival). Regarding the objectives, efforts were made to select research areas of major interest, in particular social and cultural areas, and to identify potential tribe features in the participants of the event and dynamics resulting from their relationship with the city. The present research is supported by quantitative/statistical analysis of the answers to a questionnaire (paper format). A cross-sectional drawing was implemented in the survey as sample information gathering was made at a single time (Malhotra & Birks, 2006). The target population of this study belongs to the universe of Fantasporto participants, which includes people from Portugal and Spain. The sampling type is a matter of convenience, not ensuring its representativeness (Coutinho, 2011), which means the results only apply to this particular case. Secondary data were used to build the survey questionnaire, using literature review on the following topics: city identity and image, city marketing and urban tribes. The questionnaire is composed of closed-ended questions, which are easier to interpret and answer (Kotler, 2000). Because respondents are given a limited list of possible answers the data collected are more consistent and easier to analyse. The questionnaire is divided into two parts: the first contains questions on the socioeconomic profile, and the second part includes multiple choice and scale questions regarding the way the participants experience Fantasporto and Oporto city.