The Role of the World Expositions in the Civilizing Process: A Case Study of Expo Shanghai 2010

• Main Authors: QUIÑONES VILLEGAS, JOSE DAVID, 何塞·大衛醌
• Other Authors: BOR-SHUENN CHIOU
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/kpqwvz

碩士 === 國立臺北藝術大學 === 文創產業國際藝術碩士學位學程(IMCCI) === 106 === The 21st century appears in its complexity as an interdependent world in which the cities are playing a very important role for cultural exchange and economic development. From the beginning of the19th century in Europe, there was a great need for the leading empires to open to the world in a way in which the cities can become international and therefore develop a more sophisticated, rich and powerful culture that enables the citizens to achieve a better experience of life and play a significant role in the global scenario. The world expositions appeared to be a platform of the cities where the mechanism used to modernize, homogenize and coordinate the practices and discourses of the states get to be universalized by education and institutionalisation. The “Bureau International des Expositions” (BIE) played a significant role in this process in which the cities transformed into cultural scenarios in which thousands of people from every corner of the world come to visit and exchange their culture by representing their own national identity, cultural products and ideas. This research wants to demonstrate the importance of the educational role played by the world expos in the “civilizing process”, in which they have been shaping, building and rebuilding the cities and transforming human lives with the aids of science, arts and technology. Furthermore, the purpose is to show how the world expos themes, discourses and practices may have the solutions to the most challenging needs of civilization in the global era by the participation of the growing number of states in which the cities appear to be the human destiny despite the struggles of power and the social and economic differences that have divided the world. The Expo Shanghai 2010 and its theme “Better City, Better Life” will be presented as the best example on how the coordinated efforts of the states in the head of the BIE are working on the solutions of the problems that affect the cities since the urban sustainable development is one of the biggest challenges in a world threaten by global warming, economic and political conflicts.