Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 4, No. 2, Autumn 2019 | Page 26

AIA INTERVIEW WITH RAFAŁ DUTKIEWICZ,
MAYOR OF WROCLAW (2002–2018)
Wroclaw’s history and present time, as well as an element of German culture. The second
entry was devoted to the Book of Henryków (Wikipedia 2019)�a thirteenth-century
journal written in Latin by a German monk, describing everyday life in the vicinity of his
place of residence, a few dozen kilometres from Wroclaw. This journal also contains the
first sentence written in Polish, spoken by a Czech settler to his Polish wife:
Openness towards the past, participating in the process of shaping democracy
in Europe. European integration. Knowledge and the economy.
Culture and innovation. Civil society. Education. The role of academia.
Ecology.
These were major topics that we were trying to address. The academic field was one in
which we probably achieved the least success, even despite the fact that we managed to
bring Wroclaw’s universities closer to the city as a whole from an institutional standpoint.
However, we have to remember that in the Polish educational system, public universities
are state-owned and financed from the central budget�as a rule; they cooperate
with the competent minister. We also managed to build a number of bridges between
Wroclaw’s academia and businesses operating in the city.
What we have not succeeded with was carrying out two projects�we have not managed
to get universities on board as partners in the debates about the city and let them set the
pace and tone of the discussion. Our universities also have certain issues with reducing
the distance that separates them from the best players in the world.
5. Currently, we are seeing Richard Florida criticising his own approach based on 3T
hubs, which also result in inequalities. How would you respond to Florida, given the privileged
position of Wroclaw?
I have often spoken about Richard in Wroclaw; I also had the opportunity to meet him
because he paid a visit to our city. Our approach to the 3xT triad envisioned expanding
it with an “I”�Identity. In other words, we wanted to include shaping a strong local
identity in the model. The reasons for implementing this approach are twofold: First of
all, a strong local identity presupposes strong solidarity�and it is an open solidarity, as
I always emphasised. Moreover, tolerance needs to be deeply rooted in order for it to be
true and deep. It is best when it is rooted in�I will say it again�open identity. This is
the first part of my answer.
The second part of my answer is based on the fact that I read Florida differently from his
critics and from Florida himself since he claimed that his critics are right. I do not consider
the 3xT approach as a postulate�personally; I believe that it is an observation that
space which serves as a meeting place for these three Ts gains a certain developmental
advantage over other spaces that do not have all three Ts in one place. That is all. Whether
development has to be accompanied by the emergence of inequalities is another issue.
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