What is happening around the world on those busy, sometimes congested, crossroads of cultural and urban life? What does the cultural sector’s search for ‘relevance’ mean in a period of accelerating social, economic, and technological change?

The Three Bells examines how our cultural ecology is changing and why – especially within the dense concentrations of human activity in urban areas. Through interviews with cultural, civic, and thought leaders we explore their preoccupations, insights, and self-confessed blind-spots. Our ambition is to alert our listeners to emerging developments; help to make sense of a challenging time; identify latent opportunities; and navigate those busy crossroads a little more confidently.

The title of the podcast is taken from the American anthropologist Sydel Silverman’s book The Three Bells of Civilization (1975), a case study of an Umbrian hill town, Montecastello di Vibio, and of the elements of civiltà that give the town its social character. “There is no exact equivalent of civiltà in English. It is close to ’civility’ but broader in meaning. It is related to the civic and the ‘urbane’ but is not quite either of these. It is more like ‘civilization’ but not so broad or so grandiose. In general it refers to ideas about a civilized way of life.” This podcast, like Silverman's book, explores the contribution of culture to the quality of urban life. The bells referred to in the title are those of the campanile, which serves as a town crier, alerting those who hear it to events of significance to its community, as we hope this podcast can. Montecastello, where this podcast is often recorded, is unusual in having three, and so is often known as Montecastello dalle tre campane.

Photo: LigaDue used under CC BY-SA 4.0