We carry out a critical analysis of current participation practices in urban regeneration processes. Many concrete examples suffer from major flaws in terms of instrumental or ineffective involvement of parts of the community, and especially of the weakest and most deprived constituencies, at the advantage of more affluent andexperienced ones, which are familiar enough with institutionalized public decision making to surf and manipulate the deliberation dynamics at their own advantage. Continue reading Beyond the rhetoric of participation: New challenges and prospects for inclusive urban regeneration
Tag Archives: Policies
Culture driven policies and revaluation of local cultural assets: A tale of two cities, Otaru and Yubari
Management of cultural heritage is an issue that is attracting increasing attention worldwide, as emphasis shifts from pure conservation issues to issues of future sustainability of heritage sites. Experience seems to suggest that it is difficult to preserve heritage sites without embedding them into a cultural vital social and economic environment, whereas at the same time there is the risk that, by putting excessive focus on the economic dimension, they are turned into theme parks with gradual loss of authenticity and progressive disintegration of their cultural and historical value. This paper tackles these issues through a comparative study of two Japanese heritage cities, Otaru and Yubari, both in the Hokkaido Island of the Japanese archipelago. Continue reading Culture driven policies and revaluation of local cultural assets: A tale of two cities, Otaru and Yubari
Understanding culture-led local development: A critique of alternative theoretical explanations
In this paper we carry out a meta-analytic review of the literature on culture-led local development models.We identify and discuss three typical fallacies characterising mono-causal culture-led development schemes: instrumentalism, over-engineering, and parochialism. Continue reading Understanding culture-led local development: A critique of alternative theoretical explanations
Cultural Access and Mental Health: An Exploratory Study
Loss of well-being, rising rates of depression and various psychological illnesses are a public health concern. This study aims to explore the associations between cultural access and mental illness. Continue reading Cultural Access and Mental Health: An Exploratory Study
Smart endogenous growth: cultural capital and the creative use of skills
Purpose – Despite the growing literature aimed at explaining how cultural and artistic production feeds economic growth, the causal relationships and interplays are not investigated in depth. In the attempt of filling this gap, the purpose of this paper is to examine arts, culture, and education within the framework of the New Growth Theory. Continue reading Smart endogenous growth: cultural capital and the creative use of skills
A Conceptual Regulatory Framework for the Design and Evaluation of Complex, Participative Cultural Planning Strategies
The current hype about culture-led local development models is causing an increasing interest in cultural policies in the broader context of urban policy. This is not necessarily a transitory situation bound to fade once the hype is over. Under certain conditions, there is room to believe that culture may indeed become a main development driver of urban systems. Continue reading A Conceptual Regulatory Framework for the Design and Evaluation of Complex, Participative Cultural Planning Strategies
Culture as an Engine of Local Development Processes: System-Wide Cultural Districts II: Prototype Cases
Building upon the companion paper in this issue, this essay analyses five case studies that can be taken as prototypes of the system-wide cultural district culture-led developmental model. The research targets five cities in Europe and the U.S.: Valencia, Austin, Newcastle/Gateshead, Linz, and Denver. Continue reading Culture as an Engine of Local Development Processes: System-Wide Cultural Districts II: Prototype Cases
Culture as an Engine of Local Development Processes: System-Wide Cultural Districts I: Theory
Building on the early works of Alfred Marshall, analyses of local economies have emphasized the spatial function of clusters and industrial districts in terms of external economies of localization and agglomeration. Recent literature has emphasized the importance of culture and the complementarities between culture and local tangible and intangible assets. This paper aims to provide an analytical foundation for these processes with a view to developing tools for policy design, analysis and evaluation. By “system-wide cultural districts,” we refer to a new approach to local development where cultural production and participation present significant strategic complementarities with other production chains. Continue reading Culture as an Engine of Local Development Processes: System-Wide Cultural Districts I: Theory
Wealth-sensitive positional competition as a source of dynamic complexity in OLG models
This paper examines the interactions between economic activity and consumption externalities in an overlapping generations model. Existence of multiple steady states
is studied from a global point of view, and possible mechanisms producing cycles and chaotic behavior are analyzed. Wealth-sensitive positionality is found to be able to generate persistent endogenous fluctuations, whereas wealth-neutral positionality doesn’t. Continue reading Wealth-sensitive positional competition as a source of dynamic complexity in OLG models
The Interaction Between Culture, Health and Psychological Well-Being: Data Mining from the Italian Culture and Well-Being Project
The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of health status and cultural participation upon psychological well-being, with special attention to the interaction
between patterns of cultural access and other factors known to affect psychological well-being. Continue reading The Interaction Between Culture, Health and Psychological Well-Being: Data Mining from the Italian Culture and Well-Being Project
re:thinking culture 