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: Social Innovation
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
Culture 3.0: A new perspective for the EU 2014-2020 structural funds programming
In spite of the multiplication of successful examples of culture-led local and regional development across Europe and elsewhere (e.g. Sacco et al., 2008, 2009), there is a widespread perception that the role and potential of culture in the overall European long-term competitiveness strategy is still seriously underrecognized (CSES, 2010). This reflects in the difficulty to bring cultural policy issues at the top ranks of the broader policy agenda, and consequently explains why the share of structural funds devoted to culture badly fails to match the share of cultural and creative sectors in total EU value added. Continue reading Culture 3.0: A new perspective for the EU 2014-2020 structural funds programming
The Social Viability of Culture-led Urban Transformation Processes: Evidence from the Bicocca District, Milan
This paper investigates the relationships between cultural activities/investments and urban transformation processes, with reference to the transformation of the Bicocca district in the metropolitan core of Milan. Continue reading The Social Viability of Culture-led Urban Transformation Processes: Evidence from the Bicocca District, Milan
The Power of the Arts in Vancouver: Creating a Great City
An Approach to Cultural Policy in Vancouver
I. Introduction: building competitive advantage for the nascent Vancouver knowledge economy
(…) In a knowledge economy, the reasoning abilities of teenagers may be seen as a key component of the economy’s and society’s “intangible infrastructure”, i.e. as a key factor of competitiveness. Sophisticated cognitive abilities are in fact necessary both on the supply and demand sides: to produce knowledge-intensive goods and
services, and to use and enjoy them in a meaningful, satisfactory way. Measuring how such abilities are being developed by teenagers gives us an interesting view of
the future prospects of specific knowledge economies. Continue reading The Power of the Arts in Vancouver: Creating a Great City
re:thinking culture 