Culture-Led Urban Regeneration

Book excerpt: The idea that culture can be employed as a driver for urban economic growth has become part of the new orthodoxy by which cities seek to enhance their competitive position. Such developments reflect not only the rise to prominence of the cultural sphere in the contemporary (urban) economy, but how the meaning of culture has been redefined to include new uses in order to meet social, economic and political objectives. This significant book focuses on the ability of cultural investment to meet the rhetoric of social inclusion and the extent to which it offers sustainable solutions to the problems of the city. To this end it focuses on the meanings and practice of culture-led policy within the city and its evaluation is proposed. Paddison and Miles have edited an innovative book which presents a series of diverse case studies to challenge the ‘one size fits all’ model of culture-led urban regeneration - a key concern being the extent to which culture-led regeneration can genuinely fulfil the expectations that policy-makers and urban commentators have of it. This book was previously published as a special issue of Urban Studies.