Culture-led Urban Regeneration and Community Mobilisation: The Case of the Taipei Bao-an Temple Area, Taiwan

Abstract

This article aims to explore the role of community mobilisation in Taipei's culture-led urban regeneration process by analysing the case of the Bao-an Temple area. Over recent years, capitalising on cultural resources as a motor driving urban regeneration has increasingly become a central issue of post-industrial urban governance. Although previous researchers have emphasised the contributions of cultural strategies to local economic regeneration, the means to integrate unique cultural resources of local communities into urban regeneration projects still remain poorly understood. Within the debates on urban cultural strategies, this article argues that the generation and use of cultural resources in urban regeneration lie in community mobilisation and institutional support, rather than in a state-led cultural flagship approach. After examining the Bao-an Temple area in Taipei, Taiwan, this article concludes that local government needs to move beyond the instrumentalism of urban cultural strategies and to rediscover the spaces where local cultural activities and mobilisation capacities are attached. Only through understanding the relationship between place and community mobilisation will a virtuous cycle for the revitalisation of a unique and historical urban area be generated.