The role of flagship cultural projects in urban regeneration: a case study and commentary

Abstract

Municipal governments in the developed world have shown, since the beginning of the 1980s, a marked inclination to invest in cultural facilities. Cultural regeneration is the commonly-used term of reference. An explanation for the phenomenon can arguably be attributed to processes of economic and social change involving the ascendency of service industries as generators of new employment, and the emergence of a service class both as employees of these industries and as prime consumers of their products. A study of a particular cultural project in a provincial town in the north of England yields insights into the extent to which cultural regeneration is variously influenced by these economic and social changes and by local political circumstances.