Culture as a Factor in Urban Development: Some International Examples

How can we enhace our towns & cities & help them recover from the detrimental situation inflicted upon them by decades of harmful economic & social change? The same question is being asked in many large North-American & European cities, seriously affected by economic decline &, concomitantly, by the deterioration of their built environment & of their citizens' lifestyles. One of the preferred solutions to this dilemma adopted in the last quarter of the 20th century first by a number of major cities, & then by smaller communities, taking their cue from some spectalular successes, was to stake their futures on culture, building it up into a developmental cornerstone. This paper, articulated around a documented analysis, discusses some projects for culture-based economic rehabilitation in European cities that have introduced major changes of this type since the 1980s. 4 Tables, 29 References. Adapted from the source document.