Uran Regeneration
Cultural regeneration has been adopted by many post-industrial city in UK, Europe and worldwide. Consider positive and negative implications of tackling urban development issues through culture-led initiatives.
Capitalising on cultural resources as a motor of driving urban regeneration has become a main challenge of post-industrial urban governance. These post-industrial cities have been experiencing transformation from the industrial into service-oriented economies. Many debates are about whether or not the strategies are producing a balanced spatial and social distribution of benefits in the long run. What these initiatives are and how they are developed within a city will be discussed based on relevant literatures. Although there are positive implications proposed by those policy makers or scholars regarding these initiatives as motivations for regeneration, realistically, there may be negative impacts on the community or a wider group of people who are involved in the schemes. The second part of the essay provides two case studies in Taiwan, from where the author originates. The case studies show the government’s planning on encompassing culture as a tool in urban regeneration and the actual effects and feedbacks from locals after the implementation.
What—Culture-embedded initiatives and regeneration
Culture stands for the lived experience or complex reality of a place, rather than the mere art forms in this context of revitalising the city (Landry, 2004). Thus, culture can be physical resources such as the buildings that shape the form and functions projected by a city. Or, culture can be soft infrastructure such as the values, networks, traditions and attitudes that constitute an urban society. Combining both, libraries, archives, architecture, museums, heritage and cultural tourism can serve as the manifestation of culture. In the sense of placing culture in urban development, the concept of culture has shifted from a traditional notion of art form and
Capitalising on cultural resources as a motor of driving urban regeneration has become a main challenge of post-industrial urban governance. These post-industrial cities have been experiencing transformation from the industrial into service-oriented economies. Many debates are about whether or not the strategies are producing a balanced spatial and social distribution of benefits in the long run. What these initiatives are and how they are developed within a city will be discussed based on relevant literatures. Although there are positive implications proposed by those policy makers or scholars regarding these initiatives as motivations for regeneration, realistically, there may be negative impacts on the community or a wider group of people who are involved in the schemes. The second part of the essay provides two case studies in Taiwan, from where the author originates. The case studies show the government’s planning on encompassing culture as a tool in urban regeneration and the actual effects and feedbacks from locals after the implementation.
What—Culture-embedded initiatives and regeneration
Culture stands for the lived experience or complex reality of a place, rather than the mere art forms in this context of revitalising the city (Landry, 2004). Thus, culture can be physical resources such as the buildings that shape the form and functions projected by a city. Or, culture can be soft infrastructure such as the values, networks, traditions and attitudes that constitute an urban society. Combining both, libraries, archives, architecture, museums, heritage and cultural tourism can serve as the manifestation of culture. In the sense of placing culture in urban development, the concept of culture has shifted from a traditional notion of art form and
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