Over the past three decades, the European Capital of Culture has grown into one of the most ambitious cultural programs in the world. Through the promotion of cultural diversity across the continent, the program fosters mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue among citizens, thereby increasing their sense of belonging to a community. This insightful book outlines potential avenues through which culture and creativity can raise the imaginative capability of citizens and harness opportunities tied to what the book calls 'culture-driven growth'.

Building on three years of observations, interviews and research the authors argue that a 'strategy-as-practice' perspective can reveal how strategy making is enabled or constrained by organizational and social practices. The authors reveal how the 'sweet-spot' of city regeneration occurs where urban and cultural planning are aligned. They then evaluate the practice of 'co-creation' within organizing bodies and investigate the extent to which its success depends on a fusion of top-down rules and bottom-up action.

Urban Strategies for Culture-Driven Growth will appeal to international scholars and students in organization studies, geography, city governance and planning, urban design, and urban and regional development. Policymakers and planners will also find it to be a valuable resource.

About the Author
Nils Wahlin, Umea School of Business and Economics, Sweden, Maria Kapsali, University of the West of England, UK, Malin H. Nasholm and Tomas Blomquist, Umea School of Business and Economics, Sweden

Reviews
'This book provides an important contribution on the links between urban planning and other types of organizing work performed in the name of the 'creative city'. Further, it also highlights the daunting challenges associated with attempting to realize highly ambitious ideals of decentralized co-creation, empowering a plethora of heterogeneous actors, in a manner that does not sell short democratic transparency and accountability.' -- Jonathan Metzger, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
'A detailed, processual and ethnographic study of European Cities of Culture is overdue. This book fills an important gap in both scholarship and civic management. For any city authorities planning to bid for and stage future City of Culture programs it is an essential practical guide; for any researchers interested in the management of cities, those elusive, flexible objects of analysis, it will be an important contribution to their analytical toolbox. Lively and well researched, it is a must-read.' -- Stewart Clegg, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
'Organizing Cultural Capital events has become the contemporary equivalent of Tennesse Valley Authority: every city wants to do it, and prescriptions how to do it proliferate. This book is unique in that it presents many different stories and points of view, providing a detailed description of everyday organizing, but also original theoretical insights together with useful practical recommendations.' -- - Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg, Sweden



Book Information
ISBN 9781783479375
Author Nils Wahlin
Format Hardback
Page Count 208
Imprint Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Publisher Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd