Posted: March 2nd, 2022

Module 3: Downtown Development

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MODULE
Seminar in Urban Problems
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University of Memphis
Department of Public &
Nonprofit Administration
Edwards & Imrie (2015)
Chapters 5 & 6
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CHAPTER 5: COMMUNITY
PLANNING AND PARTNERSHIP
Edwards & Imrie (2015) The Short Guide to Urban Policy
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Community Planning and Partnership
 Renew/improve cities through
community engagement
 How do to it?
Note: Reminder that several parts of this book discuss urban policy
outside of the U.S. Most of the examples in this chapter focus on
community-based urban policy in the United Kingdom (UK).
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Community Planning and Partnership
Defining Community
 What is community?
 Complex term with socially constructed boundaries
 Often seen as positive concept – used by policymakers to spur change (e.g., “there is a breakdown in
our community, so we need to act)
 4 common conceptualizations:
 Community as a place/geography (e.g., Memphis)
 Community as an interest group (e.g., Black
community)
 Community organizations (e.g., nonprofits)
 Community as process (e.g., community development)
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Community Planning and Partnership
Community & the Urban Problem
 ~19th century urbanization was described as
antithesis of “community”
 Conceptualization of the urban “community” was
different than the rural “community”
 Urban policy typically targets “communities” to
encourage citizens to participate in urban
regeneration, or create “community”
 Shift in urban policy from social community
regeneration (prior late 1970s) to economic
community regeneration (post late 1970s)
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Community Planning and Partnership
Reinvigorating Community in the 1990s
 Communitarianism – idea that collective
bonds with those around us are
important to prevent social exclusion,
which leads to urban decline
 Build social capital – linkages that
connect people – to build urban renewal
 Communities should be given the
responsibility to drive change
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Community Planning and Partnership
Putting Community Activation into Practice
 Community-based urban policy changes
governance – private (for-profit and nonprofit) organizations have more seats at the
governing table
 Level of community-involvement can vary
substantially from policy to policy – from
“add-ons” to “key partners”
 All communities (neighborhoods) do not
have the existing expertise, knowledge, or
ability to engage in policy-making
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Community Planning and Partnership
Critiquing Community Involvement in Regeneration
 Unanswered questions –
 Is community involvement in policy-making
simply tokenism by government or is it of
actual value?
 Is the policy implemented with the level of
community involvement intended in the
spirit of the policy?
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Community Planning and Partnership
Critiquing Community Involvement in Regeneration
 Looking for answers –
 Who represents the community?
 “Community” as conceptualized by policy-makers and
implementers often differs from those living in the
community
 Who sets the rules for participation?
 Policy-makers (city or broader) often continue to
create the top-down rules for engagement
 How is power distributed in community
partnerships?
 “Expert” knowledge tends to be prioritized over
“localized” knowledge
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Privatization & Entrepreneurial Urban Policy
Web Links
 British Library – Community
Development and Regeneration
 https://www.bl.uk/socialwelfare/collectionitems?allportalsubjects=community%20de
velopment%20and%20regeneration
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CHAPTER 6: CULTURE & THE
CREATIVE CITY
Edwards & Imrie (2015) The Short Guide to Urban Policy
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Culture & the Creative City
 Key to modern urban policy is promoting
the city’s culture and creativity to improve
well-being (economic and social)
 Festivals, sport facilities and events, “placemarketing”
 General idea – cultural strategies lead to
economic development
 Critical question – who benefits from this
policy and what who does the policy attract
to the city?
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Culture & the Creative City:
Origins of Culture-Led Urban Policy & Regen
 Growing trend since late 20th century to
market/promote culture to grow the city
 For many it was a part of a “reinventing”
process after loss of manufacturing
industry – adapting to a post-industrial
world
 Challenged traditional urban planning with
a shot of innovation
 New “cultural” industries (i.e., the arts) to
attract – fashion, design, music, film, etc.
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Culture & the Creative City:
Origins of Culture-Led Urban Policy & Regen
 Florida’s “Creative Class” (2002)
 General idea – to thrive cities need to
attract new class of educated
professionals who work in post- industrial tech, knowledge, and
cultural industries; to attract them
cities need to cater to their
“bohemian” lifestyle (three “T’s”)
 Highly influential, but controversial
 Blamed for (or contributed to) large
influx of gentrification and increasing
inequality in the 21st century city
 U.S counties by “creativity index”
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Culture & the Creative City:
Deploying Culture: Strategies & Practices
 Not one specific “cultural promotion”
policy, multiple initiatives and strategies
 Culture defined as art vs. culture defined as
society – different policy approaches
 Typical goal is that these policies lead to
economic consumption (e.g., coffee shops,
shopping/retail, nightlife, etc.) and vibrant
public spaces
 Typically creates neighborhood pockets
(“cultural quarters” – see figure 6.7, p. 162)
 Culture and fads change, is it sustainable?
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Culture & the Creative City:
Deploying Culture: Strategies & Practices
 Flagship urban development
 Revitalizing urban areas with large
construction and architecture projects (such as
inner city, waterfront, etc.)
 “…even the most landlocked cities have done
their best to find some sort of waterfront” (p.
163)
 Place-marketing (“re-branding”)
 Promote distinctive cultural features that set
apart the city, attract investment
 Brand decay? Does the image represent all
local identities?
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Culture & the Creative City:
Deploying Culture: Strategies & Practices
 Cultural Events and Festivals
 Large-scale, short-term events that attract
tourism and investment
 Also used to increase concept of
“community”, improve social bonds, and
reduce social exclusion
 Example – Memphis in May
 Example – soccer stadium in Chester, PA
 Competitive example – Olympic Games
bidding process
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Culture & the Creative City:
Debating Culture-led Urban Policy
 What much weight should we put into
cultural-led regeneration efforts?
 Exists a knowledge gap in actual impact –
both economic and social
 Further exploration needed in trickle-down
effects and sustainability of efforts
 Multiple different types of strategies (i.e.,
policies) that fall within this “bucket” with
multiple different outcomes
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Culture & the Creative City:
Debating Culture-led Urban Policy
“The evidence shows that communitybased participatory cultural projects are
likely to be far more beneficial in
sustaining urban regeneration, but in the
eyes of city marketers and management,
such projects are less glamorous and
unlikely to project a city onto the world
stage.” (p. 170)
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Culture & the Creative City:
Debating Culture-led Urban Policy
 Whose culture is being promoted?
 Tension between successful cultural
marketing (what attracts economic
development) and real social inclusion
(what brings all people together)
 Not always mutually exclusive, but can be
 Political power struggles lie at the center of
this question
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Culture & the Creative City:
Debating Culture-led Urban Policy
 Does cultural marketing eventually result
in “sameness” promotion?
 All cities are promoting the same type of
cultural regeneration which “homogenizes
urban environments”
 Fast policy transfer – X policy worked in City A
so why can’t it work in City B; flawed logic
 Florida’s creative class thesis neglects
importance of city context in policymaking
and implementation
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Culture & the Creative City:
Web Links
 Charles Landry (prolific author on
creative cities
 https://charleslandry.com/about-charleslandry/biography/
 Urban Studies Special Issue on Cultureled Regeneration
 https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/usja/42/
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