Integrated Area Development and social innovation in European cities

Abstract

Mainstream urban regeneration policy operates in fragmented policy domains—physical, economic or technocratic—which paralyse the creative action potentialities of urban and neighbourhood development. Integrated Area Development strategies based on social innovation in development agendas and social relations of governance offer an alternative. Culture plays a significant role here: culture is communication and creation so it is essential to social innovation. The capacity of culture to create bonds enables us to establish the connection between the satisfaction of basic needs, and the various dimensions of social life.