Beyond the creative city : cultural policy in an age of scarcity

Abstract

This paper was commissioned as a public lecture and published statement on the current status of the "creative city" as a cultural policy movement. It stands as a response to the effective dissolution of the creative city model of "creative culture" as central to urban or civic development. The paper revises the significance of the creative city idea as a re-assertion of public culture within (the then) emerging UK urban regeneration phenomenon. The paper asks: How can we position cultural production in the urban complex of city development without the patronage of capital investment (i.e. off the back of economic development)? The paper offers examples and critique.