ABSTRACT
Urban regeneration using culture in its broadest sense has emerged as a crucial feature of the post-modern city of consumption, and incorporates leisure and entertainment. Jones and Evans (2008, chapter 6 ) argued that in urban regeneration the tem ‘culture’ tends to be used somewhat uncritically and embraces a wide range of issues from design and architecture through to artistic works and sporting events to creativity and the knowledge economy. Cultural regeneration is key to the economic success of cities (see Chapter 7 ; Florida 2002). The need to attract the creative class has resulted in agship buildings, cultural venues and cultural events, many of which are top-down in nature. In addition to this large-scale, top-down creation of cultural venues, areas, infrastructure and events, cultural areas and actions involving marginal, small-scale grassroots and community artistic and creative groups have become increasingly important. This has given
rise to potential tensions between top-down and bottom-up cultural initiatives (Pratt 2009; Swyngedouw et al. 2010).
