ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of cultural industries in urban regeneration; situated in the Amsterdam Eastern Docklands and then assess the part played by local policies. By looking at the transformation processes it located in the Eastern Docklands, a former large-scale industrial/logistical area. The chapter sheds light on the impact of urban planning within the context of the emerging digital urban economy. The lumpiness of cultural anchors and the dependence on the public sector for the establishment of a new museum, local governments do have, in principle, a lever here to kick-start a process of transformation of a derelict area. The chapter analyses their developments by using the perspective described above. It appears, however, that here we indeed see the emergence of new patterns of economic activities that are characteristic for digital cities. These recent transformations of the Amsterdam Eastern Docklands into a buoyant part of the old city might have some larger lessons to offer.
