Institutional Collective Actions for Culture and Heritage-Led Urban Regeneration: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Institutional collective actions (ICAs) provide a fascinating framework for comprehending collaborative urban initiatives. We defined ICAs as groups of people and organizations working together to promote a shared goal they could not pursue on their own. This study provides an empirical justification of why particular characteristics support the success of ICAs and why others fail. We restrict our analysis to culture-and-heritage-led urban regeneration initiatives and analyze the combinations of conditions under which these initiatives achieve their objectives. Adopting an integrated strategy, we studied prerequisites and critical elements that affect the success of collaborative actions, such as entrepreneurship, the enabling role of institutional capacity, multi-stakeholder involvement, and co-governance. Therefore, we compared sixteen culture-and-heritage-led urban regeneration initiatives in Europe as examples of ICAs in the urban context. We utilized fsQCA, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, as a method that enabled us to define the configurations (combinations of factors) that determine the performances of urban regeneration actions. The results demonstrate that a variety of elements are necessary for developing collaborative initiatives and that three different recipes can be developed. In addition, this study contributes to the body of knowledge on institutional collective actions in two ways: (1) by providing empirical evidence of why specific conditions need to be considered when developing collective actions and (2) by showing how specific conditions interact and explain the performance of ICAs.

They Like to Do It in Public: A Quantitative Analysis of Culture-Led Regeneration Projects in ITALY

“…Although the presence of territorial entrepreneurs in the networks shaping the projects can be considered a relevant condition of culture-based regeneration projects, we agree with Tricarico et al [63] that a territorial entrepreneur can act successfully only if he/she is able to build effective alliances among actors and activate what several scholars define as «platform spaces», namely «cultural and creative places where social innovation plays a key role in community engagement activities as well as generating horizontal/collaborative interactions among different stakeholders and their interests while aligning with territorial development targets» [63] (p. 2). The emphasis of these platform spaces is often oriented towards providing multi-actor and bottom-linked action arenas where different actors and networks collaborate, (co)produce, and exchange knowledge via collective and creative learning [15,61,64]. In other terms, the purpose of these arenas is to shape collaborative spaces where the collective initiatives of citizens and innovators can flourish, building agreements and collaboration with local administrations that can enable such initiatives through sound, regulated, and lasting practices [18].…”