Making Space for Culture(s) in Boomtown. Some Alternative Futures for Development, Ownership and Participation in Leeds City Centre

Abstract

This paper looks at what kinds of spaces are emerging for cultures in Leeds, a city dubbed 'boomtown', due to an strong external appearance of a prosperous city on the move. What we suggest is that, while there is commitment to broad definitions of 'culture' as a way of life, on the ground, culture often equates to promoting property development and attracting mobile investment. We ask what are the barriers to doing cultures differently, and offer practical alternatives, in terms of development, ownership and participation, that could make space for different ideas and practices of cultures in boomtown Leeds.

Cultural quarters and regeneration: The case of Wolverhampton

“…Yet this may be seen to be at odds with the evidence of conflicts between cultural uses and entertainment uses, and the barriers to regeneration that such conflicts present, as indicated by the continued (and worsening) problems related to alcohol consumption. Moreover, the potential exclusivity of a strategy or practice that allows the dominance of alcoholrelated uses is highlighted by Chatterton & Unsworth (2004), who show how groups such as children, the elderly, poorer people, women and minority ethnic groups may all be in some way excluded from the city centre, at least on occasions such as Friday and Saturday nights. Thus the case of Wolverhampton may be seen to support Mommaas's argument that cultural clustering policy mechanisms are often sub-optimal or even counter-productive, since they derive from the opportunistic use of disparate and potentially conflicting elements (Mommaas, 2004).…”

Quieter, Safer, Cheaper: Planning for a more inclusive evening and night-time economy

“…Unscrupulous methods are sometimes used in , such as 'happy hours' where drinks are sold at rock bottom prices in the early evening (Miles, 2005). Smaller independent operators are driven out by the high rents that corporate landlords in the high streets are able to demand as a result of the high levels of returns achieved by franchised venues (Chatterton & Unsworth, 2004).…”

Gentrificación como política pública en una ciudad provincial: El caso de la ciudad de Leeds en el Reino Unido

“…Estos estudios están escritos desde una perspectiva del profesional urbanista y menos críticos (Nathan & Unsworth, 2006;Stillwell & Unsworth, 2008;Unsworth, 2007;Unsworth & Smales, 2010); y en tercer lugar, una colección de estudios más general y diversa que discute varios aspectos de la vida urbana y política en Leeds y otras ciudades similares y que discute temas relacionados con la gentrifi cación desde una variedad de perspectivas analíticas Julier, 2011;Smith, , 2005Smith, , 2007Smith, , 2008. Además de énfasis en el fenómeno de "city living" (ver más adelante) también se presta atención en estos estudios a los cambios en la cultura urbana y las prác-ticas de consumo (Bell, 2009;Harcup, 2000;Chatterton & Unsworth, 2004;Spracklen et al, 2013), el rol del marketing de ciudades (Julier, 2011;O'Connor et al, 2008), la cuestionable calidad de los nuevos paisajes urbanos en el centro (Haughton, 2009) y el efecto gentrifi cador del llamado fenómeno de la estudentifi cación (ver más adelante) (Chatterton, 2010;Smith, , 2007. Sobre la base de esta literatura que ya ha analizado diversos procesos urbanos en Leeds, nuestra contribución tiene como objetivo examinar de forma global la política urbana y los cambios en la ciudad de las últimas décadas bajo la óptica de la gentrificación.…”