Re-imaging the City Centre for the Middle Classes: Regeneration, Gentrification and Symbolic Policies in 'Loser Cities'Max Rousseau International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2009, vol. 33, issue 3, pages 770-788 Abstract: This article aims to show how the governments of two industrial cities in France and the UK have now come to the view that middle-class reinvestment in the city centre offers a solution to urban economic decline, and so have encouraged the middle class to move in by implementing 'symbolic policies'. Their objective is to transform the image of the post-industrial city through cultural and urban planning policy, in order to adapt it to the supposed taste of potential gentrifiers. This development in strategy results from both external constraints and internal political changes in these cities. The failure of earlier redevelopment strategies is also a factor in explaining this paradoxical phenomenon, in which a social group that is, in fact, almost absent from the central spaces of these cities has now been accorded the status of 'systematic winners'. Copyright (c) 2009 The Author. Journal Compilation(c) 2009 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Date: 2009 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:33:y:2009:i:3:p:770-788 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article International Journal of Urban and Regional Research is edited by Alan Harding, Roger Keil and Jeremy Seekings More articles in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research from Blackwell Publishing |
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