Producing spaces for aspiration in Hamburg, Germany: post-political governance, business improvement districts and tourism gentrification

Susanna F. Schaller

Chapter 9 in Handbook on Tourism Gentrification, 2025, pp 141-156 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Tourism or the visitor economy has been a major driver for urban economic growth in post-industrial cities (Judd, 2003), including in Hamburg in Germany. BIDs have focused on making central cities comfortable for visitors through privately funded “clean and safe” campaigns and “ambassador programs” aimed at creating a “friendly” atmosphere for strangers exploring these city districts. This chapter looks at BIDs as post-political regimes (Clark & Cheschire, 2018; Swyngedouw, 2009) formed to leverage private investment and to more efficiently restructure and manage urban space for a post-industrial economy. Already an internationally diffusing governance tool (Hoyt, 2006), the BID model gained traction also in Hamburg, Germany, in the early 2000s. The Hamburg case shows how the imbrication of globally traveling governance ideas with local policy entrepreneurship emplots local planning actions and indicates how BIDs can organize strategic “stakeholder”-based public-private partnerships (Swyngedouw, 2009) to help underwrite what Gotham (2005) has called “tourism gentrification” while pursuing urban design goals that indeed value traditional urbanity, like the walkable, diverse, mixed-use city.

Keywords: Business improvement districts; Tourism; Gentrification; Urban governance; Urban design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035327348
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