Neighbourhood artistic disaffiliation in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Alison L Bain

Urban Studies, 2017, vol. 54, issue 13, 2935-2954

Abstract: This article argues that the creative drive of cultural workers to envision alternative urban futures and to make real changes in neighbourhoods in the urban present, while politically powerful and imaginatively seductive to urban decision-makers, contains destructive impulses. Such a drive can challenge, but also reinforce, the established social order and unequal power relations. This article critically examines the spatial politics of creative destruction that can unfold in the place-making wake of cultural workers. A case study is used from the mid-sized, industrial city of Hamilton of a deprived inner-city neighbourhood that is informally being reimagined as an arts district. In this neighbourhood, some cultural workers selectively practice middle-class disaffiliation. Individual acts of avoidance, control and destruction function as withdrawal strategies to help minimise the negative externalities of crime and social disorder and to realise a vision of this neighbourhood in their own image.

Keywords: artistic disaffiliation; arts district; culture-led redevelopment; neighbourhood; social exclusion; 艺术性断ç»; 艺术街区; 文化引领型改é€; 街区; 社会排斥 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:13:p:2935-2954

DOI: 10.1177/0042098016658390

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