The application of policy for cultural clustering: Current practice in Scotland

John McCarthy

European Planning Studies, 2006, vol. 14, issue 3, 397-408

Abstract: The arts and cultural sectors have been used by many cities in recent decades to bring about effects such as economic diversification, image enhancement, and increased social cohesion. In Scotland, such approaches have been encouraged by the Scottish Executive which has prepared a National Cultural Strategy to ensure that maximum benefit is obtained from cultural development, together with guidance for local authorities in how to implement such a strategy. An important mechanism used in Scottish cities in this context is the encouragement of cultural clustering by means of “cultural quarters”, namely areas that contain a high proportion of cultural uses and are considered appropriate for further concentration of such uses. They may involve uses related to cultural production or cultural consumption, or both, and further spatial concentration is assumed to lead to synergy, agglomeration economies and minimization of amenity loss. However, the designation of such quarters is contested. First, the notion of cultural clustering and designation of cultural quarters in principle may be questioned in terms of its contribution to urban regeneration; and second, there is contention over the optimum orientation of such quarters—for instance whether they should be oriented primarily to consumption, production or both. The cases of cultural quarters in Dundee (formally-designated) and Glasgow (informally-designated) are compared to explore these issues and to highlight conclusions for practice in the field of culture-led regeneration.

Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09654310500420958 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:14:y:2006:i:3:p:397-408

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CEPS20

DOI: 10.1080/09654310500420958

Access Statistics for this article

European Planning Studies is currently edited by Philip Cooke and Louis Albrechts

More articles in European Planning Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().