CULTURAL STRATEGIES AND NEW MODES OF URBAN INTERVENTION

It has been increasingly common, throughout Europe and North America, for city authorities and urban development agencies to make use of arts and culture-related initiatives as tools of urban revitalization. This article puts forward the argument that these initiatives need to be understood as expressions of the new modes of urban management that have emerged over the last 20 years. It examines the process by which a cultural strategy was developed to assist urban and economic development objectives in Bristol, UK, Bristol, the primary regional centre in the west of England, is a city which has only comparatively recently given serious attention to the cultural sector as a resource for urban regeneration, As it has unfolded, the cultural strategy has displayed a striking capacity to act as a catalyst for partnership on several different levels. On the basis of this case study, the article suggests that the study of urban cultural strategies provides fruitful insights into the dynamics of urban policy in the recent period.