Telling the untold story: discourse(s), representation and the 'hybridity' of cultural regeneration

Culture, creativity and heritage have come to be concomitant with contemporary regeneration discourse and urban policy (see Oakley, 2015). The role of culture is accentuated in the so-called post-industrial epoch in which the symbolic, experience-led economy has risen to prominence over the traditional manufacturing industries (see Zukin, 2011; Miles, 2020). From this perspective, leisure and culture become a crucial component of urban regeneration (Tallon, 2013). However, critique of culture-led regeneration has been ‘manifold and persuasive’ (Oakley, 2015: 2), being linked to gentrification, inter-urban competition and neoliberal urban development (Peck, 2005; Mould, 2018; Aspen, 2013). However, the interaction between culture and regeneration cannot be reduced to the logic of neoliberalism and gentrification. Rather, cultural regeneration can take numerous forms. Culture-led regeneration suggests a more instrumentalised approach in which culture is leveraged as part of a broader economic development agenda (see Mould, 2018). In comparison, cultural regeneration is viewed as a more ‘holistic’ approach that considers the economic, physical and social dimension of place in toto (Oakley, 2015).

In this presentation I explore the findings from my PhD research conducted between 2019 and 2022. Using the Scottish town of Paisley as a case, I will discuss the changing role of culture within the town’s regeneration strategy between 2014 and 2020. Despite a negative area reputation and persistent socio-economic inequality, cultural regeneration has increasingly been utilized by key decision markers as a means to changing Paisley’s reputation in recent years. Using a combination of documentary data, newspaper data and semi-structured interviews held with key decision makers, I outline the emergence of a hybridised form of cultural regeneration in Paisley. Hybridised regeneration, I argue, incorporates the holistic language of cultural regeneration while retaining the logic of a culture-led approach which focuses on flagship capital investment, the visitor economy and inter-urban competition.