Municipal authorities throughout Western Europe are attempting to drive regeneration of their urban centres through policies designed to attract inward investment and tourism. In an attempt to woo these outside economic agents in, a variety of cultural consumption oriented policies have been developed and marketed. These include investment in hard cultural-infrastructure such as museums or art galleries, and in less physical aspects such as holding events like the European Capital of Culture. A polemical debate surrounds this use of cultural policy with a clearly economic agenda. This paper gives a brief synopsis of some culture-led regeneration models, addresses the validity of arguments from both sides of the debate, and in the year that Cork 2005 celebrates its year as European Capital of Culture, looks at how the event brings the battle out into the public domain.

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Capitalising on Culture

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