Integrated urban development and culture-led regeneration in the EU

The term “Regeneration” is usually used to describe urban transformation gained through the redesign, reconstruction and often re-allocation of urban land. Originally regeneration meant predominantly land reclamation or refurbishment of neighbourhoods in decline, but more recently it means a lot of various interventions in the city related to urban design and planning, social and economic renewal or cultural planning “regeneration”. During the 1980s the term increased an overall usage, particularly within urban policy and social-economic initiatives, and a large part of regeneration’s actions concerned de-industrialised urban areas. Urban regeneration represents a topic on which there is a growing interest throughout the world and it is mainly driven by the causes and effects of globalization, climate change, the global economic crisis, and lifestyle changes. In recent years, a large number of cities have promoted public intervention programmes in areas of social, economic and urban decline. These urban regeneration initiatives have introduced multifunctional actions able to give response to different demands producing a new manner of tackling intervention in the urban space that includes social, economic and cultural dimensions. The main characteristic of these advanced urban regeneration strategies is represented by the “integrated approach” that concerns social, economic and environmental aspects, promoting sustainable urban development in accordance with strategic policy guidelines of EU. The Integrated Urban Development Model is the main significant approach to urban regeneration in the last two decades at international level and it is going to become a model for urban policy in Europe. In Europe cities are influenced by national policies and, in the last two decades, mainly by international policies, though there is not a clear European urban policy although it could be claimed that the urban dimension of EU policy exists and it has been increasing through multiple declarations, tools and actions. It was during the 1990s the “cultural” dimension of urban regeneration raised in practices and policies mainly visible in architecture design and public art. Bianchini and Parkinson’s Europe study Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration constituted a important publication on the topic: it demonstrates the progressively strategic role of cultural policy for the European cities regarding economic development, city marketing and urban renewal. The research, analyzing the governance and management of inner cities, argues the social, cultural and economic issues were not distinct in the field of urban regeneration policy. Research in urban regeneration tends to move from a cultural scheme of analysis to one characterized by sociological categories and, the interconnection of the social and culture in urban regeneration is progressively evident. In the last two decades the notion of culture-led urban regeneration emerged in the different fields such as cultural geography, urban planning, urban design, architecture, and public policy administration, with different points of view. In conclusion, many initiatives, at legislative and political level, have been carried on in the last two decades and many pilot projects have been developed, giving the idea of the European urban policy but, as a major part of specific literature sustains, there is not a structured analysis on it yet. Moreover the next period 2014-2020 is developing new tools and experiences so the matter is on progress. The new urban reinassance, stated in many documents, the integrated approach to urban regeneration and the concept of cultural-led regeneration could become the essentials of the urban development in the future of European cities