Working with 'culture' in multi-ethnic areas: Perspectives for urban regeneration

Abstract

This paper examines how the concept of 'culture' can be constructed and used in cultural policies for urban regeneration that aim to address problems of diversity, local development and social cohesion. Based on the current debate on multi-ethnic societies, the paper provides an overview of the most widely recognised weaknesses of the more traditional 'models of inclusion', in order to point out the most interesting aspects of the emerging pluralist model of integration. A model which recognises that integration is a two-way process, including both immigrants and the host society, and which helps to render problematic the most commonly held views of immigrants as all potentially excluded people, and of their culture as only linked to national, ethnic or religious origins. Culture is also a matter of gender, age, education, permanence within the host society, and socio-economic condition. Recognising these differences, it is important that policies aim to deal with diversity without creating problems of social justice between immigrants and natives. The case of the Spitalfields area in East London is considered, to see how the concept of immigrants' culture has been used in one of the most quoted 'best practices' of cultural policy for urban regeneration in a multi-ethnic area.