Download or read book Fashion and the City written by Vincent Pandolfi and published by Eburon Uitgeverij B.V.. This book was released on 2015-03-16 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of culture is increasingly seen as a strategic asset in/for a balanced development of cities. Recent research, however, seems to point to a limited recognition of this potential in local policy-making, culture becoming increasingly linked to aims of economic repositioning. But which aims are exactly involved here? Are we indeed facing a new dominant (and unilateral) approach to culture in Western European cities, leaving the full development potential of the field unexplored? And why might this be the case? Through case studies of fashion in Antwerp, Milan and Amsterdam, the changing strategising of culture in local development (since the 1980s), is linked to the search for new governing arrangements between public and private (cultural) actors within the cities. On the basis of this analysis, a plea is made for a new, and more integrated approach to culture in Western European cities, pointing to the significant challenge of experimenting with new, and more inclusive forms of public-private policy-making in support of this agenda.