IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

This paper concerns urban cultural infrastructure and its role in liveability. It follows a recognised ‘infrastructural’ turn in cultural policy studies, when ‘thinking infrastructurally’ about culture involves an understanding of both physical and intangible dimensions, social demand and forms of value creation it affords (Frischmann, 2012; Kazynska, 2024). It draws on three strands of recent research: firstly, empirical research on zoning, urban development and cultural infrastructure ‘beyond the creative city’ in Melbourne, Manchester and Toronto; secondly, methodological experimentation on how cultural and social infrastructure might be understood through policy lenses as contributing to foundational economy; and thirdly, literature and evidence review on urban cultural infrastructure, planning and development as part of a UK Government secondment to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The paper builds on the theoretical work of the Foundational Economy Collective (FEC, n.d.) and its application to arts and culture, which argues for infrastructure as one of three pillars of liveability, alongside essential services and residual household income, as ‘culture-as-infrastructure’ (O’Connor, 2024). In it, I argue for approaches that prioritise infrastructural thinking over a focus on extractive and transactional economies and consider how this might be tailored to distinctive urban contexts within planning and funding regimes.