Melanie Kay Smith

Cultural Planning for Urban Regeneration: a Thirdspace Approach Melanie Kay Smith

The aim of this book is to provide a new framework for cultural regeneration planning. The research critically analyses approaches to urban regeneration which have used culture as a tool to influence development. Cultural planning has already started to take into consideration the lives and traditions of local places and people, however it is argued that a Thirdspace framework (Soja, 1996 as influenced by Lefèbvre, 1974) takes this a stage further. Thirdspace suggests that planning should mediate between physical and material elements, symbolic visions and perceptions, and lived experiences and everyday life in urban environments. Using a case study of Maritime Greenwich in South- East London, the author employs a crystallisation of mainly qualitative methods to challenge prevailing planning paradigms in the context of culture-led regeneration.