Culture as an urban regeneration strategy in Monterrey, Mexico

Abstract

Culture has been used as an urban regeneration strategy due to its permeability to other areas of development. For more than 30 years, the center of Monterrey, Mexico, has experienced deterioration, population loss and abandonment, where the strategy of the public sector has been to carry out urban regeneration projects with strong cultural involvement. Despite the magnitude and investment of these projects, they have not achieved the expected objectives. Since 2013, however, projects have emerged from bottom-up initiatives that are positively transforming the place. Through interviews with key actors, this paper analyzes urban regeneration projects implemented in the center of Monterrey. Among the main results, cultural regeneration processes based on bottom-up initiatives are revealed to be capable of transforming the territory and the social fabric. However, the lack of dialogue between actors is one of the main obstacles to produce more forceful transformations in the socio-urban context.