Culture as an enabler of sustainable urban development: Insights from the integration of global policy imperatives to athens’ urban policy

Abstract

Over recent years, global policy has recognized the role of culture as a main driver for sustainable development. Global policy addresses culture not just as an explanatory factor or an organizational input in the development process but as a key factor for increasing interventions’ impact and sustaining local innovation systems. Such developments reflect literature’s rising interest on more human-oriented and integrated approaches to spatial development and planning associating strategically the role of culture. However, the valorization of local assets and the building of relevant planning procedures under this view remain highly complex issues dependent on local particularities mainly due to their diligence to non-tangible elements. The paper explores the main characteristics of culture’s recent integration in urban development and planning interventions as part of the sustainable development agenda along with its dynamics and limitations. Regarding this, providing key insights from the transfer of global policy imperatives in urban policies located in Athens, Greece, the paper aims at demonstrating culture’s possibilities in becoming an actual driver of local-led but also widely relevant inclusive strategies for urban regeneration.