Rankings, creatividad y urbanismo

Abstract

Competition among cities constitutes one of the main factors of urban renewal, and rankings have become instruments to indicate cities quality. Studying the transformation of an old industrial quarter into a "creative district" by the means of a large scale urban project we highlight three main conclusions. First, it asks us to reconsider the notion of urban innovation and how past, identity and memory should integrate the future develoment. Second, it shows that innovation and knowledge doesn't yield per chance, but are the result of a large and complex grid of diverse knowledges, spaces, agents and institutions. Finally it forces us to reflect about the value attributed to the "local" in urban renewal processes. © Revista Eure.