La régénération d’un territoire en crise par la culture : une idéologie mise à l’épreuve

Abstract

The opening of a branch of the Institute of the Arab World in Tourcoing seems to reproduce proven patterns of culture-led urban regeneration: the branch of the prestigious Parisian institution, located in the heart of a large-scale urban regeneration project, aims at transforming a former industrial site into a creative eco-district, in a city that has already successfully experienced the mobilization of culture in its metropolitan project (Lille). The project is supported and financed by the Region of Nord-Pas de Calais which also enabled the establishment of the Louvre Museum in Lens. Nevertheless, the IMA’s space is small-size, located on the ground floor of a corporate hotel, on a construction site, and has a weak legal status threatening its future. Most of its cultural program takes place in other cultural places. The study shows that this project involves issues of other nature. It highlights the ideological dimension of cultural-led regeneration where the actors involved in urban production don’t question anymore the means, the relevance, or the cultural aspect of the project whose effects for urban and economic development are expected without any doubt.

Keywords

• urban regeneration
• urban project
• cultural place
• Nord-Pas de Calais
• Institute of the Arab World
• Tourcoing