Inequalities in Creative Cities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Introduction and Theoretical Background

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction. Inequalities in the Creative City: A New Perspective on an Old Phenomenon

      • Ulrike Gerhard, Michael Hoelscher, David Wilson

      Pages 3-14

   3. The Cultural Economy of the City: Pathways to Theory and Understanding Inequality

      • Tom Hutton

      Pages 15-40

   4. Urban Inequality: Approaches and Narratives

      • Ferenc Gyuris

      Pages 41-76

3. Different Dimensions of Inequalities in Specific Cities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 77-77

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   2. The Ideal Worker: Inclusion and Exclusion in a Knowledge-based City: The Case of Oxford, UK

      • Linda McDowell

      Pages 79-105

   3. Making Creative Cities in the Global West: The New Polarization and Ghettoization in Cleveland, USA, and Glasgow, UK

      • David Wilson

      Pages 107-127

   4. Knowledge Makes Cities: Education and Knowledge in Recent Urban Development. The Case of Heidelberg, Germany

      • Ulrike Gerhard, Michael Hoelscher

      Pages 129-163

   5. “Creative Urbanism” in the French South: Constructing the (Unequal) Creative City in Montpellier

      • David Giband

      Pages 165-185

   6. Entering a Knowledge Pearl in Times of Creative Cities Policy and Strategy. The Case of Groningen, Netherlands

      • Justin Beaumont, Zemiattin Yildiz

      Pages 187-213

4. Beyond the Global North

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 215-215

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   2. Creative Inequality in the Mid-sized University City. Socio-spatial Reflections on the Brazilian Rural–Urban Interface: The Case of Cachoeira

      • Wendel Henrique Baumgartner, Eberhard Rothfuß

      Pages 217-237

   3. Regulating Access and Mobility of Single Women in a “World Class”-city: Gender and Inequality in Delhi, India

      • Christiane Brosius

      Pages 239-260

   4. Conclusion

      • David Wilson, Ulrike Gerhard, Michael Hoelscher

      Pages 261-270

This edited volume is a lively and timely appraisal of “ordinary cities” as they struggle to implement creative redevelopment and economic growth strategies to enhance their global competitiveness. The book is concerned with new and often unanticipated inequalities that have emerged from this new city movement. As chronicled, such cities – Cleveland (USA), Heidelberg (Germany), Oxford (UK), Groningen (Netherlands), Montpellier (France), but also cities from the Global South such as Cachoeira (Brazil) and Delhi (India) – now experience new and unexpected realities of poverty, segregation, neglect of the poor, racial and ethnic strife. To date planners, academics, and policy analysts have paid little attention to the connections between this drive in these cities to be more creative and the inequalities that have followed. This book, keenly making these connections, highlights the limited visions that have been applied in this planning drive to make these cities more creative and ultimately more globally competitive.  

• creative cities
• neoliberalism
• inequality
• urban geography
• urban sociology
• international comparison
• interdisciplinary
• empirical research
• urban theory
• gender
• race
• ethnicity
• education
• social inequality
• city planning
• poverty
• unemployment
• ordinary cities
• urban geography and urbanism

“This volume offers a comparative analysis of the contradictions, presenting the connection between the urban policies focusing on creativity and inequalities within societies, thus, providing empirical insights for the previous critiques. … the book is an extremely valuable contribution to the creative city discourse. It is a theoretically informed and empirically grounded collection of papers with comparative focus.” (Lajos Boros, Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, Vol. 66 (3), 2017)

“This book offers a valuable insight into the discourse on urban inequalities. An outstanding network of urban researchers has done a remarkable job compiling case studies about the shadow sides of cities going creative.  Reading this book invites the readers to not only question the growth path of cities in the recent knowledge society, it also encourages us to invest more time into comparative analyses on cities across the globe.” (Peter Meusburger, Distinguished Senior Professor, Geography, University of Heidelberg, Germany)

“This thought-provoking book offers results and follow-up questions to the roots of inequality across cities in the Global North and Global South. Few works have critically and comparatively inquired into the ideological discourse of the “creative city” like this one. This book compiles original and up-to-date accounts that chronicle the cracks behind the claimed city of “diversity, creativity and sustainability.” (Carolina Sternberg, Assistant Professor, Latin American and Latino Studies, DePaul University, USA)

• Geographisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

  Ulrike Gerhard

• Deutsche Universität für Verwaltungswissenschaften, Speyer, Germany

  Michael Hoelscher

• University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, USA

  David Wilson

Ulrike Gerhard is Professor of Human Geography of North America at the Institute of Geography and the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) at Heidelberg University, Germany.


Michael Hoelscher is Professor at the University of Speyer, Germany, and obtained his PhD in sociology from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.


David Wilson is Professor of Geography, Urban Planning, and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

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