“Capital Of Culture”. Can It Really Transform A City?

“Can culture really perform miracles as the credit economy disintegrates? There is surely a real risk that a faith in the arts as agents of change, which has become universal among urban planners since Barcelona’s Olympics-inspired success, is founded on air, or on the same postmodern delusion that everything is possible which has fuelled the current economic madness. In Britain, with our huge investment in our cultural image, this is especially worrying.”