The Place of Alternative Culture and the Politics of its Protection in Berlin, Amsterdam and Melbourne

Abstract

At the same time as changing global political-economies of land use are displacing low-income people from inner cities, countering socio-cultural forces are inspiring marginal communities to resist. This article focuses on the loss of places used by alternative cultures in the inner city, and the effect of their claims to a right to the city and to difference. Some cities are turning to their planning and heritage systems to protect the place of alternative culture, but unexamined use of these strategies can cause as many problems as they solve. The article considers some more reflective responses from three city governments that cannot afford to lose the symbolic capital of their (sub)cultural economies.

Keywords:

• Gentrification
• diversity
• cultural capital
• urban planning
• heritage protection

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the anonymous referees, whose excellent comments were even more useful to the larger work from which this article was drawn.