Assessing the local embeddedness dynamics of the Baumwollspinnerei cultural quarter in Leipzig: introducing the POSES Star Framework

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that it is important for urban scholars and practitioners to comparatively appraise the differential forms of local embeddedness of cultural quarters. Such appraisals can help to realize more sustainable practices of cultural quarter anchoring within neighbourhoods. The case study of Leipzig, Germany – a city that deploys both ‘creative city’ and ‘cultural industries’ models of urban development within a context of post-industrial, post-socialist transformation – is used to examine the adaptive re-use of a former cotton-spinning mill, the Baumwollspinnerei, into an internationally renowned cultural quarter. The POSES Star Framework is developed as an analytical tool to systematically outline multiple local embeddedness dynamics (political, organizational, social, ephemeral, and spatial) of a cultural quarter within a neighbourhood and within a specific urban planning and policy context. The application of the POSES Star Framework to the Baumwollspinnerei reveals that internal organizational concerns for site development and marketing are prioritized over external engagements with Leipzig's urban planning and cultural policy discourses.

KEYWORDS:

• Embeddedness
• cultural quarter
• cultural planning
• creative city
• Leipzig

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Richard Bachmann and Skadi Jennicke for their insights, Suntje Schmidt and Melanie Fasche for their feedback on an earlier draft of this manuscript, and Taly Drezner, Carolyn King, and Connie Co for their technical support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an International Collaboration Grant from the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University.