Cultural policy and urban cultural infrastructure beyond the creative city

This special issue showcases interdisciplinary research on the changing conditions, policies and practices of urban cultural infrastructure, offering new insights into the relationship between art, culture, policy and urban development. The collection of research articles offers empirical consideration and theoretical reflection on what might be considered an ‘infrastructural turn’ within urban and cultural policy studies that challenges previously established ideal types of urban strategies which target cultural consumption and production for value extraction. Together, they represent an attempt to move beyond the ‘creative city’ strategies that dominate this area of research but offer only vague and sometimes contradictory narratives. We aim to offer a basis for alternative discussions that are inclusive and critically sensitive to the divergence of spatial, political and economic contexts and practices within governance, statecraft and urban entrepreneurialism, to explore opportunities offered through heterodox approaches which capture the multiple narratives of urban development across global North and South.