Search

The development of a symbolic urban economy reinforces the importance of historic city centres as spaces of aesthetic and cultural consumption. Urban culturalization strategies adapt them to uses and perceptions that target specific classes of consumers, generating gentrification effects. Elaborating on a research on the Jardins Efémeros Festival in Viseu (Portugal), this article explores how its programmatic agenda and connection with local politics reconfigures the city centre by generating new balances and dissonances between the ideal of city proposed by the cultural intervention, the reframing of space for aesthetic and experiential consumption, and the local community's expectations and interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]