The role of cultural economy in the emergence and development of the Bartók Quarter

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate current processes and the development of cultural economy in Budapest, with a focus on the so-called Bartók Quarter, an emerging cultural quarter in the XI district of Budapest, in the southern part of Buda. The key issue of this article is to provide insights into how to create and sustainably manage a community-led cultural neighbourhood, with a focus on the cooperation of all the diTerent stakeholders, using the example of the Bartók Quarter. The area is one of the most exciting ’urban laboratories’ in the capital city, as the cooperation between the local government, the cultural sector and the civil society provides insights into how to manage a Sourishing art district. Bartók Quarter gained great popularity in the Hungarian capital city, as well as across the world, as it has been named as the ’coolest neighbourhood in Budapest’ and also listed 7th in the ’Top 40 coolest neighbourhoods in the world’ by Time Out Magazine. One of the focal points of the research was to explore what factors justify these statements, and what makes a city good, liveable, desirable and popular. The literature review provides an overview of key issues in theory, including the Los Angeles School of Urbanism, the works of Allen J. Scott, Michael Dear and Steven Flusty, creative city theory by Charles Landry and the idea of the creative class by Richard Florida. This section also provides insights to the current literature of culture-led and community-led urban regeneration to give a frame to the empirical research. As important as these theories are, they have also received much criticism, and whilst the length of this paper does not allow a detailed discussion of these criticisms, this paper tries address some of them. The discussion of the present situation of the capital city draws on current studies of Tamás Egedy and Péter Baji, followed by the presentation of the empirical research conducted in the area. Finally, this paper summarizes the ideas of culture-led and community-led urban development and participatory approaches with the empirical research on the Bartók Quarter.

The main point is to channel civil society into urban development to counter the uniformising effects of global culture, thereby favouring local communities and entrepreneurs. The most important lesson is that external and internal conditions, top-down ideas and bottom-up grassroots civic action are inseparable elements – there is no single universal solution, but many small-scaled actions together determine success and thus create a sustainable, valuable and resilient neighbourhood, and prevent gentrification and thereby, displacement.