Strengthening communities, building capacity, combating stigma: exploring the potential of culture-led social housing regeneration

Culture-led regeneration has long been recognised as a mechanism of re-branding declining urban areas by providing cultural infrastructure, such as museums, galleries and theatres. Whilst often lauded for its potential to economically regenerate cities, the model has shown to have a less positive impact on marginalised households and neighbourhoods. This article explores the utilisation of culture-led regeneration in three disadvantaged Irish social housing estates and finds that it did generate benefits, but not the economic ones predicted by the main authors in this field. Rather its benefits were primarily social – it helped to combat stigmatisation, build local capacity and improve community cohesion. Levels of community participation in cultural activities were very strong in two of the case study neighbourhoods, but much weaker in the third less generously resourced neighbourhood, which raises questions about the levels of investment needed to ensure success and the long-term sustainability of these programmes.