Identity, politics and conflict in dockland development in Cork, Ireland: European Capital of Culture 2005

This paper will explore the politics of waterfront development as it emerged around Cork’s preparation and tenure of the 2005 European Capital of Culture. Many cities in recent decades have encouraged the cultural sectors and the arts as a pathway for urban regeneration. As this strategy unfolded in Cork, the festival enabled new modes of urban entrepreneurial governance to be practiced and new visions of the city projected. Informed by current debates on neo-liberal urban strategies in North American and European cities, the paper explores how these urban strategies were articulated by elite actors, who attempted to appropriate the European Capital of Culture event to support their growth plans for the city, and the docklands in particular. The paper then considers how this pro-growth urban imaginary was contested as it clashed with the experience and expectations of the local arts scene. We argue that an exploration of the strategies for the dockland and the 2005 European Capital of Culture event offers us a way into understanding how economy and culture are inscribed upon the Irish urban landscape.