Resisting re-imaging: theorising resistance to culture-led regeneration with a case study of Workers City as a response to Glasgow European City of Culture 1990

Abstract

This dissertation theorises the possibilities for resistance under the conditions of culture-led regeneration, with an empirical case study of Workers City’s response to Glasgow European City of Culture 1990. I firstly establish the relationship between culture-led regeneration, neoliberalism and depoliticisation. I then examine how theorisations of the political have been redrawn in such contexts. I argue that post-political theory rightly makes space for the role of culture in theorisations of resistance. However, I contend that attempts to delineate the properly political deny the multiplicity of resistance under neoliberal hegemony. This argument is support with an empirical case study of Workers City, in which I argue that the group’s materials demonstrate the various nature of resistance, which defy attempts at definition.