From urban political economy to cultural political economy: rethinking culture and economy in and beyond the urban

Abstract

Discussions about the culture-economy articulation have occurred largely within the confines of economic geography. In addition, much attention has been diverted into caricaturized discussions over the demise of political economy or the invalidity of culturalist arguments. Moving the argument from inquiry on the `nature' of the economy itself to the transformation of the role of culture and economy in understanding the production of urban form from perspectives based in urban political economy (UPE), this paper focuses on how the challenges posed by the cultural turn have enabled urban political economy to participate constructively in interdisciplinary efforts to reorient political economy in the direction of a critical cultural political economy.