ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Creative Hubs in Transition: NGBG and the Role of Creative Hubs in Post-Growth Urban Transformation

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 01 | POSTGROWTH URBANISM

Speaker

Mr Burak Sayin

Description

This paper examines the transformation of the NGBG community space in Malmö, Sweden. Originally established as a grassroots music festival eight years ago, it is now a key cultural hub fostering creativity and civic engagement. In the rapidly gentrifying SofieLund neighbourhood, NGBG faces mounting pressures as the city enforces a sound-free zone and implements a master urban plan for 2040, prioritising commercial development. These changes highlight the tensions between grassroots cultural spaces, governance strategies, and urban development in the context of post-industrial, growth-driven urban transformations.

Through a mixed-methods approach—combining ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews with community members, policymakers, and private stakeholders, and document analysis of local policies—this research investigates the role of creativity in fostering eco-social resilience. It examines how NGBG adapts to urban growth imperatives while navigating the challenges of marketization and gentrification. Central questions include: How can cultural hubs like NGBG balance their creative and civic missions amid increasing urban commercialization? How do governance models influence the inclusivity, accessibility, and ecological sustainability of such spaces?

The upper situates NGBG in post-growth urbanism, where creative hubs are part of an "organisational field" (Scott, 2014) in reshaping urban metabolisms and integrating social equity with ecological balance. The paper explores how NGBG fosters regenerative practices that counter conventional growth-driven urban models. Rather than solely focusing on culture-led regeneration, this research examines how city growth frames the field of action and remakes institutions (the City (Park and Burgess, 1925)), often embedding them within frameworks of market-driven urban development. It further considers how such dynamics can be reimagined in a post-growth context to prioritize inclusive governance, equitable resource distribution, and collective civic urban action through creativity and community engagement.

This paper contributes to reimagining cities as sites of eco-social integrity, where creativity, culture, and community-based governance create alternative pathways to a post-growth urban future. It offers actionable insights into the intersection of cultural spaces and policy, demonstrating how creative hubs can anchor sustainable and inclusive urban transformations.

References

Burgess, E.W., Park R.E. (1925). The City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Scott, W.R. (2014) Institutions and organizations : ideas, interests and identities. 4. ed. SAGE Publications