Capital City Cultures: Reconstructing the state in its urban centers. Multi-level governance and the discursive mobilization of urban collective action for the cultural regeneration of the 'Museumsquartier' in Vienna and the 'Palast der republik/ Schlossplatz' in Berlin

Abstract

Defence date: 27 October 2004Examining board: Prof. Peter Marcuse (Columbia University) ; Prof. PAtrick Le Galés (CEVIPOF, Science Po Paris) ; Prof. Peter Wagner (European University Institute) ; Prof. Michael Keating (European University Institute, Supervisor)PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017Global market competition and the political responses to globalization transform urban societies and states, and thus the cultures of capital cities in contemporary Europe. Vienna's cultural district Museumsquartier and the planned Humboldt Forum on Berlin's Schlossplatz illustrate two of the most controversial sites of urban reconstruction in Central Eastern Europe since the 1990s. Tracing the processes of their political emergence through more than a decade of heated public debates, this book narrates the metaphor-rich and engaging stories about these old European capitals facing change. It compares the reconstruction of political legitimacy and its cultural symbols from two different local perspectives of European state transformation. This enquiry into urban culture highlights the diversity of contemporary cities and their political potential for change