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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Role of Culture in Regional Development Work — Changes and Tensions

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A worldwide trend in the integration of culture into regional development strategies has been taking place since the 1990s. This is a trend in which towns and cities have adopted culture-led development strategies in the hope of strengthening their competitive position (Miles and Paddison, 2005: 833–839). In China culture has even been regarded as a significant resource in village development strategies (Oakes, 2006: 13–37). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report Culture and Local Development (2005) recommends the strengthening of communities’ cultural capital through education and work practice, as this is believed to have a beneficial effect on local and regional development. Such developments led Radcliffe (2006: 228) to claim that a ‘cultural turn’ with its attending discourses, paradigms and actors had taken place in development work.