The ambivalence of cultural heritage policies: creative cities and gentrification in Florence

In this essay I explore how political institutions shape cultural heritage, using it to implement urban planning policies that lead to gentrification and displacement. My analysis focuses on the candidacy of Florence in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2019. Florence applied for Creative City status in the Crafts and Folk Art section, with the idea of using heritage policies to rethink commercial supply in the historic centre and exploit the city’s long history of crafts. My thesis is that Florence is a special case of a blend of heritage and smart city, where apparently irreconcilable elements – the artisanal and the digital, acceleration and slowing down – seem able to coexist, building a model contemporary city which embraces the neoliberal idea of uniqueness and replicability. Through a year-long ethnographic study observing public and private policy discussions and participating in formal and informal meetings, I show how discursive practices involving cultural heritage also deal with other issues crucial to contemporary cities, such as reassessment of historic city centres, urban renewal, gentrification and smartification.