Cultural-economy and cities

This article seeks to re-imagine the urban economy from a cultural-economy perspective. The first part summarizes a perspective arguing that economic life is so shot through with cultural inputs and practices at all levels that ‘culture’ and ‘economy’ cannot be seen as separate entities. Focusing on the power of such influences as passion, moral values, soft knowledge, trust and cultural metaphor, the article illustrates different ways in which the economy can be imagined only as a hybrid entanglement. The second part uses the insight gained to illustrate how the urban is implicated in narrating new economic mantras as well as supporting and defining the everyday cultural-economy. The purpose of this illustration is to reveal new ways in which the urban economy might be grasped.