Edinburgh Napier University

  Cities are under growing pressure to address the challenge of supporting more inclusive and sustainable communities in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal no. 11 and other sustainability agendas. While festivalisation and urban festivity have been shown to enable the development of social and cultural capital and social cohesion in host communities, these processes have also been criticised as being exclusive and egalitarian in some urban contexts. There continues to be a greater need to understand how festivals shape future cities, and in particular, how they enable the achievement of sustainability goals through community participation. Our research project focuses on exploring community participation specifically in the context of planning and development of new arts and cultural venues in festival cities. Looking at the case study of the Dunard Centre within Edinburgh’s World Heritage city center, the study aims to problematise new arts and cultural venues as drivers for sustainable development in festival cities and to understand how the development affects social sustainability and the surrounding communities.