New Leisure Class and Conspicuous Politics in Urban Regeneration Initiatives

New forms of urban regeneration have been based on strong citizen involvement and support. Based on the new realist theory of social class, we argue that these processes have the face of the new leisure class – urban professionals, designers, intellectuals, etc. – who create the agenda for citizen-led regeneration activities. This leads to conspicuous politics: status-based participation attracts (media/popular) attention and creates competitive emulation among various groups among the leisure class. This new perspective helps to describe how – through competition and class practices in citizen initiatives – inequalities are reproduced in the urban environment even if urban governance processes are opened to citizens. The wider context for the discussion is the post-Soviet urban development; a case of the Urban Idea – a large-scale citizen-led collaboration framework with the city of Tallinn – is analysed as a case study of how new leisure class participatory practices lead to conspicuous urban politics.