Innovación, Competitividad y Regeneración Urbana: los espacios retóricos de la "ciudad creativa" en el nuevo Bilbao

During the last two decades, cities have been at the forefront of socioeconomic and political transformation. The challenges posed by the changing conditions of the globalized economy have had important consequences for urban policy formulation and implementation leading to a radical redefinition of priorities and objectives of public intervention in the city. The search for urban competitiveness and advantage has turned into the main argument of the «new urban policy» and this into a key instrument of local management of the global economy. This article analyzes, first, the changing context for urban development in the new learning economy and the rise of the «creative city» as a policy reference of the successful city. Second, it relates these changes to the emergence of an urban policy agenda geared towards the production of new spaces for the creative economy/city in Bilbao where the creative city is projected as the strategic basis for a new round of urban revitalization. Third, it discusses critically the implementation of this new urban policy agenda of the creative city in two regeneration areas in Bilbao.