Does cultural policy matter? Political orientations, cultural management models, and the results of public cultural action in Barcelona and Valencia

Since the beginning of the 20th century, analyses of local cultural policies have sought to highlight their instrumentalisation in projects for urban renewal and/or city branding. In general, the spotlight has been put on the waning Cultural Democratisation Model and its flagging commitment to social cohesion and redistribution. This might lead us to see cultural policy and political management as having little bearing on the construction of The Creative City Model (henceforth CCM). However, this would be a mistake, as this paper will show. It compares two cities, Barcelona and Valencia, whose local cultural policies are strongly conditioned by the CCM. The contrasting political orientation of the two cities, the way each applies the CCM, their differing management models, and the different long-term trends in their cultural facilities end up shaping social and cultural outcomes, the sustainability of these results, and their redistributive impact.