Uneven Redevelopment

Since the mid 1980s, European cities and regions have become increasingly concerned with competitive restructuring and economic growth. This concern goes hand in hand with a rediscovery of the central role of cities in the performance of regional and national economies as a whole. But, in a context of radical transformation of production and demand conditions globally, the performance of cities is mediated by their capacity to lead a process of competitive redevelopment. To meet the challenges posed by the changing global competitive climate, the policy agenda of many cities has been drastically reorganized. On the one hand, the search for growth has transformed urban revitalization in one of the main domains of urban intervention. On the other, the new urban policy agenda is singularly framed in a language of competitiveness, improved efficiency, flexibility, entrepreneurship, partnership and collaborative advantage that underwrite the remaking of planning objectives, functions and instruments. In this article, we examine the rise of new urban policies in Bilbao (Spain), a city where two decades of manufacturing decline and economic restructuring are gradually giving way to so-called urban renaissance. During the 1990s, Bilbao has followed on the tracks of other old industrial cities adopting a revitalization strategy focused around large-scale and emblematic redevelopment projects. The article discusses one of these projects, Abandoibarra, a paradigmatic waterfront development that embodies the new logic of urban intervention.The first section of the paper presents an analysis of economic restructuring and sociospatial fragmentation dynamics in the city in the last two decades. The second section discusses changes in urban policy-making locating Bilbao’s regeneration strategy in the context of the ‘New Urban Policies’. The third section focuses on emerging governance dynamics and the critical role of new governance institutions in the management of Abandoibarra’s redevelopment scheme. Finally, the fourth part of the article attempts to provide an evaluation of the impact of the project, highlighting the shadows behind what is presented as a new success story in urban revitalization.