This paper critically explores the 'politics of becoming' in a 'wannabe' creative city in the United States. It shows how, in Baltimore's policy sphere, Richard Florida's theory has served as an 'intellectual technology' aiming at the invention of a new macro-actor (the creative class), while related urban regeneration outcomes and prospects appear to be more problematic. In particular, at the city-wide level, the creative class policy has favoured the interests of local politicians and their closer institutional partners; while, in the described context of a socially deprived neighbourhood, the embraced cultureled policy, albeit successful in redesigning a more attractive urban realm and thus in attaining its stated goals, has proved to be concerned more with real estate revitalisation than with issues of social inclusion and life-chance provision. It is concluded that the prevailing institutional imperative of networking and collaboration, as observed in Baltimore's creative class initiative, overemphasises the importance of the politics of association in contemporary urban regeneration processes, while neglecting the relevance of classic goals of socio-spatial justice.

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Introduction: cultural policies and urban revitalization In the last two decades greater attention has been given to the role of cultural heritage and the arts in revitalizing and regenerating central and peripheral areas of contemporary cities. Since the industrial decline started to appear in the 1980s, many North American cities have designed and implemented urban renewal policies with explicit orientation toward cultural and entertainment, aimed at regenerating cities with regards to physical, functional, and immaterial aspects (Harvey, 1989). Urban politics scholars critically explained these processes simply as driven by progrowth coalitions backed by entrepreneurial politicians and accommodating cultural institutions (Judd, 1988; Logan and Molotch, 1987). From different disciplinary points of view, several scientific journals have recently published special issues on this topic with renewed enthusiasm and more articulated urban questions. We can mention, for example, Urban Studies (Miles and Paddison, 2005), Local Economy (Wilks-Heeg and North, 2004), and the International Journal of Cultural Policy (Gibson and Stevenson, 2004). Taking into account the general background and changes of the global economy (eg the growing role of services and immaterial production, knowledge-based economy) and of Western society (eg more time for leisure, increasing expenditure for culture and entertainment, open and cosmopolitan society), this literature forecast an urban renaissance fostered by the economic and social externalities granted by the localization, production, and consumption of artistic and, more generally, cultural and creative activities (

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