The Cultures of Capitalism: Glasgow and the Monopoly of Culture Eliot M. Tretter Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA; etretter@mail.utexas.edu Abstract: While many have recognized since the 1970s the strong relationship between culture and urban renewal, particularly as cities began to use cultural amenities to change their images and lure potential investors, little has been written about how and why cultural assets may be valued investments in their own right. There is at least one notable exception, in the work of David Harvey, and this approach takes as its starting point the importance of the monopoly aspects of culture, particularly for rents, competition and fixed capital. In part, I bring Harvey’s theoretical insights on the political economy of culture to bear on the case of Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1980s, and particularly its nomination as the European City of Culture, with particular attention paid to how the economics of culture is related to local politics. Keywords: culture, Glasgow, monopoly rent, neoliberalism, urban renewal The Value of Culture While in the past culture may have been significant in the prosperity of some particular cities such as Florence or Beijing, in the neoliberal age culture seems to play a vital role in the economic fortunes of cities throughout the world. Practitioners, bureaucrats and academics stress the importance of culture for the new economy and seek to bring a cultural focus to urban development. In this context, culture is used widely and with a great deal of imprecision to describe and explain a wide range of phenomena in the urban economic theatre. Some authors stress the role of cultural diversity or cohesion in industrial innovation or stagnation (Florida 2005; Gertler 1997; Hall 1998, 2000; Schoenberger 1997; Throsby 2001). Others focus on the importance of cultural industries such as books, film, advertising and design to the vitality of urban economies (Newman and Smith 2000; Scott 2000, 2006). Still others stress how physical manifestations of culture such as monuments, opera houses, theatres, conferences centres, stadiums, etc are important for the tourist industry and the large number of service- sector jobs that are created as a result (Judd and Fainstein 1999). And still others argue for the significance of the role of folk or artisan arts in industrial production and urban renewal (Bagnasco and Sabel 1995; Newman and Smith 2000). Antipode Vol. 41 No. 1 2009 ISSN 0066-4812, pp 111–132 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2008.00658.x C  2009 The Author Journal compilation C  2009 Editorial Board of Antipode.