Building alternatives to the creative turn in Barcelona: The case of the socio-cultural centre Can Batll  o Maria Victoria S  anchez Belando Center for the Study of Culture, Politics and Society, Department of Sociology, University of Barcelona, Spain article info Article history: Received 10 March 2015 Received in revised form 26 October 2016 Accepted 14 November 2016 Available online xxx Keywords: Creative city Social innovation Socio-cultural policies Community-based management abstract Creative city policies have been critically assessed at length. Nevertheless, the bottom-up initiatives that go beyond and challenge the meaning and uses of creativity that underpin creative city policies, have received less attention. Thus, the aim of this paper is to study the nature of local Socially Innovative Initiatives (Moulaert; MacCallum; Mehmood & Hamdouch, 2013) developed in the socio-cultural field and their capacity to counterbalance the tendency towards a market rationality in urban cultural affairs. We examine this problem through a significant case study: the community-managed socio-cultural centre Can Batll o opened in 2011 in an old industrial neighbourhood of Barcelona. By analysing this case we propose to explore how and to what extent Socially Innovative Initiatives offer alternatives to creative city policies focusing on the production of socio-cultural services and innovation in governance and decision-making processes. We have collected data using qualitative methods that include observation, in-depth interviews and the study of documentary sources. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The role of culture and creativity (Florida, 2002a, 2002b, 2005a, 2005b; Landry & Bianchini, 1995) in post-Fordist cities has been critically assessed at length; with regards to economic growth and branding strategies (d'Ovidio, 2016; Scott, 2010, 2014; Vicari Haddock, 2010) and urban remake and changes in the socio- spatial dimension of cities (Bianchini, 1993; Evans & Shaw, 2004; Harvey, 2001; Pratt, 2010; García, 2004a; Zukin, 1989; 1995; Peck, 2005; Zukin & Braslow, 2011). Authors have criticized the rhet- oric about the efficacy of culture to tackle social problems (Belfiore, 2002; Connolly, 2013; Pratt, 2010), the creative city's power to shape artistic practices (McLean, 2014), as well as the contradictory inclusion of local community and artists in the cultural develop- ment of cities (Comunian, 2010; Duxbury & Jeannotte, 2011; García, 2004b; Kagan & Hahn, 2011; Majoor, 2011; Novy & Colomb, 2013; Rius & S anchez Belando, 2015). Scholars have also underscored the normative character, the contextual disembeddedness and the fuzziness of the notion of creativity within Florida's thesis, that underlies creative city policies (Bor en & Young, 2013; d'Ovidio, 2016; Kirchberg & Kagan, 2013; Markusen, 2006; Pratt, 2010, 2011). Nevertheless, the study of bottom-up experiences that broaden this meaning of creativity is an incipient area of research (d'Ovidio & Pradel, 2013; García, Eizaguirre, & Pradel, 2015; Kagan & Hahn, 2011; Miles, 2013, p. 5; Novy & Colomb, 2013; Tremblay & Pilati, 2013; Moulaert, 2010; Andr e, Henriques, & Malheiros, 2009). Thus, we focus here on the strategies that organised civil society implement in order to confront and create alternatives to the entrepreneurial dynamics that underpin the so-called creative city model. In this paper, we study the nature of local Socially Innova- tive Initiatives (SInI) developed in the socio-cultural field and their capacity to counterbalance and overcome the tendency towards market rationale in urban cultural affairs, which have accelerated in the context of welfare state cutbacks since 2008. We examine this problem through a significant case study: the community-managed socio-cultural centre Can Batll  o (CB). We can consider CB as an emblematic case since it is leading the debate around community- driven SInI (Moulaert, 2010, p. 4e15) and becoming a model for social organisations, as well as for policy makers in and beyond Barcelona. By analysing this case we propose to explore how and to what extent SInI such as CB are contributing to build alternatives to the creative city policies, in particular, regarding innovation in governance and decision-making. Like in other western cities, since the 80s, cultural policies in Barcelona have experienced a change in balance between social, political and economic concerns, as policy-makers have stressed the value of culture in the economic and physical regeneration of E-mail address: victoriasanchez@ub.edu. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect City, Culture and Society journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ccs http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2016.11.001 1877-9166/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. City, Culture and Society xxx (2016) 1e8 Please cite this article in press as: S anchez Belando, M. V., Building alternatives to the creative turn in Barcelona: The case of the socio-cultural centre Can Batll o, City, Culture and Society (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2016.11.001