Introduction

Policy work begins with problems and with the way people perceive and respond to these problems. This is a story about a flour mill, a cookie factory, a gasworks, and a shipyard; all old industrial sites in the Netherlands that over the years have lost their function as more and more industrial production has moved to low-wage countries. In a modern capitalist economy the usual response of landowners, financiers, developers and government agencies is to demolish these old deteriorated buildings and replace them with shopping malls, condominiums and offices. This development strategy has long been considered the most lucrative, the quickest, the most market-responsive, and the easiest to regulate. But sometimes, artists, filmmakers, musicians, graphic designers and so on, find innovative new functions for these sites before any development plans have been made. These innovative functions may inspire the relevant actors – government officials, planners, architects, but also project developers, financers, and housing corporations – to maintain these sites. This can open the eyes of project developers and governments to the fact that these artists and their cultural activities not only add cultural value but also financial and economical value. The artists and small businesses can attract new audiences and new potential users and buyers from the ‘creative class’ to the location but also the surrounding areas (Florida 2002). In these cases, the owners and financers may propose reconstructing rather than demolishing the characteristic buildings with their high ceilings, big windows, and strange silos. They may want to form a coalition with the artists and small creative businesses to cooperate in the renovation.

However, coalition formation is often difficult due to the rules and regulations that guide formal planning in the Netherlands; the dominant ideas of making quick profits in the world of project development; and the squatters’ and artists’ distrust of the government and project developers. This poses a challenge to policy workers inside and outside government: How to overcome the barriers of routines and procedures to enable traditionally adversarial actors to work out an innovative solution? At this point, governmental actors may hire external consultants to work out an alternative approach.