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This article investigates the ways in which cultural economy is formed throughnegotiation and interaction between local actors in the case of culture-led regenerationin Gwangju, South Korea. It looks at the dynamics between the bureaucrats’ pursuit ofeconomic growth in the city and the efforts of civil society to maintain a strong politicalspirit throughout the regeneration process. Through in-depth interviews with variousparticipants and archival analysis, the politics of cultural economy are examined inrelation to the Gwangju Biennale and the City of Culture project. The findings show thatin these two cases bureaucrats were the dominant force, a tendency that instrumentalizedculture. They also illustrate that this dominance brought about resistance from civilsociety. However, in the process of both engaging in conflict and working with each other,the different discourses of economic growth and cultural meaning were integrated, andin the process mutual learning and adaptation took place among members of the twogroups. Civil society also faced cleavages resulting from different approaches to how tocollaborate with the bureaucrats and its ensuing self-reflection on communicative valueenhanced its rehabilitation. The article argues that the politics of cultural economy isdynamic, involving processes of renegotiation, adaptation and self-realization. It alsooffers the possibility of a new arena for the public sphere. Civil society plays a criticalrole in the integration of culture and economy.
