Rotterdam Skillcity is a research model for urban revitalisation and renovation, focused on the specific social-cultural and socio-economic situation of Rotterdam. Having transformed itself over a period of 40 years from an industrial harbour town with an international exposure to an economic-cultural metropolis, famous for its architectural landscape, his urban festivals and top sport events, Rotterdam strives to harbour service oriented enterprises, creative industries and information technologically based business.
Rotterdam Skillcity not only provides a bottom up analysis of this socio-economic backlog, it also develops educational and socio-economic strategies to counter these tendencies. In doing this Richard Florida’s concept of cultural capital and his analysis of the creative city is downscaled to the neighbourhood level and Robert Putnam’s critique on the loss of social capital and his appeal to enhance ‘civic skills’ is applied to rephrase the concept of social cohesion.
