Local Area Management in Vienna: Social democracy and the contradictions of controlled modernisation

This article focuses on the most recent modernisation of gentle urban renewal policies in Vienna, which was marked by the implementation of two pilot projects of local area management or so called "Grätzelmanagement" in 2001. These two pilot projects are deeply embedded in social democratic policies of gentle urban renewal and serve as an example of what one can call "controlled modernisation" in social innovation. The institutional setting of these projects, their aims and scope of action are highly structured by the interaction of local and European governance dynamics with the EU being regarded as the dominant force in moderating these new arrangements of governance at the local level. In our view, local area management in Vienna can be seen as a field of power that helps to put new topics at the political agenda. All in all, the socially innovative potential of the two pilot projects must not be underestimated as they continue to experiment with new forms of inclusive local practices.