Drömmar om Glas : En skildring av skapandeprocessen av en kulturell mötesplats

Introduction: How to implement and integrate cultural aspects in strategy making and planning in order for cities and regions to reap both social and economic benefits has been widely discussed in recent years. This method of working with culture, both as an economic, as well as an identity strengthening tool has come to be labeled as cultural planning. But in order for these ideas about cultural projects and institutions to become a reality, something has to be done. This is where the entrepreneur enters.The Glass Factory, a newly opened cultural establishment in the heart of the Glass Kingdom in Småland, Sweden, became the subject of empirical investigation for this paper. As this originally was an initiative from Emmaboda municipality the planning and start-up procedure could be viewed as a cultural planning process. Although the plans were made, someone, or a group of people, realized the vision of creating a cultural meeting place where local cultural heritage could meet the cultural needs of modern day tourists and local citizens alike.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to create an understanding as to how theories on the subject of entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, cultural planning and identities relate to each other in the process of creating a cultural meeting place where cultural and commercial interests meet.Methodology: We approached our purpose with from a hermeneutic viewpoint and a deductive research approach. The empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews with people that could contribute with relevant and valuable information for the study.Conclusion: Entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, cultural planning and identity are strongly interdependent in the process of creating a cultural meeting place. All aspect of these theories are significant, although at different stages of the creation process. They are therefore in a necessary co-existence with each other