The limits to contemporary urban redevelopment ‘Doing’ entrepreneurial urbanism in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester

Abstract

Since the early 1970s there has been a series of economic and political transitions in the governance of the older industrialized cities of the global north. Grouped together, and commonly referred to as an entrepreneurial ‘turn’, this series of discrete but interlocking shifts in how the state intervenes and frames urban governance reveals much about the emergent geographies of neo‐liberalization. Nation states have codified the inter‐urban competition endemic in contemporary capitalism, building upon and reinforcing, rather than ameliorating, uneven economic development. Cities have thus been placed squarely in the front line of delivering national competitiveness. This is in sharp contrast to earlier representations of cities as relics of industrial glories and as financial drains on the nation's resources. In light of this changing portrayal, and building on earlier debates in CITY, this paper draws upon research in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester to question how the meaning of ‘urban redevelopment’ has been re‐constituted in recent years, and in doing so it draws attention to what this might mean for issues of rights to the city.

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