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Central Manchester is being remade via a ‘vertical spectacle of towers and cranes’ (Silver et al., 2021, p. 162). A housing boom is seeing the city core expand as tens of thousands of new housing units, often financed by private equity funds and investment firms, are being built at pace. The result is a controversial and much-debated model for urban regeneration.
Walking the financialised city: A guided urban walk for teachers and students
This booklet will support teachers of geography in leading classes on a guided urban walk around Manchester city centre to explore the nature of this regeneration. The walk is intended for A level students but could also be adapted for use with classes at other phases.
For those unable to visit Manchester in person, the locations could be viewed via Google Street View as part of a virtual field trip. Alternatively, the ideas presented may provide a guide to help you create a similar walk for another town or city.
The guide is accompanied by a reading list that will support you in finding out more about the topic, either for yourself as part of your professional development or to support students to explore these topics as part of their NEA or independent study.
Further resources
A linked set of lesson resources, comprising PowerPoints and reading sheets, have been produced to enable you to explore the Manchester model and its consequences with your classes.
- Lesson 1 considers how Manchester became an ‘entrepreneurial city’.
- Lesson 2 looks at how regeneration has transformed east Manchester.
- Lesson 3 discusses the relationship between state-led gentrification and inequality in Manchester.
- Lesson 4 focuses on offshore ownership and Manchester’s property-led regeneration.
- Lesson 5 questions if there are alternatives to the entrepreneurial city in Manchester.
These resources were developed by Dan Whittall (Geographical Association) in collaboration with University of Sheffield as part of the Economic and Social Research Council funded ‘Manchester, The Centripetal City’ project (grant number ES/V002597/1): https://sheffield.ac.uk/crafic/research/manchester-centripetal-city
