Search results
You are looking at 1 - 10 of 26 items for
- Author: Georgina Blakeley x
- Refine by access: All content x
This chapter focuses on democratisation, grounding this in an initial discussion of democratic theory. It begins by examining some key assumptions of democratic theory, albeit in a necessarily cursory fashion given the extensiveness of the field, and some of the now well-established feminist critiques of these assumptions. The chapter finds that although feminism has had some influence on democratic theory, this influence remains patchy and has not extended to the literature on democratisation. Despite the prolific nature of the democratisation literature, the dominant explanatory paradigms have virtually ignored the role of women in democratisation. The chapter redresses this balance by exploring what a feminist analysis of democratisation would entail. It argues that the voluntarist and positivist nature of the mainstream democratisation literature is not accidental but denotes a particular ontological foundation that tends at best to marginalise women's activism and, at worst, simply ignores it.
East Manchester was the site of one of the most substantial regeneration projects internationally. Urban regeneration was a central plank of New Labour policy and the approach radically altered with the election of the Coalition Government in 2010. East Manchester was one of the most deprived areas of Britain in 1997, referred to as a ‘basket case’ in dire need of regeneration. This book explores the role of Manchester City Council and other public agencies in the regeneration of the area such as New East Manchester, NDC/Beacons and the Housing Market Renewal Programme; the Manchester voluntary sector and the private sector including the major investments linked to Manchester City Football Club and the Etihad Campus. While the book focuses on a single regeneration initiative, it has wider relevance to national and international regeneration processes. The book assesses the outcome of the regeneration initiative although it demonstrates the difficulties in producing a definitive evaluation. It has a political focus and illuminates and challenges many assumptions underpinning three major current academic debates: governance, participatory democracy and ideology.
This book examines a range of concepts in the light of feminist critiques, and considers whether they may need to be reconstituted in the light of these critiques. It assesses the impact of feminist debates on mainstream thought. The book provides a balance between 'classic' political concepts and those that are being currently developed by feminist theorists, and to reflect the interconnections between the various sub-fields of Politics as a discipline. Many chapters engage with the concept of politics itself and with the public/private dichotomy. Some chapters discuss issues around the state, power, care, difference and equality and the ways in which different aspects of inequality intersect. Others attempt to contextualise gender in relation to other structural inequalities such as class and 'race'. All the chapters engage in some way with feminist critiques of the dualistic thinking that underpins conventional and narrow understandings of the political, particularly in liberal thought. The book demonstrates that if feminist analysis is taken seriously, conventional patterns of thought and practice are significantly disrupted. It plays a role in encouraging all political theory students and academics to see that good, effective theory requires serious engagement with feminist ideas. As such, these ideas help lay the foundations for more genuinely inclusive political thought.
Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region were among the first to develop the practice of English urban devolution. They were in the forefront of attempts to ‘level up’ the northern region and to address the problem of regional inequalities. The analysis studies how the metro-mayors evolved the office by examining the policy fields of economic development, transport, skills, health, housing and spatial reform and the environment. In the case of Greater Manchester, it also explores health and the reform of public services. The study then examines the crucial issues of power, resources, partnerships, central–local relations and local democracy, concluding with an assessment of the future prospects for a deeper and more fundamental change in the character of the English state.
This chapter introduces the case-study of east Manchester and lays out the themes and structures of the book. Attention is paid to structure and agency, the specificities of time and place and the political. Governance, ideology and participation are key political concepts which inform the analysis pursued in the book. The structure of the book is outlined: the first part describes and evaluates various aspects of the regeneration initiative. The second part uses practice in east Manchester to analyse a series of theoretical topics.
This chapter provides a brief historical introduction which emphasises the importance of the temporal to the description and evaluation of regeneration initiatives. Based on the assumption that an appreciation of contemporary urban issues requires an understanding of the historical context, this chapter highlights change and continuity in urban regeneration in east Manchester and the wider UK. An overview of the distinctive history of the various neighbourhoods of east Manchester is provided and an analysis of how current regeneration initiatives both draw on and differ from earlier initiatives under the Thatcher Governments such as City Challenge and the Single Regeneration Budget.
This chapter analyses the plethora of structures involved in the regeneration of east Manchester: Manchester City Council and its related Manchester Partnership; New East Manchester which also drew in the North-West Development Agency and English Partnerships; New Deal for Communities/Beacons, the Housing Market Renewal Programme and an array of private sector and voluntary organisations. This array of structure highlights the complexity of the governance of regeneration processes, the importance of partnerships and the theme of continuity as the structures changed over time.
This chapter describes the plethora of projects undertaken in the regeneration of east Manchester in the following thematic areas identified in the Strategic Regeneration Framework: housing and the physical environment; education; employment; crime and community safety; health and well-being; transport; sport and community facilities. This thematic analysis is complemented by an analysis of the different stages of the regeneration process. This highlights the importance of the temporal from the boost to regeneration provided by the Commonwealth Games to the negative impact of global recession and the election of the 2010 Coalition Government. A case-study of Ancoats is presented to illustrate some of the spatial and temporal specificities of regeneration.
This chapter discusses the methodological difficulties in evaluating the effectiveness of regeneration initiatives before providing an evaluation of the east Manchester initiative which provides evidence to assist in the making of future urban policy. The overall evaluation, drawing on key performance indicators and other key evaluation mechanisms used by New East Manchester and NDC/Beacons, recognises some of the achievements of the initiative while considering the scale of the progress achieved against cost, disruption and deadweight factors.
This chapter analyses the relationship between the ideological climate of British politics in the 1990s, with specific emphasis on New Labour’s ideology, and the urban regeneration of east Manchester. Attention is also paid to the change in ideology heralded by the election of the Coalition Government in 2010. There is a particular focus on the ideology of ‘Manchester Labour’ and the way in which Manchester City Council mediates politically and ideologically centrally-imposed regeneration policies.