Picturing Gentrification: Representation of Urban Change, Pendleton Salford

The paper examines how visual representations of urban regeneration contribute to the gentrification process. It asks can alternative photographic and textual strategies provide a meaningful counter narrative to resist persuasive corporate discourses on urban revitalization? Focusing on the gentrification of social housing in Pendleton, Salford (Greater Manchester) the paper debates the role of visual imagery in fostering perceptions about urban change by evaluating fieldwork undertaken by the authors in the site since 2004. The paper will question whether such an in-depth longitudinal project and its consequent archive can be utilized as a political tool to highlight the wider processes involved in such regimes of disinvestment and accumulation. Through the combination of photography and site writing in the environment can certain economic and political processes be made legible if not fully visible to highlight causation and effect?

Transformation or bureaucratisation?: the changing role of community representation in local strategic partnerships in England

The debate about the need to build social capital and to engage local communities in public policy has become a central issue in many advanced liberal societies and developing countries. In many countries new forms of governance have emerged out of a growing realisation that representative democracy by itself is no longer sufficient. One of the most significant public policy trends in the UK has been the involvement of community organisations and their members in the delivery of national policy, mediated through local systems of governance and management. One such policy area is urban regeneration. Central government now requires local authorities in England to set up Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) to bring together stakeholders who can prepare Community Strategies and deliver social and economic programmes which target areas of deprivation. This paper reviews the key institutional processes which must be addressed, such as representation, accountability and transformation.