Fighting for the global catwalk: Formalizing public life in Castlefield (Manchester) and diluting public life in el Raval (Barcelona)

Main finding
The author identifies key discourse, from interviews with officials regarding their motivations behind urban regeneration projects, which revealed how public spaces were organized both spatially and sensuously to include commercially profitable experiences and exclude marginal ones that do not fit the vision shared by the officials. In one case study, social mix is achieved by diluting the existing, marginal population and replacing them with new 'civilized' residents - giving weight to the middle class's right to the city at the expense of the low income and marginalized who can't afford rising rents. The author argues that issues of social justice were subsumed under goals for desired aesthetics.

Description of method used in the article
Ethnographic methods included participant observations and interviews. The author drew on Latour and Foucault in the analysis of the sensuous framing of power and refers to the metaphor of 'flow' and the work of Deleuze in terms of how power is dispersed through other institutions and filters in to everyday life. Key discourses from the interviews with agents of the regeneration process were compared and contrasted.

Verdict
Of practical use