2 février 2018
https://www.openedition.org/12554 , info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
David Fée, « New Labour et Birmingham : frein ou moteur de la renaissance ? », Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, ID : 10670/1.p2xuo4
This article seeks to go beyond official documents and the New Labour government’s rhetoric on urban renaissance. In it, the author tries to assess the reality of urban renaissance at a local level on the basis of field work and interviews. He focuses on Birmingham, the second largest city in England, a city often held by the government as an example of its successes in the urban field since 1997. The city has indeed come a long way since the 1970s when it underwent a rapid process of de-industrialisation and lost thousands of inhabitants. It has rebuilt its city centre, been awarded prizes for the quality of its new architecture and public domain, has turned its industrial heritage into cultural assets and sought to attract new residents to its core. However, although its physical transformation mirrors all the principles advocated by New Labour, it owes nothing to New Labour. Indeed, the author shows that the rebirth of Birmingham started in the early 1980s when the then local authorities became aware of the need to regenerate central Birmingham in order to kickstart the economic regeneration of the city as a whole. Furthermore the article demonstrates that far from enjoying a full-blown renaissance, Birmingham falls short of meeting some key targets set by New Labour such as decent housing and population growth. Surprisingly, these failures can be put down to New Labour’s national policies that often contradict and hinder the requirements placed on local authorities by the central government.