Over the last 20 years, the use of certain narratives has dominated our understanding of cities. The term 'narrative' means story. These are the stories which are used to shape the way we see the urban environment and they are invariably promoted by corporate interests, in particular developers and the marketing and PE departments that work for them. The narratives are ubiquitous. Even the term 'regeneration' has a narrative attached to it, based on the etymology of the word which means rebirth, rather than the more prosaic term 'redevelopment' which it replaced. This notion of the regeneration process as akin to a phoenix rising from the ashes of the old industrial economy was promoted enthusiastically by PRs and developers in the 1990s, as the empty spaces left behind by heavy industry-warehouses, factories and docklands-made way for the privatised financial centres, shopping complexes and luxury apartments of the new economy.
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