Urban regeneration in Glasgow: Looking to the past to build the future? The Case of the ‘new gorbals’

Abstract

The Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, is widely regarded as a successful example of urban regeneration. However, this neighbourhood, like many similar working-class urban areas, has been subjected to repeated cycles of renewal. This chapter seeks to explore the history of a ‘successful’ regeneration, looking both spatially and socially at what has happened in Glasgow’s Gorbals over the long term. In the past, ‘regeneration’ was often a process enacted on behalf of residents by planners, architects and municipal authorities. We posit a multi-method approach, tracking changing policy ambitions, physical change, and exploring the resulting physical and social environments in order to investigate the complex inter-relations between space, place, community and time. The authors argue for the centrality of the narratives of those who have lived in the area both in the past and today in any assessment of relative ‘success’.