Social and spatial relationships and the 'problem' inner city

Abstract

This article examines the processes by which one part of Manchester's inner city (Moss-Side) has come to acquire a national status as an arche typal inner-city 'problem area'. The particular set of social and spatial relationships involved in the production of this status are explored. The relative neglect of this type of approach in the ongoing debate around the 'inner city question' has, it is argued, led to an over-preoccupation with the similarities rather than the differences between inner cities in Britain. The paper suggests that this preoccupation has been detrimental to Moss-Side and that an alternative strategy—one which places more im portance on the place of Moss-Side within its wider community—is long overdue.