IN-PERSON Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

This paper critiques the problematic policy-led transformation of high streets into curated heritage zones, examining how planning discourses mobilise terms like “resilience”, “placemaking”, and “livability” to repackage everyday spaces as instruments of urban renewal. Using the UK High Street Heritage Action Zone programme as a case study, the research investigates how mundane spaces are rendered “valuable” through aesthetic and strategic redefinition—often sidelining the communities who inhabit them. Building on Smith’s critique of Authorised Heritage Discourse and drawing from urban discourse analysis, the study critically examines how technocratic vocabularies conceal processes of gentrification, displacement, and the erosion of spatial intimacy. It interrogates whose voices are legitimised in heritage-making, and how language itself becomes a site of power in determining what counts as culturally significant. It argues for a counter-discourse rooted in lived presence, affect, and shared authorship, repositioning mundane heritage as a tool for resisting urban spectacle and advancing spatial justice.