Intro -- EXPLORING THE PRODUCTION OF URBAN SPACE -- Contents -- List of figures and tables -- Figures -- Tables -- List of abbreviations and acronyms -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- 1. Introduction: Cities and public space -- Conceptualising public and quasi-public space -- Neoliberal contradictions -- Lefebvre's spatial triad: explication and interpretation -- Exploring how to explore the production of urban space -- Comparative urban research -- City profiles: Vancouver, Lowell and Manchester -- Structure of the book -- 2. Vancouver: (Re)presenting urban space -- Introduction -- Pre-1972 and a disparate coalition -- Gastown meets Chinatown and Downtown Eastside -- Gastown: a mayoral walking tour -- Reinventing Alhambra: producing new public space -- A pre-1972 seminal moment: the Restoration Report 1969 -- More than a city affair -- Conclusions -- 3. Vancouver: Producing urban public space and city transformation -- Introduction -- Two hotels, a scandal and a contested mortgage -- Blood in the alley -- Vancouver's spaces of representation -- Smoke-in, riot, love-in -- Post-riot beautification and the Teamsters -- Fake kitsch versus authentic heritage -- Gas and more civic generosity -- Carrall Street Greenway: two contradictory initiatives -- Conclusions -- 4. Lowell: (Re)presenting urban space -- Introduction -- Cultural innovations: welcome Model Cities -- The Acre and Western Canal -- Ecumenical Plaza -- Model Cities: demonstration impacts -- The city reacts: a civic historic commission -- Lowell Regatta: ludic waterscape -- A working mill and museum -- Show us you're serious: Lowell Heritage State Park -- Teamsters, tax and delinquency -- Lowell's spaces of representation -- Origin of an idea: development of a concept -- Conclusions -- 5. Lowell: Producing urban public space and city transformation -- Introduction.

A presidential pen slips -- An 11th hour act -- Brown Book and the DEM -- National park and plan amendment -- Kerouac Park: contested public space -- Producing linear public space: Lowell Canalway -- Canalway blue dye and sun -- Don't mention sport: Merrimack Riverwalk -- Soul of Lowell: Boarding House Park -- Conclusions -- 6. Manchester: (Re)presenting urban space -- Introduction -- Castlefield: a very lived upon place -- Contested spatial meanings -- A Greater Manchester proposition -- A 150th birthday party -- A financial impediment -- From Granada to Castlefield -- Visual representations of Castlefield -- The Britons Protection incident -- Historic Castlefield: unexpected circularity -- Contested conservation: a minister's wife intervenes -- Conclusions -- 7. Manchester: Producing urban public space and city transformation -- Introduction -- UDC context and precursors -- Clutching at straws: the 'private sector' -- Representations of the urban problematic -- CMDC: a production of space investigation -- Representations of CMDC space -- Bridges to multiple spaces -- Ludic space: Castlefield Arena -- Rational and imagined success -- Castlefield's spaces of representation -- Conclusions -- 8. Venturing beyond Lefebvre: Producing differential space -- Introduction -- The right to the city -- Differential space conceptualisations -- Empirical explorations of differential space -- Riot, party, festival -- From pot party and riot to differential space -- Free jazz in Gastown -- Merging differential space -- Lowell Folk Festival and differential space -- Castlefield's diverse differential space -- Production of autonomous differential space -- Conclusions -- 9. Conclusions: Differential space implications -- Substantiations, refutations, surprises -- Empirical disclosures of similarity -- Emergent differences -- Recovery of lost histories.

Methodological reflections -- Urban policy implications -- Future research possibilities -- Theoretical implications and conjectures -- References -- Primary data sources -- Index.

This important book engages critically with Lefebvre's spatial theories and challenges recent thinking about the nature of urban space. Research in three iconic post-industrial cities in the UK and North America, explains how urban public spaces, including differential space are socially produced.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2025. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.

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