In cities across the world, gentrification and the housing crisis are facts of life. But how did we get to this point? And is there any way we can fight back?
A good place to begin answering these questions is Manchester, England. Over the last thirty years, corporate developers, rentier capitalists and boosterist politicians have reshaped Manchester in their image, replacing its working-class communities, public spaces and affordable housing with skyscrapers, luxury developments and a private rental market that creates wealth for rentiers and impoverishes everybody else.
The Rentier City traces this story, showing how it fits within the longer history of Manchester. In doing so unveils a larger story of the relationship between capital and our cities, rentier and rentee, and gives us a blueprint of how fight back against rentier capitalism and take back control of the cities we live in.
With
ISAAC ROSE, author of The Rentier City and organiser for the Greater Manchester Tenants Union.
OWEN HATHERLEY, author of, among other things, Red Metropolis and A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain.
SIOBHAN DONNACHIE, campaigns coordinators, the London Renters Union.