ABSTRACT
In the 1980s and 1990s, scholars in urban studies focused much of their attention on the decline and then the resurgence of cities. In the UK, for example, London and cities like Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol were studied in depth. This research, with its focus on the political economy of new forms of urban governance, prospered (Boddy and Parkinson 2004). Arguably, the social dimensions of urban change were largely neglected or considered rather narrowly with reference to the spatial concentration of disadvantage within inner cities. Social inequalities were acknowledged albeit with reference to the very poor occupying a particular space within cities. This situation has now started to change. Beyond urban studies, Robert Putnam's (2000) work on social capital has been influential in raising questions, once again, about social relations in urban settings. Within urban studies, there has been a more critical engagement with the effects of urban change on civil life as epitomized in the work of Douglas Rae (2003) and his 'end of urbanism' thesis. A growing interest in the spatial dimension of social inequalities beyond inner cities to a consideration of advantaged groups living in gentrified areas or gated communities (Butler with Robson 2003; Atkinson and Blandy 2005, Atkinson and Helms 2007) has contributed to this process too. Specially, the activities of middleclass residents, with high social capital, defending their privileged living spaces has provided new impetus to the analysis of social relations within urban spaces across the world (Davis 1999, 2006, 2007).
