ABSTRACT
In recent years a substantial body of research has come to hand to show that there has been a significant 'drift' of manufacturing industry away from the older conurbations in general and from the inner areas of the great cities in particular. This chapter explores, in the context of events in inner Manchester 1966-75, a substantial 'grey area' of knowledge about the inner city and its population of manufacturing establishments. Much of the theory inherited from the past has its relevance at the level of the plant — the physical unit of production. By contrast, much of the policy being applied is operationalised through the firm — the decision-making organisation. Where is increasingly the case, the two are by no means coterminous the ramifications need clearly to be understood since the nature of this relationship is critical both to the causes of the decline and to the ways in which active policy will relate to it.
