Success or failure? The redevelopment of Bordesley as an (urban) village

Abstract

This paper examines the redevelopment of the inner city neighbourhood of Bordesley, part of the Birmingham Heartlands area, which was the subject of a large-scale regeneration scheme beginning in the 1980s. The strategy for Bordesley was based around a generalised idea of an urban village at a time when the urban village concept itself was beginning to be developed by the Urban Villages Group. The paper will endeavour to show the complexity of the processes involved in a redevelopment scheme such as this, demonstrating how the principles and recommendations established in policy agendas and in development briefs are interpreted, altered, and transformed by the interests and perceptions of the various actors, including local people, and by the characteristics of the place itself. The paper will analyse the extent to which the now completed development can be described as successful and in whose terms, whilst also assessing whether or not it is deserving of urban village designation.