Governance and sustainability in Glasgow : connecting symbolic capital and housing consumption to regeneration

Abstract

To transcend a legacy of slum-living, paternalistic provision and urban decline Glasgow City Council has endeavoured to transform the city’s fortunes by a plethora of mechanisms, which have at their core the establishment of sustainable communities. Framed within a policy discourse which emphasises ‘cultural and social’ as well as ‘physical and economic’ renaissance, the crux of the Council’s strategy has been to stem the migratory tide of affluent households and to empower public sector housing tenants. Drawing on Rose’s (2001) ‘ethopolitics’ we argue these developments in Glasgow reflect the wider emergence of technologies of governance in UK housing policy that seek to realign citizens’ identities with norms of active, entrepreneurial consumption.