Confronted with a declining jobs base, deepening social problems and apparent indifference on the part of central government, many British cities made an "entrepreneurial turn" during the 1980s and 1990s. Few did so in quite such a dramatic way as Manchester - once a bastion of municipal socialism, the city has enthusiastically embraced the new economy of high-level services, conspicuous cultural consumption and aggressive self-promotion. This is a reflective and critical analysis of this far-reaching process of urban transformation, searching beneath the hype to expose the true character of the "new Manchester". Has Manchester engineered an urban renaissance, having finally turned its back on the grimy factory economy? Or is it on a slow-motion slide into the post-industrial sludge of economic insecurity and social polarisation? Drawing on the work of researchers and commentators in the field, this collection provides answers to these and other questions concerning Manchester's changing political economy.