The Rentier City: Manchester and the making of the Neoliberal Metropolis.

This copy is signed by Isaac Rose, a tenant organiser and writer living in Manchester. He works for the Greater Manchester Tenants Union, and his writing have appeared in Tribune, Novara Media, The New Internationalist and elsewhere.

As the crane capital of Europe, Manchester's transformation since the financial
crisis has been profound. Capital has flooded into the city, transforming its skyline
and rocketing rents. At the same time, it remains a city of stark inequalities – home
to some of the poorest wards in the country. Yet this didn’t come out of nowhere.
Rather, its roots lie in the long story of the city’s political journey since the 1980s,
and the defeat of municipal socialism and the embrace of urban entrepreneurialism which saw Manchester become the model neoliberal city.

In The Rentier City , tenant organiser Isaac Rose traces the contemporary history
of Manchester, examining how and why it became the poster-child for neoliberal
development. Exploring the cultural commodification that Manchester pioneered
in its pursuit of the "creative class" and the rise of the rentier, Rose lays bare the
results of this experiment. Tracking the triumphs and failures of those who have
sought to fight back, he shows us what life is like for those who make a home in
the shadow of the towers.

Bursting the bubble of the boosters and giving renters a toolkit for reclaiming their
homes, communities and cities from Big Capital, The Rentier City punctures
the hypocrisies that surround the "Manchester miracle", showing how everyone
can fight back against rising rents, gentrification and the financialisaton of the
places they live.