The Industrial Revolution, which began around 1770 in England, marked a period of profound cultural and economic change, especially for urban populations. By the mid-19th century, industrialisation had spread across Europe and North America, transforming cities such as Manchester, Łódź, Mulhouse, Tampere, or Pittsburgh into symbols of rapid development. While this era fostered hope and progress, it also brought challenges like long working hours and ecological shifts. The decline of key industries, such as steel, later created new difficulties for urban spaces navigating post-industrial realities. The edited volume Making the City: Transformative Processes in (Post)Industrial Urban Spaces builds on the conference held in June 2023 at Chemnitz University of Technology. The essays explore industrial heritage and its lasting effects on urban and rural spaces, addressing themes such as postcolonial perspectives, community ownership, or grassroots initiatives. These approaches contrast with investor-driven urban development and provide alternative models of “making the city.” Organised around two themes – “(post)industrialisation” and its representations – the volume highlights how the past continually informs the present. From preserving industrial heritage and adapting urban policies to reinterpreting city life in urban studies, literature, art, and music, the collection offers a multifaceted look at the processes that shape cities and their identities in the post-industrial era.


Cecile Sandten holds the Chair of English Literatures at Chemnitz University of Technology. She has published widely on theoretical approaches to the concept of palimpsestic spaces and literary experiences of urban space, with a special focus on postcolonial literatures (e.g. Canada, India, or South Africa).


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Cecile Sandten
Introduction – Making the City: Transformative Processes in (Post)Industrial Urban Spaces 1


Jürgen Kabus and Barbara Waske
From “European Manchester” to “Tales of Transformation”: The Chemnitz Industrial Museum’s Special Exhibition in the 2025 European Capital of Culture 11


Cecile Sandten
Sooty City 19


PART I: (POST)INDUSTRIALISATION, POLITICS, ARCHITECTURE, AND TOWN MAKING


Matevž Šlabnik
Industrialising the Residential Space. A Historical and Contemporary Perspective of the Town-Making Activities by the Idrija Mercury Mine 25


Jochen Kibel
Cigarettes and Colonialism – Entangled City-Making and the Multiple Spatialities of Urban Pasts 45


Andrea B. Farabegoli
Forlì – From the City of the Duce to the Twentieth-Century City: Developing for a New Self-Image 65


Sara Khalil Elmorsy and Hellen Aziz
Adaptive Reuse of Two Historical Industrial Sites in Germany 91


Daniela Zupan
On Empty Gifts and Exclusionary Care: Examining the Politics of City-Making in Contemporary Hungary 117


PART II: LITERATURE, ART, AND MUSIC: HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES IN (POST)INDUSTRIAL CONTEXTS


Cecile Sandten
“Exposing dark silvery images of a lost world”: Autopoetic Placemaking and (Post)Industrial Transformation in Robert Gibb’s Pittsburgh Poems 139


Bettina Lockemann
A Closer Walk: Urban Renewal in New Orleans 161


Airin Tegelman and Hanne Juntunen
Urban Animals: Articulations of the Post-Industrial City in British Post-Punk and Mainstream Music 189


David Gledhill
Manchester: A City for Artists? Fostering Grass Roots Visual Arts Production in the Post-Industrial City 211


Notes on Contributors 227