This article was sparked by the relative lack of attention the city of Birmingham has received in the global reception of `Birmingham cultural studies'. This oversight may reflect a more general trend in contemporary analysis of urban settings: a tendency to scenography. This refers to the filmic mode of address in recent studies of urban change which privilege a small number of dramatic, cinematic settings. Our article explores the city of Birmingham in its own terms, as an intense example of a wider set of processes: economic restructuring, place marketing amidst globalization. It investigates the politics of memory underlying the dominant competing visions of Birmingham which we call `the urban Arcadia' and `Birmingham forward'. Despite their manifest differences, these two alignments of historical imagery converge on a harmonious conception of community which excludes many of the city's residents.
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