I recently attended the Summer Institute in Urban Studies at the University of Manchester. Organized by cities@Manchester, this was a forum for early career urban studies scholars, from across the social sciences and humanities. It was a pleasure to meet the future leaders of the field (and a number of the current leaders as well!).

Summer Institute in Urban Studies 2014 participants

As an added bonus, the legacies of the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games were a recurring theme during the event: we even managed to make a trip to ‘Sport City’ – the primary cluster of venues for the Games (built over what used to be an open-pit coal mine).

The primary venue cluster for the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games: now a variety of sports training facilities, and the Manchester City Football Club.

A regeneration project jointly owned by the Manchester City Council and the Man City Football Club. The site includes parts of the 2002 Commonwealth Games ‘Sports City’ site.