Glasgow was one of the first cities in Great-Britain to place the arts and culture at the heart of its economic and social urban regeneration policy in order to move from an industrial economy to a service and tourism-led economy and to recreate a positive image that would lure investment and people. This research aims at demonstrating that this process of economic, social and urban regeneration, which took momentum during Margaret Thatcher's term as British Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990, led not only to large-scale economic and physical changes but also to a radical change of the city's identity. It appears that this policy of urban regeneration was willingly and consciously implemented by the local Labour administration in a very systematic and assertive way and that it can clearly be associated to a deeply-rooted process of neo-liberalisation of the city space. We also try to demonstrate that, although public-private partnerships were set up in the peripheral neighbourhoods to implement programmes of urban regeneration including physical, social and economic dimensions, very little has eventually been achieved regarding the high level of deprivation in some of the peripheral estates. We finally show that this process of urban regeneration induced different forms of resistance and opposition whose patterns undoubtedly refer to the strong legacy of industrial dispute and radical politics which are key components of the city's identity.
