The Alternative? Mike Hodson profiles efforts in Greater Manchester to promote an old technology to address current ecological and economic problems.

Beth Perry introduces a new series of articles - The Alternative? - which explores the concept of 'alternatives' in rethinking sustainability in Greater Manchester.

We need the integration of existing knowledge as much as new knowledge and need to reclaim the right to the city for those that work and live within it. Beth Perry introduces a report from the Greater Manchester Local Interaction Platform based on a series of collaborative, cross-sectoral activities in 2012.

Greater Manchester is not an island. A number of academic and policy studies have highlighted how cities responses to the challenges of sustainability are shaped by a broader set of national-local and city-city relationships.  Since the new Coalition government in the UK in 2010, relationships between national government and cities have been reshaped. What are the consequences of these changes? How important are cities’ broader spatial networked relationships for how they address sustainable urban development (SUD)? What value is there in learning between and across different urban responses to sustainability in 21st Century Britain?