Abstract
This article explores strategies for engaging geographically fragmented urban communities as active participants in conceptually re-mapping their former localities. It looks in detail at the ongoing Retracing Salford project in Salford, UK, which employs the use of everyday objects and oral histories to engage and enable former residents to reconnect with their recently demolished neighbourhoods and each other. The project also seeks to document an urban working class history largely overlooked by the large-scale institutions. 
 
 The project is based on a PhD study undertaken by the author at The District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, which examined the use of material artefacts in exhibitions and memory workshops at that museum (Cassidy 2009). Like District Six, Salford has undergone wide-scale demolition and population dispersal over the past 40 years. 
 
 What began as relatively simple installations in museums, libraries and the like, has now grown to include digitised versions of the family snaps, street signs and oral histories, as a developing online Streets Museum archive (www.streetsmuseum.co.uk). This article reflects on how the methodology employed in the Retracing Salford project has helped rejuvenate and reconnect these dispersed communities. The article argues that the approach used is succeeding in widening the circle of participation and debate in relation to heritage issues, in particular the absence of commemoration of working-class community culture in the city. It has also increased awareness of urban land clearance issues. Its continued success depends on numerous factors, such as developing new strategies of engagement with the community, regularly gaining publicity and organising new exhibitions and workshops.
 
 Keywords: Material culture, community participation, urban working class history
Highlights
Over four years, from 2005 to 2009, objects relating to the demolished urban districts of Salford were collected
This article first provides an overview of the land clearances in Salford, which are still ongoing. It presents a detailed discussion of the Retracing Salford project and reflects on how the methodology employed has helped rejuvenate and reconnect these dispersed communities
Wealthier houses in the area lined the streets into Manchester city centre and occupied other prime locations, close to parks or squares, or were situated on the periphery of the district
Summary
From 2005 to 2009, objects relating to the demolished urban districts of Salford were collected. Over the past five years, in numerous industrial areas in northern UK, local government and development companies have used a combination of strategies on an ongoing basis to redesign urban districts into neighbourhoods of ‘choice’, resulting in the mass demolition of Victorian terrace housing and the large-scale relocation of long-term working-class residents (Figure 2).
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