The Duality of Manchester: Manchester As A Creative City

The Duality of Manchester: Manchester As A

Creative City

Derya Yildirim

ID: 11639202

Faculty of Economics and Business Bachelor’s Thesis – Creative Cities BSc: Business Administration

Track: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Creativity Supervisor: Dr. J. Aldo Do Carmo

Statement of Originality

This document is written by student Derya Yildirim who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.

I declare that the text and the work presented in this document are original and that no

sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of

completion of the work, not for the contents.

Abstract

The concept of ‘creative cities’ has emerged recently, with various theorists defining creative cities using their own models. In this non-empirical study, Manchester’s feasibility as a ‘creative city’ was assessed according to: Verhagen’s clean, green, safe model; Florida’s talent, technology, tolerance model; and Landry’s cooperation, culture, communication model, based on strategies and investments by Manchester City Council (MCC). Manchester was chosen as a city for analysis given its industrial past and the dramatic post-industrial change it has undergone. The results of this study show that Manchester can be seen as a creative city (as a result of MCC’s implementations), only in theory. This is due to the ambiguity of intent regarding Verhagen’s model, the inconclusive causal relationship in Florida’s model, and the indirect and vague application of Landry’s model. Future research should consider further clarifying and metrifying the models for universal applicability, as well as adding weightings for models with multi-componential subsets.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ... 4

CHAPTER 2. ABOUT MANCHESTER ... 6

2.1. Manchester’s Past...6

2.2. Manchester’s Present ...7

CHAPTER 3. CREATIVE CITY MODELS ... 9

3.1. Verhagen’s Model...9

3.1.1. Green ...10

3.1.2. Clean ...10

3.1.3. Safe ...10

3.2. Florida’s Three Ts of Economic Development. ...11

3.2.1. Technology ...11 3.2.2. Tolerance ...11 3.2.3. Talent ...12 3.3. Landry’s Three Cs...12 3.3.1. Cooperation ...12 3.3.2. Culture ...13 3.3.3. Communication...13 CHAPTER 4. METHODOLOGY ... 14 CHAPTER 5. INVESTIGATION ... 16

5.1. Verhagen’s Model and Manchester’s Creativity ...16

5.1.1. Manchester’s ‘Greenness’ ...16

5.1.1.1. green space. ...16

5.1.1.2. fresh air. ...16

5.1.2. Manchester’s Cleanliness ...17

5.1.3. Manchester’s Safety ...18

5.2. Florida’s 3Ts and Manchester’s Creativity ...19

5.2.1. Technology ...19 5.2.2. Tolerance ...20 5.2.2.1 multinationals. ...20 5.2.2.2. non-heterosexual population...21 5.2.3. Talent ...22 5.2.3.1. attracting talent. ...22 5.2.3.2. retaining talent. ...23

5.3. Landry 3Cs and Manchester’s Creativity ...24

5.3.1. Cooperation ...24 5.3.2. Culture ...25 5.3.3. Communication...26 5.4. Results...28 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION... 29 6.1. Contribution...30 6.2. Limitations ...30 6.3. Reflection ...31 6.4. Future research...31 References ... 32

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The city of Manchester is characterized by the bee. This symbol is plastered on walls, bins, and municipal buildings all around the city – it can even be found paraded by locals in the form of tattoos. The bee has been a significant emblem for the city for circa 170 years (BBC, 2009). It denotes Mancunians’ strong work ethic, and stems from the Industrial Revolution, where Mancunians were seen as ‘busy bees’ working in factories (a.k.a. ‘beehives’). The idea of the Manchester working bee has grown in popularity and now represents the idea of

working hard and working together.

The Mancunian ‘worker bees’ have since shifted from the manufacturing to the service sector, and view their city as a ‘hive of creativity’. The city now boasts creative endeavours such as: MediaCityUK, a self-proclaimed international hub for technology, innovation, and creativity, hosting 250 media and digital businesses including BBC and ITV (MediaCityUK, n.d.); dozens of yearly events hosted by Manchester Literature Festival (UNESCO, n.d.); and a world-renowned music scene, birthing stars such as The Smiths and Oasis. Manchester thus self-identifies as a ‘creative city’ and is even part of the global creative city network

UNESCO.

At first glance, Manchester may seem like an indubitable haven of creativity, however, its dual nature raises some doubts. Amongst the city’s skyscrapers and business centres lay rampant homelessness, higher-than-average crime rates (Verisure, 2018), and child poverty – one of the highest in the country (GMPA, 2020). These inequalities are prevalent throughout the city, raising the question of whether it’s possible for such a city to be a ‘creative’.

Given the city’s (creative) accomplishments, incurred downfalls, and present-day dichotomy, it would be of interest to assess Manchester’s current viability as a ‘creative city’ according to various theorists’ definitions. To my knowledge, this would be the first paper to address the city’s ‘creative city’ status according to theoretical models. As such, the research question addressed in this paper is: ‘Is Manchester a creative city?’

This paper will tackle this research question by first looking at Manchester City Council’s (MCC) purported strategies and contrasting them with varying ‘creative city’ models. This will be achieved non-empirically, through the use of secondary data. Regarding structure, this

paper will: firstly, introduce Manchester’s historical and current state, and offer a brief overview of the conceptual basis of creative cities. Further, it will delve into each of the three selected ‘creative city’ models in detail, and see how applicable these models are in framing Manchester as a creative city. This will be followed by results and a conclusion, wherein Manchester's feasibility as a ‘creative city’ will be discussed and concluded.

CHAPTER 2. ABOUT MANCHESTER

Manchester is the fifth most populous English district (Office for National Statistics, 2019). Situated in the North of England, this city is known for being the first industrialised city brought about by textile manufacturing (Kidd, 2006). However, the city is also notable for its scientific, artistic, and cultural contributions. This chapter will discuss the change Manchester has undergone as a city, beginning with its history and continuing with its present-day state.

2.1. Manchester’s Past

Manchester has managed to capture the attention of workers from all around the UK after repositioning itself as a booming post-industrial city. What initially was the first industrial city bolstered by the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, has become a post-industrial metropolis through the subsequent rejuvenation of the city centre. This rejuvenation was the result of both the IRA bombing in 1996 (Williams, 2019), as well as Manchester’s

depopulation in the second half of the 20th century, which resulted in desolate land and buildings (Ferrari & Roberts, 2004). Initially, the cheap, vacant buildings led to the growth of the local music scene in Manchester. The rise in creative talent led to the surge of students in the city, benefitting the city economically and culturally (Misselwitz, 2004). Later on, in the 90’s, these warehouses were transformed into apartments, student accommodations, and office towers by the MCC (Douglas, Hodgson, & Lawson, 2002). Consequently, reversing the depopulation of the late 20th century, and leading to the inflow of a young, professional population.

However, Manchester’s growth over the decades hasn’t all been positive. The shift of focus from ‘welfare’ in the 1980’s, to ‘growth’ in the 1990’s came at the expense of the poor, which were excluded from the revitalisation of the city’s core. As the city centre became a wheel of work and play aimed at attracting investors, the slums surrounding the business areas housed the unemployed poor who searched for manual labour (Mellor, 2002). These unhealthy neighbourhoods (dubbed ‘the poverty belt’) faced a myriad of problems, including overpopulation and pollution. The shift from the industrial to the service sector further

spurred social inequality and increased the income gap, thus disadvantaging the unskilled and people of colour (Mellor, 2002; Kidd, 2002).

2.2. Manchester’s Present

The city is currently booming, and has been doing so consistently for the past two decades. Manchester has seen the fastest population growth in England and Wales between 2002-2015, with population and job growth of 149% and 84% respectively (Elliot, 2018). This bolstered development projects within the city; construction of residential buildings doubled between 2016 and 2018, and the total number of schemes under construction increased by 34% from 2017 to 2018 (Deloitte, 2019).

The city is being recognized as the UK’s 2nd most important city with the highest corporate

activity besides London (JLL, 2019). Presently, Manchester boasts the largest creative industry sector in England after London, and continues to grow in terms of its skill level (New Economy, 2017), as well as its cultural and creative sectors. The rise of ‘new economy’ tech brands in Greater Manchester – which include home-grown companies such as

PrettyLittleThing, Missguided, and Boohoo – has allowed the city to emerge as a hub for the digital economy. Additionally, Manchester maintains second place in the UK in terms of its digital economy intensity, boasting over 9’183 digital economy companies (Garcia, Klinger, & Stathopoulos, 2018). Looking at Manchester from a broader lens encompassing all creative industries, research from global innovation foundation Nesta has revealed that Manchester’s creative sector has captured a job creation growth rate of 18%, with over 7500 more jobs available compared to three years ago. In total, Manchester’s creative sector generates close to £1.5 billion (Garcia et al., 2018). As such, Manchester proves great potential as a city of interest for creative employees.

Yet, remnants of Greater Manchester’s history still exist within the city today: the number of manufacturing jobs are on decline, Manchester is seen to be the third most ‘deprived’ area in England – with health and crime deprivation being top concern – and the median annual wage in Greater Manchester is lower than the UK average by approximately 6.6% (New Economy, 2017). To combat the negative consequences of the city’s history, the Council has initiated a lot of regeneration programs aimed at developing and investing in some of the city’s most deprived areas. They specifically focused on areas with a history of gang-related activity, impoverished circumstances, and crime. These programs included efforts aimed at job creation, environmental enhancement, the improvement of infrastructure, and tackling

crime (Manchester City Council, 2001). The implementations have proved particularly successful in areas such as Moss Side and Hulme (Kidd, 2002).

CHAPTER 3. CREATIVE CITY MODELS

The ‘creative city’ was conceptualized in 1995, by urban experts Landry & Bianchini. Since then, the concept has grown exponentially, with the resurfacing of Schumpeter’s theory of ‘creative destruction’ (Reier & Tribune, 2000). Schumpeter’s theory postulates that economic growth is catalysed by innovation, whereby outdated mechanisms are replaced by novel ones (Schumpeter, 1942). With the additional establishment of a union created for the sole purpose of uniting creative cities (i.e., UNESCO), and multiple theorists emerging with different definitions of a ‘creative city’, the term has gained popularity as well as scrutiny.

Despite the term’s growth among scholars and urban planners, there is currently no established definition for a ‘creative city’. This is due to the multifaceted nature of ‘creativity’ which encompasses various far fetching aspects of a city (e.g. manufacturing, medicine, literature...etc) (Cropley, 2011). Oftentimes, models describing a ‘creative city’ are either difficult to measure or vague, and contradict existing ‘creative city’ models. In this paper, three creative city frameworks were chosen as tools for analysing Manchester, namely: Verhagen’s model, Landry’s 3 C’s framework, and Florida’s 3T’s framework.

Verhagen’s model was chosen due to its delineation of the baseline qualities needed for a city to be liveable, which would subsequently allow it to become creative. Landry’s and Florida’s models were chosen given their popularity within the sphere of creative city definitions. In his book, “The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators”, Landry emphasized the importance of creativity as a tool for problem-solving, stating that creativity allows a city to disengage from box-like thinking, and enter a new age innovation (Landry, 2000). Lastly, Florida spearheaded the idea that the generation of creativity by the people (i.e. the creative class) would snowball into innovation and, consequently, economic growth (Florida, 2002).

3.1. Verhagen’s Model.

Verhagen states that a creative city should be: green, clean, and safe. He mentions that while these qualities don’t necessarily construe a creative city, they are essential to a city that wants to become one. He stresses that it would be useless to try and build a successful creative city without a solid base in place. This base is said to attract and connect talent to a city where one can find inspiration. Attractive cities function well, and for them to be able to do so, they have to have the aforementioned qualities (Verhagen, n.d.).

Verhagen’s model can thus be seen to resemble the basic building blocks of Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ (Maslow, 1943) in the urban context, with the framework covering a city’s basic physiological and safety needs (Kennedy, 2018). As such, Manchester’s ability to incorporate this framework into the city’s structure can be seen as vital to its status as a creative city.

Verhagen’s model has been explained very succinctly without direct measurements or specified definitions. As such, for a comprehensive explanation of his model, different sources of Verhagen’s literature were compiled into this theoretical model.

3.1.1. Green

Verhagen’s ‘greenness’ refers to the city’s connection with nature; that is, the existence of parks, trees, and fresh air. The presence of various parks throughout the city is of crucial importance to all cities. This is because places such as municipal parks and beaches generate widespread interest and result in people traveling to different parts of the city. These parks would also inspire people to meet each other, creating social cohesion and stimulating creativity (Verhagen, 2007). Verhagen uses various cities to exemplify the importance of parks, including: Paris, and how it developed three parks in disused industrial sites; and Amsterdam, whose park Noord is used as a tool for fighting problems in underprivileged areas (Verhagen, 2014a).

3.1.2. Clean

Secondly, cleanliness is said to foster an environment that exhibits attention and care. This involves the city’s management and upkeep which gives the sense that someone is in charge. Verhagen views cleanliness as more important than aesthetic beauty.

3.1.3. Safe

Lastly, safety is valued; this refers to the presence of people you trust. According to

Verhagen, walls, fences, cameras, and guards don’t necessarily create safety, but are put in place when safety is lacking. Safety, according to him, would mean being able to chat to people who can be trusted, but who are also capable of leaving us to ourselves when that’s preferred (Reis, 2009). Verhagen states that to develop talent and achieve creativity, meeting

each other in a safe way is the first requirement (Verhagen, 2014b). In one of his articles, Verhagen refers to Matt Ridley’s book “The Rational Optimist”, which states that the

exchange of ideas or goods is crucial to progress. His take on this book was that progress can be facilitated by developing the best possible place where two people who want to co-create can meet. In such a place, safety and trust is crucial, as it becomes a place you’d like to return to (Verhagen, 2014c).

3.2. Florida’s Three Ts of Economic Development.

Florida’s 3 T’s comprise talent, technology, and tolerance. Florida asserts that these three tenets of economic development are key identifiers to the economic geography of creativity, and spur regional growth. If each component is taken individually, limited growth prospects are possible. However, together they’re able to create a significant synergic effect (Florida, 2002, 2008). This is because tolerance draws in talent, and talent attracts technology-driven growth. Thus, in order for a place ‘to attract creative people, generate innovation and stimulate growth, a place must have all three’ (Florida, 2002a).

3.2.1. Technology

Technology and innovation are essential components of communities’ abilities to drive economic growth. ‘Technology’ refers to the presence of high-tech companies, and innovation within an area – which is measured by patents (Florida, 2012).

For cities and communities to successfully incorporate technology and innovation into their structure, they have to have mediums through which research, ideas, and innovation can be transformed into marketable products. Universities play a big role in technology, as ‘research in technology adds to regional earnings and employment’ (Florida, 2019). According to Florida, technology is both a by-product and a necessary antecedent for a region with a strong creative economy, and attracts more talent to the city, further enhancing the levels of

technology within that area.

3.2.2. Tolerance

‘Tolerance’ is an all-encompassing term for inclusiveness and diversity – which includes the extent of: multinationals, non-heterosexual population, and foreign-born citizens (Florida & Gates, 2003).

Tolerance is a crucial component to creative cities as economic growth relies on all sorts of creativity – whether that be cultural, scientific, or artistic. In order for these creative

intentions to be accepted, creative workers and talent have to be open to new ideas and differences in people. This involves having ‘low entry barriers’ as a community (Florida, 2002b). Communities fostering people who are open to: immigration, various non-traditional or eccentric lifestyles, and novel points of view on social status and hierarchies, will benefit tremendously in the age of creativity. This is because open-mindedness allows foreigners (and ‘talent’) to relocate more comfortably, and diversity allows for innovation.

3.2.3. Talent

Lastly, ‘talent’ refers to people with a bachelor’s degree and above (Florida, 2002a). The mobile age we are currently in means that people can move around a lot. As such, talent doesn’t necessarily have to be born within a city, as talent can flow. A region’s ability to retain and entice talent is thus also an indicator of a creative city.

3.3. Landry’s Three Cs.

Landry’s 3C’s of culture, communication, and cooperation, are based on the premises that the ‘creative milieu’ (i.e. a place that generates a flow of ideas and inventions) requires both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ infrastructure. ‘Hard’ infrastructure refers to the network of buildings, facilities, places, and hubs which support and generate creativity within a city. ‘Soft’ infrastructures refer to mechanisms that enable citizens to connect and generate creative cycles. Soft mechanisms encompass face-to-face communication as well as interactions enabled by information technology (Landry, 2000).

3.3.1. Cooperation

Cooperation is the overt acceptance of, and interaction with, diversity. Landry emphasizes the importance of diversity given that it’s one of the drivers of innovation. This is because a tolerant society provides room for opportunity, security, and increases vitality. These further raise the levels of participation, transaction, and interaction, thus resulting in activity taking off (Landry, 2000). Diversity across lifestyles, livelihood, culture, and habitat can be an asset inducing celebration and understanding, while also cultivating a tolerant society (Wood & Landry, 2008). Cooperation also involves how well connected the city is internationally.

3.3.2. Culture

Culture refers to the city’s identity, which is predicated on past endeavours, and seeps into the future. It “connects us to our histories, our collective memories, anchors our sense of being and can provide a source of insight to help us face the future” (Landry, 2000). Culture is important to creativity as it also applies to the process of how the old is reinvented. From a symbolic standpoint, culture refers to establishing distinctiveness in both urban landscapes as well as heritage. Such urban cultural resources include the “historical, industrial, and artistic heritage as well as urban landscapes or landmarks”. Culture doesn’t only refer to buildings, but also symbols, traditions, and the amalgamation of local products in crafts. Public life traditions are also included; these can encompass the languages spoken, food and cooking, sub-cultures, festivals, stories, and intellectual traditions (Landry, 2000).

3.3.3. Communication

Communication refers to means (e.g. physical or technological) by which inhabitants are drawn closer together, thus helping with minimizing conflicts and separation. This includes a city of imaginative people ‘who think problems afresh’, as well as suitable leaders who can manage entire teams and implement (creative) solutions for certain day-to-day or anticipated problems.

In order for this to occur, the leaders have to incorporate an inclusive vision, wherein widespread change is aimed for the people rather than for personal gain. This includes diminished: hierarchy, internal focus, and departmentalization of leading organizations, alongside the incorporation of feedback by, and decision-making from, the public.

CHAPTER 4. METHODOLOGY

To answer the question “Is Manchester a creative city?”, I will be investigating recent policies, strategies, and funding directed by the MCC using a mainstream orientation for policy analysis (Browne, Coffey, Cook & Meiklejohn, 2019). This will involve looking at secondary data disclosing strategies and investments by the Council. The funding of projects will be interpreted as the MCC acting upon their commitments. As such, this paper’s

approach to policy analysis is based on the policy triangle approach, whereby the: context, content, process (i.e. how the policy is implemented), and actors (i.e. who participates and enacts the policies) are analysed and discussed(Walt & Gilson, 1994).

The Council’s actions will be compared to the aforementioned ‘creative city’ models. This involves looking at models’ requirements for a creative city, and whether these align with the projects the City Council has funded recently. Moreover, contradicting investments will be investigated to see whether the Council funds opposing projects that would counteract actions done in favour of the ‘creative city’ models. Table 1 shows the framework which will be applied to assess Manchester.

Policies/Strategies Direct Investments Contradicting Investments Verhagen’s ‘Green’

Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Verhagen’s ‘Clean’ Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Verhagen’s ‘Safe’ Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Florida’s ‘Technology’

Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Florida’s ‘Tolerance’

Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Florida’s ‘Talent’ Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Landry’s ‘Culture’ Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Landry’s

‘Communication’

Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Landry’s ‘Cooperation’

Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

CHAPTER 5. INVESTIGATION

5.1. Verhagen’s Model and Manchester’s Creativity

The Council’s key priorities includes “creating attractive, safe and clean neighbourhoods” (Cavan, 2018). These directly pertain to Verhagen’s model of creativity.

5.1.1. Manchester’s ‘Greenness’

5.1.1.1. green space. Manchester is one of the largest cities in the UK with the lowest

coverage of green spaces. According to mapping firm Esri UK, only 20.4% of Manchester is composed of green space (“How green is”, 2017).

The MCC has formulated several proposals in the past decade (2004–) pertaining to green spaces in neighbourhood areas. These proposals included: the 2004 Wythenshawe Strategic Regeneration Framework, which involved improving access to green open space and woodland; the 2008 South Manchester Strategic Regeneration Framework, which included establishing a successful network of high quality parks and open spaces; and the 2014 Manchester Central Regeneration Framework, which aimed to increase access to open space and community venues (Country Scope, 2015). However, not all implementations were enforced successfully. In the case of Wythenshawe, the regeneration framework was entirely disregarded, as plans were being made for car parks to be built on the town’s green areas (“Bid to”, 2005).

The current plan is the 10-year-long Manchester Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI)

Strategy (2015-25). It focuses on the enhancement of green spaces as well as blue spaces (i.e. rivers, canals, and ponds) (Country Scope, 2015). As part of this strategy, £77m was used to fund green infrastructure projects over the past three years. These include: events hosted in green spaces, the planting of 12’500 new trees, and £15m expended on parks and river valleys (Manchester City Council, 2018). This investment aligns with Verhagen’s vision regarding one aspect of a city’s “greenness”.

5.1.1.2. fresh air. Another facet of ‘greenness’ is fresh air, which can be interpreted

as low pollution. Manchester’s air pollution has been a detrimental aspect of the city for years, exceeding the World Health Organization’s (2018) limit of pollution by 30%. In 2018,

the air pollution in Greater Manchester was said to be “lethal and illegal” by think tank IPPR, with an estimated 1.6 million life years lost due to poisonous air (Cox & Goggins, 2018).

To tackle this issue, the MCC has enforced the ‘Clean Air Plan’ in 2018, which involved requesting £116m ‘clean vehicle funding’ from the UK government in hopes of reducing nitrogen dioxide levels by 2024 (BBC News, 2018). Instead, the government has offered Manchester £36m to create a network of cameras to be used in issuing fines for non-compliers (Barrett, 2020a). Currently, the Clean Air Plan is being put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, and is said to recommence when plausible (Griffiths, 2020).

However, the Council’s pledges were seen as an ‘empty rhetoric’ given the proposed £6bn funding for road expansions (Pidd, 2019), which would result in more pollution due to ‘induced demand’ (Schneider, 2018). Moreover, the MCC’s plan for a £1bn expansion of Manchester Airport is currently underway, leading to a projected increase of 10 million passengers (Barrett, 2020b). Thus, although the Council has made efforts aimed at lowering pollution levels, these efforts pale in comparison to contradicting investments.

5.1.2. Manchester’s Cleanliness

Manchester’s cleanliness has been troublesome for a long time, with over 3’000 litter louts caught yearly (Tomlinson, 2018; Phillips, 2018). Previous attempts at making the city cleaner have involved £14.5m spent on cleaning the city in 2013, alongside additional campaigns (e.g. Trash Talk and Clean City) aimed at discouraging littering (Tomlinson, 2018). These implementations resulted in a short-term decrease in the number of citizen complaints regarding litter, with complaints soaring again in 2016 and 2017 (Williams, 2018).

The MCC’s most recent strategy is the ‘Keep Manchester Tidy’ Campaign, which involves increasing littering fines, and bringing together parties and volunteers to tackle all forms of littering, with litter-picking equipment provided by the Council (Robson, 2019; Tomlinson, 2018). In 2019, an additional £250’000 was invested into new larger bins, which were introduced throughout the city (Stoyanov, 2019). Further, a cleaning schedule was

established in 2019, removing 250’000 pieces of chewing gum off pavement floors (Barlow, 2019). These changes were put in place as the MCC has pledged Manchester to become UK’s first tidy city by 2020 (“Keep Manchester Tidy”, n.d.).

While the Council has funded cleanliness, that didn’t necessarily result in an effective improvement. According to the MCC, rat infestations in the city centre, where litter and fly-tipping persists, doubled between 2015-2019 (Morgan, 2020). This implies that previous improvements in city centre littering were short-lived, as littered areas induce a higher prevalence of rats and mice (Langton, Cowan, & Meyer, 2001). This may suggest that the one-off approaches stipulated above have been insufficient in establishing a sustainable, long-term decrease in littering.

5.1.3. Manchester’s Safety

According to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics, Manchester is the second most dangerous area in England and Wales, with a crime rate of 120.8 per 1000 people (Stripe, 2020). Surveys conducted on how safe people felt in Manchester showed differing results. A 2017 survey by Opinion Matters concluded that 51% of people feel safe walking in Manchester (“UK’s Top Walking”, n.d.), while a different 2016 survey revealed that 93% of people feel safe in Manchester’s city centre at night (Fitzgerald, 2016).

The MCC has proposed various strategies to tackle crime. The 2018 Manchester Community Safety Partnership is a 3-year strategy prioritizing: tackling crime and antisocial behaviour, protecting people from serious harm, reducing the crime impact caused by alcohol and drugs, and changing/preventing adult offender behaviour (Manchester City Council, 2018). To deliver this strategy, the MCC has stated that performance indicators will be developed for each priority, which will be monitored and reported by relevant parties annually.

Despite no updates on the strategy’s progress, after five years of increasing crime, the year 2018/2019 showed a decrease of 4.4% in overall crime rates. However, the most common types of crime during this period were violent and sexual offences, with an additional 22% increase in drug-related crimes compared to the previous year (Boyle, 2020).

However, Manchester’s high crime rates may have been the result of limited funding by the UK government, who has cut the amount of money provided to Greater Manchester Police by more than £200 million since 2010. This has resulted in a reduction of Manchester’s police

force by 25% (“Standing Together”, 2018). This meant that over 43% of crimes weren’t fully investigated due to the lack of resources (Bell & Box, 2019).

Thus, while Manchester has made an improvement with regards to its crime rate, a direct causal relationship is arbitrary given that specific strategic actions weren’t outlined. Moreover, the limited government funding has to be accounted for. Nonetheless, for 2019/2020, the UK government has announced the provision of an additional £15m for Greater Manchester police. Additionally, the MCC recently increased the policing element of the council tax by £24 per household over the year. This has allowed an increase in the police force by at least 320 officers (Slade, 2019). As such, Manchester’s crime rate may be set for a steeper decrease in the near future.

5.2. Florida’s 3Ts and Manchester’s Creativity

5.2.1. Technology

Manchester’s tech sector is growing at an astonishing rate, and has been key in attracting talent to the city. Manchester has the fastest growing tech sector in Europe, with an increase in investment by 277%, to £181m in 2020 compared to 2019 (Tech Nation, 2020). This places Manchester in the top 5 cities for tech investment in Europe. Manchester’s

e-commerce scene is particularly salient, with 50% more e-e-commerce organisations than any other city outside London (Toolan, 2019).

The MCC stresses the importance of a digitally-skilled workforce, and has funded projects to increase employment within this field. In 2018, they launched the Go Digital and Digital Futures projects, linking schools within Greater Manchester to the digital industry (“Digital Futures”, n.d.) by teaching students core digital skills while providing them opportunities to access industry mentors and career coaching (“Find your”, n.d.). Moreover, a £3m ‘Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund’ was established to help employees in the Greater Manchester and Lancashire areas gain digital skills such as cybersecurity, data science, and AI (“Fast Track”, 2020). These implementations are especially useful given that Manchester had 164’000 open job opportunities in the tech sector – the largest outside of London (Tech Nation, 2019).

In accordance with Manchester’s Industrial Strategy (Manchester City Council, 2019b), the Council has agreed to invest in a £39m Full-Fibre infrastructure and 5G technology within

Manchester. These two have been in high demand by technology businesses all over Manchester, and will help create the conditions for the city to continue its pursuit of

technological growth. This implementation is set to bolster nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033, with 5G technologies available for the majority of the population by 2027 (HM

Government, 2019).

Research is as important to Florida’s ‘technology’ as the tech sector. The MCC has awarded £2m to Manchester Science Partnership, which is the UK’s leading science and technology park operator. This investment will be used to launch a new technology incubator in Manchester’s Innovation District, creating up to 2000 jobs over the next 10 years (“Mayor opens”, 2018). This was done in accordance to Greater Manchester’s Strategy, which aims to strengthen technology and digital innovation within Manchester.

However, while investments have been made into Manchester’s ‘technology’, whether the ‘innovation’ part of Florida’s ‘technology’ is being achieved is uncertain. This is because Florida uses the number of patents as an indicator of innovation, and Manchester’s

application rate for patents has decreased by 55.5% from 2015 to 2018 (“Cities Data”, n.d.).

5.2.2. Tolerance

5.2.2.1 multinationals. Manchester is known to be one of the most culturally diverse

cities in the UK given its vastly multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multireligious population. According to the 2011 Census, the proportion of White ethnic groups fell by 14.3%, to 66.7% in 2011. Meanwhile, the proportion of Manchester’s Asian subgroup – the largest after the White British – has doubled from 2001 to 2011, to 17.1%. Other subgroups include the black (8.6%) and mixed-race population (4.7%) (Manchester City Council, 2011). Population projections computed based on Office for National Statistics data suggest that by the time the 2021 Census is taken, 40% of Manchester’s population will be comprised of black, Asian, and minority ethnicities (BAME) (Council of Europe, 2019).

Regarding international migration and foreign-born citizens, a significant proportion of Manchester’s population have settled into Manchester recently, with over half the foreign-born population arriving between 2001-2011 (Bullen, 2015). Yet, a lot of Manchester’s population are second- and third-generation communities (Council of Europe, 2019).

Manchester’s current appeal to young adult immigrants has grown due to the level of higher education, the availability of work opportunities, and the decent rent prices (Bullen, 2015).

As part of The Manchester Strategy, the MCC said that “diversity” is one of Manchester’s greatest strengths and should be celebrated (Manchester City Council, n.d.-a). As such, the MCC organizes yearly cultural and religious events. These include: Manchester International Festival, Manchester Mega Mela (which celebrates south-east Asian culture), Caribbean Carnival, Manchester Irish Festival, UK Jewish Film Festival, HOLI ONE Colour Festival (inspired by the Indian Holi Fest), and the Italian Procession. These celebrations have

positioned Manchester in the top Intercultural Cities for its cultural and civic life (Council of Europe, 2019).

The appreciation of diversity is also reflected in the change of demographics within the workforce, with the “progression rate of BAME staff (7.07%) during 2018 [being] 1.13% higher than non-BAME staff (5.94%)” (Manchester City Council, 2019c). This aligns with MCC’s vision of Manchester becoming a place “where residents from all backgrounds…can aspire, succeed and live well” (Manchester City Council, n.d.-b). However, Manchester still has a long way to go given that the overall representation in the workforce is less than the representation these groups have within the city (10% BAME workforce vs 30% BAME population) (Manchester City Council, 2019).

5.2.2.2. non-heterosexual population. Manchester hosts the UK’s second largest

LGBT community, and has a vibrant LGBT+ scene. Manchester’s ‘Gay Village’ has

flourished as a hotspot for nightlife, and hosts annual events such as Pride, Queer Up North, and Get Bent, as well as events during LGBT History Month (Manchester City Council, n.d.-c). Manchester is also seen to be the 13th most LGBT-friendly city in the world according to a

ranking by Nestpick (2017).

The MCC has a history of being an active proponent of the LGBT+ scene: they’ve

continuously funded the LGBT+ Centre since its inauguration in 1988, they’ve sent letters to the Governor of St. Petersburg requesting reconsideration of anti-LGBT law (Manchester City Council, n.d.-d), and have welcomed Manchester’s first openly gay Lord Mayor (GMCA, n.d.-a). They have also announced plans to install the UK’s first retirement

Combined Authorities – which includes the City Council – are scheduled to consider a £450’000 investment put to the renovation of the LGBT+ Centre (GMCA, 2019).

Moreover, a 2016-2019 Hate Crime Strategy was introduced by the Council, which included the establishment of third-party reporting centres, and a yearly ‘Hate Crime Awareness Week’ (Manchester City Council, 2016). Despite this, Greater Manchester Police saw a rise of homophobic hate crimes from 423 to 1’159 since 2013, with the number of charges falling from 82 to 50 (Tucker, Box, & Hunte, 2019; “Homophobic hate crime”, 2019). As a result, the City Council has commissioned a review of the Gay Village to understand what the area signifies for people and businesses and how it can be protected for the future. Yet, the

Council calls this a “listening exercise” that isn’t a “development or regeneration plan for the area” (Manchester City Council, 2020). Thus, the Council’s participation within the LGBT+ community could be rendered ineffective if stronger repercussions for hate crimes aren’t put into place.

5.2.3. Talent

5.2.3.1. attracting talent. Greater Manchester is home to five universities: University

of Salford, University of Manchester, University of Huddersfield, University of Bolton, and Manchester Metropolitan University. Using information compiled by HESA (2020), Table 2 below shows how the number of undergraduate students within Greater Manchester’s universities has grown incrementally, with a 31% increase over the past 5 years. This means that the amount of ‘talent’, according to Florida, emerging out of Manchester’s universities is growing.

University 2015/2016 2016/2017 2017/2018 2018/2019 Huddersfield 14’805 18’280 18’245 17’295 Manchester 27’635 40’490 40’140 40’250 Manchester Metropolitan 26’835 33’010 33’080 33’050 Bolton 5’185 6’425 6’545 6’945 Salford 15’725 19’995 20’290 20’815 TOTAL 90’185 118’200 118’300 118’355

Table 2. Number of undergraduate students per academic year.

Universities are key to fostering talent within the city, as they help create an educated population. The University of Manchester is ranked 27th in the world by QS World

University rankings (Top Universities, 2019). The university has become a hub for attracting international perspectives, with the student population comprising students from 160

countries (“Why international students”, n.d.). Currently, Manchester’s total student population is the largest outside of London (BBC, 2019), with over 100’000 students attending the five major universities (“Universities in Manchester”, n.d.).

The MCC has no current strategy for encouraging further education, however, students are now exempt from paying Council Tax. This can be seen as an investment given that £17m tax revenue will be foregone by the MCC in 2019/2020 (Manchester City Council, 2019a). However, the impact this may have on attracting talent may be negligible. This is because the slight decrease in living costs this would result in is offset by a 37.8% increase in

Manchester’s rental prices since 2014 (Silva, 2019).

5.2.3.2. retaining talent. Just as important as attracting talent is the city’s ability to

retain it. This is especially important given the effects of globalisation, which enhance the permeability of geographic boundaries (Baruch, Budhwar, & Khatri, 2006) as well as people’s willingness to diverge from their native countries and relocate elsewhere (Tung, Worm, & Petersen, 2008). Most graduates from the UK migrate to London (McDonald,

2019), yet, Manchester has one of the highest retention rates of all UK cities, with over 50% of graduates living in the city (Swinney & Williams, 2016).

To retain talent, a novel scheme launched by Manchester’s top universities aims to improve employment prospects for local graduates, reducing the ‘regional brain drain’ to London (“Manchester universities launch”, 2019). This scheme is funded by the Office for Students (OfS), and involves an investment of £290’000 over the course of three years to benefit 1’300 students. To remove barriers to local employment, the focus of this collaboration will be on improving graduates’ digital skills, and helping local students from disadvantaged

backgrounds. Although Manchester’s City Council isn’t funding this project directly, the universities are working with the City Council as well as Greater Manchester’s Combined Authority (University of Manchester, 2019).

5.3. Landry 3Cs and Manchester’s Creativity

5.3.1. Cooperation

While Landry’s ‘cooperation’ resembles Florida’s ‘diversity’, and as such is mostly covered in that subsection, Landry also focuses on the interaction with diversity. This can be

interpreted as how closely knit BAME minorities are in Manchester.

The Intercultural Cities Index (ICC) revealed that Manchester achieved 50% for

neighbourhood diversity, lower than the city sample’s base score of 64% (Intercultural Cities, 2019). While a specific strategy aimed at steady intercultural integration hasn’t been put into place by the MCC, three strategies propel this change indirectly. One of these is the

Forthcoming Affordable Housing Strategy, which aims to create more affordable housing across the city through the provision of a £300 million to support the development of new homes over the next 10 years (GMCA, 2019b). The second one is the 2016-2025 Residential Growth Strategy, which ensures that the housing mix across the city appeals to all residents (Manchester City Council, 2017). Lastly, the GM Transport Strategy aims to improve

connections for all residents through pursuing more than 65 transport projects within the next 5 years (GMCA, 2020). This includes the ongoing £100 million highway investment

programme (Manchester City Council, 2019d). Moreover, the RADEQUAL campaign and grant programme encourages communities to come together, build resilience, and prevent extremism through the organisation of different events (Intercultural Cities, 2019).

Part of Landry’s ‘Cooperation’ is also how internationally connected the city is. The 2017-2020 Internationalisation Strategy aims for Manchester to “compete on the international stage for talent, investment, and trade ideas”. The strategy’s 2013 precursor was deemed successful given the city’s improved relationship with China, continued foreign direct investments, and the further internationalisation of its universities (GMCA, 2017). Yet, the new strategy hasn’t outlined what monetary inputs will be used to make this internationalisation happen.

5.3.2. Culture

Although the city has been reinvented since its industrial past, remnants of the industrial revolution are still highlighted given their importance to the city’s history. Current cultural institutions display exhibitions involving: The Industrial Revolution; the textile industry, which Manchester spearheaded by becoming “Cottonopolis” (Lowe, 1854); and railways, symbolizing the world’s first inter-city railway being built in Manchester (Cornish, 1873). Moreover, architectural heritage has been preserved by giving redundant industrial buildings new economic activities (Mengüşoǧlu & Boyacioglu, 2013) such as cafes, bars, and flats (Allen, 2007; Milestone 1996). These regeneration activities are centred around gentrification and fostering liveability (Quilley, 1999; Allen, 2005). Additionally, the worker bee is seen as a cultural symbol for the city.

MCC’s Manchester Strategy stated that culture boosts the city’s international attractiveness and benefits residents (Manchester City Council, 2019d). In 2018, the construction of an £110 million centre for arts and culture has commenced. In 2019, the MCC launched its first 5-year Culture Strategy to strengthen the city’s culture and heritage (GMCA, 2019c). In line with this strategy, thirty-five cultural organisations received a combined investment of £8.6m in 2019, reaffirming the city’s commitment to its culture (Barlow, 2020).

The working bee’s importance was also highlighted through the Council’s partnership with global public art producer Wild Art, which created over 100 different Bee sculptures to be placed throughout Manchester in 2018 (“FAQs”, n.d.). The most recent display of the worker bee’s importance to Manchester was the Council’s pledge to repair a newly vandalised worker bee sculpture on behalf of the community (Britton, 2020).

Lastly, the MCC has pledged to protect the city’s heritage through conserving and restoring historical buildings. This includes: the £328.5m restoration of Manchester’s Town Hall and Albert Square, which aims to bring the buildings “to modern standards” (“Our Town Hall”, 2017); the regeneration of Manchester’s Northern Quarters, which repurposed vulnerable buildings (“A history of”, 2018); and the ongoing regeneration of the ‘Ancoats’ area, which involves investing in a retail park and mix-use developments (“Refreshed plans for”, 2020).

Yet, Manchester’s continuous regeneration poses an increasing threat to the heritage and authenticity of the city (Canniffee, 2018). Although urban regeneration in certain areas may create a more desirable and attractive city (Coupland, 1997), attempts to commodify heritage shows a favour for the ‘sanitized’ version of the post-industrial city rather than its industrial precursor (Atkinson, Cooke, & Spooner, 2002; Nikolić, 2014). Moreover, it can be said that trying to boost the city’s international attractiveness – and hence attract tourists – can harm the city’s heritage (Ashworth, 2009). Thus, while the MCC has been funding Manchester’s culture, whether the ongoing regeneration of the city celebrates or erases its heritage is uncertain.

5.3.3. Communication

Landry’s view of ‘communication’ involves looking at how inclusive the city is when solving problems. This would refer to how often citizens’ voices are included when major decisions are made by the MCC.

As part of the Greater Manchester Strategy, the MCC’s vision for Manchester involves the city being “a place where all voices are heard and where, working together, we can shape our future” (GMCA, n.d.-b). This displays the Council adhering to Landry’s ‘Communication’. GMConsult – part of the Council – is a place where people contribute to what happens in Greater Manchester (“Your Area,”, n.d.). GMConsult allows Manchester’s residents to complete surveys pertaining to policy changes and join consultations.

Recent consultations reveal how the MCC has implemented people’s responses into decision-making. Such consultations included the MCC asking residents: if they support an increase in council tax to invest in neighbourhood policing (which was agreed upon and implemented); about their experiences with hate crimes (which was used to draft strategy plans), and

feedback on Manchester’s Cultural Strategy (which was used to update the strategy) (“We Asked”, 2020).

Moreover, previous years’ consultations also covered monetary decisions, where people got a say on things such as which budget items should be prioritized (which led to monetary

readjustments), and building homeless accommodation (“Closed consultations”, n.d.). These surveys also catered to teenagers, who were asked what leisure opportunities they’d like to see in Manchester. Their feedback resulted in the instalment of several sports-, music-, and culture-related opportunities (“We Asked”, 2020). By providing residents the chance to partake in decision-making, the MCC can be said to be in line with Landry’s

5.4. Results.

The following table summarizes the investigation’s findings, visually displaying how the MCC has acted upon and implemented actions with regards to the three ‘creative city’ models. Policies/Strategies Direct Investments Contradicting Investments Verhagen’s ‘Green’

Yes Yes Yes

Verhagen’s ‘Clean’ Yes Yes Yes

Verhagen’s ‘Safe’ Yes Yes No

Florida’s ‘Technology’ Yes Yes No Florida’s ‘Tolerance’ Yes Yes No

Florida’s ‘Talent’ No Yes No

Landry’s ‘Culture’ Yes Yes Uncertain

Landry’s ‘Communication’ Yes Yes No Landry’s ‘Cooperation’ Yes Yes No

Table 3. Completed Framework (by Derya Yildirim).

Having carried out this study, it’s possible to discuss the effectiveness of the actions carried out by the MCC, and whether the resulting outcomes allow Manchester to be deemed a ‘creative city’.

CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION

Manchester’s shift from an industrial city to a post-industrial metropolis has impacted the city both positively and negatively. While this change widened the economic disparity in and around the city, it has also allowed creative, cultural, and technological institutions to flourish, capturing the attention of both national and international workers, and becoming a city of supposed opportunity.

To answer the research question “Is Manchester a Creative City?”, the MCC’s active involvement across all models shows that Manchester can theoretically be classified as a ‘Creative City’ according to all three theorists. However, the answer is less clear-cut when assessing how successful these implementations were, and whether contradicting investments were made by the MCC.

Verhagen’s model revealed the largest grey area in terms of effectiveness and contradicting investments. Manchester’s ‘Greenness’ was backed up by the heavy investment into public spaces and parks, yet hampered due to the excessive investment into road and airport expansions, and limited government funding. ‘Cleanliness’ was funded through several investments and awareness campaigns, yet their long-term effectiveness is questioned given the surge in fly-tipping and rodent infestations. Manchester’s ‘Safety’ is ambiguous, as it’s the second most dangerous area in the UK, with half the people feeling unsafe walking on the street, and yet most people feeling safe at night. Given that increased police funding is recent, the impact will be clarified in the future.

Manchester is most concretely classified as a ‘Creative City’ when Florida’s model is applied. However, the MCC’s contribution to this achievement is uncertain. With regards to ‘Tolerance’, Manchester has shown an increase in diversity, yet the amount of money invested by the MCC in terms of certain international and LGBTQ+ events is unknown. While ‘Technology’ received large investments by the MCC, the number of patents

decreased over time – and the impact of this on the achievement of Florida’s ‘Technology’ in Manchester’s context is undetermined. The city’s talent has also increased; this can be

The application of Landry’s model by the MCC is mostly indirect, with success being subjective given the model’s vagueness. Firstly, regarding ‘Cooperation’, MCC’s implementations were indirect, with a causal relationship being tentative. Whether investments into new houses and transportation systems has led to a closely knit, diverse community is speculative. Additionally, an internationalisation strategy with no proposed monetary investment may have limited impact. Moreover, investment into ‘Culture’ has been made clear, although a debate may persist regarding whether the modernisation and

improvement of cultural areas replaces or emphasizes heritage (Serageldin, 1997; Persson, 2004). Yet, Landry’s ‘Communication’ was achieved given that the MCC has financially invested in people’s opinions.

To conclude, Manchester is a Creative City only in theory. Given the multiple causal ambiguities, potentially unfulfilled future promises, numerous sources of funding (of which the Council has no control over), and confounding factors, titling Manchester a ‘Creative City’, as a result of the Council’s efforts, would be a simplistic and gross overstatement.

6.1. Contribution

This paper’s contribution to literature is that it analyses Manchester through various ‘creative city’ models using a state-of-the-art review approach, thus emphasizing a modern city’s requirements for becoming a Creative City according to different theorists. Moreover, it shows the applicability of investigating creative cities using policy analysis, and how certain (indirect) policies may aid in enhancing a city’s ‘creative city’ status. Policy makers may find this study’s results useful in observing the impact of specific policies within the context of an up-and-coming city characterized by a dichotomous socioeconomic nature.

6.2. Limitations

This study has several limitations. Firstly, the ‘creative city’ models were not all clearly defined. In Verhagen’s model, the subsets were vaguely defined and weren’t quantified. Moreover, Landry didn’t coin his tri-partite model himself; other theorists (Reis, 2009), researchers (e.g. Oliveira & Paulino ,2017) and authors (e.g. Cocco & Szaniecki, 2015) have categorized his literature as such, making Landry’s model less concrete. Additionally, Florida’s model included numerical indexes that were omitted in this study due to limited secondary data – this may have affected results. Secondly, the reliability of this paper’s data is uncertain given that: the data is secondary, the MCC self-reports investments, future action

is yet to be discerned, and limited up-to-date information is available. Lastly, distinguishing between causation and correlation is difficult when it comes to social policies given the multiple confounding factors.

6.3. Reflection

Before writing my research paper, I had idealized Manchester, and began writing this paper as a show of passion for the city. However, after studying the city, and reading the extensive amount of literature listed below, that passion has turned into a humbled and mature

appreciation for the city’s negative and positive aspects. What I thought would be a resounding ‘yes’ to my research question turned into an inconclusive grey area of what’s causal, which actors are at play, and whether statements of future action by the MCC were merely lip service. After this research, I have a less naïve point of view regarding policies and how these propel change, and understand the importance of quantitative measures in analysis.

6.4. Future research

For future research, it would be of interest to update the models; clarifying their bounds and applicability to cities – especially in the case of Landry and Verhagen. Particularly, adding weightings of ‘importance’ to models whose subsets are multi-componential (E.g.

Verhagen’s ‘Greenness’ includes both green space and fresh air), would help clarify essential qualities pertaining to Creative Cities. Lastly, quantitative tools/indicators would be useful in assessing cross-national cities uniformly and diminishing uncertainty during evaluation.

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https://www.manchester.gov.uk/downloads/download/7038/workforce_equality_profi le_2018-19

Manchester City Council. (2019d). State of the City Report 2019. Retrieved from https://www.manchester.gov.uk/stateofthecity