tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/manchester-5560/articlesManchester – The Conversation2024-01-07T15:35:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2184852024-01-07T15:35:53Z2024-01-07T15:35:53ZWhy traditional cooking isn’t always healthier: the case of Ghanaians in Manchester and in Accra<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567995/original/file-20240105-20-wdtvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C2000%2C1365&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Analysis of participants' photos demonstrated hybrid cooking practices, with a combination of ingredients and cooking methods and/or techniques.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In popular discussions of healthy eating, including political rhetoric and nutrition counselling, women are often blamed for a lack of nutrition knowledge or cooking skills, leading to the assumption that a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2008.01922">decline in cooking skills is connected with unhealthy diets and obesity</a>. This has been called a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Evolution-of-Deficit-Thinking-Educational-Thought-and-Practice/Valencia/p/book/9780750706650">“deficit approach”</a> and my research with Ghanaian women set out to <a href="https://axa-research.org/funded-projects/health/towards-healthier-culinary-practices-among-overweight-and-obese-ghanaian-women">challenge some of its assumptions</a>.</p>
<p>Previous studies on Ghanaian immigrants showed that following their arrival in the United Kingdom, most <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03014460.2017.1333148">maintained their dietary traditions</a>. This cuts against the perception that they, like others, would <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48710190">quickly succumb to fast-food culture in high-income countries</a>. We also know that traditional diets, while seemingly healthy, can also contain <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912420301061">excess calories and fat</a> and thus cause a range of health issues such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, and hypertension. The reason for this may lie in the way the home-cooked food is prepared, cooked, or served.</p>
<h2>Seeing versus telling</h2>
<p>We asked Ghanaian women living in Manchester, England, and in Accra, Ghana, to take photographs of their own cooking experience. We then used the photographs as a prompt to allow participants to tell the “stories” of their everyday cooking.</p>
<p>In both countries, the women said that they viewed their practices as a distinct subtype of home cooking, characterised by raw ingredients and/or whole foods, locally produced ingredients and specialised equipment. They also saw themselves as cooking with love and care and adhering to culturally acceptable ways of feeding their families.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I have introduced my kids to the local dishes, and they love them, and one of my boy’s favourites is yam. Every now and then I tend to cook spinach or what is called ‘nkontomire’.” (Manchester resident)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Analysis of participants’ photos demonstrated hybrid cooking practices, with a combination of ingredients and cooking methods and/or techniques. In some cases, the hybrid methods contributed to unhealthy food practices, including the excessive use of oil and processed foods/flavourings; extended periods of stewing and frying. Many women continued to cherish their <em>asanka</em>, an earthenware grinding pot central to Ghanaian cooking.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“[An ‘asanka’] is very important in every Ghanaian home, because there are some foods that you cannot prepare using the blender, as it will not taste nice.” (Manchester resident)</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563713/original/file-20231205-21-rie53f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563713/original/file-20231205-21-rie53f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563713/original/file-20231205-21-rie53f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563713/original/file-20231205-21-rie53f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563713/original/file-20231205-21-rie53f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563713/original/file-20231205-21-rie53f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563713/original/file-20231205-21-rie53f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The <em>asanka</em> is a traditional Ghanian grinding pot, a key tool of Ghanaian kitchens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not surprisingly, the adoption of newer ways of cooking has been linked to the “nutrition transition”, where populations across the world are embracing a food revolution. Studies have shown that many in Britain have abandoned traditional ways of cooking and turned to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2013.12.014">new ways of cooking and eating</a>.</p>
<p>While a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975518791431">general decline in cooking skills has also been reported</a> in many western societies over the past decades, this was not the case for Ghanaian women both in Ghana and the UK. Our findings showed that they love to cook, and saw maintaining traditional foods as being a central part of their cultural heritage. While they made use of freezers and microwaves, these were used as tools to help them maintain their cultural heritage – for example, cooking in bulk to create food stocks that would last days or weeks.</p>
<h2>When tradition doesn’t rhyme with safety</h2>
<p>While traditional Ghanaian cooking was perceived as being healthier, this is not always the case. In Ghana, disease risks included foodborne illnesses, and both there and in the UK, the risk of obesity, high cholesterol and heart disease were highlighted. In Ghana, those interviewed strongly emphasised the need for clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, while concerns about the adulteration of packaged and/or processed ethnic foods were highlighted in both settings.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The ingredients make the food healthy.” (Accra resident)</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563706/original/file-20231205-27-759nes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563706/original/file-20231205-27-759nes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563706/original/file-20231205-27-759nes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563706/original/file-20231205-27-759nes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563706/original/file-20231205-27-759nes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563706/original/file-20231205-27-759nes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563706/original/file-20231205-27-759nes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563706/original/file-20231205-27-759nes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To better understand the willingness of Ghanaian women in Manchester to change unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, in another study we assessed their readiness to engage in healthier dietary practices and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10389-022-01777-1">reduce the risk of obesity</a>. We found that despite the women recognising that obesity was an important health issue, it was not seen as a priority for targeting change. Our research suggests sociocultural rules and structural determinants often specify which foods are considered preferable, cooking choices as well as the differences in habitual intake for different people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563708/original/file-20231205-27-pz9rq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563708/original/file-20231205-27-pz9rq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563708/original/file-20231205-27-pz9rq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563708/original/file-20231205-27-pz9rq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563708/original/file-20231205-27-pz9rq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563708/original/file-20231205-27-pz9rq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563708/original/file-20231205-27-pz9rq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<blockquote>
<p>“It takes a lot of time to cook over a fire and it produces a lot of smoke, which ends up making the food reek.” (Accra resident)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Like <a href="https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/126956">many others around the world</a>, cooking for Ghanaian women has a range of dimensions. Perceptions of “good” cooking were linked to nutrition and health but also had social, cultural, and emotional associations. There is therefore the need to continue to challenge the idea that women lack knowledge or the will to cook healthy foods.</p>
<p>Instead, health promotion interventions need to emphasise social, cultural, and emotional connotations of cooking in addition to the usual emphasis on physical health, for recommendations to resonate with women’s realities.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Created in 2007 to help accelerate and share scientific knowledge on key societal issues, the Axa Research Fund has supported nearly 700 projects around the world conducted by researchers in 38 countries. To learn more, visit the site of the Axa Research Fund or follow on Twitter @AXAResearchFund.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>To better understand Ghanaian women in Manchester, England, we asked them to tell the “stories” of their everyday cooking through photographs.Hibbah Araba Osei-Kwasi, Lecturer, Loughborough UniversitySawudatu Zakariah-Akoto, Research fellow in nutrition, University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145062023-09-28T16:40:37Z2023-09-28T16:40:37ZHow HS2 caused the UK to lose focus on ‘levelling up’ during years of high-speed rail delays<p>Pressure on the UK government to confirm its plans for the controversial HS2 high-speed rail project is growing as the Conservative party prepares for its annual conference.</p>
<p>Much of the country is keen to hear about the fate of HS2. But since the conference is being held in Manchester, one of the northern cities set to benefit from HS2 if it goes ahead, this is intensifying calls for a decision.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1707310535203532842"}"></div></p>
<p>The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, are weighing up the rising costs versus the benefits of HS2. In particular, they must decide on whether the high-speed rail line should continue beyond Birmingham. The eastern link to Leeds has already been cancelled, and the leg to the East Midlands is yet to be confirmed. </p>
<p>Now, rising costs mean HS2 could also terminate at Old Oak Common in West London, rather than its original Euston terminus in central London. This would turn a high-speed connection between major English cities into the “<a href="https://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/2023/08/why-is-hs2-costing-so-much/">Acton to Aston line</a>”.</p>
<p>The idea behind HS2 was to generate prosperity and opportunity for areas of the country suffering disadvantage. But do high-speed trains represent the most effective way of doing this? </p>
<p>Although Sunak continues to voice his commitment to <a href="https://levellingup.campaign.gov.uk/">levelling up</a> and “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hs2-rail-project-costs-planned-route-latest-b2418488.html#:%7E:text=levelling%20up%20and-,spreading%20opportunity,-around%20the%20country">spreading opportunity around the country</a>”, UK high-speed rail links do not seem to offer value for money in the current environment of rising costs. </p>
<h2>The rising costs of HS2</h2>
<p>Over the decade since 2013, when construction commenced on the first phase of HS2, it has come under regular scrutiny because of rising costs. Work on the 140-mile London to Birmingham line, originally <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-much-hs2-cost-money-spent-uk-2023-wvz9hdnz3">estimated at £16 billion</a>, is now <a href="https://www.hs2.org.uk/what-is-hs2/hs2-funding/#:%7E:text=The%20overall%20budget%20for%20Phase,One%20is%202029%20to%202033.">budgeted at £44.6 billion</a>. </p>
<p>At £300 million per mile, this is considerably higher than typical costs for constructing high-speed rail in Europe, according to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-much-hs2-cost-money-spent-uk-2023-wvz9hdnz3">analysis by The Times</a>. The cheapest recent project, Spain’s Madrid to Galicia line, cost £19 million a mile and the highest, Stuttgart to Munich in Germany, came in at less than a quarter of HS2 at £70 million a mile. </p>
<p>Trains operating well in excess of 300kmh (186mph) are running <a href="https://www.railway-technology.com/features/the-10-fastest-high-speed-trains-in-the-world/?cf-view">across the world</a> – and <a href="https://etrr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s12544-017-0233-0">research shows</a> that being able to transport people and goods by high-speed train confers advantages to local economies. Stronger transport links encourage the development of local business ecosystems that suppliers of specialised goods and services, as well as labour, can reach more easily.</p>
<p>The Department for Transport (DfT) argued the case for disadvantaged communities being close to trains with a maximum speed of 250mph in <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/480649/annex-hs2-and-the-market-for-business-travel.pdf">a 2015 report</a>. It outlined the case for attracting knowledge-based firms to these areas, because they had created jobs at three times the rate of other sectors since 1984. In a report produced the same year, the Economic Affairs Committee spoke of using rail connections to integrate UK cities that each “<a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201415/ldselect/ldeconaf/134/13410.htm">possess their own specialism</a>”, arguing this would increase productivity.</p>
<p>But even with these acknowledgements of the potential competitive advantage, Britain’s progress in developing a high-speed network has so far been <a href="https://www.eupoliticalreport.eu/high-speed-rail-goes-slow/">limited to the HS1 link</a> between St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel. Southeastern Rail operates HS1, which was opened in two sections in 2003 and 2007. It has <a href="https://highspeed1.co.uk/about-us">a maximum speed</a> of just over 185mph (for international services) and cost £6.84 billion to build (£51 million per mile). It was completed on time and under budget. </p>
<p>HS1 is estimated to delivers an annual economic benefit of <a href="https://highspeed1.co.uk/media/vemkxmot/delivering-for-britain-and-beyond-the-economic-impact-of-hs1-march-2020.pdf">£427 million</a>. Among many factors, this is based on the cumulative effect of reduced journey times, as well as productivity gains from “agglomeration”, which is when many businesses are attracted to one area – think Silicon Valley. They benefit from cost savings by being close to each other and attracting an ecosystem of useful services and workers. </p>
<p><strong>The vision for HS2</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551025/original/file-20230928-15-ri4jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing the HS2 train routes and additional connections to Scotland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551025/original/file-20230928-15-ri4jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551025/original/file-20230928-15-ri4jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551025/original/file-20230928-15-ri4jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551025/original/file-20230928-15-ri4jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551025/original/file-20230928-15-ri4jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551025/original/file-20230928-15-ri4jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551025/original/file-20230928-15-ri4jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What could have been: a HS2 service destination map from June 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mediacentre.hs2.org.uk/resources/hs2-vl-41185-hs2-print-service-map-post-irp-220607">HS2.org.uk</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the relative success of HS1, Labour’s transport secretary Lord Adonis <a href="https://www.newcivilengineer.com/archive/adonis-to-announce-high-speed-rail-plans-today-11-03-2010/">announced a new plan</a> to build a high-speed rail link between London Euston and Birmingham’s Curzon Street on March 11 2010. He said high-speed lines would be built northwards to Manchester, Leeds, the East Midlands and Newcastle, with connectivity to the existing lines enabling through services to Scotland. These lines, <a href="https://railnews.mobi/news/2009/09/29-hs2-will-be-the-union.html">Adonis suggested</a>, would unite England and Scotland, north and south, and lead to greater “sharing wealth and opportunity, pioneering a fundamentally better Britain”. </p>
<p>With an estimated cost of <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/explainer/high-speed-2-costs#:%7E:text=HS2%20would%20cost-,%C2%A337.5bn,-in%202009%20prices">£37.5 billion</a> in 2013 (at 2009 prices), HS2 represented considerable public investment to achieve what’s now commonly referred to as “levelling up”. However, even at the outset of this project, the theory that high-speed trains significantly reducing journey times would result in the sort of economic and social benefit claimed by Adonis were questioned. In 2013, former business secretary Lord Mandelson warned it might prove to be an “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5be0c442-e31d-11e2-bd87-00144feabdc0">expensive mistake</a>”.</p>
<p>Labour lost the general election in May 2010 and was replaced by a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition that was committed to cutting public expenditure. Government support for HS2 to achieve wealth creation outside the capital continued, however. The David Cameron-led government supposedly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/25/rishi-sunak-hs2-politics-britain0">saw HS2 as a “counterbalance”</a> to extreme “local austerity”. A parliamentary <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/31/notes/division/2">bill was passed</a> in 2013 to start construction.</p>
<h2>Unachievable</h2>
<p>But any economic benefits of HS2 that were justified at the outset have diminished over the last 10 years, to the point that they are now <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/11/12/hs2-will-cost-taxpayers-economic-benefits-will-deliver-government/">considered negligible</a>. According to leaked analysis carried out by the DfT last year, increasing costs means HS2 will “deliver just 90 pence in economic benefit for every £1 it costs”.</p>
<p>Critics of HS2 now consider it to be abnormally expensive and the government’s authority on major projects, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, says the first two phases of HS2 (London to Birmingham and Birmingham to Crewe) are “<a href="https://www.railway-technology.com/news/hs2-unachievable-rating-government-authority/">unachievable</a>” due to potentially “unresolvable” issues with the schedule, budget and delivery of benefits, among other problems.</p>
<p>Investment in infrastructure is urgently required in urban areas in the north of England to ensure it benefits from east-west connectivity through <a href="https://www.centreforcities.org/levelling-up/">reliable and efficient train services</a>. But these links could be built faster and cheaper than HS2.</p>
<p>And had the money budgeted for this eye-wateringly expensive project been spent on regeneration, housing and stimulating opportunity for investment in innovation and job creation over the last decade, genuine levelling up in the north of England might already be well under way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven McCabe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With all delays on this train line over the last decade, it may have been a costly distraction from other projects that could have contributed to levelling up in the meantime.Steven McCabe, Associate Professor and political economist, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2126402023-09-01T12:51:45Z2023-09-01T12:51:45ZLocal journalism: why a tiny news operation could inspire a different approach and is attracting big name support<p>It started as a one-person operation, funded by personal savings and based in a bedroom, with a mission to provide a new format for local news in Manchester, and now The Mill is attracting £350,000 of <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/regional-newspapers/the-mill-invesment/">funding</a> from some big names in journalism including the former BBC director general Sir Mark Thompson.</p>
<p>The sums involved aren’t huge, but the significance for local journalism in the UK should not be underestimated. The Mill is expanding as local newspapers around the UK, <a href="https://www.cjr.org/local_news/local_reporters_decline_coverage_density.php">and the world</a>, <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/reach-to-make-200-redundancies/">are closing down or shedding staff</a>, creating <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/states-main/">news deserts</a> where local issues go unreported. So what is the Mill doing right and could it be a model for a new type of local journalism? </p>
<p>As someone who has worked in local journalism, including the much-missed Liverpool Daily Post, I have watched as newspapers have shut their local offices, <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/most-reach-journalists-work-home-after-covid-19-mail-online-prepares-return-newsroom/">contracted newsrooms</a> and in some cases stopped printing and turned to web-only operations, so the success of The Mill as part of this climate is worth noting. </p>
<p><a href="https://manchestermill.co.uk">The Mill</a> was founded by journalist Joshi Herrmann in 2020, beginning as a local news newsletter for Manchester before expanding into Liverpool with The Post and The Tribune in Sheffield. It has plans to add Birmingham coverage soon.</p>
<p>I have been interested in The Mill from the beginning. When it first launched I invited Herrmann to talk to my journalism students about the project, then very much in its infancy. We spoke on Zoom during the height of the pandemic, my students at home and Herrmann from a motorway service station where he had stopped on his travels.</p>
<p>He outlined the inspiration, the plans he had, the style of journalism he wanted to revive. He was clearly driven and committed.</p>
<p>He also explained the beginnings of The Mill when interviewed on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001812m">BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours</a>, and why he thought there was a gap in the market. He had found himself back in his hometown of Manchester during lockdown and noticed that his <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk">local newspaper, the Manchester Evening News</a>, owned by <a href="https://www.reachplc.com">the UK’s largest commercial news publisher</a> Reach, had shifted away from the “traditional” news and features he remembered from when he was growing up. </p>
<p>He wondered if there was a market for the type of news and features that the UK’s regional press were once so famous for and which they did so well.</p>
<p>So he created a daily newsletter paid for by subscribers who might get only one story a day but it would be detailed, and well researched and something they weren’t reading elsewhere, and worth – he hoped – their time and money.</p>
<p>Latest pieces in <a href="https://www.livpost.co.uk">The Post</a> include an article on Liverpool’s litter problem approached from the perspective of a volunteer litter picker, while another article explains why the city isn’t in the middle of a knife-crime epidemic despite “nine stabbings in five days”.</p>
<p>What started as a one-man operation is now a team of nine and it is advertising <a href="https://millmediaco.uk">three new staff positions at the moment</a>. The Mill has 5,000 paying subscribers and thousands more who read the open-access stories.</p>
<p>The list of investors attracted to The Mill’s model of local journalism is impressive: Nicholas Johnston of <a href="https://www.axios.com">Axios, which operates local news sites in the US</a>, Turi Munthe, founder of photojournalism network Demotix, and David Rosenberg of Snap Inc.</p>
<p>The backer who really stands out is Thompson, former CEO of Channel 4 and CEO of the New York Times and former director general of the BBC. It is a big win for The Mill.</p>
<h2>Change or die</h2>
<p>In the rush to digital and to find an alternative to advertising revenues and physical sales, local newspapers had to adapt or die.</p>
<p>Five years ago, the UK government – with Theresa May as prime minister – commissioned an independent review into UK journalism and in 2019 published <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-cairncross-review-a-sustainable-future-for-journalism">The Cairncross Review: a sustainable future for journalism</a>, expressing concerns about the future of national and local newsgathering. </p>
<p>It made for difficult reading. Print sales had halved between 2007 and 2017; print advertising revenues had fallen by 69% and only one in ten people was reading a regional or local printed paper each week.</p>
<p>It also made a number of recommendations, including that online platforms should have a “news quality obligation” to improve trust in the news.</p>
<p>Recently, <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk">the Reuters Digital News Report 2023</a> found that trust in news has fallen, reversing gains made at the height of the pandemic, suggesting this is a continuing problem, but that increasing numbers of people, of all ages, were taking steps to actively find “reliable news”, rather than content sent to them by an algorithm.</p>
<p>The Reuters research also found that only a fifth of respondents said they started their “news journeys” with a website or app, down from 2018, preferring social media as a route.</p>
<p>So, here is the opportunity for news innovators. If apps or websites aren’t working, what can? Once it was a paper boy –- or girl –- now local news can be delivered straight into the inbox, reliably and efficiently, via a newsletter, as The Mill does. Other news operations have since decided <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/regional-newspapers/why-the-future-of-digital-only-local-news-may-be-small-focused-and-based-on-email/">the newsletter model</a> is one that has an audience, and followed Herrmann down that route.</p>
<p>Investment into companies such as The Mill could be the start of a new financial model for wider local journalism. So far, it seems to show that there are still people who want to find out what is going on where they live, and some are prepared to pay for it.</p>
<p>If new players like The Mill continue to grow and thrive, demonstrating that vital online “news quality obligation”, they could help to rebuild trust in local news.</p>
<p>It’s good news for people like me who believe in local journalism, however it is delivered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Heathman is affiliated with The Labour Party. </span></em></p>A Manchester-based local news company is turning heads and attracting a new readership.Kate Heathman, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2087782023-07-05T15:03:57Z2023-07-05T15:03:57ZManchester Baccalaureate: how the proposed vocational GCSE route would work – and the pitfalls it must avoid<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535484/original/file-20230704-18-gkpdcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4943%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-high-school-students-assembling-robot-1878690325">Juice Flair/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From September 2024, GCSE pupils in Greater Manchester may be able to embark on a educational pathway created specifically for them. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, announced <a href="https://greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/7867/toward-1.pdf">his plans</a> to introduce a Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc) in May 2023 and a <a href="https://www.gmconsult.org/work-and-skills/mbacc/">public consultation</a> on the plans has recently closed. </p>
<p>The MBacc would not be a new subject or assessment system, but a recommended combination of subjects to be studied at GCSE level. It is intended to provide students in Greater Manchester – a city with strong industrial heritage – with the best preparation to go on to a vocational qualification. </p>
<p>Vocational qualifications include T-levels and apprenticeships, which students can study to prepare for careers in industries such as manufacturing, engineering, financial services and health and social care. </p>
<h2>Another path</h2>
<p>The MBacc is intended to provide an alternative to the existing <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-ebacc/english-baccalaureate-ebacc">English Baccalaureate</a> (EBacc). The EBacc is a set of subjects considered to provide GCSE students with the range of academic knowledge required for further study at A-Level and university. The subjects required for the EBacc are GCSE English literature and language, maths, science, a language and either geography or history. </p>
<p>The MBacc, by contrast, could require students to study maths, English language and technology alongside optional subjects such as engineering, creative arts, or sciences. </p>
<p>The government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-ebacc/english-baccalaureate-ebacc">is aiming</a> for 90% of pupils in England to be taking the EBacc combination of subjects at GCSE by 2025. The MBacc plans would likely interfere with this target. <a href="https://feweek.co.uk/our-mbacc-will-redress-policys-academic-bias/">Burnham has suggested</a> that students will be able to switch between the EBacc and MBacc pathways, although it is not yet clear exactly how this would work. </p>
<p>Presumably students taking MBacc subjects would still be able to go on to do A-levels, but switching subjects in the middle of GCSEs would be far more problematic. GCSEs are studied over a two-year period, so once subjects have been selected it is unlikely that movement could take place between them without disadvantaging the student.</p>
<p>The aim of the MBacc is to establish greater equality in how academic and vocational pathways are valued. Burnham <a href="https://greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/7867/toward-1.pdf">hopes to create</a> “two equal routes – one academic and one technical”. </p>
<p>This certainly seems like a step in the right direction in terms of enhancing the profile of vocational subjects. Not all young people want to go on to higher education. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/7867/toward-1.pdf">MBacc proposal document</a>, in 2022, nearly two-thirds of 16 year olds in Manchester either did not study EBacc subjects, or did <a href="https://greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/7867/toward-1.pdf">not pass them</a>. These students can fall through the gaps in an education system geared up to support progression to university. The aim of the MBacc will then be to guide them towards the subject choices that will most benefit a future in technical careers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students in exam hall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535486/original/file-20230704-20-g2ssu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535486/original/file-20230704-20-g2ssu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535486/original/file-20230704-20-g2ssu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535486/original/file-20230704-20-g2ssu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535486/original/file-20230704-20-g2ssu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535486/original/file-20230704-20-g2ssu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535486/original/file-20230704-20-g2ssu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The MBacc aims to create equality between academic and vocational educational routes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hands-university-student-holding-pen-writing-668259205">AimPix/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The dual offering of the EBacc and MBacc is intended “to give a clear path to all young people in Greater Manchester, whatever their <a href="https://greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/7867/toward-1.pdf">interests, ambitions and passions</a>”. If young people are able to move between vocational and academic tracks easily, this could reduce the perception that the vocational route is a back-up for the “less academic”. Instead, the MBacc could be an active, positive step that would allow students to make meaningful choices at 14, as well as at 16.</p>
<h2>Academic hierarchy</h2>
<p>However, the MBacc may end up perpetuating the very academic-vocational division it claims to address. Where there is choice, there is hierarchy. </p>
<p>A-levels and level three BTECs have technically always been equivalent qualifications but have never been seen as such. <a href="https://ijelt.dundee.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/ijelt.39">Research</a> I carried out with young people before the pandemic suggested that they were highly aware that vocational qualifications are perceived as less academic – and therefore less desirable – than A-levels by parents, teachers and universities. </p>
<p>T-levels were introduced in September 2020 to replace the BTEC qualification, which is due to be defunded in 2024. T-levels have been explicitly positioned by the government as being equivalent to three <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/introduction-of-t-levels/introduction-of-t-levels">full A-levels</a>. </p>
<p>However, these new qualifications have yet to successfully bridge the division between academic and vocational study routes. Some universities – including Oxford and Cambridge and some Russell Group members for particular courses – <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/t-level-resources-for-universities/providers-that-have-confirmed-t-levels-suitable-for-entry-on-one-course">do not accept T-levels</a> as part of their entrance requirements.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://ijelt.dundee.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/ijelt.39">my research</a>, young people said teachers and parents were the most influential sources of advice when they chose their options at 16, with “brighter” students directed towards A-levels. Teachers will need to be supported to give advice that does not assign a hierarchy to the two routes. If this hierarchy emerges, the division that becomes apparent at 16 could begin even earlier. </p>
<p>The MBacc is designed to relate to the specific needs of Manchester, a devolved region with a distinct economy, and may not translate to other areas. However, any initiative that offers greater support to young people wishing to follow a vocational pathway should be welcomed – if with caution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I would like to note my sincere thanks to my University of Manchester colleague Dr Kathryn Telling for the conversations which sparked this article, and for generously allowing me to draw from our shared discussions.</span></em></p>The proposed MBacc needs to avoid perpetuating the academic hierarchy it intends to address.Elizabeth Gregory, Lecturer in Education, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1986952023-05-17T16:25:39Z2023-05-17T16:25:39ZFrom the Manchester bee to the Pompey dot: the psychology of regional tattoos<p>Few things divide us like tattoos. Tell someone you research tattoos, as one of us (Steph) does, and their eyes will often wander, searching for inked designs on your body before compulsively sharing their views. </p>
<p>Steph’s research looks at the assumptions that people in the UK make about those with tattoos – their jobs, class, history and competence. For example, the notion of a <a href="https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/62-year-old-vicar-reveals-tattoo-to-shocked-parishioners#:%7E:text=A%20vicar%20in%20Leeds%20has,tattooed%20on%20his%20left%20forearm.">vicar with a tattoo</a> is still shocking to many people. </p>
<p>Despite the big rise in the <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/08/05/should-visible-tattoos-be-allowed-workplace">popularity of tattoos</a> – a YouGov poll in August 2022 found that more than 25% of Britons have them – some people (and researchers too) still associate them with <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-01511-6#Sec3">deviant personalities</a>. Equally, many may see them as mere fashion accessories with no significance beyond the aesthetic. </p>
<p>But what people may overlook is that tattoos are often about connection to local culture, unity and collective identity. </p>
<p>And that’s not just the case for places often considered to have a strong cultural link with tattooing, such as Polynesia, whose famously intricately designed tattoos have recorded origins <a href="https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/369174">stretching back to 2000BC</a>.</p>
<p>The UK also has its own history of tattoos interlinked with places and communities. And that history is still evolving.</p>
<p>Growing up in Birmingham in the 1970s, Steph was not aware that there were any historical Birmingham-inspired tattoos beyond the local football teams. But recent civic pride has seen a growth of <a href="https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/i-spent-1k-huge-black-26540247">Black Country chain tattoos</a>, represent the manufacturing <a href="https://www.facebook.com/blackcountrytshirts/photos/share-your-black-country-tattoosthis-bostin-design-was-shared-with-us-by-stephen/10158061764603446/">heritage of the area</a>, and <a href="https://www.tattoodo.com/tattoos/1605504">tattoos of a bull</a>, a symbol of Birmingham.</p>
<p><a href="https://greatbritishmag.co.uk/uk-culture/how-popular-is-tattooing-in-the-uk/">Some surveys</a> suggest Birmingham is the most tattooed city in England, with 48% of locals sporting at least one tattoo, and six tattoos the average for those who are inked. The same data also shows locals in Norwich and Glasgow are heavily inked too. </p>
<p>But the regional status of tattoos isn’t just about how common they are. It can relate to a certain aesthetic with a meaning linked to the local area. And often it’s about people categorising themselves to reinforce a sense of community or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/social-identity-theory">form a sense of identity</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most recognisable regional tattoo in recent years is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-commemoration-a-new-way-to-remember-victims-of-terrorism-95626">Manchester bee</a>. Representing hard work, defiance and commemoration, the bee has gained global recognition and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/23/bee-tattoo-raise-money-victims-manchester-bombing">brought people together</a> following the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing in a way that badges and wristbands could not.</p>
<p>Tattoos can also be a form of secret communication known as <a href="https://www.comptia.org/blog/what-is-steganography">steganography</a>. They show hidden messages within other information, a code that is meaningless to outsiders who just “see” the image without knowing the meaning that is in plain view.</p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/whats-on/how-speak-proper-pompey-1057657">Pompey dot</a> tattoo (one to five dots on the back of the hand, between thumb and forefinger) marks the wearer as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/COPA90/videos/what-are-pompey-dots/2317395071904379/">being from Portsmouth</a>. It’s an exclusive brand for those “in the know”. </p>
<h2>If you’re not with us, you’re against us</h2>
<p>Tattoos can also be about telling people, “You’re not one of us.” <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738081X20300717">Football fandom</a>, and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-47735913">hometown allegiances</a> all show proud kinship that veers into this territory. </p>
<p>Take, for example, Millwall FC, whose emblem is a lion. Millwall’s reputation is that “no one likes us” and, for some fans, <a href="https://lowerblock.com/articles/jerome-favre-no-one-likes-us/">wearing body art depicting the lion</a> is as much a part of fandom as attending matches. The sense of unity in being disliked becomes its own <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63836014">cohesive in-group</a>. </p>
<p>Millwall’s tattoos work in two ways: the lion is a fierce in-group symbol, while the proud chant, “No one likes us / We don’t care,” reinforces the barrier between members and the rest of the world (the out-group). </p>
<p>Notorious football fans <a href="https://chelseaheadhunters.co.uk/tattoos/">Chelsea Headhunters</a> show off their tattoos in online galleries. Like Millwall, they are widely disliked, due to their historic links to white supremacist groups such as the National Front, Combat 18 and paramilitary outfits. Tattoos are a way of belonging, yet at the same time, not belonging to wider society.</p>
<h2>Ancient roots</h2>
<p>If you follow the tendrils of tattoo history back far enough, their association with defiant out-groups is historical. Evidence of ancient tattooing has been found throughout Egypt, where it was mostly the preserve of concubines and dancers wearing the symbol of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RKZGDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT23&dq=ancient+egypt+tattooed+priestess&ots=qt69Rp0JRe&sig=7edlMuOSidW653OXDyqIQTKdKNA">protector goddess Bes</a>. </p>
<p>Around 1050BC, before the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=rrU-EAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=who+were+the+phoenicians&ots=jcGOlhCazc&sig=C_y3_YRacpVyFVUS6FmIStvHHG0">Phoenicians</a> invented the alphabet that would become the basis of many modern scripts, Phoenician craftsmen such as stone-cutters or rope-makers would tattoo images depicting their skills on their skin as a kind of CV to display their trades. </p>
<p>People no longer need to advertise their trades and skills on their skin, and instead choose to show allegiances and identities. Now, flag tattoos of nations, sexuality and genders <a href="https://www.flaginstitute.org/pdfs/Scot%20Guenter.pdf">have become a kind of social CV</a>.</p>
<p>Many gay communities sport tattoos that go beyond the traditional rainbow. The leather pride and bear brotherhood flags serve dual purposes. They are recognisable to those in the know, yet impenetrable to those who are not (who may wish the wearer harm). </p>
<p>However, modern tattoo tribalism is sometimes driven by fads. The popularity of the <a href="https://tattmag.com/celtic-tattoos/">Celtic knot or band</a> tattoo in the 1990s has waned. At its peak it was the fashionable tattoo-of-choice, with many wearers sporting it for the aesthetics and fashion, yet they <a href="https://www.letsgoireland.com/celtic-knot-meanings/">didn’t understand its meaning</a> and historical significance as a source of (tribal) pride for non-English wearers. </p>
<p>Despite this, the idea of outsider groups using tattoos as catalogues of deviancy still persists. As one tattooed participant in Stephanie’s research told her: “We’re not all prostitutes and prisoners are we?” </p>
<p>Similarly, another tattooed participant said: “I don’t think I’ve ever met a person with face tattoos who has their life together… that’s a remnant of prejudice … passed down to me by the generation above.”</p>
<p>They may have a divisive history but tattoos are a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342121840_Tattoo_A_Cultural_Heritage">visual language</a> that can unify people, depending on if the users wish to expose or hide their allegiances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Throughout their history, tattoos have helped bind together out-groups.Stephanie Talliss-Foster, PhD candidate, Birmingham City UniversityCraig Jackson, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1982102023-02-02T13:34:45Z2023-02-02T13:34:45ZCOVID heroes left behind: the ‘invisible’ women struggling to make ends meet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506196/original/file-20230124-26-s0p9pj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=239%2C163%2C6011%2C2397&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/abstract-portrait-red-hair-woman-fashion-2176106403">Iryna Shek/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kesrewan* holds herself upright and speaks confidently, even though English is her second language. But she admits that her “heart is beating faster”. Talking to us is reminding her of her most recent failed job interview – one of many since she arrived from the Middle East seeking asylum more than 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Kesrewan, now in her 50s, is a pragmatic woman but she grows emotional telling her story. She wishes she knew why her latest interview for a staff job at the information service where she already volunteers has again been unsuccessful. She would like some feedback on what she did wrong, or how to improve.</p>
<p>Aged 30, Kesrewan arrived from the Middle East as a highly qualified woman with experience as a newspaper editor and librarian. Yet despite her best efforts – taking multiple classes, working voluntarily to maintain her skills, helping out in community organisations – she has always struggled to translate this into meaningful work in the UK.</p>
<p>Given her limited language skills and with children to support, once she gained legal status she initially took on any work she could find, such as cleaning and kitchen jobs. She thinks her employers often preferred that she had no English because she could not complain about the conditions. She says she was “too ashamed” to tell family and friends in the UK and back home about her cleaning work.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Kesrewan’s story is indicative of most of the 100 women aged 50 and over that we have interviewed for the <a href="https://uncertainfuturesproject.co.uk/">Uncertain Futures project</a>. All live in Greater Manchester, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027795361930067X">often precariously</a>. Not all are permitted to work in the UK, but those who do typically struggle to find secure, full-time employment. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64441775">New research</a> by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has found that UK firms and public services are much less open to hiring older workers than their younger peers. Its survey of more than 1,000 managers found that just 42% were “to a large extent” open to hiring people aged between 50 and 64, compared with 74% for those aged 18-34 and 64% for 35 to 49-year-olds.</p>
<p>Our interviewees typically work in kitchens, warehouses, or as cleaners maintaining the environments of offices, schools and high-street stores. Others work in badly paid or voluntary care roles, supporting older people and those with disabilities. Most who do get paid are on zero-hour contracts. Many describe having experienced abuse and discrimination.</p>
<p>Kesrewan now seems resigned to her “life in the shadows” – struggling even to secure the kinds of job that the <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press/brexit-exacerbated-labour-shortages-in-the-uk-but-is-not-the-only-cause/">UK desperately needs to fill</a> but which offer little reward and poor conditions. Women like her are largely unseen and their voices usually go unheard – whether because of their lack of English, their employers’ failure to recognise their experiences and skills, or the blind eye that the authorities and general public often seem to turn to them.</p>
<p>“I haven’t done enough jobs – I didn’t have the chance,” she reflects sadly. “Really that’s confusing for me. It wasn’t like me to sit at home and not want to get a job.”</p>
<h2>A ‘watershed moment’</h2>
<p>The COVID pandemic was briefly imagined to be a watershed moment for “invisible workers” in the UK and elsewhere. Jobs that had traditionally been undervalued were now understood to be “essential”. The importance of keeping workspaces clean and germ-free was suddenly appreciated. Carers, nurses, bus drivers and many more put themselves at enormous personal risk to keep people safe and society functioning. Volunteers stepped in to help the vulnerable when statutory support all but collapsed. <a href="https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1745057/low-paid-and-frontline-workers-most-at-risk-of-covid-related-death">Many people died</a> because of the work, paid or unpaid, that they continued to perform.</p>
<p>Löis, who works full-time while also caring for her mother who has dementia, describes the countless attributes required of carers like her:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You have to be kind, patient. You have to be a good planner. You have to be able to pick up the unexpected, mentally, physically. You have to coordinate the services that may or may not help you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But Löis struggles with the idea that none of this is recognised as a skill, or as experience which is valued by society. When she asks herself what all of this is worth, she replies quietly: “I’m not sure.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three illlustrations of the same woman, from invisible to visible" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/woman-face-side-silhouettes-people-three-2056030445">Hub Design/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Kesrewan too, it is a source of pain to feel so invisible. While she has helped younger, more inexperienced volunteers to secure paid roles, she feels her age is now an additional factor hindering her own ability to get a job. She has applied five times for a paid role in the information service where she has volunteered for seven years, but has always failed at the interview on the grounds that she does not have “sufficient experience”. She feels sad that discrimination based on age – “coupled with your skin colour, your background, your nationality” – is still so prevalent in recruitment practices.</p>
<p>The cruel irony is that there are now <a href="https://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/articles/three-quarters-of-uk-companies-hit-by-labour-shortages-in-last-12-months-cbipertemps/">severe labour shortages</a> across the UK’s care, health and social work sectors, and in some administration and office support activities. Non-British migrant workers are <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-labour-market-an-overview/">over-represented in these sectors</a> but, despite the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64441775">pressing need to fill these roles</a>, they are often non-permanent jobs offering only zero-hour contracts.</p>
<p>The women we meet are keen to work hard in fulfilling roles that support themselves and their families. Some have little understanding or knowledge about retirement and pensions, and many express deep concern about whether they will ever earn enough money to retire. Gemma, 59, says she can see herself “cleaning toilets till I’m 85”, adding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You’re always scrabbling to pay rent in the private sector – it’s very expensive and precarious. I think I could live on the living allowance [state pension], but I might be living in a treetop in a park to do it.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=115%2C23%2C3727%2C1967&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of an older woman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=115%2C23%2C3727%2C1967&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/black-lives-matter-concept-equality-different-1907211748">Amverlly/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Degrading work</h2>
<p>Many of the women we meet are extremely well qualified, but that hasn’t stopped them experiencing degrading working situations. Azade is 60 and her story is fairly typical.</p>
<p>Qualified with a degree in agriculture from a university in the Middle East and with many years’ experience in gardening and managing farms, Azade arrived in the UK 24 years ago with two little girls – one of whom had been born en route. “Very long travel,” she recalls. “I have my baby on my way as it was a really awkward time.”</p>
<p>Needing to support herself and her children, Azade was only able to work after securing her refugee status, which took two years. She initially sought out work as a tailor but describes the conditions as “slave work – for a very, very small amount of money. But still I had to do it because I am a single mum with two children.”</p>
<p>She went on to study accountancy but has not been able to secure any work as a qualified accountant. Instead she works as an agency interpreter, but describes the unfair power dynamics within this work:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you are late by five minutes, they charge you £25 – [yet] they pay me only £14 for one hour … If you are late by ten minutes, this would be classified as “did not attend” and they charge you £100.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Equally, if a client cancels a video call at the last minute, Azade does not get paid. This is essential work, assisting people to communicate with state and semi-state agencies about their legal situations and health matters. Yet there is little value or respect attributed to the role, as a result of the unstable nature of the agency’s relationship with its employees.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/svnTPLZCGL8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video made as part of the Uncertain Futures project.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other women describe outright discrimination and racism as a regular part of their work. Much of it goes unreported, let alone addressed.</p>
<p>Murkurata trained as a nurse after arriving from Africa in 2001, where she had worked for more than 20 years as a civil servant. She had expected to continue in a similar line of work here, but says when she arrived here she was “shocked … I got no response. Nothing. Nothing. I don’t think anybody looked at my papers. So I went to nursing and loved it, because I was touched by the people I cared for.”</p>
<p>At the same time, however, Murkurata speaks candidly about being undermined in her role by other nursing staff, including those of a lower rank:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was the nurse in charge. But the carers, because they are white, they want to tell me what to do with my patients … If I tell them what to do, [another nurse] might tell me that she has been there for years and she knows better. They really, really undermine your intelligence and understanding, you know.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She also recalls a number of occasions when her patient would ask for a “proper nurse” on seeing that she was black. The managerial support given to her in such circumstances would vary, she says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some managers were very good, but others would just let this happen. So sometimes you just end up not saying it because it’s pointless. Even if you tell them that’s what they a patient is saying, somebody will always say: “It’s nothing, just brush it off … it’s nothing to talk about.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Murkurata – who is now training to be a church minister – wearily complains that this effectively put the blame on her for such behaviour by patients:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m giving this person care and I’m the one who is at the receiving end. I don’t deserve that kind of treatment, because I’m trying my best and just a human being, just like anybody else … But whatever goes wrong, they find a black person to blame for it. When we are in the same ward working, if you leave a catheter not emptied because you are white, it’s OK. But if it’s [a black nurse] who leaves it unemptied, everybody in the ward should know it.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women gathered together in an art gallery" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All 100 women interviewed for the Uncertain Futures project at Manchester Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Brooks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Feelings of uselessness</h2>
<p>A November 2022 report by the <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/anxiety-nation-economic-insecurity-and-mental-distress-2020s-britain">Joseph Rowntree Foundation</a> highlighted the increasing numbers of UK adults who are struggling both financially and with mental health problems. Many of the women we meet fit this demographic: limited financial security for housing and necessities, reduced standard of living, and poor health and wellbeing (which itself can exacerbate poverty).</p>
<p>Just under two-thirds of the women we have interviewed are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. All are heavily <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-labour-market-an-overview/">over-represented</a> in shift work and non-permanent jobs in the UK. A quarter of UK adults in “deep poverty” are <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/falling-faster-amidst-a-cost-of-living-crisis-poverty-inequality-and-ethnicity-in-the-uk">from minority ethnic populations</a>.</p>
<p>Their lack of financial security may stem from unemployment, poor and precarious working conditions, or a lack of financial provision in retirement. The cost of living crisis – which <a href="https://www.centreforcities.org/blog/northern-cities-hit-harder-by-cost-of-living-crisis/">research shows</a> is being felt harder by people living in the north of England compared with much of the south – is increasing the pressure on them to work for longer (both each day and before retiring), even in very difficult conditions.</p>
<p>Mari, who was in the UK asylum system for five years, describes the feelings of uselessness associated with the inability to secure paid employment – and how this feeling was made worse by the pandemic. Her voice softens and quietens as she echoes: “Long time to stay home, stay home, stay home.”</p>
<p>She fled to the UK from the Middle East without her children because she was facing “great danger” as a newly divorced woman. She had previously worked for more than 20 years in banking, and although she arrived speaking very limited English, was optimistic about the many transferable skills that she could use here.</p>
<p>The reality, she says, has been very different. Throughout her interview she remains stoical as she describes obstacle after obstacle: being refused English lessons after her initial asylum application was declined; spending time in a detention centre and facing potential deportation; “shaking” every time she came into contact with the police; becoming ill and temporarily losing her eyesight to a thyroid disease while waiting so long for her asylum application to be processed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Display from the Uncertain Futures exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Display from the Uncertain Futures exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Brooks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mari, who is now in her 60s, has worked hard to overcome all these challenges. She has picked up “street English’” through speaking with friends. Her eyesight recovered and she was granted leave to remain in the UK, but the stress of the limbo she was living in remains with her. Having previously always worked in a respected professional role, she says this period has altered her life completely:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Those five years were very difficult, because they don’t allow any work, just voluntary – no college, no job, no anything. When you can’t go to any job, the first thing is you think you are not useful, you are not able to do anything. This feeling is very bad.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At one point during her interview, however, Mari becomes quite emotional as she speaks about the voluntary organisation which supported her during this difficult time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sorry… My life … All my life, it’s thanks to them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She is talking about one of the 90-odd organisations throughout the UK that provide essential support for asylum seekers and refugees. Mari attributes much of her current, more stable situation to this organisation.</p>
<p>With its help, she has managed to take up voluntary roles which make her “feel good” and give her “hope”. She works as a cook for a local charity as well as helping to care for her grandson and older neighbour, who is 97. But she wants to earn her own money and gain the independence that would come from this. She says she will do anything – for example, “packing at home for retail companies, packing clothes.”</p>
<p>But it is not only community organisations that can have a major impact on the lives of undervalued women such as these. Enlightened employers have an important role to play too – one which could also pay dividends for their companies.</p>
<h2>A better future?</h2>
<p>FemmeCapable, 54, embodies the tenacity we see in so many of our interviewees. Struggling with her English and experiencing prejudice in her role as a care assistant – “I faced discrimination a lot” – she retrained herself using every community resource she could find, then established a mobile food business selling barbecued African cuisine. At the same time, she set up a charity supporting women from ethnic backgrounds in her community.</p>
<p>Even when COVID shut down her business, FemmeCapable used her entrepreneurial skills to transform it into a mobile food response team, part-funded by her local council, which provided culturally appropriate food and transport to families in her local area. She was effectively a frontline worker during the pandemic, even though her work was not perceived in this way.</p>
<p>Her enthusiasm, intelligence and drive permeate the interview. She oozes energy to create something and “make it real life”, and to “share it with the public or the world” so it can have lasting value. Yet her nursing contributions have been overshadowed by racist attitudes, and her work in the community has largely gone unrecognised.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Uncertain Futures posters outside the Manchester Art Gallery." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uncertain Futures posters outside the Manchester Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Brooks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>FemmeCapable credits her local <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_Voluntary_Service">Council for Voluntary Service</a> for providing all-important support in setting up her business and community organisation, including applying for funding. These services work closely with local councils to help people use their skills and have their contributions recognised – a vital first step in ensuring a better future for older women like FemmeCapable.</p>
<p>However, announcements made in the UK government’s 2022 autumn statement now threaten the <a href="https://www.ncvo.org.uk/news-and-insights/news-index/autumn-statement-budget-2022/#/">existence of these voluntary services</a>. According to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[They] are on the verge of buckling under the compounding pressures of increased demand, skyrocketing operational costs, eroding income, and challenges recruiting staff and volunteers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such pressures are exacerbated by increased energy costs and cuts to public services. In a combined response, the Institute for Government and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/autumn-statement-2022-public-services.pdf">noted</a> that public services “not protected in the autumn statement now face day-to-day spending cuts of 1.2% per year on average over the next two years”.</p>
<h2>A lightbulb moment</h2>
<p>Victoria, 63, migrated to the UK from Africa more than 22 years ago. As her story unfolds during the interview, it shares the trajectory of so many of the other older migrant women we have met: a professional woman spending many years in immigration limbo while volunteering in community organisations to maintain her skills.</p>
<p>She originally came to the UK on a six-month tourist visa, then fell ill with cancer and had to stay for treatment. She applied for an extension to her visa on medical grounds, but the process took over six years to resolve.</p>
<p>Victoria has since attempted to get jobs in banking and finance in the UK, as this is her employment background, but has struggled, she suspects, due to her age and skin colour. She has concerns about retirement due to her fragmented working life, much of which has consisted of zero-hours employment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have not worked in this country for long enough. Although I have contributed to a pension, I don’t know if that’s going to be enough to retire on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, her story takes a positive turn when she describes a “lightbulb moment” – when she was at last offered a staff job after years of temporary agency work by an employer who is, in her eyes, “different”. She says this employer treats her “like a person”.</p>
<p>Victoria now works full-time as a homeless support officer for a Manchester housing charity. She says, with evident pride, that her employer “wants a workplace that is equal for everyone”, offering personal development programmes and wellbeing support for staff.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was such a relief to be acknowledged and have someone appreciating you – I must add that this is a white employer and the majority of the workers are white. You can count people of my colour on one hand out of about 500 … But they have given me an opportunity and, from what I have experienced right from the interview itself, they don’t treat me like I am different. You are just a person in a workplace – that’s how I feel, that’s how they place me.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Art gallery exhibition room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uncertain Futures exhibition room, Manchester Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Brooks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the <a href="https://ageing-better.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-09/Becoming-age-friendly-employer.pdf">Centre for Ageing Better</a>, there are a multitude of advantages to hiring and retaining older workers – not least, benefiting from their skills, strong work ethic, and experience. They tend to retain business knowledge and networks and, by better matching the profile of customers, can improve services. There are also <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/b0e8405c-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/b0e8405c-en">established benefits</a> to multigenerational teams, both in terms of productivity and in passing on valuable experience to younger colleagues.</p>
<p>Hearing Victoria’s story is a moment for reflection. She shows us there are ways to break the cycle of invisibility; to help these older women’s voices to be heard and their expertise to be valued. But it requires continued financial support for community organisations, and enlightened employers who recognise the skills and experience of older women.</p>
<p>There is encouraging news from Kesrewan, too. After all those rejection letters from the information service, she has just been offered a part-time job as a welfare adviser and outreach worker at a local charity she volunteered with during the pandemic. She can only work ten hours a week, or she may end up financially worse off due to the strict rules of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/eligibility">Universal Credit</a> – but still expresses joy that at last her skills are being recognised.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work for me – it’s life, wellbeing, being fit and active. You see that you have something to offer. You see that they value you. It’s not just because you are working and they pay you. It’s what you can do for the community and others.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Kesrewan, Victoria and, hopefully, more of the women we have met, the veil of invisibility may finally be lifting.</p>
<p><em>All names have been changed to protect the interviewees’ anonymity. They were invited to choose their own pseudonyms.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/loneliness-loss-and-regret-what-getting-old-really-feels-like-new-study-157731?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Loneliness, loss and regret: what getting old really feels like – new study</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/its-like-being-in-a-warzone-aande-nurses-open-up-about-the-emotional-cost-of-working-on-the-nhs-frontline-194197?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘It’s like being in a warzone’ – A&E nurses open up about the emotional cost of working on the NHS frontline</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-photograph-uncovered-my-grandmothers-republican-activism-during-the-irish-revolution-189326?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">How a photograph uncovered my grandmother’s republican activism during the Irish revolution</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198210/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This project has been partly funded by the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing, Manchester Art Gallery, and the ESRC Festival of Social Science. Both authors are members of the Labour party.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors would like to thank the Uncertain Futures Advisory Group: Akhter Azabany, Erinma Bell, Sally Casey, Atiha Chaudry, Rohina Ghafoor, Marie Greenhalgh, Teodora Ilieva, Tendayi Madzunzu, Jila Mozoun, Elayne Redford, Charity Rutagira, Nadia Siddiqui, Circle Steele, Patricia Williams and Louise Wong.
Thanks also to Suzanne Lacy, who led the participatory art and research project, Ruth Edson at Manchester Art Gallery, and research assistants Tanya Elahi, Lila Nicholson, Amanda Wang, Jess Wild and Robyn Dowlen. And to the 100 women who participated in the research and shared their stories.</span></em></p>Britain is now desperately short of workers in some sectors. Yet our interviews with 100 women aged 50 and over show how hard it is for them to find secure employmentElaine Dewhurst, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of ManchesterSarah Campbell, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1941312022-11-16T17:22:59Z2022-11-16T17:22:59ZWhat psychology tells us about the failure of the emergency services at the Manchester Arena bombing<p>The second stage of the <a href="https://files.manchesterarenainquiry.org.uk/live/uploads/2022/11/03141804/MAI-Volume-2-Part-i.pdf">official inquiry</a> into the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 has produced a harrowing account of what went wrong in the emergency response.</p>
<p>The terrorist attack resulted in the deaths of 22 innocent victims. Sir John Saunders, chair of the inquiry, concluded that Jesip, the joint emergency services interoperability programme, had failed – and that this was not the first time it had happened.</p>
<p>Jesip provides national strategic leadership with the aim of making it easier for different emergency services to work together – which is obviously very challenging but vital in cases such as the Manchester attack. Fire services and ambulance workers will all be on the scene trying to help people in distress while the police try to keep others safe from further harm. </p>
<p>The idea of interoperability is that people from the different emergency organisations, each with their own cultures, values and goals, can find a common set of principles to make sure that they work together smoothly in a crisis.</p>
<p>Jesip, which was established a decade ago, made several organisational changes to how the emergency services operate. A <a href="https://www.jesip.org.uk/joint-doctrine/introduction-to-the-joint-doctrine/">shared national doctrine</a> was adopted, outlining “joint principles” including that commanders should quickly co-locate at the scene. The emergency services also now share a joint decision-making model, so that each is involved in making decisions during major emergencies.</p>
<h2>Why did Jesip fail in Manchester?</h2>
<p>A fatal early failure in the response to the Manchester attack was a lack of communication between emergency services. Jesip’s goal to make emergency groups work together coherently had not been met.</p>
<p>There was conflicting communication about the location of the shared rendezvous point for emergency services. There was also no clarity over whether the attack had been declared a “major incident”. This created chaos and confusion during the first few minutes of the attack, when getting a shared grip of the situation was vital.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-21802-021">psychology of groups</a> tells us that individuals are motivated to make biased and positive evaluations about their “in-group” in comparison with other “outgroups”. This occurs in social groups but also <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234021306_Identification_in_Organizations_An_Examination_of_Four_Fundamental_Questions">in the workplace</a> when individuals identify strongly with their organisation. </p>
<p>When organisations seek to change how their teams are structured, there is a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/job.2164">risk</a> that those feeling strongly connected to their pre-existing group (the police service, for example) might feel threatened by the establishment of a new collective group (such as Jesip).</p>
<p>Saunders reflected that Jesip had failed to find its way into the “muscle memory” of the emergency services. He said emergency groups continued to operate in silos, abandoning Jesip principles and falling back on existing ways of working. This suggests that buy-in to Jesip by the emergency services at Manchester was low. The group psychology in operation that day may have been focused on in-groups rather than the collective.</p>
<h2>The psychology of team decision-making</h2>
<p>The Manchester inquiry also criticised the emergency services’ failure to make joint decisions. Most notable was the lack of emergency responders operating in the City Room (the location of the explosion), where they were needed to treat and evacuate critically injured casualties. </p>
<p>There was no joint decision made to assess the risk level for emergency workers operating in this area and, crucially, whether they required personal protective equipment. This meant that some emergency responders decided to deploy whereas others did not.</p>
<p>Prior to the Manchester attack, my colleagues and I collected data from a <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joop.12159">fictitious counter-terrorism</a> simulation that closely mirrored what happened in Manchester. We presented a multi-agency team of commanders with a choice about whether to commit non-specialist responders into the high-risk zone to help with casualty treatment.</p>
<p>Out of the 13 multi-agency teams involved, only four decided to commit responders. This failure of the blue light services to commit responders was exactly what happened after the Arena bombing. We also found that many teams spent a long time deliberating over this choice, when decisive action was required.</p>
<p>A possible explanation for these decision difficulties was ambiguity in Jesip’s joint decision model. Commanders in our study perceived each other to be working towards a common goal “to save lives”. But the translation of that goal into action meant different things to different services, leading to contradictory decisions.</p>
<p>The police wanted to neutralise the threat, paramedics wanted to treat casualties, and the fire service sought to ensure safe procedures were in place before taking high-risk action. These aims could not all be achieved at the same time.</p>
<p>We argued that despite being good in theory, the joint decision model might reinforce existing psychological divisions between different services in practice. This is especially problematic when coupled with the assumption that all team members are working towards the same “save life” goal.</p>
<p>The decision not to deploy staff into Manchester Arena’s City Room might have been intended to help protect the lives of emergency workers – but it also limited the saving of lives of members of the public.</p>
<h2>Avoiding a repeat of Manchester</h2>
<p>Saunders has outlined several recommendations in his report to “ensure that Jesip works in practice and not just in theory”. One of these is to ensure “regular ‘high fidelity’ training” to expose responders to the stress and pressure of a terrorist attack.</p>
<p>One way to achieve this is through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2041386620926037">regular simulation-based training</a>, which closely replicates the psychological stress of a real-life event while allowing for close monitoring and evaluation.</p>
<p>Saunders has also recommended that the emergency services’ joint doctrine be reviewed and updated where necessary. Our <a href="https://crestresearch.ac.uk/projects/building-better-multi-agency-counter-terrorism-training/">current research</a> suggests the psychology of interoperability needs to be at the forefront of this review. Specifically, identifying ways to increase buy-in to Jesip by studying the psychology of groups.</p>
<p>To ensure an effective response to future terrorist attacks of this nature, the psychology of collective responding must be central to the muscle memory of the emergency services.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194131/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Power receives funding from the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats – an independent Centre commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and which is funded in part by the UK’s Home Office and security and intelligence agencies.
Thanks go to my collaborators on this research: Mrs Jennifer Alcock, Dr Richard Philpot and Prof Mark Levine.</span></em></p>Group psychology can explain why emergency services failed to cooperate effectively in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing.Nicola Power, Lecturer in Psychology, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1941302022-11-11T10:30:25Z2022-11-11T10:30:25ZSurvey reveals worrying trend in conspiracy theories that deny terrorist attacks ever happened<p>The official <a href="https://files.manchesterarenainquiry.org.uk/live/uploads/2022/11/03141804/MAI-Volume-2-Part-i.pdf">inquiry</a> into the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing has reminded us of the devastating impact of this terrorist attack which killed 22 people, injured many more and left families bereft.</p>
<p>But to add to their difficulties, a study my team and I conducted for the BBC’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00156vs">Panorama</a> coverage of the attack reveals that a worrying number of people think the attack never even happened. The show exposed how victims’ families have been harassed by conspiracy theorists who appear to believe the incident was a hoax.</p>
<p>As our <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/terrorism-conspiracy-theories-belief-among-the-uk-public">study</a> highlights, frightening proportions of the public believe in conspiracy theories that doubt the truth of reported events, even terrorist attacks. In our findings, one in seven respondents believed victims of the Manchester Arena bombing were not really victims at all, but “crisis actors” – essentially, that they were brought in to pretend to be victims of an attack to manipulate public opinion. We also found that one in 20 were convinced the attack in Manchester and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-we-remember-7-7-its-time-we-learned-to-trust-the-crowd-44210">7/7 bombings</a> in London in 2005 were “hoaxes”.</p>
<p>People using newer social media platforms were more likely to believe conspiracies relating to the attack, with over four in ten Telegram users thinking crisis actors were involved. Among the wider public, the figure was just 14%.</p>
<p>The COVID pandemic may also have fuelled unfounded suspicions. We were forced to stay at home and rely on online information more than usual. Conflicting narratives around the pandemic created confusion, leading many to question if they were being told the truth. A third of people in our study said this experience has made them more suspicious of official explanations of events – even unrelated ones like terrorist attacks.</p>
<h2>Amplifying the problem</h2>
<p>Conspiracy theories are not necessarily more powerful today than in the past, but our new information environment can make us feel otherwise. We hear more about these theories now that we live in a world in which extreme or unusual views are amplified to drive traffic.</p>
<p>And the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63237092">recent trial</a> of Alex Jones in the US reminds us that even if only a few people subscribe to a conspiracy theory, the consequences can be devastating. People who believed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 was a “hoax” caused untold damage by harassing the families of victims, all the while encouraged by Jones’ broadcasts on the subject. </p>
<p>In fact, the <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/">Global Terrorism Database</a> has revealed that attacks by conspiracy theorists are undermining an otherwise welcome trend in declining terrorist attacks. In 2019 there were six recorded attacks carried out by conspiracy theorists worldwide – but that tally rose to at least 116 in 2020. Many of these attacks targeted communications infrastructure, driven by a conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID.</p>
<p>Challenging the flow of conspiracies is complicated by the fuzziness between “<a href="https://hbr.org/2002/07/when-paranoia-makes-sense#:%7E:text=Prudent%20paranoia%20is%20a%20form,each%20action%20in%20minute%20detail.">prudent paranoia</a>” – the justifiable questioning of accepted explanations – and dangerous radicalisation.</p>
<p>Many of us have suspicions about the information we receive: four in ten think there are alternative accounts for terrorists attacks, and three in ten believe the whole truth is not being told about these attacks. It is difficult to predict who will end up turning such suspicions into radical ideas, but several <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12568">key psychological indicators</a> provide a guide.</p>
<p>For those who feel anxious about developments in the news they may not understand, conspiracy theories can provide certainty as the believer may think they’ve found the “real” truth behind a complex story. People who feel powerless or have high levels of anxiety believe conspiracies as a way of regaining some sense of control. Those feeling isolated and insecure may also gain a sense of belonging to a group that shares the same belief in a conspiracy.</p>
<h2>Tackling the problem</h2>
<p>The blurred lines between reasonable scepticism and conspiracy, and the difficulty in predicting who will act on conspiracy theories, makes it hard to know what to do about the problem of misinformation. </p>
<p>Asking tech companies and platforms to identify conspiracy theories would result in millions of subjective calls on what constitutes a truthful statement. Such blunt instruments are unworkable. </p>
<p>Some argue a <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/111770/pdf/">more rounded mix</a> is needed – promoting good information, not just restricting bad information, to build resilience amongst the public and increase transparency.</p>
<p>That’s why the trial of Jones, particularly the eye-catching judgment that he should pay US$1 billion (£85 billion) in damages, and the exposure of terror attack conspiracies on Panorama are vital. New technologies may not have made the prevalence of conspiracy belief worse, but they have made spreading and encouraging them a more lucrative enterprise. Shifting that calculation is a vital part of fighting back.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bobby Duffy receives funding from ESRC, British Academy, Unbound Philanthropy, Barrow Cadbury, the Cabinet Office, Horizon 2020 and NIHR.</span></em></p>One in seven respondents believed the victims of the Manchester terrorist attack were ‘crisis actors’.Bobby Duffy, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1881692022-08-09T17:17:22Z2022-08-09T17:17:22ZCastlefield Viaduct: Manchester’s new park in the sky could transform the city – but who will benefit?<p>In July 2022, Manchester welcomed the newest addition to its roster of urban parks. Owned by the National Trust, the <a href="https://confidentials.com/manchester/castlefield-viaduct-to-become-mini-high-line">Castlefield Viaduct</a> is a Grade II-listed, 19th-century railway bridge that has been redevelopped into a new <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/gallery/manchesters-new-park-skies-top-24630409">330m-long sky park</a>.</p>
<p>The project is part of a wider repurposing of brownfield and former industrial space in Manchester with <a href="https://mayfieldmanchester.co.uk/">several</a> other <a href="https://www.urbansplash.co.uk/regeneration/projects/new-islington">projects</a> promoting the city as a go-to place for innovative urban development in housing and <a href="https://theconversation.com/green-space-access-is-not-equal-in-the-uk-and-the-government-isnt-doing-enough-to-change-that-177598">green and open space</a>. Under construction, in particular, is <a href="https://victorianorth.co.uk/">Victoria North</a>, a new neighbourhood of 15,000 new homes across a 155-hectare site in the north of the city. This includes City River Park, a huge new <a href="https://themanc.com/news/theres-a-huge-new-113-acre-city-river-park-coming-to-north-manchester/">“recreational corridor”</a>, according to the proposals, along the River Irk. </p>
<p>For now, the National Trust is operating Castlefield Viaduct as a 12-month trial. Entry is free but ticketed and limited to 100 visitors per day on allocated one-hour slots each afternoon. Due to the extensive publicity campaign, high demand has led to the National Trust website crashing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Colourful plants in a plant bed along a walkway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477495/original/file-20220803-20-i3l558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477495/original/file-20220803-20-i3l558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477495/original/file-20220803-20-i3l558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477495/original/file-20220803-20-i3l558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477495/original/file-20220803-20-i3l558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477495/original/file-20220803-20-i3l558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477495/original/file-20220803-20-i3l558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">3,000 plant species greet visitors on the new walkway.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Mell</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The idea behind the trail is to generate political and financial support to create a longer park extending westwards (the current layout only covers a proportion of the total viaduct area) and make it permanent. </p>
<p><a href="https://manchestermill.co.uk/p/will-this-be-the-site-of-greater">Initial reactions</a> to the Castlefield Viaduct have been positive. Local charity Castlefield Forum, which is set to have its <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/podcast-dubbed-a-real-love-24639695">own community plot</a> on the bridge, has <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-spirit-of-castlefield/id1637262135">launched a podcast</a> to tell the area’s stories. </p>
<p>Access to green and open space is urgently needed in central Manchester. However, as my <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2022.731975/full">research</a> on <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1527">access to nature</a> and regeneration shows, there is no guarantee that simply having green space makes people use it. Location, access routes and amenities all influence usage. Exactly who stands to benefit from a project like Castlefield Viaduct becoming a permanent feature of the city skyline is a crucial question. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Steel beams cross over a planted walkway on a bridge platform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477485/original/file-20220803-9305-e9bmxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477485/original/file-20220803-9305-e9bmxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477485/original/file-20220803-9305-e9bmxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477485/original/file-20220803-9305-e9bmxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477485/original/file-20220803-9305-e9bmxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477485/original/file-20220803-9305-e9bmxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477485/original/file-20220803-9305-e9bmxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Castlefield Viaduct brings a new, industrial aesthetic to Manchester’s green spaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Mell</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A Victorian structure revisited</h2>
<p>Built in 1892, the bridge was left derelict after 1969, when Manchester Central Station, now the Manchester Central Convention Complex, was taken out of service. Repurposing an abandoned site with little access, socio-economic worth or ecological value into a public park is a sign that Manchester city council, the landowner of the viaduct, is willing to test new approaches to urban greening. </p>
<p>Initial designs for the site were <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2021/07/07/castlefield-viaduct-twelve-architects-landscape-urbanism-manchester/">drawn up</a> by London studio Twelve Architects. Founding director Matt Cartwright explained in 2021 that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s39Pz_ZeiMg">the brief</a> included creating “moments of joy”. On a recent visit, I found the site is divided into three distinct zones linking the viaduct’s past, present and future journeys. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Seats, planted beds and a light coloured pathway on a bridge." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477492/original/file-20220803-18-3zaw0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477492/original/file-20220803-18-3zaw0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477492/original/file-20220803-18-3zaw0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477492/original/file-20220803-18-3zaw0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477492/original/file-20220803-18-3zaw0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477492/original/file-20220803-18-3zaw0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477492/original/file-20220803-18-3zaw0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Motifs of the bridge’s structure are repeated in the landscaping of the park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Mell</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The opening section draws on the railway motifs of trellis architecture to guide people into the site. The second introduces the 3,000 planted species – from <a href="https://twitter.com/mcrconfidential/status/1537395343779848195">cotton grass and ferns</a> to <a href="https://ilovemanchester.com/plants-urban-sky-park-castlefield-viaduct">fennel, Broom and fleabane</a> – in a range of planters, highlighting the biodiversity of the local environment. </p>
<p>The third, meanwhile, which you can currently see, but not acccess, from the visitors centre, offers views on to where the site may go physically and conceptually. These various spaces blend with the sound of the passing trams. You are keenly aware of being in both a park and in a layer of the city’s history. The linear nature of the site underscores the notion of travel between the zones – as a visitor, you walk there and back again. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5nqbvK9koSk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>How Mancunians need more green</h2>
<p>Castlefield is thus doted with a unique conceptual motif and a novel industrial aesthetic, as compared to other parks in Manchester. It remains to be seen, though, whether the design and the fact that it is located in an area of largely privately rented and owned flats will attract locals or serve primarily as a tourist attraction for visitors. </p>
<p>When the <a href="https://www.the606.org/">606</a> linear park opened in Chicago in 2015, local residents <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-606-bloomingdale-trail-gentrification-met-20150605-story.html">reportedly expressed fears</a> they would be priced out of their neighbourhoods. <a href="https://www.chicagoreporter.com/green-gentrification-and-lessons-of-the-606/">Reports</a> in 2020 revealed that the park had indeed triggered luxury developments and long-term local residents being displaced. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00139157.2021.1871293">Research shows</a> how similar developments, including New York’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-australia-build-a-new-york-highline-19681">High Line</a>, can lead to what economists have dubbed <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169204619314574">eco-gentrification</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eYEseoMue1c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.gmpovertyaction.org/groundwork-out-of-bounds/">Research</a> has also shown how much need there is for green space in Manchester. The city centre currently has very <a href="https://www.lancswt.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-04/MBY-ActionPlan.pdf">few public green spaces</a>, and even fewer that provide play facilities or access to nature. According to <a href="https://www.lancswt.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-04/MBY-ActionPlan.pdf">Friends of the Earth</a>, over 73% people across Manchester have poor or limited access to a personal garden or a communal green space. Covid <a href="https://www.groundwork.org.uk/lockdown-and-beyond-green-spaces-are-more-important-than-ever/">lockdowns</a> highlighted how significant this lack of access to green space is, especially for those with families. </p>
<p>The redevelopment of the Castlefield Viaduct presents an interesting conundrum for Manchester and other UK cities. High-quality and potentially exclusive locations that are inaccessible can nonetheless act as a catalyst for green-space investment linked to regeneration programmes like <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283320811_Resilient_Cities_A_Grosvenor_Research_Report">Grosvenor’s Living Cities</a>. This strategy provides increased certainty for investors but primarily serves specific communities, that is, those who can afford market-rate apartments. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pd8kxM0ce54?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>We also need look beyond the financing of high-end projects towards a more locally attuned approach to green space provision. Urban planning expert <a href="https://extra.shu.ac.uk/ppp-online/blame-it-on-austerity-examining-the-impetus-behind-londons-changing-green-space-governance/">Meredith Whitten</a> has shown how this would focus on local provision for meeting people’s everyday needs to interact with nature, play outside and live in a biodiverse landscape. </p>
<p>This requires sufficient public funding to be allocated to local government to support <a href="https://theconversation.com/green-space-access-is-not-equal-in-the-uk-and-the-government-isnt-doing-enough-to-change-that-177598">capital and revenue spend on public parks</a> –- something not seen in the UK over the last 12 years.</p>
<p>By drawing on the industrial heritage of the city, Castlefield Viaduct makes strong links to its fabled Cottonopolis heritage. The park also sets out a bold statement of intent, that redundant spaces in Manchester can be meaningful, accessible and interactive. Of course, integrating industrial chic with urban regeneration is <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2022.731975/full">nothing new</a>. But it is new in Manchester. This could be the start of something beautiful.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Mell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Turning a disused Victorian railway bridge into an elevated walkway and garden has the potential to rejuvenate a forgotten part of the city.Ian Mell, Reader in Environmental & Landscape Planning, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1773822022-03-15T11:58:53Z2022-03-15T11:58:53ZLevelling up: why UK cities are less competitive than their European counterparts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452162/original/file-20220315-17-beq1jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As one of the UK's 11 core cities, Nottingham lags behind its European counterparts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/hWMwHgkjcKU">Tom Podmore | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As we emerge from the pandemic-induced economic slump into a world of higher inflation shaped by ongoing crises, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-brexit-should-not-stop-uk-cities-from-competing-for-european-capital-of-culture-88115">Brexit</a> and the war in <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-how-the-russian-invasion-could-derail-the-fragile-world-economy-177937">Ukraine</a>, quite how we make the UK more competitive is a burning question. There are many sources of competitiveness but a crucial one is how a nation’s cities perform. In simple terms, there are no successful national economies without successful cities. </p>
<p>In February 2022, the UK government published its <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1052708/Levelling_up_the_UK_white_paper.pdf">plans</a> to level up the country. This white paper highlighted how UK cities, outside of the capital, underperform in relation to their European counterparts.</p>
<p>The government’s findings are not new. And, <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/heseltine-institute/policybriefs/policybriefing208/">as I have shown</a>, its <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-extra-mayors-level-up-left-behind-regions-what-the-evidence-tells-us-176291">solutions</a> are limited. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.regionalstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Second_Tier_Cities_in_Age_of_Austerity_-_Michael_Parkinson.pdf">My research suggests</a> that the UK would be a more interesting, fairer and a more economically successful country if our cities – outside London – were more powerful. Those countries which are more decentralised and give their cities greater financial resources tend to <a href="https://www.corecities.com/sites/default/files/field/attachment/75699_Core_Cities_Devolution_Book_WEB.pdf">perform better</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A view of a dock in a city, with tall glass buildings reflected in the water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liverpool’s Albert Dock: the markers of a city’s success include its cultural offerings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/tHeSchqZ1Og">Mark Stuckey | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Core cities</h2>
<p>Second-tier cities are those outside a nation’s capital (the first tier) which, by virtue of their scale of population and economy, make a significant contribution to national economic productivity. The precise number will vary depending on a country’s size and urban structure. </p>
<p>For practical policy purposes, the UK’s second-tier cities are generally considered to be the 11 members of the <a href="https://www.corecities.com/">Core Cities lobbying group</a>: <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-trade-problems-whats-gone-wrong-and-can-it-be-fixed-153270">Belfast</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/birmingham-plans-to-become-a-supersized-low-traffic-neighbourhood-will-it-work-170131">Birmingham</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/stokes-croft-the-saga-of-one-british-neighbourhood-reveals-the-perverse-injustices-of-gentrification-82010">Bristol</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/you-dont-have-to-build-up-or-move-out-to-tackle-urban-density-56318">Cardiff</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/host-city-glasgow-how-it-set-the-standard-for-urban-rebirth-28822">Glasgow</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/channel-4-in-leeds-a-new-hub-to-unlock-creativity-in-the-uks-nations-and-regions-144636">Leeds</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ive-been-chronicling-liverpools-renaissance-for-40-years-heres-why-the-citys-unesco-status-should-not-have-been-removed-164719">Liverpool</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/inspiring-the-devolution-generation-in-greater-manchester-75790">Manchester</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/reality-of-poverty-in-newcastle-england-un-examines-effect-of-austerity-106098">Newcastle</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-are-charging-employers-for-parking-spaces-to-help-fund-local-infrastructure-104094">Nottingham</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sheffield-what-happened-in-this-city-explains-why-britain-voted-for-brexit-61623">Sheffield</a>. </p>
<p>The key drivers of urban success, which includes economic productivity are as follows: innovation in processes, goods and services; economic and social diversity; the population’s skill levels (its human capital); physical, digital and relational connectivity (nationally and globally); place quality (which includes the public and private provision of culture, healthcare, education and housing); and strategic capacity (the ability of a city’s leadership to mobilise its resources to deliver long-term goals). </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224892409_Competitive_European_Cities_Where_do_the_Core_Cities_Stand">My research shows</a> that, judged on these metrics, British second-tier cities have long lagged behind their European peers – from Munich and Amsterdam to Lyon, Barcelona, Milan and Copenhagen. </p>
<p>The most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the international evidence on city performance is <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/9ef55ff7-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/9ef55ff7-en">the 2020 study</a> by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This report found that gross value added (GVA) per worker in the UK’s core cities is just 86% of the national average in 2016: that’s a 14% gap, the biggest, in terms of domestic productivity, amid the larger OECD countries. </p>
<p>And the productivity gap between second-tier cities in the UK and elsewhere is even greater. Productivity per worker was 30% higher in Australia and Germany, 26% in the Netherlands, 22% in France and 17% in Italy than in Britain. </p>
<p>The OECD report showed that the extent to which a city is productive directly impacts the living standards and wellbeing of its inhabitants. Workers in these UK cities are less well educated and work in less productive sectors of the economy. Unemployment rates are higher. Their export of goods and services is lower than the UK average. They generate relatively few patents. </p>
<p>Deprivation is higher, meanwhile, with the number of deprived neighbourhoods over three times the national average. Income levels, and the educational performance of school students are lower. And housing costs are high, by international standards. </p>
<p>Further, these cities boast lower levels of public transport provision than in Europe, leading to more peak-time congestion. This in turn limits regional productivity. </p>
<p>Lastly, UK core cities are fiscally constrained and more dependent on national government funding. They receive up to 68% of their revenue from the state, compared with an average of 35% in the other 35 OECD countries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An historic town hall building with manicured lawns and benches." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Belfast town hall: the degree to which local government is empowered to make decisions for its city impacts its productivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/V7MzSinlW1I">K. Mitch Hodge | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Devolution matters</h2>
<p>For British cities to be more competitive, the OECD argued that they need greater investment to upskill their workforce and get more people into work. They need to invest in public transport, housing supply and local quality of life. They also need greater financial independence and better governance. The 2022 white paper does promise modest governance reforms but is virtually silent on the crucial issue of greater financial independence. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/article/20737/">According to my research</a> our cities underperform, in part, due to a national decision-making system that has only partially been devolved. In Europe, there is variation to be sure, but the general trend is to place powers at the lowest government levels. </p>
<p>European cities have more responsibility than their UK counterparts for a wider range of functions which affect their economic competitiveness. They typically have more diverse forms of local revenue and more buoyant tax bases. This makes them less fiscally dependent upon the national state. And their combination of powers and resources arguably makes them more proactive, more entrepreneurial and more competitive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A city skyline under a pale blue sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frankfurt am Main is illustrative of the success of Germany’s second-tier cities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/germany-office?orientation=landscape">Dimitry Anikin | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most successful cities in Europe are German which, because of the system created by the Allies after the second world war, have substantial powers and resources. They operate in <a href="https://theconversation.com/other-countries-have-made-progress-in-levelling-up-heres-how-the-uks-plan-compares-176405">the most decentralised national system</a> on the continent and have sophisticated, cooperative and productive relationships between its three levels of government – federal, state and local.</p>
<p>It is no accident that the German economy is the most successful in Europe. It is clear too that UK cities – and the economy at large – underperform in large part due to the more centralised governmental, institutional and financial systems in place. Letting go would make us more competitive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Parkinson receives funding from ESRC </span></em></p>If the UK government is serious about levelling up the country, granting its second-tier cities more political and financial independence would be a good place to start.Michael Parkinson, Professor and Ambassador for the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1544182021-02-02T15:10:08Z2021-02-02T15:10:08ZFive charts that reveal how remote working could change the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381973/original/file-20210202-21-1fg5vlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Look familiar?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-woman-worker-talk-brainstorm-on-1720923514">fizes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>City centres lying empty because so many people are working from home <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/18/empty-city-centres-leeds-bristol-newcastle-im-not-sure-it-will-ever-be-the-same-again">have received</a> considerable <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53925917">media attention</a> since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-could-turn-cities-into-doughnuts-empty-centres-but-vibrant-suburbs-151406">pandemic took hold</a>. As the picture of a post-COVID world slowly comes into focus, it seems we are unlikely to return to the office in the same numbers as before. Large companies such as <a href="https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-8653893/Insurance-giant-Aviva-tests-time-working-offices.html">Aviva</a>, <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dropbox-virtual-first">Dropbox</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/facebook-remote-work-silicon-valley-america-coronavirus-covid19">Facebook</a> have already committed to continuing remote working in the years to come. </p>
<p>This has important implications for where economic activity takes place. Not only will it affect city centres, it also means that many residential neighbourhoods are likely to change permanently. </p>
<p>To help understand these geographic shifts, we have recently published the results of a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3752977">research project</a>. In this paper we show which neighbourhoods in the UK will be affected for better or worse and what it will mean for how the economy operates in future. In deference to the online meetings app that has become an ubiquitous part of remote office working, we decided to call these effects the zoomshock. </p>
<h2>Zoomshock nation</h2>
<p>We calculated the zoomshock as the change in economic activity due to working from home that has taken place within each UK neighbourhood. Simply put, this is the difference between two phenomena: the inflow of employment, which refers to people who live in a given neighbourhood and normally work elsewhere but are now working at home; and the outflow of employment, which is people who normally work in that neighbourhood but live elsewhere and are now working from home. </p>
<p>By our calculations, the potential reallocation of economic activity across different areas is large. The City of London, which is the heart of the UK financial services industry, could lose over 70% of its labour force if everyone who can work from home does so in the long term. This would equate to £9.1 billion in annual earnings. If the average worker only worked from home one day a week post-COVID, that would still account for £1.8 billion in lost activity, but it could well be that two or three days a week becomes the norm. </p>
<p>This economic activity will instead become less geographically concentrated, spread across different residential neighbourhoods. As an example, the local authority area of Lewisham in south-east London could see an increase in output of up to 60% relative to pre-COVID economic activity, or approximately £1 billion a year. You can see in the map below how we are forecasting this to play out across the capital, with shades of blue representing gains and shades of red representing losses. </p>
<p><strong>The effect on Greater London</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing which areas in Greater London will win and lose from remote working, explained in previous paragraph." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This has implications beyond the demand for slippers and umbrellas. Many of us who commuted spent money on services while at work, whether train-station coffees, lunchtime gym or barber visits, or after-work drinks. After the pandemic is over, we expect the zoomshock to continue to substantially affect these locally consumed services. So a move towards home working will mean that people demand more haircuts, coffees and restaurant meals near their homes and fewer near their offices. </p>
<p>There is already evidence of the importance of these effects. As you can see in the diagram below, in the brief period of relaxed lockdown measures from July to November 2020, London authorities such as the City that were negatively affected by remote working took a greater hit in retail and entertainment activity compared to 2019 levels than authorities like Lewisham that were positively affected. (It is worth emphasising that all areas were down compared to 2019 because the pandemic weakened economic activity across the board.)</p>
<p><strong>The zoomshock and retail/entertainment activity</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing retail and entertainment activity by area in London" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey. Change in retail and hospitality from Google Trends COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Winners and losers</h2>
<p>This is not just a London phenomenon. In Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow and other UK cities, our research shows working from home has led to a shift away from city centres into the suburbs. Areas in which many commuters work, such as central Manchester, will lose out, while areas in which many commuters live, such as East Dunbartonshire on the northern outskirts of Glasgow, will win.</p>
<p><strong>The effect in England and Wales</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing which areas in England will win and lose from remote working" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>The effect in Scotland</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing which areas in Scotland will win and lose from remote working" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Clearly, the zoomshock is leading to a redistribution of activities from urban city centres to residential suburbs. But a second, more subtle, conclusion is that there is substantial variation across even adjacent neighbourhoods. This is driven by local geographic clustering in job type by neighbourhood and which jobs can be done at home. </p>
<p>As you can see from the next graph, which plots a neighbourhood’s proportion of residents who can work at home against its score on the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2019">multiple index of deprivation</a>, it is broadly the case that wealthier neighbourhoods have more potential remote workers. If working from home becomes the new normal, many restaurants, cafes, gyms and other locally consumed services will migrate away from city centres towards these neighbourhoods.</p>
<p><strong>Remote working by neighbourhood deprivation</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing remote working by neighbourhood, explained in previous paragraph." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is likely to make these wealthier neighbourhoods even more desirable places to live, giving them better amenities compared to more deprived neighbourhoods than they have already. In other words, the inequalities between different neighbourhoods are liable to become worse as a result of the zoomshock. </p>
<h2>Implications for recovery</h2>
<p>Many workers will probably return to the office once the COVID-19 crisis is over, but it is likely they will not want to be there as many days as before. If half of the workers in a city centre work from home only two days a week, that is a 20% decrease in potential demand for the surrounding local services. </p>
<p>The demand will not necessarily be lost, but just reallocated to the neighbourhoods where these workers live. Government policies to help the economy recover have to reflect this reality. Allocating scarce resources to support businesses in neighbourhoods experiencing a negative zoomshock may be in vain – businesses should be encouraged to follow the demand. This underscores the importance of monitoring how remote working develops once the public health crisis begins to subside. </p>
<p>To end on a positive, according to our model, more neighbourhoods win than lose from the zoomshock. This is because densely concentrated office work in urban centres is spread across a number of less dense residential neighbourhoods. In this way the zoomshock introduces challenges for how we use urban centres, but also opportunities for a new way to think about life in our suburbs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under the UKRI Covid-19 rapid response research call. Project title “The geography of post COVID-19 shutdown recovery risk in UK economic activity. Implications for recovery inequality and targeted stimulus”. Grant reference ES/V004913/1.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research by Gianni De Fraja is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under the UKRI Covid-19 rapid response research call. Project title “The geography of post COVID-19 shutdown recovery risk in UK economic activity. Implications for recovery inequality and targeted stimulus”. Grant reference ES/V004913/1.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Rockey is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under the UKRI Covid-19 rapid response research call. Project title “The geography of post COVID-19 shutdown recovery risk in UK economic activity. Implications for recovery inequality and targeted stimulus”. Grant reference ES/V004913/1.</span></em></p>A new economic model of how remote working is developing reveals some interesting results.Jesse Matheson, Senior lecturer, University of SheffieldGianni De Fraja, Professor of Economics, University of NottinghamJames Rockey, Senior lecturer, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1487402020-10-23T15:20:56Z2020-10-23T15:20:56ZLocal lockdown funding negotiations: what UK government should learn from behavioural economists<p>In recent days, Boris Johnson’s government has tightened lockdown restrictions in Greater Manchester <a href="https://theconversation.com/englands-metro-mayors-and-the-new-politics-of-coronavirus-148288">despite the opposition</a> of the city region’s elected mayor, Andy Burnham. One key point of contention was the financial support that Westminster would provide to the area.</p>
<p>Manchester had <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/54630551">originally sought</a> £90 million in business and worker support, but after days of negotiations the government would not go higher than £60 million. Much of this turned on how much to give employees in the region who couldn’t work because of the restrictions: the government wanted to give 67%, but Manchester wanted 80%, in line with the original <a href="https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/perspectives-events/blogs/2020/03/uk-government-announces-employee-furlough-scheme">furlough scheme</a>. The government stuck to its guns, so the city region will get £60 million (plus another £22 million for test and trace). </p>
<p>It is no surprise that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/20/no-deal-how-greater-manchesters-covid-talks-broke-down">talks broke down</a>. Leave aside the politics of a Labour mayor negotiating with a Conservative government. In any situation where a power-wielding agent is selecting one group for negative treatment, there will be tensions.</p>
<p>Understanding these tensions is important because the Manchester case will inform negotiations with the local leaders of other areas facing tier-3 restrictions, such as <a href="https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/live-updates-nottinghams-tier-3-4632936">Nottingham</a>.</p>
<h2>Fair play and golden rules</h2>
<p>One contributor to these tensions is fairness or, more precisely, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597814000788">perceptions of fairness</a>. It might seem fair that £10 is split evenly between two parties so that each receives £5. But what if I told you that the £10 had been won in a pub quiz and that one party contributed nine of the ten correct responses? </p>
<p>You might see merit in rewarding that contribution. But what if the other player was the designated driver for the evening? You get the idea – lots of narrative details, even in a simple scenario, can tip the balance of fairness one way or the other. </p>
<p>Selecting and framing these narrative details is the job of negotiators. Given the richness of detail in the localised lockdown negotiations, there is lots of scope for each side to make the other appear to be acting unfairly.</p>
<p>A second contributor to the tensions is the importance of signalling and setting a precedent. Standard economic theory suggests that all behaviour can be explained with reference to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2352757?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">a golden rule</a>: if the benefits outweigh the costs, then act. In the 1980s, a new band of economists – behavioural economists – started to <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.4.2.201">demonstrate</a> that people reliably failed to act in line with this rule. </p>
<p>A particularly telling laboratory result came from the <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.2.4.195">ultimatum game</a>. In this game, two participants are arbitrarily paired with one another. One participant is selected at random to receive £10, and must decide how much they will offer the other. If the other accepts, both players go home with their agreed shares. If not, both players leave with nothing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365214/original/file-20201023-21-aeps7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ten pound note close-up" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365214/original/file-20201023-21-aeps7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365214/original/file-20201023-21-aeps7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365214/original/file-20201023-21-aeps7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365214/original/file-20201023-21-aeps7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365214/original/file-20201023-21-aeps7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365214/original/file-20201023-21-aeps7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365214/original/file-20201023-21-aeps7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Make me an offer.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/british-pounds-selective-focus-1367718134">Wild As Light</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This game served up an important, if contrived, slice of real life. The golden rule suggests that a split where I offer 1p (and keep £9.99) would be accepted, since the benefit of accepting (£0.01) exceeds the benefit of not accepting (£0.00). </p>
<p>In reality, an offer of 1p is virtually never accepted and this finding replicates across a <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/312/5781/1767.abstract">wide variety</a> of cultures. <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/320/5884/1739.abstract">Neuroscientific studies</a> demonstrate that anger responses kick in when people are offered insulting amounts of money.</p>
<p>But why have we evolved an angry response to a situation that could make us a little richer? One answer is that there is a long-term benefit in signalling to others that we cannot be “bought” cheaply. Rejecting a small sum of money sets a precedent. In this view, people may not be violating the golden rule after all. </p>
<p>In the context of regional lockdown payments, a cost to the government of acting generously is that it sets a precedent: it will be expected to act just as generously in all future cases. Yet as we shall see, the cost of not acting generously may be even higher.</p>
<h2>How people respond to unfair treatment</h2>
<p>It is unsurprising that some people in the highest category of lockdown restrictions feel aggrieved. They face a higher probability of contracting a deadly disease. They might expect that the government would compensate them for this misfortune. </p>
<p>Instead, their livelihoods are threatened by government-imposed lockdown restrictions. In the absence of fair financial support, some would view the government as having discriminated on the basis of where they live. By offering financial support, the government is attempting to keep such people on side. If they consider it insufficiently generous, they may cause harm – not merely to the Johnson government’s re-election prospects but to wider society.</p>
<p>When people feel that a government has not got their best interests at heart, they are less likely <a href="https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00299.x">to trust</a> government recommendations and advice. When people feel they have been treated unfairly, they also feel <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597896901004">angry and uncooperative</a>. In a time and place where cooperation with public health guidance has never been more important, it is dangerous to foster resentment and withdrawal.</p>
<p>This is why the government needs to act fairly and be seen to act fairly. One answer is to allocate resources not via individual negotiations but on the basis of a needs-based formula that gives more to more vulnerable areas, such as those with more service-sector workers. </p>
<p>The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54654138">suggested that</a> some formula is already in use to determine the appropriate level of funding but the government hasn’t published it. The government should publish this formula as soon as possible for two reasons. </p>
<p>The first is that procedural transparency is an essential element of fairness. The second is that the whiff of suspicion that the government cares more about some parts of the country than others is toxic. In a fractious moment for the UK, fair processes are a necessary first step towards rebuilding trust and unity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Comerford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What Boris Johnson needs to learn from the Manchester funding debacle.David Comerford, Program Director, MSc Behavioural Science, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1485942020-10-23T13:19:36Z2020-10-23T13:19:36ZAndy Burnham’s standoff with London was always about more than just lockdown money<p>England’s local leaders have <a href="https://theconversation.com/englands-metro-mayors-and-the-new-politics-of-coronavirus-148288">clashed bitterly</a> with the Westminster government over the chaos that has surrounded the decision to enforce tighter coronavirus restrictions in some parts of the country.</p>
<p>The most stringent measures – tier 3 – stop short of lockdown, but mandate that people only socialise within their households, and that pubs can only remain open if they are operating as restaurants. </p>
<p>Most of the major northern cities and their surrounding city-regions including Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester are in, or are about to enter, tier-3 status. Some, such as the Liverpool City Region and the Sheffield City Region, have seemingly accepted the imposition with little fuss. Greater Manchester, however, has not gone quietly, instead entering a major standoff with the government.</p>
<p>At its root, the nature of the dispute is simple. Greater Manchester’s metro mayor, Andy Burnham, argues that <a href="https://youtu.be/uZnkrzgFANE">insufficient financial support is being offered</a> to businesses forced to shutter by the government. Burnham suggests that the payment of £60m will meet only 66% of their costs. Instead, greater Manchester tried to negotiate for £90 million, before lowering the request to £65 million as a “bare minimum”. The government argues that the payment is a standard figure, calculated according to population in any area entering tier 3. It says it would be unfair to offer Manchester more than other areas.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uZnkrzgFANE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Burnham says funding offer is not enough.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thus as the situation unfurled, largely through press conferences convened outside Manchester Town Hall, it became clear that the idea of a “negotiation” was superficial at best. With a gap of £5 million, which is small fry in funding terms, it also became increasingly clear that this was not about money – compare for example the £5 billion tabled by the government to bail out Transport for London.</p>
<p>Burnham was evidently fighting for something bigger. He says the government is not “levelling up, but levelling down”, highlighting a key pledge made by Boris Johnson in his election campaign. </p>
<p>As a former cabinet minister, Burnham enjoys a national media profile that most other metro mayors could only dream of. Now he’s being called the <a href="https://www.psa.ac.uk/psa/news/king-north-andy-burnham-vs-boris-johnson">“King in the North”</a>. Whether Burnham himself accepts this position as the de-facto figurehead for northern interests he has argued passionately, and in primetime media, against the rough shake northern England is getting.</p>
<p>Yet, and without wanting to generate any spoilers, anyone familiar with Game of Thrones will know that while all those dubbed <a href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/King_in_the_North">King in the North</a> were anointed amid a sense of hope and purpose, they quite often met a sticky end. </p>
<h2>War of words</h2>
<p>Burnham had to learn on Twitter that Greater Manchester would be forced into tier 3 with or without a financial deal. To add insult to injury, this drama played out on live TV as he seemingly learnt about the tweet when a <a href="https://twitter.com/dinosofos/status/1318583325573918725">phone was handed to him</a> in the middle of a press conference. This slap in the face spoke to the disjointed nature of the pandemic response, and effectively proved Burnham’s point that the government was not engaging with the city regions in good faith.</p>
<p>How all this plays out in the longer term is an interesting question. The drama could embolden Burnham and other northern leaders to continue to push and challenge the government on its levelling up agenda. That could prove the whole point of city-regional devolution – it will have been shown to have created leaders who can stand up for their constituents at a national level. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1318275139054784518"}"></div></p>
<p>However, in watching this episode, it’s hard not to recall the last time a northern metropolitan area decided to take on a Conservative government. This was in 1983, when Liverpool’s Militant Labour council decided to challenge central government finance decisions by setting an <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/labour-inquiry-into-militant/">illegal budget deficit</a> – effectively spending more money than it had. </p>
<p>This set the city on a collision course with the government of Margaret Thatcher. Ringleaders including <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47294393">Derek Hatton</a> were permanently disbarred from public office. Then, three years later, via the Local Government Act of 1986, Merseyside along with all other metropolitan areas, was abolished, in an act which can be seen as directly linked to this challenge to government. The underlying message was clear: central government is in charge.</p>
<p>In the short term, it’s unlikely anything will happen until the local government elections in 2021, when the original intake of metro mayors will seek reelection. That’s because for now, two of the metro mayors – most notably in the West Midlands – are Conservative. If these two are reelected, the government may not take political reprisals at all. Even after that, we’re unlikely to see a bloodbath reminiscent of an episode of Game of Thrones – at least for some time. This is because city regions are still the direction of travel for local government, and England’s remaining local authorities are being reformed in this model.</p>
<p>However, local government exists under a state of near-constant reform, and this is where the danger lies for the likes of Burnham. We might expect the government to subject the devolved city-regions to some kind of “reform” in the not too distant future with the events of the past few weeks in mind. Remember: there were three years between the Merseyside stand-off in 1983 and its eventual abolition in 1986.</p>
<p>This may well be a wicking, or outright neutering of powers. In all likelihood, in the same way cities were left to take the financial brunt of the 2008 recession and the resulting programme of austerity, the metro mayors could also be convenient fall guys for the inevitable financial fallout of the COVID-19 epidemic.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Burnham’s argument seems to recognise what’s coming down the tracks, and in time we’ll likely recognise this moment as a major fork in the road for how England’s cities are governed. “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1971833/">The North remembers</a>” has seeped out from TV as a rallying cry. But let’s never forget: central government is more than capable of holding onto a grudge too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Nurse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>History shows that revenge is a dish often served cold in Westminster.Alex Nurse, Lecturer in Planning, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1480322020-10-14T10:37:58Z2020-10-14T10:37:58ZNorthern lockdowns shine a light on Britain’s landscape of inequality<p>After a brief return, freedom of movement has been once again withdrawn from people who live in the north of England. For residents of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/greater-manchester-local-restrictions">Manchester</a> and <a href="https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/services/public-health-wellbeing-and-leisure/public-health-services/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-changes-to-lockdown">Newcastle</a>, meeting people from other households is once again prohibited, and in <a href="https://liverpool.gov.uk/communities-and-safety/emergency-planning/coronavirus/">Liverpool</a>, pubs and bars have been closed entirely except if they operate as restaurants and only serve alcohol with meals.</p>
<p>The apparent geographical unfairness of these restrictions has rankled with many. Despite having had few cases at the start of the pandemic in March, many parts of the north never really came out of lockdown while other parts of the country were able – and continue to be able – to enjoy far greater freedoms. </p>
<p>In this light, recent revelations that wealthy Conservative strongholds and recently acquired “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2019-50771014">red wall</a>” seats in the Midlands and north of England are <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-lockdown-wealthy-areas-avoid-government-labour-tory-b781344.html">being spared the imposition of more stringent lockdown measures</a> should surprise nobody. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1312669570319167493"}"></div></p>
<p>As the world continues to seek solutions to this crippling pandemic, the presumption that “we are all in this together” is rapidly falling apart. Economic data from around the world shows how the novel coronavirus <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/covid-19-will-hit-poor-hardest-heres-what-we-can-do-about-it">hits the poorest hardest</a>, both physiologically and economically: a trend fully on show in the UK, where ONS figures earlier in the year suggested that the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsinvolvingcovid19bylocalareasanddeprivation/deathsoccurringbetween1marchand17april">death rate</a> from COVID-19 in the UK’s poorest areas, at 55 deaths per 100,000, was more than double that of wealthier areas, where it was 25.</p>
<h2>Key workers</h2>
<p>There are a number of reasons for this. For a start, the health outcomes associated with deprivation are similar to the <a href="https://www.health.org.uk/publications/long-reads/living-in-poverty-was-bad-for-your-health-long-before-COVID-19">risk factors for the worst outcomes of COVID-19</a>, with obesity in particular demonstrating a strong cross-correlation. Yet while the overall poorer health associated with poverty means a poorer prognosis once the virus is caught, it only explains part of the picture. Both the mortality rates from COVID-19 and the likelihood of getting it correlate with <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/908434/Disparities_in_the_risk_and_outcomes_of_COVID_August_2020_update.pdf">geographic deprivation</a>. There is simply more of the virus about in poorer areas, meaning more chance of getting it for those who live there.</p>
<p>In part, this is because people from poorer communities are more likely to be “key workers”: those without whom society cannot run and thus those from whom the choice to stay home must be removed. That’s why only <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/coronavirusandhomeworkingintheuk/april2020">37.6% of workers</a> in Yorkshire and the Humber region are able to work from home during the pandemic, compared with 57.2% in London.</p>
<p>The constraints of these roles are geographically stratified, but they are also gendered and class-based: <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14763">60% of key workers are women</a>, compared to just 43% of workers outside of key industries. In the UK, <a href="https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/24254/3/Job%20quality%20of%20key%20workers_Working%20paper_Matt%20Barnes.pdf">key workers earn 8% less than the national median</a>, while the percentage of those working from home <a href="https://www.thersa.org/blog/2020/04/low-pay-lack-homeworking">rises with every income bracket</a>: figures that highlight how unevenly the most essential – and often most inflexible – roles in our society are distributed.</p>
<p>The upshot is that, as the Trades Union Council has <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/new-class-divide-how-covid-19-exposed-and-exacerbated-workplace-inequality-uk">put it</a>, “a man working in an ‘elementary occupation’ is over twice as likely to have died from coronavirus as the average male worker, and over four times as likely as a man working in ‘professional occupations’.”</p>
<h2>Second homes</h2>
<p>Yet the ability to avoid COVID-19 exposure is a question not only of employment, but wealth itself. Second home ownership, or access to a second home, is a privilege closely associated with wealth. </p>
<p>At the start of the pandemic, those who could afford it escaped densely populated, high-risk cities for rural environs, minimising their risk of exposure by staying put once they were there. Exercising the privilege of control over their own movement, the better off were therefore able to recast their habitual mobility to their own advantage, while the worse off remained stuck in more dangerous patterns of movement.</p>
<p>This trend was replicated and underscored by stark figures from New York in May, which revealed the extent of this mobile inequality. Confirming what many had suspected, the city’s best-off areas were not just quiet, they were half empty, with more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/15/upshot/who-left-new-york-coronavirus.html">40% of residents in the wealthiest blocks</a> in well-to-do upper East Side, SoHo, the West village and Brooklyn Heights having left in pursuit of safer environs. Poorer areas on the other hand, continued to bustle, not only with sheltering populations, but whole communities continuing to work, shop and commute. </p>
<h2>The freedom to move</h2>
<p>Staying home in times of danger, the data reveals, is a luxury afforded to the wealthy. Yet this is no novelty of the pandemic. Rather, control over one’s movement – known technically as motility – has historically been and remains an attribute closely associated with wealth, a dynamic I cover in my <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/going-nowhere-fast-9780198859505?cc=fr&lang=en&">book</a> on the subject. </p>
<p>In our society, freedom of movement is an asset unequally shared and unequally realised. As the controversies over government adviser Dominic Cummings’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-asked-people-if-they-were-breaking-lockdown-rules-before-and-after-the-dominic-cummings-scandal-heres-what-they-told-us-139994">sojourn to Durham</a> in May, the prime ministers’ father, Stanley Johnson, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-53266552">travelling to Greece</a> in July and Scottish MP Margaret Ferrier’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-54496759">return journey</a> from Scotland to London, and countless other incidents make clear, the right to move as one pleases is a privilege so readily associated with power and wealth that the breaching of regulations merits scarcely a second thought at the time such decisions are taken. </p>
<p>It is the same story for freedom of non-movement: the genuine ability to stay home and stay safe was in reality only ever accessible to a sub-section of those instructed to do so.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Colourful houses in London." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363238/original/file-20201013-19-tu8tbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363238/original/file-20201013-19-tu8tbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363238/original/file-20201013-19-tu8tbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363238/original/file-20201013-19-tu8tbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363238/original/file-20201013-19-tu8tbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363238/original/file-20201013-19-tu8tbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363238/original/file-20201013-19-tu8tbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not everyone can stay home and stay safe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-photo/colorful-row-houses-seen-notting-hill-1228403344">elxeneize/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The regional restrictions in the UK and elsewhere are no arbitrarily imposed injustice of the coronavirus pandemic. Rather, the current crisis has laid bare the hidden intricacies of inequality that already existed throughout the western world, but especially so in Britain: a country more <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/07/30/why-britain-is-more-geographically-unequal-than-any-other-rich-country">geographically unequal</a> than any other rich nation. </p>
<p>As well as suffering most from the virus, the worst-off parts of Britain will suffer its harshest legacy. Any recovery plan – both here and elsewhere – must recognise and respond to this unequal reality. This has been a pandemic predominantly of the poor, but above all of those for whom mobility is not a choice, but an obligation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurie Parsons does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We are not all in this together.Laurie Parsons, Lecturer in Human Geography, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1314192020-02-14T13:59:14Z2020-02-14T13:59:14ZGreater Manchester’s cycling plan is a radical, much-needed approach – now it needs funding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315329/original/file-20200213-11011-1eb3p0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C16%2C5590%2C3715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-showing-direction-friends-during-cycling-695235202">Shutterstock/Sergey Novikov</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The advantages of switching from cars to bikes in cities are well known – for health, urban air quality and the climate. Now, the <a href="http://www.hedgehogcycling.co.uk/Change_a_Region_to_Change_a_Nation_Report.pdf">“Change a region to change a nation”</a> report, which outlines Greater Manchester’s walking and cycling plan, proposes a radical investment in cycling infrastructure. </p>
<p>The plan would see £1.5bn invested in the <a href="https://tfgm.com/bee-network/">Bee Network</a>, 1,800 miles of cycling and walking routes over the region. The goal is to create a model which could be replicated across the country. This network is something that even London, with all its cycling advances under the pro-bike (now former) mayor Boris Johnson and his cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan, did not manage to accomplish in its time. </p>
<p>The Greater Manchester plan contains many, if not all, the vital elements necessary for a region to make real advances in transport politics. These are political resolve, reformed governance and open communication channels, a network plan and a budgeted work programme. The plan is rooted in a history of cycle campaigning that seeks to make travel by bike accessible for all, and – according to the plan’s authors – it has local backing. Above all, it offers a revolutionary alternative to a car-focused society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315330/original/file-20200213-11017-1czft3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315330/original/file-20200213-11017-1czft3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315330/original/file-20200213-11017-1czft3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315330/original/file-20200213-11017-1czft3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315330/original/file-20200213-11017-1czft3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315330/original/file-20200213-11017-1czft3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315330/original/file-20200213-11017-1czft3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greater Manchester hopes to create a Dutch-style cycling culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/amsterdam-405827866">Shutterstock/Gellert Buzas</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The plan is led by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and Chris Boardman, former professional cyclist and now Manchester’s cycling and walking commissioner. In the plan’s foreword, Boardman dives right into the heart of the matter: we must address our society’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856499000063">dependency on cars</a>, <a href="http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/data/files/publications/fairness_car_dependant.pdf">built into our cities</a> by decades of urban planning. This is a brave step and very timely indeed, after decades of administrative inactivity on transport matters.</p>
<p>According to Boardman, discussions held in Manchester over the last year mean that the public are “now more aware than ever that the way we travel, using cars for even for the shortest of journeys, is one of the biggest contributors to the problem [of the climate crisis]”. </p>
<h2>The economic case</h2>
<p>The Greater Manchester network is priced at £1.5 billion over 10 years. In a region of 2.8 million inhabitants, this equals a spend of about £50 per person per year. This is by no means outlandish. In the Netherlands, €30 (£25) per person per year is spent on <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/transport/cycling-health-and-safety_9789282105955-en">cycling infrastructure alone</a>. </p>
<p>The finances presented in the plan show a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 4. This means that every £1 invested is projected to return £4. The benefits consist of improvements in health and productivity such as increased physical activity, neighbourhood connectivity, boost to local business, congestion relief, and noise and air quality. The economic case is overwhelming. </p>
<p>A typical UK road scheme is classed as having “very high” value for money when it is calculated to yield a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/411417/ris-economic-analysis.pdf">BCR of 4</a>. In overall terms, a reliance on cars <a href="https://stopclimatechange.net/fileadmin/content/documents/move-green/The_true_costs_of_cars_EN.pdf">costs society dearly</a>, while cycling has consistently shown to <a href="https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/zuvvi/media/bc_files/campaigning/BENEFITS_OF_INVESTING_IN_CYCLING_DIGI_FINAL.pdf">bring societal benefits</a> at a typical <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/348943/vfm-assessment-of-cycling-grants.pdf">BCR of 5</a>. </p>
<p>The numbers add up. But here is the catch. All the benefits aside, where is the seed money supposed to come from for such a radical transformation? To invest in cycling and reap the rewards, Greater Manchester is appealing to the national coffers of the UK Treasury.</p>
<h2>Rooted in activism</h2>
<p>The foundation of the “Change a region to change a nation” report and the Bee Network is a new approach to campaigning for active travel. My PhD research looked at campaigning tactics to capture the shift that took place in the last decade. </p>
<p>In the past, cycling campaigners favoured on-road solutions: cycling mixed with motor traffic. From 2011 onwards, however, led by the <a href="https://lcc.org.uk/?ref=nav">London Cycling Campaign</a> under environmental campaigner Ashok Sinha, cycling organisations began to concentrate on the arrangement of urban space as the <a href="https://lcc.org.uk/pages/go-dutch">main obstacle to everyday cycling</a>.</p>
<p>A focus on urban space put cycling in direct and concrete conflict with a car-first society that single-mindedly prioritises motor vehicles’ use of city space. This conflict politicised cycling and <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1113912/bike-nation/9781911214946.html">put cycling firmly on the political agenda</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-that-car-and-plan-cities-around-bikes-to-make-cycling-a-real-option-for-more-women-120842">Stop that car, and plan cities around bikes to make cycling a real option for more women</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Road space must be given over to cycling if we want to construct cycling conditions where short journeys are habitually made by bike, where shopping by bike becomes a possibility, older people have stress-free and calm cycle environments for their free participation in public life, parents can cycle with children and <a href="https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/index.php/ejtir/article/view/3064">children can cycle by themselves</a>. This approach has a particular focus on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24461671?seq=1">journeys of care</a> such as visiting friends and relatives, shopping and child minding, and many of these claims were made by women activists.</p>
<p>Looking at the names on the report, and wider cycling politics, it feels as if current culture still requires men to press through change. Thankfully, for one thing, the imagery used in the Greater Manchester plan is inclusive and diverse. </p>
<p>But there remains an ingrained car-first approach in national politics. For the Bee Network to fully succeed, regionally and UK-wide, that now needs to be challenged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131419/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katja Leyendecker has received funding from Northumbria University, Newcastle for her PhD research. Katja co-founded newcycling.org and she is a member of various active travel organisations such as ADFC and Changing Cities e.V.</span></em></p>Radical thinking in Greater Manchester’s cycling and walking plan could direct cities away from car-focused infrastructure.Katja Leyendecker, PhD candidate in Architecture and Built Environment, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1295702020-02-04T19:46:16Z2020-02-04T19:46:16ZHow migrants’ eating habits change: the case of Ghanaians in the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310692/original/file-20200117-118343-1w7gigd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1495%2C970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Ghanaian food shop on Wellington Street in Gorton, Manchester, UK. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5694532">geograph.org.uk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do migrants change their food habits when they settle in a new country? This is a question that’s been tackled by researchers looking at the process of migrants adapting their diets in their host country. For example, a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1499404611005288">study</a> done in 2012 looked at Somalian, Algerian and Egyptians living in Norway. Another done nearly 20 years ago looked at dietary patterns <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002822302902476">among migrants</a> in the US.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03014460.2017.1333148">asked</a> Ghanaians living in Manchester, a major city in the north west of England, about their food preferences. Ghanaians make up one of the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/03/22/at-least-a-million-sub-saharan-africans-moved-to-europe-since-2010/">largest West African migrant groups</a> in Europe. We found that most of those we spoke to said they kept aspects of Ghanaian eating habits. But they also ate what they called “westernised” food.</p>
<p>Our study shows that changes in migrant’s diets is complex, it isn’t linear and is determined by several factors. There is no clear transition from “traditional” to “westernised” food practices following migration. </p>
<p>Our study also suggests that Ghanaians are an integrated group, meaning that they’re interested in maintaining their culture as well as trying to adopt some <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1997.tb01087.x">cultural aspects of a new society</a>. </p>
<h2>Continuity, flexibility, change</h2>
<p>The majority of the people we spoke to described what they ate as mostly consistent with what they perceived to be prevalent in Ghana. Older, first-generation immigrants said they mostly ate Ghanaian foods. A woman in her 60s told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I totally eat traditional foods: rice, ‘eto’ – mashed yam meal with red oil. But having said that, occasionally I will eat jacket potatoes.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313182/original/file-20200202-41481-1yz15e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313182/original/file-20200202-41481-1yz15e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313182/original/file-20200202-41481-1yz15e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313182/original/file-20200202-41481-1yz15e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313182/original/file-20200202-41481-1yz15e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313182/original/file-20200202-41481-1yz15e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313182/original/file-20200202-41481-1yz15e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313182/original/file-20200202-41481-1yz15e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ghanaian dishes such as kenkey, pepper and fish are often spicy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of the older people said that, because dishes required many hours preparation, they cooked traditional stews and soups in bulk – enough to last for weeks or even months – and stored these in their freezers.</p>
<p>A smaller number of people didn’t stick to eating Ghanaian food. This was particularly true of people who had arrived more recently, those who migrated as children, a few older participants who have lived in the UK for more than 20 years, and families with young children. Most tended to eat British food mainly for breakfast and lunch. Dinner varied between Ghanaian and UK foods.</p>
<p>Only a few people described themselves as eating mainly a broad range of foods prevalent in the UK. This was true mainly of second generation migrants. They ate out a lot with friends and often bought breakfast and lunch from work canteens. Ghanaian meals were eaten mainly during Ghanaian events. As a second-generation person put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You know what, am always looking for something I can prepare quickly. I try and cook a couple of times in a week in the evenings. I hardly touch Ghanaian stews.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Tradition and taste</h2>
<p>Ghanaians who preferred traditional foods said they did so to maintain cultural identity and because they wanted to conform to tradition. Many also preferred the taste of Ghanaian foods to those from the UK, and in all accounts perceived UK foods as dull and not spicy enough. A second-generation younger person said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“English foods are mostly boiled. As a matter of fact, with English foods, they take the oil out. With Ghanaian foods, we put in the oil.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>People also had different perspectives about what comprised UK food and traditional Ghanaian food. For instance, some participants perceived tea with sugar, milk and bread as a westernised type of breakfast, while others perceived this as a typical Ghanaian breakfast. </p>
<p>A possible explanation for this blurred line between certain Ghanaian and UK food might be due to Britain’‘s colonial influence. The Gold Coast on the Gulf of Guinea <a href="http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=ad43">was a British colony </a>from 1867 to its independence as the nation of Ghana in 1957. British people predominantly in the south of the country. Ghanaians living in the region incorporated some practices such as including <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175174409X456773">milk, tea and breakfast cereals in their regular diet</a>.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Created in 2007 to help accelerate and share scientific knowledge on key societal issues, the AXA Research Fund has supported nearly 700 projects around the world conducted by researchers in 38 countries. To learn more, visit the site of the AXA Research Fund or follow on Twitter @AXAResearchFund.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hibbah Araba Osei-Kwasi ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>A study of Ghanaians living in northern England provides insight into how eating habits change through the generations.Hibbah Araba Osei-Kwasi, Research Fellow (AXA post-doctoral researcher), University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1281552019-12-05T10:48:14Z2019-12-05T10:48:14ZManchester City v Manchester United: a battle for ideological dominance<p>The Manchester derby is <a href="https://theconversation.com/manchester-a-city-united-by-sport-76186">always a key clash in the Premier League calendar</a> and all eyes will be on the Etihad Stadium when City take on United, as the two footballing giants face-off for the first time this season. Yet the confrontation will be significant for reasons that go way beyond goals and titles. </p>
<p>So far this season, City have fallen some way short of the exacting standards they have set themselves over recent years under Pep Guardiola’s tutelage. Meanwhile, United is still immersed in post-Ferguson angst as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer grapples with his team’s continuing underachievement.</p>
<p>Adding some spice, each of the clubs’ off-field struggles are no less troubling. City has seen a Court for Arbitration in Sport ruling go against it as the club deals with charges that it <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50435304">breached UEFA’s Financial Fair Play</a> (FFP) regulations. Over at United, fans remain concerned about the club’s owners and their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/oct/08/manchester-united-problems-ole-gunnar-solskjaer">failure to deliver the levels of success</a> they have previously enjoyed.</p>
<p>Yet despite the tensions associated with the head-to-head and the perpetual financial waltz of trying to work within the constraints of FFP, a bigger battle is being fought out in Manchester – one that is largely anonymous though profoundly more important than anything that a single Premier League game can manifest.</p>
<p>In 2005, Manchester United was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/may/16/newsstory.manchesterunited">acquired by the Glazers</a>, a family of American sports entrepreneurs and owners of National Football League franchise the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Glazers are steeped in the traditions of a US domestic sports economy that remains the largest in the world, possibly accounting for 40% of the total <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwjt0-eu8ZbmAhUhQEEAHZ9IBEMQFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pwc.com%2Fgx%2Fen%2Fhospitality-leisure%2Fpdf%2Fchanging-the-game-outlook-for-the-global-sports-market-to-2015.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1JZkn_P_4hYpirGY-cbS6B">global sports industry</a>.</p>
<p>The growth and dominance of the US sports industry remains striking, as it has been governed largely by the free market. Unlike most countries in the world, America effectively has no government sports ministry. Instead, sport in the US is driven by commercial principles, where profit rules and financial returns are generated by and for private investors.</p>
<p>In many ways, Manchester United has become the embodiment of this western, capitalist model of sport. While costs are carefully controlled, revenue growth is pursued with gusto. This has constantly reaffirmed United’s position as being one of the most <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49808790">commercially valuable football clubs in the world</a>, even though the club has been struggling on the pitch. </p>
<p>It also sees the organisation locked into a perpetual cycle of rights sales. The club now makes money on deals with anything from <a href="http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/manchester_united_agree_deal_with_japans_kansai">Japanese paint brands</a> to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgekoutsakis/2018/10/01/first-50-year-old-chivas-whisky-celebrates-manchester-uniteds-1968-cup-victory/#19f7c5bdb411">Scottish whisky distillers</a>.</p>
<p>United needs a win this weekend, not just for the club but also for the capitalist ideology that it represents. The club <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/773f17be-1320-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e">goes to great lengths</a> in its pursuit of revenues, though its <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/07/football/manchester-united-ole-gunnar-solskjaer-spt-intl/index.html">recent travails</a> have taken some of the lustre off the brand. Victory at the Etihad will say just as much about the best way to run a football club as it does the team’s capabilities. </p>
<h2>The ‘rentier state’ owners</h2>
<p>A cursory glance at the list of Manchester City’s commercial partners might lead one to conclude that the club is of the same ilk as United. However, City is a very different proposition. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/sep/01/manchestercity.premierleague">In 2008</a>, the east Manchester outfit was acquired by the <a href="https://www.cityfootballgroup.com/our-business/ownership/">Abu Dhabi United Group</a> for Development and Investment, a state investment vehicle.</p>
<p>Hence, City is owned and run by a petrodollar-fuelled Gulf state, which exhibits the characteristics of a <a href="http://www.ejinsight.com/20191125-the-rentier-states-ruling-football/">“rentier state”</a>. As was discussed in a <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/sport-politics-and-society-in-the-middle-east/">recently published book chapter</a> that I wrote, among their characteristics rentier states are typically dependent upon natural resource deposits for revenues which are, in turn, used to invest in overseas rent-generating assets. </p>
<p>These rents are then utilised domestically as a substitute for taxation and spending, which mitigates the need for democratic structures and processes. Manchester City-generated revenues therefore play their part in keeping Abu Dhabi’s population happy.</p>
<p>The importance of Asian state ownership at City is further illustrated by the way in which its owners use the club as an <a href="http://www.ejinsight.com/20190225-manchester-city-chengdu-deal-a-matter-of-business-or-politics/">instrument of state policy</a>, notably in international relations and diplomacy. For instance, the City Football Group (CFG, of which Manchester City is a constituent element) is part-owned by Chinese investors, a stake that was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/dec/01/manchester-city-265m-deal-chinese-investment-group">publicly announced</a> to coincide with Chinese president Xi’s Jinping’s visit to Britain in 2015. </p>
<p>Utilising City as a policy instrument has enabled all manner of deals between Abu Dhabi and Beijing to be agreed. Earlier this year, as the football world responded to CFG’s announcement that it will set up a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/20/manchester-city-football-group-buy-chinese-club">franchise club in Chengdu</a> (China), few people noticed the simultaneous announcement that Abu Dhabi’s state airline Etihad (the main shirt sponsor of Manchester City) <a href="https://www.khaleejtimes.com/etihad-airways-to-deploy-new-787-dreamliners-to-china">will establish new links with …. Chengdu</a>.</p>
<p>The rentier state game plan in football is already <a href="http://www.ejinsight.com/20191125-the-rentier-states-ruling-football/">well established</a>, has been playing out <a href="https://theconversation.com/english-football-a-proxy-battleground-for-feuding-gulf-states-117812">for most of this year</a> and, indeed, looks <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/a-different-kind-of-sporting-contest/">set to intensify</a> as we head into 2020. A City victory in this weekend’s Manchester derby will add impetus to an increasingly powerful influence on the sport.</p>
<h2>Not just a football match</h2>
<p>City versus United is therefore no longer just a football match, it is a front line in what has fast become an <a href="http://www.ejinsight.com/20171122-europe-s-flat-footed-response-to-the-rise-of-asian-sports/">ideological war between the West and the East</a>. Sure, the war doesn’t solely involve a battle for the heart and soul of football. Similar skirmishes are also being played out in various sports and across other industrial sectors such as real estate, financial technologies and leisure. </p>
<p>Two decades ago, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/international-sports_b_1246775">western capitalism ruled</a> and United dominated. But the world order is now changing with Asian states in the ascendancy. Perhaps no surprise, then, that City is now dominant. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, as with many conflicts, there is collateral damage which, in this case, seems to be the football fans of Manchester. City supporters from Openshaw and West Gorton no doubt remain nostalgic for the good old days of Francis Lee and Colin Bell. Over in Stretford and Gorse Hill, United fans will often hark back to the days of the <a href="https://www.manutd.com/en/history/munich-remembered/the-busby-babes">Busby Babes</a> and <a href="https://www.manutd.com/en/players-and-staff/detail/EricCantona">King Eric</a>.</p>
<p>But these once locally embedded social institutions, which were a tangible manifestation of peoples’ geographic identity and community, have now simply become instruments in a global ideological war. </p>
<p>However fans might reminisce, the reality is that the clubs are no longer “theirs”. Instead, the avaricious corporate appetites of western capitalism and the rent hungry sheikhs of the Gulf are now engaged in playing the biggest derby game of them all – the battle for ideological dominance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Chadwick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The clubs no longer ‘belong’ to the fans - they have become instruments in an ideological war between Western capitalism and the rent hungry sheikhs of the Gulf states.Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1219002019-08-15T17:58:24Z2019-08-15T17:58:24ZPeterloo massacre: how women’s bravery helped change British politics forever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288148/original/file-20190815-136180-17z59nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Print of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlile in 1819.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/6045102539">Flickr/ManchesterArchives</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>St. Peter’s Fields in Manchester: the <a href="http://www.peterloomassacre.org/history.html">year is 1819</a>, and a crowd of around 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy and antipoverty protesters have gathered to hear radical speaker <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Hunt">Henry Hunt</a> call for parliamentary reform. What should have been a peaceful appeal, ends with an estimated <a href="https://wiganlanebooks.co.uk/books/local-history/the-casualties-of-peterloo-by-michael-bush/">18 dead and hundreds injured</a>. </p>
<p>This was a time in Britain’s history when most people didn’t have the vote and many regarded the parliamentary system – which was based on <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/getting_vote.htm">property ownership and heavily weighted towards the south of England</a> – as unrepresentative and unfair. Factory workers had very few rights and most of them worked in appalling conditions. </p>
<p>As Hunt began his speech, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-45563005">the order was given</a> for him to be arrested. After he had given himself up and again urged the crowd to order, the volunteer Manchester Yeomanry Cavalry attacked the platform, the flags, and those around with sabres, while special constables weighed in with truncheons. A charge into the panicking crowd by the 15th Hussars completed the rout. </p>
<p>As well as an attack on the working classes, Peterloo was also an episode of violence against women. According to the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casualties-Peterloo-Professor-Michael-Bush/dp/1859361250">historian Michael Bush</a>, women formed perhaps one in eight of the crowd, but more than a quarter of those injured. They were not only twice as likely as men to be injured, but also more likely to be injured by truncheons and sabres. </p>
<p>This was no accident, for female reformers formed part of the guard for the flags and banners on the platform, which were attacked and seized by the Manchester Yeomanry cavalry as soon as Henry Hunt had been arrested. But how did the women come to be in such an exposed position and why were they attacked without quarter? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hostile ‘Belle Alliance’ cartoon of female reformers (July 1819) by George Cruikshank.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/join_in/using_digital_images/using_digital_images.aspx?asset_id=177501001&objectId=1648229&partId=1">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/protest-democracy-1818-1820/female-reformers/">The female reform societies</a> of Lancashire were a novelty, formed in the summer of 1819 in the weeks before the great Manchester meeting of August 16. They were not asking for votes for women, but they were claiming the vote for families, and a say in how that vote was cast. In an address which was to have been presented on the platform at Peterloo, The Manchester Female Reformers declared that “as wives, mothers, daughters, in their social, domestic, moral capacities, they come forward in support of the sacred cause of liberty”. </p>
<p>They were there supporting their husbands, fathers and sons in the struggle for a radical reform of parliament. They took care to be feminine, but not what we would call feminists, yet they stretched the boundaries of femininity to breaking point and, in the eyes of government loyalists, renounced their right to special treatment. </p>
<p>More provocative still, parties of female reformers on reforming platforms presented flags and caps of liberty to the male reform leaders. The cap of liberty had been the symbol of revolution in France, but on the Manchester Reformers’ flag it was carried by the figure of Britannia, as shown on English coinage until the 1790s.</p>
<p>This ceremony took the patriotic ritual of women presenting colours to military regiments and adapted it to radical ends. The Manchester Female Reformers planned to proclaim: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>May our flag never be unfurled but in the cause of peace and reform, and then may a female’s curse pursue the coward who deserts the standard.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At previous meetings, the authorities had been unable to capture the radical colours and had suffered some humiliating rebuffs. The volunteer Yeomanry at Manchester were determined to reverse these defeats. When he heard the women would be on the platform again at Manchester, the Bolton magistrate and spymaster Colonel Fletcher wrote privately that such meetings “ought to be suppressed, even though in such suppression, a vigour beyond the strict letter of the law may be used in so doing”. With Fletcher looking on, this was exactly what happened at Peterloo. </p>
<h2>‘Women beaten to the ground by truncheons’</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-369224">Mary Fildes</a>, president of the Manchester Female Reformers, <a href="https://spartacus-educational.com/PRfields.htm">is depicted in prints</a> waving a radical flag from the front of the platform as the troops attack. She guarded her flag until the last minute, then jumped from the platform, catching her white dress on a nail and being cut by a sabre as she struggled to get free. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cropped version of ‘Britons strike home’ (August 1819) by George Cruikshank.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/join_in/using_digital_images/using_digital_images.aspx?asset_id=62823001&objectId=1503463&partId=1">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As she ran, she was beaten to the ground by a special constable who seized her embroidered handkerchief-flag, and then dodged another sabre blow and escaped into hiding for the next fortnight – although badly wounded she survived and continued to campaign for the vote.</p>
<p>Others were arrested in her stead and detained for days without trial in wretched conditions. One of them, <a href="https://phm.org.uk/blogposts/the-women-of-peterloo/">Elizabeth Gaunt</a>, suffered a miscarriage afterwards – her unborn child is listed as one of the victims of Peterloo on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49333004">the new memorial in Manchester</a>. </p>
<p>George Cruikshank’s <a href="https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-peterloo-massacre">famous graphic images</a> of troops attacking defenceless women and children formed the enduring image of Peterloo in the public mind. After this propaganda disaster, next time round, in 1832, the government dared not risk sending in troops against unarmed crowds of reformers gathered in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. The House of Lords backed down at the third time of asking and the <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/houseofcommons/reformacts/overview/reformact1832/">Great Reform Act</a> was passed.</p>
<p>Behind Britain’s famous long history of gradual reform lay the shock of Peterloo. And behind the granting of the franchise to more men lay the bravery of women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Poole is affiliated with the Peterloo Memorial Campaign <a href="http://www.peterloomassacre.org">www.peterloomassacre.org</a> </span></em></p>As well as an attack on the working classes, Peterloo was also an episode of violence against women.Robert Poole, Professor of History, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1210132019-08-15T15:34:24Z2019-08-15T15:34:24ZFestivals can transform cities by making space for overlooked people and cultures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288182/original/file-20190815-136208-1dmm2qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C726%2C480&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Infecting the City – a performance arts festival in Cape Town. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Infecting_the_City2011_strand.jpg">Africa Centre/Wikimedia Commons. </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cities all over the world are facing major crises – from <a href="https://theconversation.com/growing-western-cape-protests-show-citizens-expect-greater-accountability-96547">failing services</a> and <a href="https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/reports/InequalityMatters.pdf">mounting</a> <a href="https://wir2018.wid.world/">inequalities</a>, to <a href="https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/">climate emergencies</a>. And arts and culture have a surprisingly critical role in tackling these kind of urban challenges. </p>
<p>Festivals create exciting spaces to experience art, music, culture and film. At their best, they perform a transformative role in society, celebrating traditions and powerfully expressing the meanings that places hold for people. Festivals can disrupt established ways of thinking about heritage. Taking place in streets, pubs, railway arches, houses, boats and doorsteps, they can help residents explore different ways of belonging in cities, reengage with the past and imagine the future. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://realisingjustcities-rjc.org/sites/default/files/FESTIVALS%20AS%20INTEGRATIVE%20SITES%20FINAL%20REPORT_0.pdf">study of 18 festivals</a> across Europe, Africa and the Caribbean found that they can also play a central role in creating <a href="http://www.agenda21culture.net/summit/uclg-culture-summit-2021">more sustainable cities</a>. Sustainability is not just about protecting the environment – it’s also about fostering connections between people and places. We found that festivals as far afield as South Africa, Kenya and the UK have the power to bring diverse groups of people together, often with a shared commitment to better lives and places. </p>
<h2>Claiming city spaces</h2>
<p>Cape Town in South Africa is widely known as a tourist destination, and resources are poured into central and affluent parts of the city to maintain the <a href="https://www.capetown.travel/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Annual-Report-20172018.pdf">tourism industry</a>. It has also embraced the UNESCO title of <a href="https://sandinmysuitcase.com/design-city-cape-town-travel-guide/">Design City</a> and has a flourishing art and design market. But these identities are not shared by all residents and the <a href="http://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/City%20research%20reports%20and%20review/16429%20COCT%20State%20of%20Cape%20Town%20Report%202016%20FINAL.pdf">city remains</a> fragmented and segregated, with the majority living in precarious conditions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288173/original/file-20190815-136186-y3grrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288173/original/file-20190815-136186-y3grrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288173/original/file-20190815-136186-y3grrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288173/original/file-20190815-136186-y3grrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288173/original/file-20190815-136186-y3grrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288173/original/file-20190815-136186-y3grrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288173/original/file-20190815-136186-y3grrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cape Town’s city centre already benefits from investment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-view-cape-town-city-centre-156351665?src=qw9gKF02T1CA5EIIzW3VHQ-1-2">Shutterstock.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the FIFA World Cup in 2010, the <a href="http://capetowncarnival.com/">Cape Town Carnival</a> was introduced to <a href="http://capetowncarnival.com/about-us">provide opportunities</a> for creative expression, employment, skills development, social cohesion and economic development. Although an enjoyable spectacle, the carnival happens at night, meaning only a minority of residents with access to transport can participate. </p>
<p>The Cape Town Carnival was also seen to be taking resources historically allocated to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-01-05-cape-minstrels-parade-accusations-fly-confusion-reigns/">the controversial</a> Kaapse Klopse parade. <a href="https://rove.me/to/cape-town/kaapse-klopse">Kaapse Klopse</a> dates back to the 17th century. With links to new year’s celebrations during the slavery era, it follows a traditional carnival route to reclaim the streets as historic spaces for everyone. A daytime event, some feel it’s the only time poorer Capetonians have access to the city. </p>
<p>These examples reveal that festivals may not benefit everyone, despite best intentions. Power dynamics in society will play out in cultural spaces, as well as economic and political ones. More recent festivals in Cape Town deliberately challenge perceptions of public spaces and draw attention to inequalities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288180/original/file-20190815-136230-vjo81w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C895%2C567&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288180/original/file-20190815-136230-vjo81w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288180/original/file-20190815-136230-vjo81w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288180/original/file-20190815-136230-vjo81w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288180/original/file-20190815-136230-vjo81w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288180/original/file-20190815-136230-vjo81w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288180/original/file-20190815-136230-vjo81w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Infecting the City festival in Cape Town.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/COLLECTIONafricacentre_PRJTitc_YR2010_ITC015.jpg">Africa Centre/Wikimedia Commons.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, <a href="http://infectingthecity.com/2017/">Infecting the City</a> is a performance arts festival that aims to take creative practices – which are traditionally choreographed in studios and performed on stages – into the streets. </p>
<h2>Building opportunities</h2>
<p>Kisumu City is nestled along the banks of Lake Victoria in Kenya. The city is rich with cultural and natural heritage, which is celebrated through festivals. For example, the Got Ramogi festival was set up in 2015 to preserve and protect the traditional culture, sacred sites and myths of the Got Ramogi people. </p>
<p>And Dunga Fish Night was organised with the community – with support from <a href="https://www.jooust.ac.ke/">a local university</a>, the Ministry of Tourism and social services – to address biodiversity threats to the wetlands, the loss of traditional fishing industries and concern about deforestation, quarrying and urbanisation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287495/original/file-20190809-144862-gb8b8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287495/original/file-20190809-144862-gb8b8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287495/original/file-20190809-144862-gb8b8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287495/original/file-20190809-144862-gb8b8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287495/original/file-20190809-144862-gb8b8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287495/original/file-20190809-144862-gb8b8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287495/original/file-20190809-144862-gb8b8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Got Ramogi festival.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oluoch Omollo.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers Patrick Hayombe and Fred Odede <a href="https://www.mistraurbanfutures.org/en/publication/exploration-food-culture-kisumu">have highlighted</a> the considerable benefits these festivals bring. New infrastructure such as roads, sanitation and power lines must be built to organise and deliver events, as part of a <a href="https://www.mistraurbanfutures.org/en/project/ecotourism">wider ecotourism strategy</a>. </p>
<p>Yet this approach has raised some tensions. Some people ask whether culture is only valuable if it delivers economic returns. But supporters point to the opportunities created for excluded groups around the lake. The festivals generate alternative sources of sustainable revenue, specifically for marginalised young people and sex workers.</p>
<h2>Smaller event success</h2>
<p>The power of festivals is equally visible in cities such as Greater Manchester, UK. The “original modern city”, Manchester has a rich industrial and political history. It’s considered <a href="https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/birth-of-first-modern-computer-celebrated-in-manchester/">the birthplace of the modern computer</a> and the centre of many movements for workers’ rights, from the <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Luddites/">Luddites</a> to the <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/chartists/overview/chartistmovement/">Chartists</a>. In recent years, the city-region has embraced new opportunities through initiatives such as <a href="http://www.mediacityuk.co.uk/">Media City</a>, a development that has transformed the docklands at Salford Quays into a creative industries hub. </p>
<p>Like in Cape Town, Greater Manchester’s “festivalscape” reflects different ambitions and issues. <a href="https://mif.co.uk/">Manchester International Festival</a> (MIF) attracts an international audience and highlights its growing <a href="http://ontheplatform.org.uk/article/rethinking-sustainable-festivals-spotlight-manchester-international-festival">environmental credentials</a>. More recently, MIF has also forged stronger links with locals: for instance, in 2017 Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller’s parade, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jun/29/manchester-international-festival-parade-locals">What is the people but the city?</a>, put residents in the spotlight, just a month after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/22/manchester-arena-police-explosion-ariana-grande-concert-england">the fatal bombing</a> of the Manchester Arena. </p>
<p>Overlooked, but no less significant, are smaller festivals such as the <a href="https://www.familiesonline.co.uk/local/salford/whats-on/ordsall-summer-festival">Ordsall Festival</a>, nestled in the shadow of Media City. These festivals struggle for funding, but cater for residents who feel the promise of the creative industries, or glamour of the international festival scene, is not designed for them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288165/original/file-20190815-136213-1n7n6d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288165/original/file-20190815-136213-1n7n6d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288165/original/file-20190815-136213-1n7n6d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288165/original/file-20190815-136213-1n7n6d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288165/original/file-20190815-136213-1n7n6d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288165/original/file-20190815-136213-1n7n6d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288165/original/file-20190815-136213-1n7n6d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People walk together during the Manchester Histories festival.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Karen Shannon.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://manchesterhistories.co.uk/">Manchester Histories</a> has commemorated 200 years since the <a href="https://peterloo1819.co.uk/">Peterloo massacre of 1819</a>, with a festival focused on the themes of freedom, protest and democracy. The festival has been crowd-sourced from multiple groups around the city and is made up of <a href="https://realisingjustcities-rjc.org/news/filling-gaps-jam-justice-peterloo-2019">debates</a>, <a href="https://peterloo1819.co.uk/event/whose-knowledge-matters/">exhibitions</a>, celebrations of heritage and engagement with topical issues of the day. </p>
<p>All these examples show how festivals can respond to community needs when they meaningfully involve residents and create a powerful sense of belonging for people who are historically overlooked. Beyond economic or environmental benefits, festivals make spaces in cities to trouble and challenge, to raise public debate, to bring communities together and to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13527258.2019.1578987">tackle major social, environmental and political issues</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Perry has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Mistra Urban Futures and the British Academy. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rike Sitas receives funding from Mistra Urban Futures and the British Academy. </span></em></p>From Cape Town to Kisumu and Greater Manchester, cities around the world are seeing the benefits of festivals that celebrate traditions and people.Beth Perry, Professorial Fellow at the Urban Institute, University of SheffieldRike Sitas, Researcher, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1213142019-08-05T20:05:40Z2019-08-05T20:05:40ZWill time tear us apart? Exploring the appeal of Joy Division 40 years on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286854/original/file-20190805-117910-1xnpgby.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Hook at a recent Joy Division Orchestrated performance at London's Royal Albert Hall.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">VDImages & Yannis Hostelidis </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a previous century, I conducted doctoral fieldwork among the abandoned warehouses, smoky pubs and crumbling squats of the British <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Popular-Cultures-Politics-Pleasure-Culture/dp/0803977018">post-punk, independent rock scene</a>. How strange that I should become re-acquainted with that scene at the shimmering Sydney Opera House.</p>
<p>The occasion was <a href="https://musicfeeds.com.au/news/2019-peter-hook-interview/">Joy Division Orchestrated</a>, performed not long after the 40th anniversary of the band’s landmark debut album <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/joy-division-unknown-pleasures-40-anniversary-songs-ian-curtis-buzzcocks-peter-hook-a8957461.html">Unknown Pleasures</a>. Joy Division has been described as being “like the centre of a wheel” in continuing “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/18/the-eternal-influence-of-joy-division-moby-killers-jon-savage-zia-anger">to influence not just music, but graphic design, literature, film and more</a>” four decades after the band died, along with its lead singer, Ian Curtis.</p>
<p>Saturday night’s show was only a remnant of the original group from Salford in Greater Manchester, as founder member Peter Hook substituted his estranged ex-bandmates with guest singers and musicians, not least the <a href="https://www.metorchestra.com.au/">Metropolitan Orchestra</a>. Of necessity, the show was radically different from the grungy club experience of its origins. In the hands of orchestrator/conductor Tim Crooks and musical director David Potts, the music was less angular and industrial.</p>
<p>With flesh-and-blood, classically-trained musicians replacing synthesisers, the sound was lush and tonally rich. Guest singer Mica Miller provided a different gender dimension to the songs of an all-male group. She and Hook took Curtis’s vocal role alongside Bastien Marshal, who sounds and looks like him.</p>
<p>Joy Division classics abounded, like the brooding Atmosphere and the disconcerting She’s Lost Control. Inevitably there was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntozxoKmmZM">Love Will Tear Us Apart</a> which, a decade after its release, came first in the inaugural Triple J Hottest 100, and again the following year. Plus whimsical surprises, like the bizarre, Malcolm McLaren-inspired <a href="https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2014/01/23/love-will-keep-us-together-tear-us-apart/">mashup</a> of that song and Captain and Tennille’s Love Will Keep Us Together.</p>
<p>But the music alone, despite its unquestionable and enhanced majesty, cannot entirely explain the enduring appeal of a band that existed for barely two years before Curtis took his own life.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zuuObGsB0No?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Joy Division’s flame has been partially kept alive by its successor, New Order, formed in 1980 by the surviving members of the band: Hook, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris. New Order broke up a couple of times but is still going, though now without Hook. He and the band have had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/20/peter-hook-settlement-new-order-royalties">a long running legal dispute</a> that was reportedly settled in 2017. </p>
<p>New Order’s innovative mix of electropop and dance music has been much more commercially successful than its parent band, which produced only <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/3898-Joy-Division">two albums of original music and a handful of EPs and singles</a>. But it could never compete with the power of Joy Division mythology.</p>
<p>In a familiar rock narrative of the beautiful corpse, the premature demise of Ian Curtis and Joy Division offered both pathos and mystery. Neither singer nor band could make embarrassing mistakes or reach some notional use-by date, touring the nostalgia circuit like the Sex Pistols, who inspired them to form in the first place.</p>
<p>Images of Joy Division, usually black-and-white, reveal four intense young men in the kind of authentic, working-class environment immortalised by The Smiths a few years later outside the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2012/mar/06/smiths-fans-salford-lads-club">Salford Lads Club</a>. That famous picture was dominated by Morrissey – who has lived long enough to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jul/08/billy-bragg-morrissey-rightwing-youtube-video-stormzy-brandon-flowers">besmirch his own reputation</a> – just as the glowering Ian Curtis compulsively draws the eye in Joy Division’s <a href="http://www.joydivisionofficial.com/photo">still photographs</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EdUjlawLJM">videos</a>.</p>
<p>When Curtis died, I recall a distraught letter to the New Musical Express, the most influential rock newspaper of the time, claiming that “he died for us”.</p>
<p>Even without such Christ-like imaginings of their late singer, Joy Division’s songs – by turns doomy and angry, edgy and reflective – still resonate in these paranoid times.</p>
<p>Produced under Thatcherism and Reaganism, amid the Cold War, deepening social inequality and the rise of the surveillance state, songs like Disorder, Dead Souls, Atrocity Exhibition, and Isolation exude disquiet and alienation. They could have been written today.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6dBt3mJtgJc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But at a deeper level the aura that formed around the band, and especially its tortured vocalist, evocatively expresses rock’s romantic mythology of <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=simon+frith+sociology+of+rock&rlz=1C1GCEU_enAU821AU821&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKuZXwuOPjAhUVQH0KHZAqBj4Q_AUIEigC&biw=1920&bih=947#imgrc=X51ajL0WbRPUFM:">dissident youth</a>. It registers in Anton Corbijn’s film about the band, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421082/">Control</a>, and in the representation of Manchester’s Hacienda scene in which Joy Division is featured, in the film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274309/">24 Hour Party People</a>.</p>
<p>Myth-laden yearnings aside, Joy Division’s slim back catalogue still repays repeated listening. Songs like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMAB3r6EjcM">Decades</a>, from the epic album <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2011/aug/18/joy-division-closer">Closer</a>, will resonate with inquisitive listeners yet to be born. </p>
<p>In the end, time and earthly foibles caught up with Joy Division. Punk was supposed to rewrite the rules of the decadent music business, and post-punk to take it beyond the frenetic world of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2942568-one-chord-wonders">One Chord Wonders</a> into something more existentially enduring.</p>
<p>The known-unknown pleasures of Joy Division Orchestrated are reminders of why the music of this short-lived band remains potent even if the human relationships that made it possible have been torn apart. Again.</p>
<p><em>Peter Hook presents Joy Division Orchestrated can be seen in <a href="https://www.tegdainty.com/tour/peter-hook-presents-joy-division-orchestrated/">Perth on August 9 and Melbourne August 11</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121314/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The music alone, despite its unquestionable majesty, cannot entirely explain the enduring appeal of a band that existed for barely two years before its lead singer took his own life.David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1093442019-01-04T14:34:05Z2019-01-04T14:34:05ZTwo New Year’s stabbings and an urgent lesson in how to react to terrorism<p>Several people were stabbed in two separate and horrific incidents in the UK on New Year’s Eve. One took place in Manchester, where three people were hurt. The other was in London, where one person was hurt and one killed. Despite the only fatality occurring in the latter incident, it was the former that received worldwide media and political attention.</p>
<p>News alerts went out about the Manchester stabbings. The attacker had injured three people, including a policeman. The Washington Post had a headline in red on its homepage and it was a lead item on the BBC. People, including me, rushed to tweet about it. And it prompted public statements from the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and the home secretary. What drove the reaction was that the alleged perpetrator in Manchester shouted an Islamic religious slogan, which led the police to treat the attack as a potential terrorist incident. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in London, doorman <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46741638">Tudor Simionov</a> was killed outside a club, apparently after trying to stop a group of people entering the private party going on inside. A second person was stabbed. There was some limited news coverage but nothing on the scale of the Manchester incident and certainly no international interest. </p>
<p>The different response to violent assaults on the same evening is worrying because of the message it sends to potential future attackers. Terrorists crave publicity or, in the words of terrorism expert Brian M. Jenkins, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPVaeB73GyY">a lot of people watching</a>”. Now it seems that this can be achieved simply by brandishing a kitchen knife and shouting out a slogan.</p>
<p>This reality becomes particularly problematic when it is coupled with <a href="https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/11/what-to-do-about-lone-wolf-terrorism-examining-current-trends-and-prevention-strategies/">an increase in lone-actor terrorism</a>. Rather than bombings, we are seeing more attacks in which an individual, often deploying everyday items such as a vehicle or a kitchen knife, inflicts injuries, deaths and terror. Such attacks are difficult – if not impossible – to prevent but, thankfully, frequently involve few casualties.</p>
<p>If this trend continues, there needs to be a wider reflection on the response in the aftermath of an attack.</p>
<p>There is a crucial need to avoid an overreaction. After the murder of Lee Rigby in 2013, the then prime minister David Cameron <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/may/23/woolwich-attack-david-cameron-statement">told</a> the public that “one of the best ways of defeating terrorism is to go about our normal lives. And that is what we shall all do.” But he interrupted a public trip to France in order to return to London and deliver this message which somewhat undermined his own sentiment. </p>
<p>The issue, of course, is not new. Margaret Thatcher famously <a href="https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106096">observed</a> in 1985 that “we must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend”. Her government subsequently attempted to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yqXeIYmtsc">restrict British media coverage</a> of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Those efforts in the 1980s failed and – in the 21st century and an era of social media – government censorship and even media self-censorship is impractical.</p>
<p>Since a lack of media coverage or political reaction to any level of terrorism is not an option, then what? We need a more considered response to terrorism. We need to make an effort not to overreact through speed, sensationalism and blanket coverage of every attack perceived as terrorism. That is exactly what perpetrators seek. A smarter response by both the media and politicians would instead emphasise resiliency and context.</p>
<p>Context might include recognition that it is ordinary crime, including non-terrorism-related murder, that affects the lives of Britons more than terrorism. Thus, the irony of the different responses on New Year’s Eve is that the London attack reflected an ongoing problem across 2018 during which <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/londons-year-of-horror-so-far-the-victims-in-the-first-weeks-of-2018-11315362">at least 70 people were stabbed to death</a> in the capital. Not one of those deaths involved terrorism but those affected deserve no less attention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Hewitt has received funding in the past from the AHRC, SSHRC, the British Academy, and TSAS. </span></em></p>London is struggling to manage a violent crime epidemic, yet the Manchester attack attracted global attention.Steve Hewitt, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1017202018-08-23T07:18:35Z2018-08-23T07:18:35ZAirbnb and the short-term rental revolution – how English cities are suffering<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233096/original/file-20180822-149487-74mof0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/535371583?src=QbyHoh2l4OdF1t-HfYAwUQ-2-20&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The short-term rental market has ballooned in recent years. According to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43718864">the Residential Landlords Association</a>, Airbnb listings in ten UK cities increased by almost 200% between 2015 and 2017. And while attention has mainly focused on the problems this is causing in big cities such as <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/airbnb-growth-london-housing-data-insideairbnb">London</a>, or tourist hotspots such as <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1330701/barcelona-wants-tourists-to-check-if-their-airbnb-style-rentals-are-legal/">Barcelona</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/berlin-has-banned-homeowners-from-renting-out-flats-on-airbnb-heres-why-59204">Berlin</a>, communities in England’s regional cities are also feeling the effects. </p>
<p>The growth of short-term rentals is closely tied to the broader <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2017/feb/28/un-report-lays-bare-the-waste-of-treating-homes-as-commodities">financialisation of housing</a> – that is, changes in the housing and financial markets, which turn housing into a commodity. These changes have opened the door for new investors to buy and develop more and more units, which in turn increases the scarcity of housing, prompts landlords to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/31/airbnb-makes-new-york-rents-increase-says-study.html">raise rent</a>, <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/living-next-to-airbnb-sharing-economy-problems">threatens community bonds</a> and <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/the-long-term-problems-of-short-term-rentals-in-montreal">stretches neighbourhood services</a>. </p>
<p>The short-term rental sector is made up of two different business models. Serviced apartments are typically run by a single business, which offer a hotel experience for visitors in many city centres. Landlords can also rent out rooms or entire properties through <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sharing-economy-could-end-capitalism-but-thats-not-all-45203">sharing economy platforms</a> such as Airbnb. By providing this service, Airbnb has given people a new means to earn money on their homes – sometimes without having to follow all the laws that apply to renting. </p>
<h2>Growing trends</h2>
<p>In 2016, the Association of Serviced Apartment Providers <a href="https://www.servicedapartmentnews.com/home/news/2017/2/8/uk-serviced-apartment-sector-averaged-81-per-cent-occupancy-in-2016/">found that</a> 86% of serviced apartment units in Manchester were occupied throughout the year. Alongside other regional cities such as Liverpool and Bristol, Manchester is a key target for serviced apartment operators. </p>
<p>To find out exactly how short-term rentals are affecting regional cities such as Manchester, I <a href="http://www.gmhousingaction.com/report_launched_on_housing_finance_gm/">undertook research</a> to collect data on 22 serviced apartment schemes, containing 1,198 units across central Manchester and neighbouring Salford during 2017. The average starting price for a night in a serviced apartment was £99, and owners made an average monthly income of £2,563 per unit. The financial rewards of investing in serviced apartments clearly outweigh the returns on long-term rentals for residents, which yield around £850 per month. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233099/original/file-20180822-149472-1f5vcol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233099/original/file-20180822-149472-1f5vcol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233099/original/file-20180822-149472-1f5vcol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233099/original/file-20180822-149472-1f5vcol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233099/original/file-20180822-149472-1f5vcol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233099/original/file-20180822-149472-1f5vcol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233099/original/file-20180822-149472-1f5vcol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Getting trendy: street art and cycles in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kylaborg/14660045555/sizes/o/">Kylaborg/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To find out about Airbnb, I used a 2016 survey by sector analysts <a href="https://www.airdna.co/market-data/app/gb/default/manchester/overview">AirDNA</a>, which showed a total of 310 units advertised on Airbnb within central Manchester, and more than 1,500 across the city region. They noted a 70% annual growth in the sector from the previous year. The average price per night for an entire property is £143, with the highest being £1,251.</p>
<p>Across the city, my research identified 357 properties, which had been taken out of the long-term rental market up to 2016, with many more expected over coming years. Indeed, real estate company Colliers <a href="https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/airbnb-builds-manchester-share-but-hotels-still-dominant/">recently reported</a> that in 2017 there were more than 4,000 units being used for short-term rentals, in a city struggling to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/05/british-cities-developers-affordable-housing-manchester-sheffield">build affordable housing</a>. </p>
<p>The 2016 data from <a href="https://www.airdna.co/market-data/app/gb/default/manchester/overview">AirDNA</a> revealed 177 hosts operating Airbnb properties in central Manchester: 59 owned multiple properties and accounted for 62% of all listed units. It is likely that many of these hosts are people who own multiple properties, or who set up small enterprise to use housing in central Manchester as a business. </p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/14/airbnb-misuse-private-landlord-safety-risk-mps">there are concerns</a> that those properties taken out of the long-term rental market may not be operating with any licensing or planning permissions. <a href="http://www.tourismalliance.com/downloads/TA_398_426.pdf">A report</a> by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tourism, Leisure and the Hospitality Industry – a group of MPs from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, who meet to discuss issues in the industry – raised concerns that sharing economy platforms do not check if hosts comply with gas and fire safety regulations before they let out their properties. </p>
<h2>Neighbourhoods on the frontline</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232658/original/file-20180820-30581-dq6y25.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232658/original/file-20180820-30581-dq6y25.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232658/original/file-20180820-30581-dq6y25.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232658/original/file-20180820-30581-dq6y25.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232658/original/file-20180820-30581-dq6y25.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232658/original/file-20180820-30581-dq6y25.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232658/original/file-20180820-30581-dq6y25.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Serviced apartments, concentrated in the Northern Quarter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jonathan Silver.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Short-term rentals are clustering at certain locations across Manchester, especially the popular Northern Quarter, which has more than 150 Airbnb units alongside over 500 serviced apartments. This rapid growth is putting strain on <a href="https://confidentials.com/manchester/is-northern-quarter-in-danger-of-becoming-shoreditch?id=5b44798e88695">local services, small businesses</a> and potentially residents, and there’s a real risk that the people who made the neighbourhood a popular destination for visitors will be pushed out, as the area becomes a magnet for “party lets”, with <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43718864">antisocial behaviour and littering</a>. </p>
<p>With more than 650 potential homes in a relatively small neighbourhood used for the short-term rental market, it’s hardly surprising that the character of the neighbourhood is rapidly changing, while fears grow that it is <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/could-northern-quarter-losing-soul-14154254">losing its soul</a>. </p>
<p>Some cities have already weathered the first wave of negative impacts from short-term rentals – and are beginning to fight back. New laws have been put in place, to limit long-term damage to communities. In Paris and London, authorities introduced a cap for short-term rentals to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38169788">90 days per year</a>. This helped to ensure that housing built for residents is <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airbnb-paris-rules-new-rental-limit-bookings-stay-nights-latest-a8054771.html">not taken out of long-term rental markets</a> and used solely as a business asset by owners.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233090/original/file-20180822-149481-1bdehrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233090/original/file-20180822-149481-1bdehrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233090/original/file-20180822-149481-1bdehrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233090/original/file-20180822-149481-1bdehrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233090/original/file-20180822-149481-1bdehrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233090/original/file-20180822-149481-1bdehrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233090/original/file-20180822-149481-1bdehrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Balconies in Barcelona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrcl_/8500403300/sizes/o/">mrci_/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Barcelona <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/27/barcelona-threatens-expel-airbnb-city-accusing-executive-illegally/">has introduced</a> a range of measures, including fines for companies that advertise unlicensed units. Across the world, relatively <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/tourist-tax-introduced-to-conserve-popular-spanish-islands-balearic-archipelago-a6998581.html">small “tourist taxes”</a> of £1 per night now include serviced apartments. Proceeds are invested back into cities, to support local services and address the disruptive impacts on neighbourhood life. </p>
<p>So far, English regional cities have been pretty slow to act. Manchester City Council does not yet have a policy to address the sector. Liverpool City Council has been <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/planned-changes-airbnb-style-websites-14442478">more proactive</a>, pushing for national regulations to force landlords to register short-term rental properties. It has also lobbied central government for the ability to limit rentals to 90 days – a planning tool currently only available in London. </p>
<p>Unless coordinated action is taken at local and national levels, the short-term rental market will make the housing crisis, which is gaining pace in <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/housing-homeless-crisis-homes-a8356646.html">England’s regional cities</a>, even worse. Local communities and politicians need to come together quickly, and learn from cities that have already developed effective policies – before some neighbourhoods change irrevocably.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Silver receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust </span></em></p>More and more housing in city-centres is being bought or built for the short-term rental market.Jonathan Silver, Leverhulme ECR Fellow, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/990442018-07-01T09:22:48Z2018-07-01T09:22:48ZEngland’s north-south divide is history – but the nation’s rifts are deepening<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225519/original/file-20180629-117422-1ixiqdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=370%2C0%2C7405%2C4187&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tyne-bridge-blue-hour-1095632717?src=ZTu9vxwFhdpHtqY5cw2pUQ-1-17">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The north of England is as much of a myth as a material reality. Its particular economic, political, social and geographic qualities give it a unique character, distinct from the south of England. Since 1980s de-industrialisation, the north <a href="https://www4.shu.ac.uk/research/cresr/sites/shu.ac.uk/files/cresr30th-jobs-welfare-austerity.pdf">has been characterised</a> as a region in decline. But this summer’s <a href="https://getnorth2018.com/">Great Exhibition of the North</a> is redressing this perception, by promoting the region’s vibrant culture and putting the fruits of its current artistic renaissance on show. </p>
<p>Yet among the flurry of exhibitions, performances, concerts and installations for locals and visitors to see, hear and play with, it’s becoming clear that the old north-south divide is fading – and new fissures are emerging in its place. </p>
<p>The rivalry between north and south has deep historical roots, which continue to shape the attitudes of people in both regions today. From <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_North_south_Divide.html?id=LvbBAAAAIAAJ">the military successes</a> of southern kings in the Middle ages, to the economic triumph of the south from the early 20th century onwards, historians have portrayed the south as dominating the north. By the end of the 19th century, the “southern metaphor” for an idealised English identity – typified by imagery of a bucolic rural idyll and in marked contrast to the industrial associations of the north – had won out, and the north fell outside common perceptions of “authentic” England. </p>
<p>Today, southern views of northern character often view northern qualities as truculent, insensitive, unsophisticated, intrusive and parochial. By contrast, northerners typically <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/06/the-north-by-paul-morley-review/">see themselves</a> as independent-minded, straight-talking, practical, friendly and meritocratic. Southerners, meanwhile, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fGI3Bgy54OcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=dave+russell+the+north+in+the+national+imagination&ots=zh4cnysaCz&sig=BPKgfcIx3Sjv75EGkfkAmCXitug#v=onepage&q=dave%20russell%20the%20north%20in%20the%20national%20imagination&f=false">are viewed</a> as privileged, wasteful, unfriendly and nepotistic. </p>
<p>Yet the very developments in the north’s creative and cultural industries, which are highlighted by the Great Exhibition of the North, also point to changes in England’s economic landscape. As a result, these deep-rooted and divisive stereotypes could soon become very dated indeed. </p>
<h2>The southern North</h2>
<p>Across most regions of the UK, the creative sector (which includes the design, software and digital, advertising, film, broadcasting, architecture, publishing, music and performing arts industries) <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/the-geography-of-creativity-in-the-uk/">have supplanted</a> the service sector (banking and finance) to become the fastest growing business sector. </p>
<p>This is evident in the emergence of “creative clusters” – agglomerations of businesses, workers and other important institutions, such as universities and business networks, relating to the creative industries. Some 47 creative clusters <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/the-geography-of-creativity-in-the-uk/">have been identified</a> across the UK, and it’s perhaps unsurprising – given London’s long-established prominence in the cultural industries – that around a third of these are located in London and south-east England. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225511/original/file-20180629-117367-hcgyg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225511/original/file-20180629-117367-hcgyg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225511/original/file-20180629-117367-hcgyg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225511/original/file-20180629-117367-hcgyg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225511/original/file-20180629-117367-hcgyg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225511/original/file-20180629-117367-hcgyg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225511/original/file-20180629-117367-hcgyg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225511/original/file-20180629-117367-hcgyg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">England’s creative clusters, mapped.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nesta</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet just over one-fifth of the nation’s creative clusters are located in the North – traditionally thought to lack the cultural prestige of the capital. <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/the-geography-of-creativity-in-the-uk/">A report</a> by innovation foundation NESTA reveals strong connections between clusters which are geographically close to each other: for example, clusters in Bristol, Bath and Cardiff in the south-west, as well as those in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool in the north. </p>
<p>Cities such as Sheffield to the east of Manchester, and south of Leeds, also feed into these northern clusters, together with towns including Warrington, Wigan, Chester, Crewe and Harrogate. This grouping strengthens the evidence for a distinctive “southern north” territory, independent from the “wider north” to be found to the south, east and north of this region (the Irish Sea in the west acts as a natural boundary). </p>
<h2>The new divides</h2>
<p>Manchester is one of Europe’s <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/real-estate/articles/manchester-crane-survey.html">fastest growing cities</a>, while Liverpool and Leeds <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/510bd2bc-dbbf-11e5-98fd-06d75973fe09">are also experiencing</a> substantial property development and regeneration. This rapid economic growth is coupled with a geographic remove from other creative clusters in the north, which are centred on Middlesbrough and Newcastle – 42 and 68 miles north of Harrogate respectively. </p>
<p>There are strong media production and arts facilities across the southern North region: the growth of the Yorkshire area film and TV industries <a href="https://www.screenyorkshire.co.uk/yorkshire-uks-fastest-growing-region-film-tv/">has outstripped</a> that of every other part of the UK. <a href="http://www.screenyorkshire.co.uk">Screen Yorkshire</a> is unambiguously the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed of the eight remaining <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/film-industry/british-certification-tax-relief/national-regional-film-agencies">English regional screen agencies</a>. </p>
<p>This influence has tangible effects: most of what is seen of the north is captured in film, TV and pop music, which focus mainly on the former industrial heartlands of south Lancashire and west to south-west Yorkshire – probably because that’s where modern film and television industries are based. So it’s not just economically, but also culturally, that the southern North is rising to prominence on the national stage. </p>
<p>What’s more, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7cdnx">experts suggest</a> that the <a href="https://www.hs2.org.uk/">HS2 rail programme</a> – which will reduce travel time between Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and London – is likely to draw the southern North even further away from the influence of the wider north, and towards southern cities such as London. </p>
<p>So, as Newcastle and Gateshead continues with the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/513637/AnnexB-Competitiondocument__4_.docx">hard-won honour</a> of hosting the Great Exhibition of the North, it’s worth reflecting on the definition of that label. Clearly, there are significant variations in economic and cultural output within the north of England. Before our very eyes, a new north-south divide is emerging, within what was previously understood as “the north” itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Atkinson has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Board for an MA study (1995) and a PhD study (1998). The latter was on the topic of the modern mythology of Liverpool, and both studies were at the University of Lancaster. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Hughes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Great Exhibition of the North is putting paid to tired stereotypes of the region – but now, the North itself is becoming divided.Alan Hughes, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Central LancashirePeter Atkinson, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader, BA Film, Media and Popular Culture, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/952412018-05-03T10:39:31Z2018-05-03T10:39:31ZEveryone knows about Karl Marx, but what about Friedrich Engels?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217470/original/file-20180503-153881-8dg97n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/monument-karl-marx-friedrich-engels-1070997650?src=s2yK3JWcsPn3zlEGwoKppw-1-15">Aleks Ka/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Backgrounding Marx is hard to do, especially when 2018 is the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Marx-p-9781509518173">200th anniversary of his birth</a> and a huge number of global events are focusing on the great man. This is his usual “leader of the orchestra” position, with his life-long friend, constant benefactor and sometime co-author Engels in his usual role as second fiddle. But another 200th anniversary is fast approaching: that of Engels’s birth in 1820. Best to be forewarned and forearmed.</p>
<p>Engels has recently become something of a character and a condundrum, hard on the coat-tails of Francis Wheen’s prize-winning “humanising” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/aug/05/history.politics">biography of Marx</a>. In particular, Tristam Hunt’s popular recent biography, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/180270/the-frock-coated-communist/">The Frock-coated Communist</a>, presents the colourful life of a factory-owner’s son turned communist agitator, yet at the same time a respectable Manchester businessman – who rode to hounds with the Cheshire Hunt.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217467/original/file-20180503-153878-1iywe0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217467/original/file-20180503-153878-1iywe0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217467/original/file-20180503-153878-1iywe0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217467/original/file-20180503-153878-1iywe0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217467/original/file-20180503-153878-1iywe0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1206&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217467/original/file-20180503-153878-1iywe0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1206&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217467/original/file-20180503-153878-1iywe0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1206&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scribe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And Engels has recently been fictionalised in an unusual novel, <a href="https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/mrs-engels">Mrs Engels</a> by Gavin Macrae. “Mrs Lizzie,” Engels’s partner-cum-housekeeper, recounts his later life and times in the first person. On the death of her sister Mary in 1863, she succeeded to a similar place in Engels’s affections and domestic affairs, and their similarly unmarried association – remaining so until he married her on her deathbed in 1878 – gives readers a working-class Irish view of the man in her life.</p>
<p>Having supported Marx and his family financially for many years, even occasionally fulfilling his contracts for paid journalism and hack-writing, Engels came into his own after Marx died in 1883. Engels survived him by 12 years and made a success of his posthumous <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marx-Engels-Intellectual-Terrell-Carver/dp/0253336813">partnership</a>. He published new editions of the master’s works, introduced by himself, the lifelong comrade-in-arms. And he also authored independent works, starting in the 1870s, following on – so he said – in the master’s footsteps, but gaining a much wider readership. </p>
<p>Marxism as a political ideology postdates Engels, but most of the ideas in it were lifted directly from his version of Marx.</p>
<h2>Engels before Marx</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217487/original/file-20180503-153884-1j5jypt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217487/original/file-20180503-153884-1j5jypt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217487/original/file-20180503-153884-1j5jypt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217487/original/file-20180503-153884-1j5jypt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217487/original/file-20180503-153884-1j5jypt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217487/original/file-20180503-153884-1j5jypt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217487/original/file-20180503-153884-1j5jypt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217487/original/file-20180503-153884-1j5jypt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Friedrich Engels in his early 20s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels#/media/File:Friedrich_Engels-1840-cropped.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Engels the man has lately replaced Engels the Marxist, but there is more to the recent Engels revival than that. The very early Engels was quite the firebrand radical, excoriating the burghers of his twin-city hometown (Elberfeld and Barmen, now Wuppertal in Germany) for their visibly exploitative, and highly polluting, industrial spinning and weaving enterprises. At the age of 18, he wrote triumphantly to a school friend that his anonymous publication, in a local paper, had <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/engels-a-very-short-introduction-9780192804662?cc=gb&lang=en&">really riled the respectable classes</a>.</p>
<p>The juvenile Engels was already the radical. He sympathised with the fashionable struggle for Greek independence from the Turks, and supported liberating German society and culture from the non-constitutional, semi-medieval monarchies and dukedoms that were reinvigorated after Napoleon’s defeat. He was also behind shockingly egalitarian reforms even to family and sexual relations. His career as a <a href="https://www.springer.com/de/book/9781349204038">published literary critic</a> took off after his education finished (at 16), and he proceeded under pseudonyms, disguising his neglect of his day job at the Manchester branch of the family firm, where his parents sent him to work aged 22.</p>
<p>Working at Ermen & Engels cotton-spinners in Salford, among the “satanic mills”, Engels encountered <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/295493/marx-and-marxism/">Chartism</a>, the movement to broaden the suffrage to more males than a very select few. He swiftly became a correspondent for The New Moral World and The Northern Star, fluent in passionate English. By the late summer of 1844, when he met Marx for the second time (Marx had treated him dismissively on the first occasion) Engels had published nearly 50 items in two languages, many more than Marx.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217468/original/file-20180503-153914-1kmrkvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217468/original/file-20180503-153914-1kmrkvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217468/original/file-20180503-153914-1kmrkvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217468/original/file-20180503-153914-1kmrkvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217468/original/file-20180503-153914-1kmrkvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217468/original/file-20180503-153914-1kmrkvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217468/original/file-20180503-153914-1kmrkvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217468/original/file-20180503-153914-1kmrkvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Manchester from Kersal Moor’, William Wylde, 1852.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Manchester_from_Kersal_Moor_William_Wylde_(1857).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Glory days in Manchester</h2>
<p>Here is where we encounter Engels’s last work that was independent of his association with Marx, <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/condition-working-class-england.pdf">The Condition of the Working Class in England</a>, a full-length, German-language study published in 1845, when Engels was 25. He was understandably pleased with his achievement at the time, and was happy to republish it in 1887, marking 40 years of class struggle. It has been in print since then in many translations, and is currently a classic with both <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-condition-of-the-working-class-in-england-9780199555888?cc=gb&lang=en&">Oxford University Press</a> and <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/133234/the-condition-of-the-working-class-in-england/">Penguin Books</a>.</p>
<p>Engels worked from contemporary sources, mostly parliamentary reports and inquiries that detailed the poverty and misery of factory work. But – rather in advance of his time – he ventured into the slummy depths of the back-to-backs and airless basements into which penniless wage slaves were crammed. His access to these scenes was facilitated by Mary, his first Burns-sister partner. As an eyewitness founder of urban geography, drawing detailed maps and diagrams to make his writing vivid and persuasive, he was at the cutting edge. </p>
<p>And so Engels poses more questions today for us than we can instantly answer, given the billions of people living in slums across the world that <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2293-planet-of-slums">Mike Davis</a> and other urban geographers, radical architects and global campaigners have pictured for us and exhaustively analysed. The Occupy movement took over public spaces to highlight contemporary conditions and other aspects of global capitalism that match Engels’s descriptions exactly. This, then, is certainly a moment to bring Engels’s shade out of the shadows.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95241/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terrell Carver does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This is certainly a moment to bring Engels’s shade out of the shadows.Terrell Carver, Professor of Political Theory, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/944472018-04-10T13:45:47Z2018-04-10T13:45:47ZThis bilingual Somali newspaper is beating the media at its own game<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214052/original/file-20180410-577-t1et5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/newspaper-headlines-shown-side-on-stack-124029454?src=1TJEfFoSToBr-uQ3WpQwkQ-1-7">Shutterstock/BrianJackson</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Somali community in the north of England is using the power of the press to beat the media at its own game. Sick of seeing <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4876282/Somalian-mother-son-chosen-live-bench.html">negative headline</a> after <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426281/Mother-girl-16-raped-three-Somali-men-tells-rapists-relatives-terrified-trial.html">negative headline</a> they decided to publish <a href="https://sascamanchester.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/welcome-to-sasca-news/">Sasca News</a>, their own bilingual newspaper, to bring the community closer together.</p>
<p>Many Somalis felt – and still feel – that their portrayal in certain sections of the media as “scroungers” or criminals is grossly unfair and totally unrepresentative. It is not difficult to see why they might not see Britain as the most welcoming country to take refuge in.</p>
<p>As recently as December <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/897408/Social-housing-Somali-refugee-family-2m-council-house-North-London-Islington">one newspaper reported</a> how a Somali family had been “given a £2m council house in an exclusive London neighbourhood”. Other examples <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426281/Mother-girl-16-raped-three-Somali-men-tells-rapists-relatives-terrified-trial.html">include</a>: “Mother of girl, 16, who was raped in hotel by three Somali men tells how the attackers’ relatives terrified her throughout the trial” and “How Somalian men are <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3434382/A-private-school-girl-mothers-excuse-gang-rape-terrifying-culture-clash-no-one-dares-talk-Somalian-men-living-laws-native-country-causing-devastating-repercussions-Britain.html">living by their own law …</a>”.</p>
<p>To counter these negative stories, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7r8SO821L8">Somali Voices Project</a> was set up by <a href="https://mediatrust.org/communications-support/community-programmes/giving-somali-community-leaders-stronger-voice/">The Media Trust</a> to show a more balanced picture of the Somali community in the UK – currently numbering in the region of 30,000 <a href="http://www.ioe.mmu.ac.uk/caec/reports/SASCA%20research%20report%2021814.pdf">in Manchester alone</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_7r8SO821L8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Combine this with poverty, <a href="https://www.gmcvo.org.uk/system/files/Manchester%20Somali%20Survey%202010.pdf">lower life chances</a>, poor housing and the additional obstacle of a language barrier and you hear the background noise of odds being stacked against you.</p>
<h2>Emergency journalism</h2>
<p>In the face of such an onslaught from the mainstream media, and in the absence of a national Somali newspaper, a group of Somalis in Manchester decided to fight back with their own headlines. This is not citizen or community journalism – it is emergency journalism.</p>
<p>The newspaper came together with the help of <a href="http://www.sasca.org.uk/">(Sasca)</a>, the Somali Adult Social Care Agency, a charity based in south Manchester which offers advice on jobs, housing education, welfare and benefits. Sasca approached the journalism department at Manchester Metropolitan University to see if it could help in setting up the bilingual community newspaper. </p>
<p>Sasca News is a 12-page paper printed twice a year with the help of journalism students. All stories are published in English and Somali and the paper is “flip designed” to be read from front cover to centre, with six pages of content mirrored in both languages.</p>
<p>The paper has a print run of between 1,000 and 1,500 copies and is delivered by hand to homes, mosques, supermarkets, community centres and libraries around south Manchester.</p>
<p>Journalism tutors and students provide training and support to a small editorial team. <a href="https://wordpress.com/post/sascamanchester.wordpress.com/153">Stories</a> range from the impact of benefit cuts to details of GP advice surgeries and what councillors are doing for local residents.</p>
<h2>Double Culture Clash</h2>
<p>In line with many refugee communities, Somalians face a culture clash both with their host community and within their own communities. A research project carried out in 2014 found that language barriers and misconceptions by the wider community provide a <a href="http://www.ioe.mmu.ac.uk/caec/reports/SASCA%20research%20report%2021814.pdf">toxic mix for many young Somalis</a> living in the city. </p>
<p>Put simply, many older Somalis felt isolated because of their lack of English and many young Somalis are not aware of their Somali heritage and may not even speak Somali – this is why the bilingual aspect was vital. </p>
<p>Sasca News is now <a href="https://sascamanchester.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/welcome-to-sasca-news/">a thriving newspaper</a> and the community even has its first elected Somali <a href="http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/custom_scripts/councillors/index.php?cllr-id=299&cllr-type=id">councillor</a>, Sharif Mahamed.</p>
<p>The community can also boast about a young <a href="https://twitter.com/QalibBarud">Somali</a> reporter named Qalib Barud who is now working for the BBC World Service as a senior broadcast journalist. Barud was inspired by what was happening in his community and decided to go for a career in the media.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"718908025126416385"}"></div></p>
<p>The editor and one of his young journalists even travelled to London armed with copies of Sasca News for a conference to show Somali community leaders from around the country what can be done with a little imagination and willpower.</p>
<h2>Taking the power back</h2>
<p>The current <a href="https://sascamanchester.wordpress.com/">edition</a> has a report on a Somali team from Manchester travelling to mini football Wold Cup in Tunisia, the campaign to <a href="http://www.endfgm.eu/">prevent FGM</a>, how the community raised more than £4,000 for the victims of the Mogadishu bomb attack, an article about a student raising money to build a hospital in Somalia by climbing Snowdon and the impact of universal credit.</p>
<p>Print costs have been met largely through a city council grant and a Wordpress site acts as a digital counterpart.</p>
<p>Editor Mohammed Wadi said the newspaper had given the Somali community “a voice” and place to look for stories that specifically affect their lives. He also said it was a medium which the Somali youngsters communicate through, as it highlights stories about their achievements.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/tag/sasca-news/">Sasca News</a> is thought to be the first bilingual Somali newspaper in the UK and certainly a role model for what other communities – not just Somali ones – can do by taking the power of the press into their own hands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Porter provides training and support to a small editorial team at Sasca News.</span></em></p>A Somali community sick of negative headlines decided to start their own local newspaper and write their own stories.Dave Porter, Lecturer in Journalism, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.