tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/liverpool-11239/articles
Liverpool – The Conversation
2024-01-30T16:53:08Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222114
2024-01-30T16:53:08Z
2024-01-30T16:53:08Z
How Jürgen Klopp reconnected Liverpool FC with Shankly’s socialist soul
<p>In his first press conference after arriving at Anfield in 2015, Jürgen Klopp <a href="https://twitter.com/footballdaily/status/1224366407757987840?lang=en">stated</a>: “It’s not so important what people think when you come in. It’s much more important what people think when you leave.” </p>
<p>After nine years, his words resonate through the hearts of Liverpool FC fans. On January 26, Klopp <a href="https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/jurgen-klopp-announces-decision-step-down-liverpool-manager-end-season">announced</a> that he would be leaving the club at the end of the season.</p>
<p>Klopp has given Liverpool fans many memories to cherish. In 2019, his side staged a miraculous comeback against Barcelona on the way to lifting the Champion’s League trophy in Madrid. The following year, he ended Liverpool’s 30-year wait for a Premier League title.</p>
<p>Klopp inherited a Liverpool squad without any promising potential and a board that lacked vision and desire. Between 2010 and 2015, Liverpool had won just a single trophy – the League Cup in 2012. </p>
<p>However, Klopp delivered his first elite European trophy within three years of being appointed. From that point onward, he’s gone on to win all major trophies, guide Liverpool to four major European finals, and lose out on two Premier League titles by a single point. </p>
<p>Klopp will leave a legacy similar to that of Liverpool’s iconic manager, Bill Shankly. Between 1959 and 1974, Shankly transformed the club from second-division obscurity to three-time English champions and winners of the Uefa cup (Europe’s second-rank club competition). </p>
<p>Shankly endeared himself to fans of Liverpool FC, a club with deep working-class roots, by embracing the ethos of socialism (where individuals work together as a collective) as a fundamental principle for team success. Klopp’s persona as a man of the people – through his style, attitude and background – also strongly resonates with Liverpool’s socialist roots and blue collar community.</p>
<p>For instance, Klopp insists that every Liverpool player must <a href="https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/liverpool-anfield-sign-norwich-jordan-18924539">earn the right</a> to touch the famous “This is Anfield” sign by winning silverware. The iconic Anfield sign was first hung up on the wall of the player’s tunnel by Shankly to remind opponents of the spirit of Anfield.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Jürgen Klopp announcing he will leave Liverpool FC at the end of the season.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Socialist Spirit</h2>
<p>Klopp has never sought to create a hierarchy between himself, the players and the fans. Early on in his tenure, he referred to himself as “<a href="https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/first-team/238155-the-normal-one">the normal one</a>” and has, on several occasions, been spotted sharing a drink with local people in the pub. In his press conferences, Klopp has often said that the team drew <a href="https://www.football365.com/news/klopp-on-cl-inspiration-we-do-it-for-carol-and-caroline">inspiration</a> from the staff at the club’s training ground.</p>
<p>Since his appointment, Klopp has also recognised the power of Liverpool fans, referring to them as the 12th man responsible for supplying energy to the squad. As Anfield reverberates today with the chant “I am so glad that Jurgen is a red”, the echoes of such intense emotions are a reminder for loyal Liverpool supporters of a legacy still sung about around half a century later.</p>
<p>Klopp has brought the same fiery socialist spirit back to Liverpool that Shankly managed to harness in the 1960s. Two managers separated by generations but bound as Merseyside icons who understood that success stems from people.</p>
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<h2>Engaging with the fans</h2>
<p>Like Shankly before him, Klopp has resurrected Liverpool by understanding what the club’s fans craved more than silverware – someone who embodies the club’s working-class soul. A leader to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with through good times and bad. </p>
<p>From Klopp’s iconic fist pumps after victories, to his <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11635563/Humiliated-Jurgen-Klopp-apologises-Liverpools-travelling-fans-Brighton-defeat.html">meaningful apologies</a> to fans during times of crisis, show his authentic relationship with the club and the fanbase. He celebrates goals in nerve-wracking victories by running up and down the sideline (once <a href="https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37638431/when-goal-celebrations-go-bad-liverpool-boss-jurgen-klopp-pulls-hamstring">pulling his hamstring</a> in the process). And he openly <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11635563/Humiliated-Jurgen-Klopp-apologises-Liverpools-travelling-fans-Brighton-defeat.html">asked supporters for forgiveness</a> after a humbling 3–0 defeat by Brighton in 2023. </p>
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<p>Klopp’s outgoing authenticity has also resonated powerfully with Liverpool supporters around the world. He actively embraces fan media like “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@theredmentv">The Redmen TV</a>” YouTube channel, and makes an effort to appear in person for interviews and podcasts. He even once wrote a letter to a young fan reassuring him over his feelings of personal anxiety.</p>
<h2>Revolutionary vision</h2>
<p>When Shankly was appointed in 1959, he was frustrated with Liverpool’s training regime and facilities. Previously, players had become accustomed to running on the street as part of their training routine. However, Shankly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/the-agony-and-the-ecstasy/2018/dec/01/liverpool-boot-room-throw-in-jurgen-klopp-bill-shankly">revamped the training regime</a>, introducing sessions on the training ground where players could run and practice while wearing appropriate football boots.</p>
<p>In a similar way to Shankly, Klopp has helped the club evolve. He insisted on building modern training facilities where the youth academy could be integrated with the first team, and played a part in the development of the club’s new training ground.</p>
<p>Liverpool’s managing director Andy Hughes <a href="https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/12134609/liverpool-boss-jurgen-klopp-delighted-with-new-kirkby-training-ground">praised</a> the combined efforts of Klopp, sporting director Michael Edwards and academy director Alex Inglethorpe for their “instrumental role” in creating the new facility. </p>
<p>Klopp’s legacy at Anfield, in the Premier League and in modern football, is beyond doubt. As was the case for Shankly’s successor, Bob Paisley, the next Liverpool manager certainly has big boots to fill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronnie is an avid Liverpool FC fan and has carried out research into transforming management practices in English football.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wasim Ahmed 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>
Jurgen Klopp will leave Liverpool with a remarkably similar legacy to the club’s iconic manager, Bill Shankly.
Ronnie Das, Associate Professor in Digital and Data Science, Audencia
Wasim Ahmed, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Hull
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212640
2023-09-01T12:51:45Z
2023-09-01T12:51:45Z
Local 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 University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205149
2023-05-11T11:36:26Z
2023-05-11T11:36:26Z
Eurovision 2023: why the stage itself is the silent star of the contest
<p>This week, Liverpool stages one of the <a href="https://eurovision.tv/mediacentre/release/183-million-viewers">world’s largest live televised events</a>, the Eurovision Song Contest. I grew up watching it as an annual family get-together. </p>
<p>Now, as a lecturer in theatre and scenography – the study and practice of how set, sound, light and costume work together in an event – I have come to appreciate the immense logistical effort this entertainment behemoth requires. </p>
<p>More fascinatingly though, it is an extraordinary example of media and performance history, providing a yearly snapshot of pan-European <a href="https://theconversation.com/eurovision-even-before-the-singing-starts-the-contest-is-a-fascinating-reflection-of-international-rules-and-politics-204934">national identities and politics</a>.</p>
<p>While the contest’s rules state that <a href="https://eurovision.tv/about/rules">it is a non-political event</a>, it undeniably puts international relations on display. But while looking at different countries’ acts and voting patterns offers interesting insights, there is a silent star of the event that often goes unnoticed – the stage.</p>
<h2>Staging a nation</h2>
<p>Since the contest’s inception in 1956, there has been no serious discussion about the way Eurovision is an exercise in staging nation, nationality and nationalism in the literal sense – namely how these ideas inform the scenography.</p>
<p>2023 marks the first time Eurovision will be hosted in the runner-up’s country due to war, with the UK hosting on behalf of Ukraine. </p>
<p>The host’s stage set-up must be everything and nothing at the same time. It needs to provide a flexible, adaptable canvas for the wide-ranging individual acts of up to 44 countries. At the same time, it must offer a memorable and distinct experience to measure up to previous iterations of the competition. </p>
<p>The stage also needs to embody that year’s chosen theme, while meeting the extensive requirements of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the event, in order to allow the competition to run efficiently.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Inside Liverpool Arena as the Eurovision 2023 build got underway.</span></figcaption>
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<p>2023’s theme is “united by music”. After the UK’s difficult departure from the EU, it now faces the challenge of staging itself as part of a united European community. Meanwhile, it also needs to give space to Ukraine to do the same. </p>
<p>The Liverpool stage’s designer, Julio Himede, has repeatedly offered the <a href="https://recessed.space/00097-Julio-Himede-Eurovision">image of a hug</a> – of open arms welcoming Ukraine and the world – as central to the stage’s spatial configuration.</p>
<p>The early days of Eurovision were a much smaller affair than nowadays. When the UK first hosted in 1960 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, it seated just 2,500 people. That’s less than a quarter of this year’s 11,000 at the Liverpool arena.</p>
<p>And if you have been watching the semi-finals, you’ll already have a good sense of the sheer scale of this year’s stage. At 450m², it is almost as big as a basketball court. With an integrated lighting design through video-capable floor and ceiling tiling and huge LED screens, the only apt descriptor is “spectacular”.</p>
<p>For Eurovision, the concepts, symbols and metaphors underpinning the design have to work in tandem with the creative vision of each delegation, as well as the 45 second turnover between acts in the live show.</p>
<p>The design concept also has to be one that acknowledges the particular situation of this year’s contest and simultaneously unites the identities of Ukraine and the UK. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the image of the hug that underpins the sweeping curve of the main stage space aims to offer a more universal theme, rather than one which is culturally specific. Viewers will notice the “open arms” of the stage are echoed in the arrangement of the “green room”, where the national delegations are located during the show.</p>
<p>In this sense, Eurovision is a prime example of a “soft power” approach to international relations, which works by persuasion or influence, rather than the “hard power” of economic sanctions or military intervention. </p>
<h2>The UK after Brexit</h2>
<p>This year, it will be fascinating to see how much space the UK will give to Ukraine, not only last year’s winner but a nation in need of international recognition and support. And to what extent the UK will use this event, post-Brexit, to stage itself as a welcoming part of Europe.</p>
<p>The UK does have a history of highly successful <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2012/jul/31/olympic-opening-ceremony-agitprop-theatre">agit-prop</a> events, which have engaged audiences emotionally to shape public opinion. Think back to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2012/jul/31/olympic-opening-ceremony-agitprop-theatre">2012 London Olympics opening ceremony</a>, which strove to inspire <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13642529.2014.909674">a sense of national identity</a>. </p>
<p>In 2023, the UK sees itself in the middle of global instability and national tension over <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/16/hostile-authoritarian-uk-downgraded-in-civic-freedoms-index">mounting authoritarianism</a> and <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2023/02/07/yougov-cost-living-segmentation">widening social divisions</a>. Once again, it has the chance to use an international stage to put forward an idealised narrative.</p>
<p>In any such example, the stage underpins the entire event. It is essential to the atmosphere for the live audience and fundamental to its appearance on television. </p>
<p>There is no doubt that Eurovision 2023 is a staging extravaganza and will test the UK’s capability to shake off its <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/britain-is-the-sick-man-of-europe-again/">“sick man of Europe”</a> image. It is a stage which offers the UK the opportunity to adjust its global image in line with the contest’s welcoming theme. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see whether the image of open arms for the world is sincere or cynical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lara Maleen Kipp 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>
2023 sees the UK host the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Ukraine. But what role does the stage itself have to play in the musical spectacle?
Lara Maleen Kipp, Lecturer in Theatre and Scenography, Aberystwyth University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204072
2023-05-09T15:30:43Z
2023-05-09T15:30:43Z
How to win Eurovision: the secret code of the contest’s winning lyrics
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521608/original/file-20230418-20-ol287p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4446%2C2888&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Eurovision Song Contest stage. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kyiv-ukraine-february-08-2020-scene-1643769724">Review News/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the few remaining examples of event TV – and UK audiences lap it up. With <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-2022-161-million-viewers#:%7E:text=Ratings%20Rise&text=6.8%20million%20viewers%20on%20average,%2C%20up%2020%25%20on%202021.">8.9 million viewers</a> in 2022, Britain formed the largest audience of all Eurovision markets. And this time around, there’s even a bit of hope for those cheering on the home talent.</p>
<p>Although it’s been 26 years since the UK’s last victory, courtesy of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMYOTEapVpg">Katrina and The Waves in 1997</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU5cJfaX3DI">Sam Ryder’s Space Man</a> marked a return to the runners-up podium last year. The UK has now chalked up a <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/history-united-kingdom-eurovision-song-contest">record 16</a> second place finishes. But what would it take to go one better and win the whole thing?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZ0hqX_92zI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sam Ryder performing Spaceman at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the late 1940s, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698230701400296?casa_token=lEt-KarYmnAAAAAA%3APefyqU79sEJ4gsNfH8eeiGkk8NOpyBbGhSG3V9C0hcljpDf50lWmSmEuM3wlOZo7yKcor-jlLWU">philosopher Theodor Adorno</a> suggested that popular music was formulaic. Each song, he argued, was the same length, had the same structure and expressed the same lyrical sentiments.</p>
<p>As curmudgeonly as this might sound (and keeping in mind that he died in 1969, before the likes of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa really tore up the pop rule book), his point still rings true. And it’s certainly applicable when it comes to successful Eurovision entries.</p>
<p>For a start, Eurovision songs really are the same length, given the rule that makes <a href="https://eurovision.tv/about/rules">the maximum duration three minutes</a>. But there are also notable thematic and structural similarities between songs that fare well in the contest.</p>
<p>Of the last 20 winning songs, 17 have been sung in English, 17 are about relationships, 13 have used the word “love”, 18 have at least one direct address (“I” to “you”) and all 20 have repeated choruses. And it’s this last element that’s the non-negotiable.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Maneskin stand on stage in leather trousers holding their musical instruments aloft." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521620/original/file-20230418-14-a73s39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521620/original/file-20230418-14-a73s39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521620/original/file-20230418-14-a73s39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521620/original/file-20230418-14-a73s39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521620/original/file-20230418-14-a73s39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521620/original/file-20230418-14-a73s39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521620/original/file-20230418-14-a73s39.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">Eurovision 2021 winners, Maneskin of Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ahoy-rotterdam-netherlands-may-22th-2021-1982762177">Ben Houdijk/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If, as sociologist Brian Longhurst says, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Popular_Music_and_Society/PxnOFDDMZOUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%27The+most+successful,+best+music+is+identified+with+the+most+often+repeated.%27+longhurst&pg=PA7&printsec=frontcover">“the most successful, best music is identified with the most often repeated”</a>, this counts double when it comes to Eurovision. Viewers of the live final only get the one listen and therefore need to bond with a song immediately if they’re to remember it when it comes to the voting.</p>
<p>Psychologist Daniel Levitin says that two of the main elements to making a song memorable are <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Writing_Song_Lyrics/5YpJEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">rhyme and cliches</a>. Although the <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Writing_Song_Lyrics/5YpJEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=fosbraey+cliche&pg=PA89&printsec=frontcover">definition of cliche is ultimately subjective</a> (a cliche to me, for example, may be new and exciting to my 12-year-old), research <a href="https://researchrepository.rmit.edu.au/esploro/outputs/conferenceProceeding/In-your-eyes-identifying-cliches-in-song-lyrics/9921861854601341">from 2012</a> and <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Writing_Better_Lyrics/3B9jDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=pat+pattison+writing&printsec=frontcover">2009</a> has done a decent job in outlining the most-used words and phrases in lyrics.</p>
<p>To win Eurovision, then: sing in first-person, direct English about a relationship, using loads of rhymes and cliches and make sure you repeat the chorus. </p>
<h2>Rating Mae Muller’s Eurovision chances</h2>
<p>What chance, then, of Mae Muller’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRaVGKk4k6k">I Wrote a Song</a> winning in Liverpool this year?</p>
<p>With the song currently on 3.6 stars based on 12,000 ratings on the <a href="https://eurovisionworld.com/eurovision/2023/united-kingdom">Eurovision World website</a> and a somewhat sniffy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/09/mae-muller-i-wrote-a-song-review-uk-eurovision-entry-alexis-petridis">three-star review</a> in the Guardian, early indicators aren’t great. But when compared with previous champs, things become a little rosier.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rRaVGKk4k6k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Mae Muller’s 2023 Eurovision entry, I Wrote a Song.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I Wrote a Song is an “I” to “you” song. It’s about a relationship. It’s got a catchy chorus. It’s extremely repetitive both lyrically – with only 29% unique words out of its 308 total (the average from the last 20 winners is 36%) – and musically, with a looped, four-chord structure throughout.</p>
<p>I Wrote a Song sits at about an eight or a nine on the cliche-ometer, relying as it does on common phrases like “you did me wrong”, “cried at home” and “spent the night alone”. And it uses a succession of basic, “<a href="https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal%3A249760/datastream/PDF_01/view">perfect” rhymes</a>, such as Benz/friends, song/wrong, home/alone.</p>
<p>It’s also accessible to a mass audience, with its subjects <a href="https://time.com/5287962/best-breakup-songs/">ending a relationship</a>, feeling down about it and eventually finding the courage to move on, among the most common shared human experiences. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/mar/09/eurovision-2023-uk-entry-announced-as-mae-muller">Muller has said</a>: “I wrote the song … when I was going through a hard time and wanted to feel empowered about relationships.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, Muller’s performance on the night will have a big role in determining how the UK fares. </p>
<p>If a singer is suitably captivating and the song is easy enough to learn, there is an opportunity to get the audience singing along on the night. <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Singing_Out/7D4LEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">This interaction leads to more of a connection</a>, making the song more memorable, which may eventually translate into points.</p>
<p>Muller succeeded in getting the crowd singing along to the chorus at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EMepsNxZUU">LIVE @ Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam</a> on April 15 (albeit with some coaxing). If she manages to do that in Liverpool, there may yet be a UK winner in the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn Fosbraey 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 UK has now chalked up a record 16 second place finishes. But what would it take to go one better and win the whole thing?
Glenn Fosbraey, Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204934
2023-05-05T14:51:21Z
2023-05-05T14:51:21Z
Eurovision: even before the singing starts, the contest is a fascinating reflection of international rules and politics
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524394/original/file-20230504-29-itqkkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=177%2C53%2C3763%2C2593&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Eurovision bandwagon has firmly arrived in Liverpool. During a week of two semi-finals, 37 competing countries will be whittled down to 26. Around 160 million people are then expected to tune in to the grand final on Saturday May 13. From humble beginnings in 1956, with only <a href="https://eurovision.tv/event/lugano-1956">seven countries competing in a theatre in Switzerland</a>, the contest is now one of the most watched entertainment events in the world.</p>
<p>And yet there remains some confusion about what counts as “Europe” in the context of Eurovision. Clarity on this point can, however, be found by understanding a little bit about the rules and practices of international politics. And along the way, the process of deciding who is in and who is out – and what the rules are for those who do compete – is an interesting reflection of international law. </p>
<h2>A different kind of union</h2>
<p>Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest reflects a basic principle of the international legal order: sovereignty matters. Being a state in this context counts for more than being physically located in Europe.</p>
<p>The actual participants in Eurovision are the TV broadcasters who are members of the <a href="https://www.ebu.ch/home">European Broadcasting Union (EBU)</a>, an international organisation which is open to membership from across the European Broadcasting Area. This area includes North Africa and the Middle East. Israel, which has won four times, has <a href="https://eurovision.tv/country/israel">participated since 1973</a> on this basis. Morocco <a href="https://eurovision.tv/country/morocco">participated once</a>, in 1980, but has not returned. </p>
<p>Other states come and go, often depending on budgetary constraints (hence the absence of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63276833">Montenegro and North Macedonia</a> this year), lack of national interest or success in previous contests (Andorra, Monaco, Slovakia), <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/eurovision-2019-why-turkey-doesnt-participate">objections to the voting principles</a> (Turkey) or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/nov/27/hungary-pulls-out-of-eurovision-amid-rise-in-anti-lgbt-rhetoric#:%7E:text=Hungary%20pulls%20out%20of%20Eurovision%20amid%20rise%20in%20anti%2DLGBTQ%2B%20rhetoric,-This%20article%20is&text=Hungary%20will%20not%20participate%20in,government%20and%20public%20media%20bosses.">rumoured discontent with the growth of LGBT+ visibility in the contest</a> (Hungary). Broadcasters from <a href="https://www.ebu.ch/news/2021/05/ebu-executive-board-agrees-to-suspension-of-belarus-member-btrc">Belarus</a> and <a href="https://www.ebu.ch/news/2022/03/statement-on-russian-members">Russia</a> were expelled from the EBU in 2021 and 2022 and are ineligible to complete. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43087349">Kosovo</a> is also keen to participate. While Kosovo’s statehood is recognised by a majority of European countries, it is not a full member of the EBU. EBU membership requires a country to be a member of the <a href="https://www.itu.int/en/Pages/default.aspx">International Telecommunications Union (ITU)</a>, which in turn requires UN membership (which Kosovo does not yet have).</p>
<p>As in international law, where the permanent members of the UN Security Council have a veto power, some states are more equal than others. Eurovision rules apply differently to the largest financial contributors to the contest – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK – who, along with the previous winner, qualify directly for the final and do not risk elimination in the semi-finals. This sounds like an unfair advantage, but did not help France’s Alvan and Ahez or Germany’s Malik Harris (2022), the UK’s James Newman (2021), Germany’s Jenrik or Spain’s Blas Canto (2021) from finishing bottom of the pile.</p>
<p>You might also ask why Australia is competing. Due to long-term viewing figures of the contest down under, and the occasional Australian participant (often for the UK, including <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/olivia-newton-john">Olivia Newton-John</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooh_Aah..._Just_a_Little_Bit">Gina G</a>), Australia – or technically the Australian broadcaster SBS – was invited as a special guest to the 2015 contest in Vienna. It was then invited to compete on a five-year contract running from 2018 to 2023. As in international law, sometimes the rules can be stretched.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WAGP2yOtyxY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The full line up of countries taking part in 2023.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eurovision is often wrongly assumed to be a product of the EU. Not only did the first Eurovision in 1956 pre-date the creation European Economic Community by a year, but membership of the EBU is neither required nor expected of EU members.</p>
<p>The concept of European integration has provided some inspiration for the songs – most notably Italy’s 1990 winner <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/toto-cutugno">Insieme: 1992</a> (Together: 1992). That was a contest held in Zagreb, in what was then Yugoslavia – the only socialist country to take part during the cold war years.</p>
<p>The Irish hosts in Dublin in 1988 worked with the European Commission to show an interval video tour around Europe to promote intra-European tourism. (This show was also notable for showing a clip of eventual winner Céline Dion <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6b7BHGkKQA">inspecting a potato field</a>). Brexit, despite the <a href="https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/58535/eurovision-song-contest">efforts of a lone MP in the House of Commons</a>, does not mean the UK must stop competing. Nor does it mean the UK is doomed to failure – as Sam Ryder’s overall second place (and <a href="https://eurovision.tv/event/turin-2022/grand-final/results/united-kingdom">winner of the jury vote</a> for the UK in 2022 shows. Customary practice – also very important in international law – means that the winner is given the opportunity to host the subsequent contest, but not always. The BBC was invited to host instead of Ukraine this year.</p>
<h2>An international rules-based system</h2>
<p>Eurovision is also a pretty good example of how rules operate in international partnerships. Some are fixed and permanent, while others need or are allowed to evolve. Sanctions are sometimes needed and often difficult to decide upon. </p>
<p>Rules about the staging of Eurovision entries – original song not previously released, maximum six people on stage – are strictly enforced and do change over time. But since 1999, entries no longer have to be in an official language of the country, and some limited pre-recorded backing vocals are allowed.</p>
<p>A rule that does occasionally cause headaches for the EBU is the ineligibility of “political” songs. Georgia’s 2009 entry <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-georgia-eurovision/georgia-pulls-out-of-eurovision-over-put-in-song-idUKTRE52A4S920090311">We Don’t Want to Put In</a> was not allowed because it was ruled as alluding to then Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin – though Israel had successfully entered a thinly-veiled rap <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6405457.stm">about the (then) leader of Iran</a> two years previously. </p>
<p>Ukraine’s Jamala won in 2016 with a song called <a href="https://time.com/4329061/eurovision-jamala-russian-ukraine-crimea/">1944</a> about the deportation of the Crimean Tartars during World War II and a highly successful previous Ukrainian act, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/8-times-ukraines-eurovision-entry-got-political/">Verka Serduchka</a>, was accused by the Russian delegation of actually singing <a href="https://youtu.be/hfjHJneVonE?t=76">“Russia, goodbye”</a> in the lyrics to the song Dancing Lasha Tumbai in 2007.</p>
<p>Policing the boundaries between what is said, and what is implied, is a difficult task. This year, <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/let-3-2023">Croatia’s entry is sung in Croatian</a>, but the meaning of lyrics such as repeated use of the word “armagedonona” is not difficult to guess.</p>
<p><a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/teya-and-salena-2023">Austria</a> is tackling the topic of the lack of representation of women in the music industry and low amounts of money provided by streaming services to artists and songwriters with its lyrics “0.003, give me two years and your dinner will be free”. </p>
<p>Whole <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720260/wild-dances-by-william-lee-adams/">books</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1354066116633278">academic articles</a> can be written on how Eurovision has led to primetime LGBT+ visibility – itself a hotly contested political topic across many states in Europe – most notably via <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/dana-internationals-lasting-eurovision-legacy">the victories of Dana International (Israel, 1998) and Conchita Wurst (Austria, 2004)</a>.</p>
<p>Love it or hate it, Eurovision has cemented itself as part of the cultural landscape of the continent and beyond. But more than that, it helps us understand both the complexity of the international and European legal orders, the interpretation and application of rules, and the ever presence of politics. As France memorably sang in 1991, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ESL6deuhJM"><em>C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison</em></a> (It’s the last to have spoken who is right).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204934/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>
Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: this contest is way older than the European Union.
Paul James Cardwell, Professor of Law, King's College London
Jed Odermatt, Senior Lecturer, City Law School, City, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201321
2023-03-13T12:37:24Z
2023-03-13T12:37:24Z
Eurovision 2023: voting changes show the contest has always been political
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513963/original/file-20230307-14-yfvc1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=135%2C100%2C3805%2C2546&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ukraine were the winners of Eurovision 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kyiv-ukraine-february-15-2020-scene-1647247843">Review News/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Expert judges have been a mainstay of the Eurovision Song Contest since its inception in 1956. These experts are usually industry professionals with experience in popular music distribution. But with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/22/eurovision-scraps-jury-voting-in-semi-finals">the announcement</a> last November that from 2023 the contest will be replacing them with a global public vote in the semifinals, it seems the expert judge has fallen from favour.</p>
<p>What does this say about the quality of Eurovision’s content and the value of the show in the music industry? Largely chosen by the judges, the winners and runners-up of previous Eurovision years – including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC9sg6MpDc0">Måneskin</a> (2021) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtJZdcWHNdQ">Katrina and the Waves</a> (1997) – have gone on to put out far-reaching releases and <a href="https://twitter.com/thisismaneskin/status/1443606935719366659">successful international tours</a>.</p>
<p>Some might argue that Eurovision’s decision to prioritise audience votes over expert insights poses a threat to the inclusion of experts in any artistic judgment of value. Expert judges provide an impartial voice to the voting system, which should be apolitical and focus only on the musical content, style, quality and originality.</p>
<p>As a Eurovision fan <a href="https://accedacris.ulpgc.es/bitstream/10553/117366/1/9788490424148.pdf">and expert</a> in how we communicate through music, however, I love the idea that audience members will get to have more say for 2023. But if audiences are now responsible at the semi-final stage, it seems odd that the judges return for a portion of the final. Why bring in the public at all, if they won’t be trusted to make the right call when it comes to Eurovision’s winning act?</p>
<h2>Responding to overseas interests</h2>
<p>Eurovision has been developing a wider global reach. This has increased since televoting was introduced, but the contest’s viewing figures have also benefited from the inclusion of Australia both as performers and voters since 2015, thanks to the country’s large Eurovision fanbase.</p>
<p>American TV bosses are currently looking for a network to buy their own Eurovision copy – the <a href="https://wiwibloggs.com/2023/01/10/american-song-contest-producer-christer-bjorkman-nbc-not-made-decision-future/274562/%22%22">American Song Contest</a> – which the Guardian called a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/mar/22/american-song-contest-eurovision-nbc-copycat">“chaotic copycat”</a>. Moving the voting system towards the public and away from experts could be interpreted as a tactic to include American audiences (who can now vote in the contest) and bring them into Eurovision rather than the copycat version.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/glUGSnvw48E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for The American Song Contest.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Critical_Event_Studies/bAw9DAAAQBAJ?hl%3Den%26gbpv%3D1%26dq%3Deurovision%2Bglobal%2Baudience%26pg%3DPA34%26printsec%3Dfrontcover&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1670852381307231&usg=AOvVaw1y9YUpdu924hgUTT9LMV9F">a global audience</a> including Australia and the US is both watching and voting in Eurovision, there is a risk that this will reduce the competition’s inclusion of diverse languages.</p>
<p>More countries could be tempted to perform songs in English as that’s the language global viewers will be most likely to understand. Expert judges could help to preserve Eurovision’s lingual and cultural diversity by judging value in that diversity.</p>
<p>More diversity and the inclusion of regional music and art forms is to be welcomed. Ukraine’s 2022 winning song, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8Z51no1TD0">Stefania</a>, was a perfect example, with its folk fusion with rap and pop.</p>
<h2>Is it realistic to call Eurovision apolitical?</h2>
<p>Eurovision has always declared itself to be apolitical. But as many music and musicological <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Song_for_Europe/5zQrDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=eurovision+politics&printsec=frontcover">researchers</a> <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Song_for_Europe/5zQrDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=eurovision+politics&printsec=frontcover">have noted before</a>, this is not the case. Russia was removed from the 2021 contest due to the war in Ukraine. If politics has nothing to do with Eurovision, then this decision was erroneous.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.kingston.ac.uk/news/article/2671/13-may-2022-blog-is-it-time-for-the-uk-to-rise-rather-than-crash-and-burn-at/">Songs that year talked of isolation</a> (following the COVID pandemic), climate change and refugees. If the contest is not political, it certainly doesn’t do a good job of curating its content, which is frequently politically charged.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F1fl60ypdLs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ukraine’s winning 2022 Eurovision entry.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eurovision fans accept the politics. In many ways, it is part of the show’s sensationalist draw. The recent voting change, then, could more cynically be interpreted as another political move by Eurovision organisers.</p>
<p>Changing the voting make up and bringing in a global audience continues the contest’s move beyond a European political dialogue (whereby neighbouring countries vote for each other) that began with the inclusion of Israel and Australia. Few will now receive nul point.</p>
<p>Bringing audiences in early creates a false sense of parity with the judges, which is undermined as the experts return for the final. The cards are stacked against audience votes. With a seeming lack of trust in both experts to create the final shortlist and audience to judge the final quality, the Eurovision Song Contest is confirming itself to be highly political.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Helen Julia Minors receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She is affiliated with Radio Wey. </span></em></p>
Moving the voting system away from experts could be interpreted as a tactic to include American audiences.
Helen Julia Minors, Professor, Head of the School of Arts, York St John University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192776
2022-11-06T18:29:38Z
2022-11-06T18:29:38Z
Liverpool’s unsung COVID heroes: how the city’s arts scene became a life support network
<blockquote>
<p>Culture was always a large part of my life. But when we all had to rush home in March 2020, I felt like I lost it on the way – as if I’d left it on the bus in a bag. It’s making me question my future: what will be left when all this ends? How many venues, how many bands, how many theatres, how many art galleries?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You are never far away from culture in Liverpool. The forthcoming host of the <a href="https://www.ebu.ch/news/2022/10/liverpool-to-host-eurovision-song-contest-2023-on-behalf-of-ukraine">2023 Eurovision Song Contest</a> on Ukraine’s behalf has long pioneered the idea of “arts as life support” – via initiatives such as <a href="https://www.liferooms.org/">The Life Rooms</a>, which uses a library and theatre (among other sites) to engage people in cultural activities as part of its social health model.</p>
<p>While COVID required the temporary suspension of many in-person arts offerings, it also sparked a remarkable shift in how the city’s arts organisations and charities operated. As government health and welfare services shut down or struggled to adapt to the crisis, cultural organisations stepped in to provide vital support – including, in some cases, fundamentals of food and heating – to their networks of participants and audiences whose usual care was falling short. As one Liverpool arts organiser <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.753973/full">recalls</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was phoning people asking: “Have you got food, have you been to your GP, did you get your prescription sorted?” But sometimes they just wanted to have somebody to have a laugh with – some human interaction.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Liverpool has long struggled with some of the poorest mental health levels in the UK. For those most at risk of loneliness and mental distress, COVID delivered a further devastating blow. At the peak of the pandemic in November 2020, <a href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/%7E/media/phi-reports/pdf/2021-03-vulnerable-groups-profile-liverpool-city-region">almost one in five adults</a> in the Liverpool City Region were suffering from a “common” mental health problem such as depression or anxiety – exacerbated by some of the <a href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/%7E/media/phi-reports/pdf/2021-03-vulnerable-groups-profile-liverpool-city-region">highest deprivation indicators in England</a>.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://livcare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/COVID-19-CARE-report_final.pdf">new research</a> shows that access to arts activities during lockdown was a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.753973/full">crucial lifeline</a> for many people throughout Liverpool. One interviewee referred to cultural contacts as their “lifeblood” during those days of isolation, while another said: “Online arts activities opened a locked door, letting in some light during a very dark time for me.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u47l_jiyS-M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Exploring the mental health impacts of restricted access to arts during COVID across Liverpool.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Picking up the pieces</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.choirwithnoname.org/about?gclid=Cj0KCQjwj7CZBhDHARIsAPPWv3c_VKHNJ87seBdLrk6OoAzr7FwaPQwrW6J6LN9xzgdjOgAIb_jVkCMaAtkQEALw_wcB">Choir With No Name</a> is a national charity with choirs in London, Birmingham, Brighton, Cardiff and Coventry as well as Liverpool, all supporting people affected by homelessness. Prior to the pandemic, the Liverpool branch would meet once a week – first to catch up socially, then to rehearse a forthcoming gig before finally sharing a hot meal cooked by volunteers. </p>
<p>According to the choir’s manager: “For many of our [homeless] members, it’s the only sense they get of sitting down and sharing food as a family. Sometimes coming in and getting a hug can be the only physical contact they’ve had all week.”</p>
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<p><strong><em>This story 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> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
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<p>When COVID struck, choir members – who were typically in the “middle ground” of need – were largely left to fend for themselves by the authorities. The choir’s volunteer staff had been used to helping them deal with GPs, housing, police and other services. But when many of these services suddenly shut down, the volunteers were left “picking up the pieces – and picking them up quickly”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were so many people who lost the ability to get food from anywhere … People who were street homeless actually had better provision of care than people in a bedsit, where you were just abandoned. I spent a lot of time in those first months sorting food for people and making sure they had electricity. One member’s housing provider left them with no water for four days because they didn’t understand how to communicate with somebody who was vulnerable, so we had to step in.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What soon became clear, says the choir’s manager, is that the more informal nature of many arts charities enabled them to fill crucial gaps where they were needed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An organisation like ours works in an unofficial way – we’re not the social worker or housing association. We’re left with a lot more freedom to support people in the way they actually need to be supported, instead of ticking the boxes that these statutory services have to tick.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Liverpool-based charity <a href="https://www.thereader.org.uk/">The Reader</a>, arts provision and social care proved inseparable during the pandemic. Having grown out of a single reading group in Birkenhead library, The Reader brings people together in a variety of health, community and secure care settings to read short stories, novels and poetry aloud. According to its head of teaching and learning:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An awful lot of what we do is directed towards mitigating the disastrous effects of loneliness and social isolation. But that lifeline was immediately taken away by COVID. A big area of our work is in care homes, and a lot of our volunteers just could not get inside them at that time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This led to Reader volunteers setting up a big screen in the lounge of one Liverpool care home so that its residents – otherwise completely isolated from the outside world – could gather around the screen to hold their readings. “Lifeline packs” of stories and poems were also supplied: “We knew if we could get them into the hands of somebody working on the premises, they could distribute them.”</p>
<p>The Reader also partnered with homeless charities to offer shared reading sessions over the phone for people suddenly living alone in a single room 24 hours a day. One recipient told us that getting this call was “a highlight of my week … a salvation”.</p>
<h2>A digital crash-course</h2>
<p>Vulnerable as small arts organisations were to the economic impacts of lockdown, their relative freedom from bureaucratic constraints – coupled with their energetic creativity – meant they could adapt quickly to the new COVID conditions, including by delivering their shows, events and workshops online.</p>
<p>Prior to the pandemic, the use of online technology had been viewed with some scepticism. A video or audio version seemed counterintuitive for an activity whose raison d’etre is the power of in-person performance and connections.</p>
<p>“If you’d have asked me the week before the theatre closed [for lockdown] whether our drama activities could translate into something digital, I’d have been really sceptical,” recalls the <a href="https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/liverpool-playhouse-theatre">Liverpool Playhouse</a>’s then-director of social learning. “Yet so enormous was the impact of lockdown on our group members, we started our drama Zoom events the following week.”</p>
<p>“Not being the massive organisation that the NHS is” meant the Playhouse could quickly establish a creative wellbeing programme, running between eight and 15 sessions each week.</p>
<p>The speed of the pivot to online provision among Liverpool’s cultural organisations was remarkable. Within three weeks, The Reader was delivering shared Zoom reading sessions not only to its Liverpool members but internationally, twice weekly. It also developed a series of programmes for national prison radio that reached 120 prisons every day.</p>
<p>COVID proved a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17579139221080055">powerful catalyst</a> for arts organisations to make the switch to digital offerings. As one creative writing practitioner puts it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve all had a crash course in the feasibility and practicality of online delivery of arts. That probably wouldn’t have happened with such speed or sophistication if it hadn’t been driven by the necessity of a global pandemic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to the partnerships manager at the <a href="https://www.liverpoolphil.com/current-events/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrqao8qfJ-gIVdYBQBh2cWArSEAAYASAAEgKr0_D_BwE">Royal Liverpool Philharmonic</a>: “The pandemic has highlighted that we were missing a trick previously as to the diversity of ways of working with people through digital engagement. Some people feel safer online than being physically somewhere.”</p>
<p>In Liverpool, as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17579139221080055">elsewhere in the UK</a>, online performances, cultural events and workshops were a crucial buffer against loneliness during the pandemic. The account of woman who hadn’t spoken to anybody for a whole week so “found herself talking to the wheelie bin” was not unusual in our research. A beneficiary of the Playhouse theatre’s creative wellbeing programme says that without it: “I would have fallen back into my PTSD stress [as] I’d have been left in the lurch.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-magic-of-touch-how-deafblind-people-taught-us-to-see-the-world-differently-during-covid-191698">The magic of touch: how deafblind people taught us to 'see' the world differently during COVID</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Retaining cultural connections during the COVID lockdowns has been <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.753973/full">highlighted as critical</a> for people who were at increased risk of psychological ill-health – with an emphasis on providing them with meaningful activities, not just check-in calls.</p>
<p>A photographer describes how her online sessions led to people “using photography as a way to document what was going on for them. It became quite a cathartic process for many – a therapeutic way to counteract the negative feelings of the lockdown experience.”</p>
<p>Similarly, a creative writing group leader says members processed the emotions that were coming up during the pandemic through their writing – “whether that was grief, anger at the government, or feelings of loneliness”.</p>
<h2>Overcoming digital poverty</h2>
<p>In its five-year action plan <a href="https://moderngov.merseytravel.gov.uk/documents/s52817/Enc.%201%20for%20Cultural%20Compact%20Strategic%20Action%20Plan.pdf">published in February 2021</a>, the Liverpool City Region Cultural Partnership paid tribute to “the creative organisations and people who, despite the odds, were able to reach out to our communities and vulnerable groups to offer a moment of joy [during the pandemic]”.</p>
<p>Yet only a year earlier, at the onset of COVID, the financial and employment situation of many of these organisations had looked perilous. In addition to a severe loss of income from visitors to the city, as many as 60% of Liverpool’s estimated 15,000 freelance creative workers <a href="https://moderngov.merseytravel.gov.uk/documents/s52817/Enc.%201%20for%20Cultural%20Compact%20Strategic%20Action%20Plan.pdf">faced redundancy overnight</a>.</p>
<p>Due to the complex nature of professional contracts in the creative industries, many employees did not qualify for the government’s furlough or self-employed support schemes. Across the entire region, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard-Anderson-19/publication/357226930_Playing_In_Exploring_the_effect_of_COVID-19_on_music_makers_across_the_Liverpool_City_Region/links/61c2523b8bb20101842a0cc8/Playing-In-Exploring-the-effect-of-COVID-19-on-music-makers-across-the-Liverpool-City-Region.pdf">62% of musicians</a> were unable to benefit from either scheme.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-will-not-forget-our-colleagues-who-have-died-two-doctors-on-the-frontline-of-the-second-wave-148152">'We will not forget our colleagues who have died': two doctors on the frontline of the second wave</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>In March 2020, Arts Council England announced a £160m <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19/emergency-response-funds">Emergency Response Package</a> to help alleviate the immediate pressures faced by arts organisations and artists. Across Liverpool, some organisations used this fund to ensure continued connectivity among their members, recognising that digital poverty was as fundamental an issue to overcome in tackling social isolation as the provision of food and heating.</p>
<p>An arts centre running a programme for people with learning disabilities found that many participants had neither mobile data nor wifi – so it used some of the emergency fund to purchase iPads and data for them. There was an added bonus to this kind of initiative: distributing laptops and other digital hardware helped organisations sustain contact with their hardest-to-reach members – asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants – when “official” support organisations had closed their doors.</p>
<p>But while this rapid switch to digital was both necessary and valuable, arts providers and recipients still describe their sense of loss at moving online – both in terms of the unfulfilling quality of some digital experiences, and missing the wider enrichments that go with in-person cultural experiences and events. </p>
<p>“In a room you can read the energy – you read how people are feeling,” says the co-director of one dance organisation. “Over 20 years of leading dance activities, I might have a plan for a class but it always alters slightly depending on the people in the room. We can do that to an extent online, but if people aren’t sharing the things you can see in a physical space, you’re unable to respond.”</p>
<p>When the COVID lockdowns finally lifted, organisations echoed one another in describing their “joyous” responses as in-person activities resumed – “just that joy of connection … that joy of being able to come back into a space”.</p>
<h2>Collaborating with the NHS</h2>
<p>The importance of Liverpool’s cultural organisations to the city was underlined by the closeness of many partnerships with healthcare providers during the pandemic.</p>
<p>Royal Liverpool Philharmonic had already been working for more than a decade with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust on a music in mental health programme. When COVID struck, it held Zoom sessions in secure hospitals for people sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Hospital staff reported resultant changes in the ward environment, describing “a happy, warm atmosphere with patients feeling calmer, more positive and having more fun”.</p>
<p>The Liverpool Playhouse, which had begun a partnership with Mersey Care just before the pandemic, found that at the start of lockdown, the NHS trust wasn’t allowed to use Zoom because of governance issues. So their partnership model shifted, with the theatre taking the lead and the trust signposting vulnerable patients to it.</p>
<p>“While officially we couldn’t use the NHS badge,” the theatre’s former director of creativity and social learning explains, “we could see when people really needed support and help – suddenly losing benefits or getting ill – and identify where safeguarding was necessary”. She suggests this has led to an exciting opportunity to “think outside the box”, not just in Liverpool but nationally:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is going to be a huge increase in the need for wellbeing services, which are already overstretched and oversubscribed. [We need to] think more about how the arts and health sectors can work more closely together.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The recent creation of NHS England’s <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/integratedcare/what-is-integrated-care/">Integrated Care Systems</a> (ICS) is an endorsement of the value of working with community groups, activities and spaces to deliver better health outcomes. Liverpool is now part of the Cheshire and Merseyside ICS, with a mission to work jointly with a wide range of local partners to tackle inequality and “improve the lives of the poorest fastest”.</p>
<p>Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s partnerships manager says their experiences during the pandemic have led them to consider “whether we should be focusing our attention more at a neighbourhood level, connecting with GP surgeries in our immediate vicinity”. She is encouraged by the way funding organisations “are now looking at how arts and mental health can be embedded in the NHS’s long-term planning”.</p>
<p>According to The Reader’s head of shared reading programmes, there is now a “really, really exciting” opportunity to create a “radical” shared platform with people working in direct healthcare. People could use the voice they gain through contact with cultural and creative organisations to let healthcare services know what the best form of care is for them.</p>
<h2>A new sense of art’s value</h2>
<p>Some Liverpool arts organisations are building on their digital successes during the pandemic to design new in-person activities for local communities. <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/house-of-memories/my-house-of-memories-app">My House of Memories</a> is an app based on memory sharing linked to activities offered by <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/">National Museums Liverpool</a>. Designed to support people living with dementia as well as their carers and families, the number of users increased to tens of thousands during the first lockdown.</p>
<p>The app’s success has inspired <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/house-of-memories/on-the-road">House of Memories On The Road</a>, a 30m² immersive cinema and exhibition space that can be taken into local communities. This physical version offers immersive walks through local landmarks, a trip on Liverpool’s overhead railway, and visits to a 1950s grocery store and 1930s wash day – complete with objects to touch and smell, to stimulate users’ sensory responses and memories.</p>
<p>House of Memories works with community partners to identify those neighbourhoods or elder groups who are experiencing loneliness. Its director explains: “We can drive into local spaces, hospital trust settings, a GP car park or a supermarket. The idea is that we bring the museum to you, wherever you are.” </p>
<p>She adds that a world without arts and culture “would be a very dark and cold place”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The NHS is there to help us when we’re unwell, but to remain well in the rest of our lives, that’s where arts and culture can play a massive role. What COVID gave us was a real opportunity to shine a light on that value of how important the arts are.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such initiatives also represent an important part of the “slow return to normality” as the pandemic threat recedes. According to the director of a Liverpool arts centre:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The cultural scene could play a massive part in bringing in people who are less keen to come back because they’re still very worried about COVID. [If] shops and going for a meal aren’t enough to tempt them out, something that’s more meaningful to them like coming to an exhibition, a workshop, the theatre or a concert could be really important for getting people back out, reconnecting and active.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Liverpool emerges from the ravages of the pandemic, the hit to the city’s creative sector is particularly concerning given its importance to the local economy. Amid a continued risk of closures and loss of creative talent, reduced access to arts and culture for the city’s most vulnerable groups could be very damaging in light of <a href="https://www.thenhsa.co.uk/app/uploads/2021/09/A-Year-of-COVID-in-the-North-report-2021.pdf">recent research</a> showing the severe impact of the pandemic on mental health across the region.</p>
<p>Yet we have also seen a deepening appreciation of the importance of arts provision during COVID. Liverpool City Region’s 2021 <a href="https://moderngov.merseytravel.gov.uk/documents/s52817/Enc.%201%20for%20Cultural%20Compact%20Strategic%20Action%20Plan.pdf">strategic action plan</a> identified a “culture-led and creative response” as being “most likely to be transformational and result in new ways of doing things” – not only in the arts, but for health and wellbeing more generally.</p>
<p>Perhaps just as importantly, the experience of sustaining themselves and others through the COVID ordeal has helped Liverpool’s diverse cultural organisations understand more clearly their role and significance for the regional population – both in-person and online.</p>
<p>Despite the dance tutor’s concerns about what was lost without in-person performances, she highlights that “we now have people from all over the world doing classes when normally we’re [restricted to] Liverpool. It was a really exciting opportunity to share cultures, practices and dance styles.”</p>
<p>Similarly, having been “kind of reluctant” about switching to digital for their annual festival, a writing charity’s programme manager agrees the experience has “highlighted to us the power of what we can do online – this will change the way we work forever”.</p>
<p>Throughout Liverpool and far beyond, we have seen many arts providers step up – despite severe personal challenges – during a period of extraordinary need. And they will surely continue to play a crucial role in processing the pandemic’s impacts for years to come. As The Reader’s head of shared reading programmes concludes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s an embodiment of grief in people now – some of it very real, but also bereavement at having lost almost two years of our lives. So if you don’t create spaces to connect with how we feel, and the thoughts we find difficult to have – whether that’s through music, dance, theatre or literature – I worry that we’re going to be “baking in” fractures into our future society.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>This article is part of an Insights series developed with <a href="https://www.ukri.org/about-us/">UK Research and Innovation</a> (UKRI) to explore the wider impacts of research carried out during the pandemic. <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/english/research/featured-research/covid-19-care/">COVID-19 CARE</a> is an <a href="https://www.ukri.org/councils/ahrc/">AHRC</a>-funded project; here is its <a href="http://livcare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/COVID-19-CARE-report_final.pdf">final report</a> and <a href="https://livcare.org.uk/">online resource</a>.</em></p>
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<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">
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<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>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-magic-of-touch-how-deafblind-people-taught-us-to-see-the-world-differently-during-covid-191698?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">The magic of touch: how deafblind people taught us to ‘see’ the world differently during COVID
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<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/192776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josie Billington receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council, UKRI</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ekaterina Balabanova receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council, UKRI. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Worsley receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council, UKRI</span></em></p>
New research shows the region’s arts organisations were a critical source of support for vulnerable people during lockdown
Josie Billington, Professor in English Literature, University of Liverpool
Ekaterina Balabanova, Professor of Politics and Media, University of Liverpool
Joanne Worsley, Research Associate, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189356
2022-09-08T16:36:30Z
2022-09-08T16:36:30Z
Liverpool shooting and the devastating impact of violence and deprivation on communities
<p>August 22 marked the 15th anniversary of the shooting of 11-year-old <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rhys-jones-killer-15-years-27800683">Rhys Jones</a> in the Liverpool suburb of Croxteth. In the same week, the people of Liverpool again witnessed the merciless <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2022-08-23/murder-of-nine-year-old-girl-in-liverpool-act-of-evil">killing of an innocent</a> child, gunned down in her own home. Nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel has become one more unnecessary victim of a shooting in the city.</p>
<p>Police have appealed to the public for help identifying those involved, and have made several arrests. Merseyside Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Chris Green <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-62722937">praised the public’s</a> “collective ambition to make sure that those individuals in our communities who are engaged in organised crime – the intimidation, the violence, the use of firearms – they’ve got no place in our society.”</p>
<p>Olivia is the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-62706386">fourth person</a> to be killed in recent weeks in the area. As many previous events have shown, the impact of violence goes beyond those directly involved.</p>
<h2>Areas of high crime</h2>
<p>I have spent the last ten years studying gangs and violent crime, as well as living in an area on Merseyside that has seen its fair share of both. In that time, young people, often under the age of 25, have become involved in street gangs. While there are no official figures regarding gang involvement, “best guess” numbers are often drawn from historic reports and news articles. </p>
<p>A Home Office study several years ago found that <a href="https://safeguardinghub.co.uk/young-people-risk-gang-involvement-just-statistic/">up to 6%</a> of ten to 19-year-olds in England and Wales belonged to a gang. While identity, money, status and territory are all important consequences for those involved, their decision to join is usually triggered by one main case: inequality.</p>
<p>We in the west live in a society of conspicuous consumption, placing a high value on materialism and spending money on symbols of success, like designer clothes, cars and expensive holidays. But in less affluent areas, there are fewer legitimate means to achieve financial and material success through good jobs and other opportunities. </p>
<p>As a result, people simply innovate or find alternative means to reach those goals. For some, the obvious alternative path is one of criminality. This is an old academic theory that dates back to 1938 to social scientist <a href="https://soztheo.de/theories-of-crime/anomie-strain-theories/anomie-theory-merton/?lang=en">Robert Merton</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334633203_Grafting_the_boyz_just_doing_business_Deviant_entrepreneurship_in_street_gangs">My research</a> has found that where crime, particularly dangerous drug dealing, is concerned, illegal innovation has blurred the lines of criminality and employment. Young people selling drugs, often under the influence of adult organised crime groups, speak of their illegal activities in business-like ways, talking about “serving” clients and describing their gangs as “firms”. I coined the term “deviant entrepreneurship” to describe this.</p>
<h2>The sprawl of violence</h2>
<p>The existence of deviant entrepreneurship as a viable “career path” has created a cycle of young people growing up in environments that lack real opportunities, ultimately drifting into street gangs and later on adult organised crime. And with increased involvement in crime, violence often follows. As one young person who had been involved in violent crime and gangs said to me, it was on “my doorstep, I had no choice”. </p>
<p>For those who are innocent bystanders, yet occupy the same place as gangs and organised crime groups, the indirect effects can be damaging. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43609902_Who_needs_enemies_with_friends_like_these_The_importance_of_place_for_young_people_living_in_known_gang_areas">Research has revealed</a> the effects of living in known “gang areas” on young people who are not involved in gangs. Law-abiding residents can be subjected to surveillance or have their movement restricted by heavy policing or gang conflict that takes over particular places. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Front facade of a derelict industrial red brick warehouse, with many broken windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482487/original/file-20220902-20-fxk51p.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">The cycle of deprivation and crime is difficult to break.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-derelict-brick-industrial-historical-warehouse-1229062213">Marbury / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It also has an impact on families. Parents and siblings unaware of their family member’s involvement in gang activity may experience shock, shame and anxiety when <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-71169-6_3">going through the criminal justice system</a>, or may even be blamed for their child’s actions.</p>
<p>On a community-wide level, the prevalence of gangs and organised crime groups can lead to a normalisation of crime, where violence and disorder just becomes <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/broken-windows-theory">part of local life</a>. Poverty has always been intertwined with crime and is something that politicians have <a href="https://www.leicestershirevillages.com/are-crime-rates-higher-in-urban-or-rural-areas/">failed to address</a> head-on, ignoring it in favour of pursuing individual perpetrators. </p>
<h2>Preventing and solving the problem</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.merseyside.police.uk/news/merseyside/news/august/merseyside-police-continues-its-relentless-pursuit-of-organised-crime-groups/">recent shootings</a> in Dingle, Old Swan and Dovecot (three other deprived Liverpool suburbs) are indicative of a continuing pattern of social exclusion and poverty leading to organised crime or violence generally. </p>
<p>It is a cycle that sadly is not going to go away any time soon, especially with the cost of living crisis. The government’s “levelling up” policy has, so far, neglected the ground-level issues that real people want addressing. Homelessness, poverty and crime have been overlooked to focus more on physical infrastructure. And much of the funding has reportedly gone to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2022/feb/02/levelling-up-funding-inequality-exposed-by-guardian-research">focus on more affluent areas</a> – contradicting the very notion of levelling up.</p>
<p>But on Merseyside, there is some hope in the form of <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/prevention-focused-community-policing/">preventative policing</a>, an approach that focuses on preventing crime before it occurs. Preventative policing is not just about increasing police presence, it involves looking at the social biographies of communities, their needs and the types of crime that is occurring. It recognises that community safety is not just a matter for law enforcement, but requires other agencies and organisations such as public health and the third sector to work together to alleviate poverty and crime. </p>
<p>Preventative policing is in its infancy, and we are likely to see it operational on Merseyside in early 2023. It’s a start, but the road is long. Solving a problem as endemic as inequality and related gang involvement will involve long term cultural change. </p>
<p>This can only be achieved by early intervention strategies and better investment, not just in the community, but in the people themselves with tailored support into decent employment. But how many more Rhyses and Olivias will there be before this happens?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Hesketh 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>
Violence affects entire communities, even law-abiding residents.
Robert Hesketh, Lecturer in Policing Studies, School of Justice Studies., Liverpool John Moores University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/177382
2022-03-15T11:58:53Z
2022-03-15T11:58:53Z
Levelling 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 Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167817
2021-12-09T15:16:19Z
2021-12-09T15:16:19Z
The new enclosure: how land commissions can lead the fight against urban land-grabs
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433143/original/file-20211122-23-82ywzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2020, Liverpool became the first city in England to set up a land commission.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/liverpool-skyline-rooftop-view-buildings-england-1787259515">Songquan Deng | Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Boris Johnson sold the 35-acre <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f7b5599c-c7b0-11e2-9c52-00144feab7de">Royal Albert Docks in London</a> to Chinese buyers in 2013, it was his biggest commercial property deal as mayor of London and one of China’s largest investments in the UK. The Greater London Authority sold off further parcels of land in the area in a bid to regenerate the Royal Docks, which had fallen into disrepair with the decline of the docklands from the 1960s. </p>
<p>Over the past few decades, huge transfers of land from public to private ownership have occurred throughout Britain. Since Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister in 1979, <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3050-the-new-enclosure">one-tenth</a> of the entire British landmass, or about half of the land owned by all public bodies, has been privatised. This has included, for instance, dozens of <a href="https://www.forces.net/services/tri-service/more-50-bases-go-mod-estate-sell">former military bases</a> on Ministry of Defence land. </p>
<p>In our cities, one result of this land privatisation has been the long-term shift from public to private housing tenure: social rented housing <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13604813.2012.709403">declined</a> from 31% of Britain’s total housing stock in 1981 to just 18% in 2012. </p>
<p>As what was effectively our <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-commons-are-under-siege-in-the-age-of-austerity-heres-how-to-protect-them-121067">common wealth</a> is sold off, local authorities are losing the capacity to address the interconnected housing and climate change <a href="https://www.tcpa.org.uk/blog/blog-the-need-for-better-environmental-standards-in-homes-old-and-new">crises</a>. From London to Leeds, this transformation of land has <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264275115300299">impeded democratic involvement</a> in urban planning. It has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13604813.2012.709403?needAccess=true">displaced</a> working-class communities. And it has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13604813.2012.754190">heightened</a> social inequalities.</p>
<p>In a bid to make Liverpool the fairest and most socially inclusive city region in the UK, the mayor, Steve Rotherham, launched England’s first land commission in September 2020. The commission’s findings chime with <a href="http://www.gmhousingaction.com/who-owns-the-city/">our research</a>. It argues for a fundamentally new understanding of what land is. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Panoramic view of London from Highgate Hampstead Park" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433148/original/file-20211122-17-1h5hnoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433148/original/file-20211122-17-1h5hnoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433148/original/file-20211122-17-1h5hnoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433148/original/file-20211122-17-1h5hnoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433148/original/file-20211122-17-1h5hnoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433148/original/file-20211122-17-1h5hnoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433148/original/file-20211122-17-1h5hnoj.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">Even many of our so-called urban commons don’t belong to the people at all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/panoramic-view-london-highgate-hampstead-park-632934269">pabmap | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is a land commission?</h2>
<p>Liverpool was the first metropolitan area in England to establish a participatory land commission. The participants were from the public, private and voluntary sectors as well as from academia. They were <a href="https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/steve-rotheram-launches-englands-first-land-commission-focused-on-community-wealth-building/">tasked</a> with a radical year-long mission: to figure out how to make the best use of publicly owned land in the city region. </p>
<p>The idea is to build what economists call <a href="https://cles.org.uk/community-wealth-building/what-is-community-wealth-building/">community wealth</a>. In response, the commission released its <a href="https://cles.org.uk/publications/our-land/">final report</a> in June 2021, in concert with the Manchester-based <a href="https://cles.org.uk/">Centre for Local Economic Strategies</a>. </p>
<p>Public authorities in recent decades have largely looked at urban land through a narrow economic growth lens. This has focused on <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/man-city-champions-league-final-20494480">attracting investment</a> at the expense of wider community needs – social housing, say, or public green space. </p>
<p>By contrast, the commission recognises that land plays an important function in <a href="https://landforthemany.uk/">addressing</a> social and environmental, as well as economic, needs. This challenges the processes of privatisation, commodification and wealth extraction that have characterised urban development since the 1980s, and which political economist Brett Christophers has described as the <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3050-the-new-enclosure">“new enclosure”</a>. Similar processes can be seen in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X16305484">other countries</a> around the world too. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/enclosure-grand-scale">Karl Marx</a> and <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-invention-of-capitalism">others</a> drew a direct connection between the <a href="https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=568">enclosure of the commons</a>, which took place during the 16th-19th century in England, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite. If enclosure led to the dispossession of the rural peasantry, that storing up of wealth by the privileged few, in turn, led to the rise of capitalism in western Europe. </p>
<p>As historical <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520260009/the-magna-carta-manifesto">research</a> shows, the very notion of the commons is revolutionary. It defines land as collective wealth that belongs to everyone. This stands in stark contrast to the capitalist model of private property. </p>
<p>It is this idea that motivated the 17th-century reformer, <a href="https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/culture/theory/item/2978-a-common-treasury-for-all-gerrard-winstanley-and-the-diggers">Gerard Winstanley</a>, along with a group of men and women who became known as the Diggers, to create a social order based on common ownership of the land. </p>
<p>This historical tradition animates the Liverpool land commission’s vision of how urban land can be managed for the benefit of the many rather than the few. The report explicitly situates the commission’s work within that long history of enclosure and resistance, quoting a <a href="http://jacklynch.net/Texts/winstanley.html">1649 pamphlet</a> from Winstanley: “The earth was not made for you, to be Lords of it, and we to be your Slaves, Servants and Beggars; but it was made to be a common Livelihood to call, without respect of persons.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433146/original/file-20211122-25-nausrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Overhead view of the Three Graces and the Liverpool waterfront" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433146/original/file-20211122-25-nausrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433146/original/file-20211122-25-nausrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433146/original/file-20211122-25-nausrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433146/original/file-20211122-25-nausrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433146/original/file-20211122-25-nausrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433146/original/file-20211122-25-nausrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433146/original/file-20211122-25-nausrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Urban land is increasingly seen as an economic asset, at the expense of its social functions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/lrG9KIuxQzo">Phil Kiel | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Practical steps</h2>
<p>The commission’s report includes a series of practical recommendations to reclaim the social function of urban land. These include establishing a citizen-led body for governing public land. It recommends making public land available to community organisations for socially valuable projects such as cooperatives, green spaces and social enterprises. And it suggests establishing an online map of public land resources, including empty land, that is currently held by councils.</p>
<p>Further, it recommends capturing rising land values (future profits derived from the development of currently underused land) to fund reparations for Liverpool’s historic role in the transatlantic slave trade. And it suggests using public land to install the green infrastructure needed to combat climate change. </p>
<p>If adopted, these recommendations will mark a rupture from the Thatcherite approach to <a href="https://theconversation.com/ending-austerity-stop-councils-selling-off-public-assets-113858">selling off public assets</a> that has dominated since the 1980s. As such, the commission demonstrates how decisions about urban land use can be undertaken in a democratic, participatory and transparent manner. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.gmhousingaction.com/who-owns-the-city/">Our research</a> on public land privatisation in the neighbouring city of Manchester suggests that the land commission approach needs to be expanded to other UK cities. We raised a number of concerns about public land sales by Manchester City Council, including the lack of transparency around deals and the fact that large amounts of public land have been sold to private developers to build <a href="http://www.gmhousingaction.com/report_launched_on_housing_finance_gm/">city centre apartment blocks</a> that contain no social or affordable housing. </p>
<p>In response to this research, over 60 civil society organisations <a href="http://www.gmhousingaction.com/gm-land-commission-letter/">signed an open letter</a> calling for the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, to stick to his <a href="https://andyformayor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Andy-Burnham-Manisfesto-v2.1-002.pdf">manifesto</a> commitment to establish a Greater Manchester land commission. </p>
<p>The UK government’s “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/56238260">levelling-up</a>” programme has brought regional inequality and postindustrial urban decline to the fore once again. But addressing these longstanding issues will require a fundamental rethink about what land is for and the purpose it serves in today’s society. The Liverpool land commission has opened the door to the future. Which cities will follow?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Silver receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, and the European Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Gillespie receives funding from the University of Manchester and the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>
Liverpool is the first city in England to investigate, via a land commission, how urban property can best serve everyone.
Jonathan Silver, Senior Research Fellow, University of Sheffield
Tom Gillespie, Hallsworth Research Fellow, University of Manchester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165640
2021-09-22T15:30:42Z
2021-09-22T15:30:42Z
Scouse Soldiers: the organised crime gangs of Merseyside
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416062/original/file-20210813-27-9p7pex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C17%2C5158%2C3728&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/silhouettes-shadows-people-on-street-crowd-1559767076">Oleg Elkov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Like many urban areas in the UK, Merseyside has a <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpools-historic-brutal-street-gangs-18533991">long and notorious history</a> of street gangs. From the Cornermen and High Rip gangs of the 19th century, to the Croxteth Crew, Nogga Dogs and Moss Edz, the self-perceived North Face “Scouse Soldiers” of today, all have left a dark and deadly legacy.</p>
<p>As someone who has always lived on a former Merseyside council housing estate in Knowsley, one of the most <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/apr/29/communities.socialexclusion">socially excluded</a> and poverty-stricken areas in the UK, and an academic whose research has focused on youth and gang crime, I have seen both sides of the fence. This experience has motivated me to <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JCRPP-03-2021-0012/full/html">research gangs</a> on Merseyside – one of the UK’s hot spots for gang and organised crime activity.</p>
<p>In 2018-19, <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/knowsley-highest-rate-children-risk-17227983">social services assessed 16,132</a> children in Merseyside County, of which 546 were deemed to be either active members of a gang, at risk of joining one, or at risk of being a victim of gang-related violence. </p>
<h2>Social networks</h2>
<p>In 2009, sociologist Hannah Smithson and colleagues <a href="http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/24788/1/acc-guns-and-gangs-report.pdf">examined the extent</a>, nature and causes of young people’s involvement in gang and gun crime. From interviews with Merseyside police, practitioners and young people aged between 16 and 29, they identified two types of gang structures. </p>
<p>The first, a loosely-knit, non-hierarchical group of young people who would get together on the streets at night and engage in antisocial behaviour and potentially violence and criminality. This is the classic, stereotypical assumption of what a street gang is. The second type was structured and hierarchical, with ties to illegal drug markets and cities’ adult organised crime groups. </p>
<p>In more recent years, these drug-dealing groups have become fiercely territorial and violent, resorting to the use of knives and firearms in order to protect their selling patch, and exploiting vulnerable young people.</p>
<p>Why do people get involved in gangs? I’ve sought to answer this key question in my own research, and found that a sense of belonging, respect and protection as well as membership as a source of income all contribute.</p>
<p>In 2018 <a href="https://www.academia.edu/39223463/DOCTORAL_THESIS_2018_DEPOSIT_VERSION">I interviewed</a> 44 young men – half involved in street gangs and half completely abstaining – to learn why some young people joined gangs. Social exclusion, coupled with cutbacks brought in by austerity policies, meant many young men who became involved in street gangs suffered from “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/43038234/Countering_network_poverty_as_a_precursor_to_gang_membership_bridging_and_social_capital_through_temporary_migration_research_and_practice">network poverty</a>”. This means that they lacked the ability to make good “pro-social” connections, which shape how young people perceive the welfare of others and their communities. </p>
<p>With friendships mainly restricted to the schoolyard or the residential streets, criminality is seen as a way to succeed in a world which values the ownership of material things. In the case of gang members, values become bound around deviant group formation and offending as a way of escape from continuing poverty and deprivation. </p>
<p>In contrast, young men who found opportunities beyond their local area abstained from gang affiliation and criminality. They joined interest groups such as martial arts classes or took weekend jobs, forging new friendships with peers away from their home streets. Their belief systems opened up, and they embraced legitimate employment and leisure activities, leading to further opportunities.</p>
<h2>Deviant entrepreneurship</h2>
<p>For those involved in street gangs, there was also the appeal of edgework – as risk-taking behaviour is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2780644?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">described in criminology</a> – which provided excitement and escapism from the boredom and routine existence that social exclusion brings. Quite simply, there were no real legitimate opportunities for young people to access. Such thrill-seeking behaviour has not been adequately addressed by interventions aimed at countering gang recruitment. </p>
<p>In the eyes of many gang-involved young people, the line between employment and criminality (specifically drug dealing) became blurred. This was evident in interviews with gang members living closer to Liverpool city centre and its vibrant nighttime economy. Here, the language used during interviews became more businesslike – one participant identified his group as a “firm of boys” and talked about serving punters (customers) and profit margins. </p>
<p>I coined the term <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SC-05-2019-0016/full/html">“deviant entrepreneurship”</a> to describe the process of gangs making money through illegitimate means. Those gang members involved neutralised their criminal activity into the context of work, or as it is widely known on the streets around Liverpool, “grafting”. </p>
<p>Across Merseyside, many young people involved in street gangs have become embroiled with adult organised crime groups as part of the <a href="https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/drug-trafficking/county-lines">“county lines” phenomenon</a> – a form of exploitation in which gangs of adults coerce children and young people to carry drugs to rural or coastal areas of the country. </p>
<p>In 2018, modern slavery researcher Grace Robinson interviewed a combination of young people (aged 14-20) and people working in youth justice interventions. Her research focused on exploitation within gangs by adult criminals. She found that some young people were paid a commission in drugs (in most cases, cannabis) in return for selling a supply. </p>
<p>Moreover, she identified the widespread use of social media platforms to <a href="https://www.dressember.org/blog/dressemberday16">lure young people</a> into carrying out drug supplying tasks, and to manipulate them through debt bondage. Gang members offer young individuals trainers, designer clothes and sometimes even a place to stay or drugs for personal use. The young person is then forced into working to pay off the debt, by carrying drugs or recruiting other young people into the network, continuing the cycle of exploitation.</p>
<p>The existing research makes clear that gang activity on Merseyside is a major and continuing problem, and that addressing individualised symptoms alone will not stop young people becoming involved. A substantial part of this is the environment and lack of opportunities – something that should be addressed further by politicians.</p>
<p>Continuation of austerity policies, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/20/youth-services-suffer-70-funding-cut-in-less-than-a-decade">cuts to youth services</a>, coupled with unemployment and the financial consequences of the pandemic, have created socially deprived breeding grounds for street gangs and organised crime groups to flourish.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Hesketh 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>
Some areas of Merseyside have more children at risk from gangs than in London. So why isn’t it studied more?
Robert Hesketh, Lecturer in Policing Studies, School of Justice Studies., Liverpool John Moores University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164719
2021-07-21T16:49:34Z
2021-07-21T16:49:34Z
I’ve been chronicling Liverpool’s renaissance for 40 years – here’s why the city’s Unesco status should not have been removed
<p>Unesco has voted to delist <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1150/">Liverpool’s city centre and waterfront</a>, which has held world heritage status for the past 17 years. The decision comes after a protracted row between the United Nations organisation and Liverpool City Council over planned development around the site.</p>
<p>The challenge involved with <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-in-living-heritage-from-tokyo-to-adelaide-52957">big cities like</a> Liverpool having a Unesco <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-unesco-world-heritage-status-for-cultural-sites-killing-the-things-it-loves-98546">world heritage site</a> is how to <a href="https://theconversation.com/inner-city-neighbourhood-shows-the-way-in-protecting-heritage-of-centuries-past-83805">balance</a> the inheritance of the past and the needs of tomorrow. Liverpool argues that preserving its <a href="https://liverpoolworldheritage.com">outstanding cultural heritage</a> must be <a href="https://northshorevision.org">reconciled with</a> the need for investment in an area with some of the greatest economic and social challenges in the UK – even in Europe. </p>
<p>Over the past 40 years, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvhrczmj">I have chronicled</a> the decline and renaissance of the city. I believe Unesco’s evidence was questionable and its judgement about the city unbalanced. Liverpool has been treated unfairly in relation to other world heritage cities and its unique urban history of development has not been recognised. It has, in fact, been treated like a monument or a museum, not a living city. </p>
<h2>How Liverpool came to be listed</h2>
<p>In 2004, after <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/heritage-bid-hots-up-3559067">considerable lobbying</a> by the UK government and Liverpool City Council, Unesco granted world heritage status to the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02665433.2020.1804989">Liverpool Mercantile Maritime City</a>. This area contained 380 protected features, including the iconic <a href="https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/756051">Pier Head</a> and the <a href="https://www.nwfa.mmu.ac.uk/bbc/bbcnw/viewVideo.php?token=5821qwk351b4H650212261b">Albert Dock waterfront</a>. </p>
<p>Preserving Liverpool’s maritime heritage was about recognising the city’s historical contribution to the international mercantile system in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was also about recognising the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/26/liverpool-is-built-on-transatlantic-slavery-how-the-citys-museums-are-tackling-race-issues">central role</a> the city played in the transatlantic slave trade.</p>
<p>Much of the site <a href="https://uneecc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UNeECC_Proceedings_2019_materaB5_volume12_2020.pdf">had been regenerated</a> in the 1990s and 2000s. Along several miles north of the Pier Head, however, the docks had lain <a href="https://uneecc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UNeECC_Proceedings_2019_materaB5_volume12_2020.pdf">derelict and deteriorating</a> for almost 50 years. </p>
<p>Unesco’s primary objection, since 2012, has been the speculative redevelopment of this north shore. The <a href="https://liverpoolwaters.co.uk/spaces/">Liverpool Waters development</a> is an ambitious project to transform the northern docks with a mix of office buildings, apartment blocks, hotels and retail spaces. The original plan was seen as too high-density, comprising too many tall buildings and threatening what Unesco measures as the <a href="https://worldheritage.gsu.edu/outstanding-universal-value/#:%7E:text=According%20to%20UNESCO%2C%20%E2%80%9COutstanding%20Universal,future%20generations%20of%20all%20humanity.">outstanding universal value</a> of the site. </p>
<p>Unesco <a href="https://uneecc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UNeECC_Proceedings_2019_materaB5_volume12_2020.pdf">claimed it was</a> not consistently consulted on changes to construction plans, that the moratorium it sought to impose on construction has not been observed, and that development had been allowed without a strategic vision for the area. It also opposed Everton Football Club’s <a href="https://www.peoples-project.co.uk/bramley-moore-dock/">recently approved plan</a> for a new football stadium, which will involve partially filling in the listed dock at Bramley Moore. </p>
<p>Liverpool took a very different view. It argues that a moratorium on new construction in an urban centre is <a href="https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1403681/why-liverpool-faces-threat-its-world-heritage-sites-status">unenforceable</a> under UK planning law, not to mention unworkable in a living city. </p>
<p>The city has <a href="https://www.academia.edu/49440845/_Personal_Reflection_on_the_2021_Draft_Decision_to_delete_Liverpool_Maritime_Mercantile_City_from_the_UNESCO_World_Heritage_List_2021_06_28">a long history</a> of filling in existing docks to allow new development. It has always built tall buildings. Crucially, because it has invested substantially in its heritage assets, the world heritage site is in better condition than when it was designated in 2004. </p>
<h2>A city in flux</h2>
<p>There is <a href="https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3016622/1/BCD18F6_WorldHeritage.pdf">always tension</a> between conservation and development in big cities. Other urban world heritage sites have caused Unesco worries. The <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/362">Arabian Oryx Sanctuary</a> in Oman (2007) and <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/522">Dresden’s Elbe Valley</a> in Germany (2009), are the only other sites to have had their world heritage status revoked. </p>
<p><a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/danger/">Several others</a> have been identified to be <a href="https://uneecc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UNeECC_Proceedings_2019_materaB5_volume12_2020.pdf">at risk</a> from wars, climate change, pollution,
poaching and uncontrolled human development, among other things. These include the historic centre of Vienna and the Old City of Jerusalem. </p>
<p>But besides these, Unesco has treated certain other cities differently. The organisation has not objected, for example, to the high-rise construction around the Tower of London. Some of the tallest new buildings in Europe have <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/soc/1031">dramatically changed</a> the historic setting of London’s world heritage site, but Unesco has not threatened to delete London. </p>
<p>And then there are the strict operational and preservationist guidelines which Unesco sets for world heritage sites. There are over 1,200 sites across the globe, many of which are historic monuments. Being typically smaller and more contained than a modern city makes applying these guidelines in such places much easier. The area of Liverpool’s world heritage site, by contrast, <a href="https://uneecc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UNeECC_Proceedings_2019_materaB5_volume12_2020.pdf">has been found</a> to be much too big for the city to reasonably be expected to follow suit. </p>
<p>Lastly, Liverpool has pointed out that Unesco’s complaint concerns only one-sixth of the whole world heritage site: the north docks. The rest of the site, which covers much of the city centre, was not faulted by Unesco.</p>
<p>Attending to the north docks, meanwhile, as I have shown in my 2019 book, <a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk.brink">Liverpool Beyond the Brink</a>, is an economic, social and political imperative. This area collapsed when the port declined, leaving the people living in the area marooned in a sea of economic decline. And it has missed out on the city’s extraordinary renaissance of the past 20 years. Giving those communities and people a brighter future is critically important for the city. </p>
<h2>Liverpool’s future</h2>
<p>When it comes to conservation, Liverpool <a href="https://citymonitor.ai/fabric/unesco-threatens-liverpool-s-world-heritage-status-must-it-choose-between-heritage-and">has form</a>. Since 2004, the city has spent £740 million on its heritage assets and has a further £350 million in conservation projects underway. </p>
<p>Across the city <a href="https://liverpoolworldheritage.com">only 2.5%</a> of historic buildings are now in serious disrepair. In <a href="https://liverpoolworldheritage.com">2000 it was 13%</a>.
Extensive conservation work at Stanley Dock and the Ten Streets project showcases how heritage can be <a href="https://citymonitor.ai/fabric/unesco-threatens-liverpool-s-world-heritage-status-must-it-choose-between-heritage-and">conserved, modernised</a> and <a href="https://kenn-taylor.com/2018/12/20/tobacco-warehouses-wind-factories-and-ten-streets/">brought into economic use</a>. </p>
<p>The Everton football stadium project, too, will be <a href="https://www.peoples-project.co.uk">transformational</a>. It will link north Liverpool back to the city centre and transform the waterfront. Everton’s £500 million investment will be part of a larger £1.3 billion boost to the local economy, creating 15,000 local jobs and attracting 1.4 million visitors a year as well as investing £50m in heritage. </p>
<p>In tabling a vote to delist Liverpool, Unesco pitted against each other two competing visions of what the city could and should be. Ultimately, the city’s vision for its future has to be the right one. Liverpool may have lost world heritage site status. But I am confident it will grow and flourish as a world-class heritage city.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Parkinson 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>
Preserving the cultural heritage of a city like Liverpool has to be reconciled with investing in its residents’ futures.
Michael Parkinson, Professor and Ambassador for the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161942
2021-07-07T11:51:19Z
2021-07-07T11:51:19Z
COVID: how scientists can help tell if someone caught the virus at a nightclub
<p>Crowds totalling over 13,000 people were in high spirits at <a href="https://liverpoolexpress.co.uk/tag/events-research-programme/">two pilot events</a> in Liverpool at the Circus nightclub and the Sefton Park Pilot music festival in early May. These were part of the UK’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-about-the-events-research-programme-erp-paving-the-way-for-larger-audiences-to-attend-sport-theatre-and-gigs-safely-this-summer/guidance-on-the-events-research-programme">Events Research Programme</a>, giving audiences a taste of the old norm – gathering with no social distancing or face coverings – to see what effect mass events might have on the spread of the coronavirus.</p>
<p>Attendees had to have a recent negative rapid <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing/regular-rapid-coronavirus-tests-if-you-do-not-have-symptoms/">lateral flow test</a> to show they were unlikely to have COVID-19. But no test is perfect – all COVID-19 tests, including lateral flow tests, will miss some cases. It was therefore possible that some attendees were infected and could have infected others. If similar events are to reopen soon, it’s important to know just how great this risk is.</p>
<p>Testing and statistics have helped us find this out. Each attendee took their lateral flow test in the 36 hours leading up to the event. They were then asked to take a different type of test (a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/testing-for-coronavirus-at-home.pa">PCR test</a>, using a kit at home that is sent to a lab for analysis) both on the day of the event and five days later. </p>
<p>Lateral flow tests are simple. They quickly give a yes or no answer on whether someone has COVID-19, working a bit like a pregnancy test.</p>
<p>The PCR tests used were a bit more sophisticated. They showed not just whether people were positive, but also gave a number called the “<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/926410/Understanding_Cycle_Threshold__Ct__in_SARS-CoV-2_RT-PCR_.pdf">cycle threshold</a>” (Ct) that reflects the amount of coronavirus on the person’s test swab. The lower the Ct number, the higher the amount of virus someone has in their body, and so the more infectious they probably are. (Negative PCR results are those where Ct is higher than a certain level.) </p>
<h2>Working out the time of infection</h2>
<p>Assessing whether an event is safe requires using these tests to work out how many people caught the virus at or around the event. To do this, firstly you use the follow-up tests to find out who is carrying an infection shortly afterwards. Then you estimate when any test-positive individuals caught the virus: before, during or after the event.</p>
<p>To infer when the virus was picked up, you need to understand the dynamics of a COVID-19 infection. These are pretty simple. Inside the body, COVID-19 has two distinct phases: an exponential increase in the amount of virus present as it takes hold (with Ct therefore decreasing), and an exponential decrease as the person sheds the virus (with Ct increasing). </p>
<p>Using <a href="https://github.com/gradlab/CtTrajectories/blob/main/data/ct_dat_clean.csv">existing data</a> and <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/12/01/2020.10.21.20217042.full.pdf">analysis</a> of lots of previous infections, we can come up with an average trajectory of a COVID-19 infection. Plotted on a graph, the amount of virus in the body across an average person’s infection – as measured by the Ct number – looks like the red line below.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409894/original/file-20210706-23-joxq4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph demonstrating the amount of virus in the body rising and falling during a COVID-19 infection" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409894/original/file-20210706-23-joxq4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409894/original/file-20210706-23-joxq4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409894/original/file-20210706-23-joxq4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409894/original/file-20210706-23-joxq4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409894/original/file-20210706-23-joxq4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409894/original/file-20210706-23-joxq4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409894/original/file-20210706-23-joxq4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A basic illustration of how the amount of virus in the body (red) changes during the course of a COVID-19 infection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If someone returns a positive PCR test after the event, the Ct number from their test could represent one of two points in the infection – one when their infection is growing and one when declining. </p>
<p>For example, in the graph above, if the person’s Ct number is C<sub>0</sub>, then their test was taken either at point A in time (on the X axis) or point B. As we know how much time has passed between them attending the event and taking their PCR test (represented by Δ on graph), we can look backwards to end up with two estimates of their Ct level when attending the event: C<sub>A</sub> and C<sub>B</sub>. This also gives us two estimates of how far they are into their infection, and therefore two estimates of when they got infected.</p>
<p>But which is correct? Well, we know the person had to have a negative test 36 hours before the event to attend. Lateral flow tests may be falsely negative when people have small amounts of virus in their body, but are much less likely to give a false negative when someone has a high viral load. </p>
<p>So if one of the two possible levels of infection at the time of the event – C<sub>A</sub> and C<sub>B</sub> – indicates a high viral load but the other doesn’t, the high viral load case can likely be discounted. Indeed, we can use <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.21.20217042v2">historic data</a> on the accuracy of lateral flow tests to work out the probability of a test returning a negative result when the Ct number was each of C<sub>A</sub> and C<sub>B</sub>, and use this to tell us which of the two estimates for when they got infected is the more likely.</p>
<p>This means that for every person who tests positive on a PCR test after the event, we have a best estimated time for when they caught COVID-19. For those whose estimated infection time is before the event, we assume that they picked up the virus elsewhere shortly beforehand, and that their lateral flow test failed to identify their infection – possibly because they were early on in their infection and so still only had low amounts of virus in their body. We can also estimate when their viral load peaked, and thus how infectious they were at the event. </p>
<p>And for those whose infection time appears to be at or very shortly after the event, we can assume they were infected while attending. We can then compare these two groups – the infectious and infected – to see how much transmission took place and how risky the event was. </p>
<p>Pleasingly, using these techniques we found that the Liverpool events <a href="https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2021/05/25/liverpool-pilot-events-have-no-impact-on-covid-spread-in-region/">had no impact</a> on the spread of COVID-19 in the Liverpool area. But by looking to see if these events were safe, we were only informing policy makers. They had the unenviable task of assessing whether the risk identified was low enough to return us to life as we once knew it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Maskell receives funding from the UK Department of Health and Social Care. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iain Buchan has received a UK Department of Health and Social Care grant to evaluate mass testing and a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator Award. He is a chief data scientist adviser for AstraZeneca, which makes vaccines for COVID-19.
</span></em></p>
Knowing how much virus someone has in their body when testing positive for COVID-19 allows you to estimate when they picked up the virus.
Simon Maskell, Professor of Autonomous Systems, University of Liverpool
Iain Buchan, Chair in Public Health and Clinical Informatics, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159312
2021-04-20T14:47:49Z
2021-04-20T14:47:49Z
European Super League: a history of splits over money in professional sport
<p>The world of European football experienced one of the biggest shake-ups in its history when a prospective <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56794673">European Super League</a> (ESL) was announced. Fans, football associations and even the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/19/the-european-super-league-what-can-boris-johnson-do-about-it">government</a> united in condemning the new tournament, which was criticised as “a cynical project founded on the self-interest of a few clubs”.</p>
<p>Described as a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2021/apr/19/european-super-league-latest-reaction-to-breakaway-football-competition-live?page=with:block-607d82a78f08080a7ae65413with">new midweek competition</a>”, the league was initially announced with 12 founding members from across Europe, including the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56795811">six “top” English football clubs</a> (who have now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/20/european-super-league-unravelling-as-manchester-city-and-chelsea-withdraw">reportedly pulled out</a>, throwing the creation of the tournament into jeopardy). These founding clubs could not be relegated from the competition – one of the major points of contention. </p>
<p>The draw for these clubs is easy to understand. Each of the founding teams <a href="https://qz.com/1998582/how-much-tv-money-could-the-european-super-league-command/">would receive</a> an expected €3.5 billion (£3.02 billion) to join, plus €10 billion (£8.6 billion) for an “initial commitment period”. </p>
<p>In a statement, the Football Supporters’ Association voiced: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This competition is being created behind our backs by billionaire club owners who have zero regard for the game’s traditions and continue to treat football as their personal fiefdom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is an overwhelming sense from all angry parties that owners of the already wealthy clubs have sought further financial domination by distorting competition. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1383909222895603716"}"></div></p>
<p>The initial outrage will give way to more measured thought and criticism, but the burning questions are whether this model represents a realistic challenge to the current style of competition and what the consequences would be for both the European and domestic English game. The history of sport can offer some clues.</p>
<h2>A history of break-ups and conciliation</h2>
<p>Sport has historically been mired in splits and divisions. Football experienced such episodes during the last quarter of the 19th century with the separation between football and rugby football and then the latter into the amateur Rugby Union and the professionalised Rugby League. </p>
<p>The Premier League itself was the result of a split away from the Football League in 1992. The Football Association wanted to exploit the developing commercial opportunities, notably the sale of broadcasting rights. The legal challenge by the jilted Football League failed and the Premier League clubs have since prospered, largely thanks to the new subscription model of broadcasting.</p>
<p>Cricket’s great split occurred in 1977 over the allocation of broadcasting rights to Australian cricket. TV magnate <a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/haigh-on-the-wsc-323297">Kerry Packer</a> wanted the rights to show Australian matches but was rebuffed as the traditional relationship with the state broadcaster (ABC) prevailed. </p>
<p>Packer’s response was to launch his own competition, the innovative World Series Cricket, and in great secrecy contracted the world’s leading players, including England captain Tony Greig. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/13/newsid_2512000/2512249.st">Greig was duly sacked</a> and players earning a living in England who had signed were banned from playing in England. The resulting court case went in favour of the players and the bans were rescinded. World Series Cricket ran for two seasons, embracing new ideas such as coloured clothing and games that were played later in the day and continued into the evening (known as day/night games), which attracted spectators and made the more traditional offering appear jaded. </p>
<p>The financial pressure on the Australian Cricket Board led to an inevitable compromise and Packer gaining the broadcasting rights. </p>
<p>More recently, the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) fought off the challenge by the broadcasting-driven India Cricket League (ICL). A combination of player bans and improved prize money in existing competitions were used. However, it was the formation of its own competition, the highly successful <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ipl-history/indian-premier-league-how-it-all-started/articleshow/19337875.cms">Indian Premier League</a>, that proved the trump card. The ICL was strangled in infancy. The Packer affair and the Indian Premier League clearly demonstrate that new markets for a traditional sport could be developed and exploited.</p>
<h2>Possible outcomes</h2>
<p>These examples point towards possible outcomes for football. </p>
<p>Broadcasting income is a key driver of sports and since the formation of the Premier League and sale of the rights to Sky, new players – BT and Amazon – have entered the market, driving up the value of the content. The big clubs want a larger slice of this and other commercial income, arguing that it is their profile and popularity that attracts subscribers and viewers. </p>
<p>A new formula for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/07/premier-league-big-six-win-battle-overseas-television-rights">international broadcasting income</a> has already been agreed upon. Where previously the income from sharing rights was split equally, the top six clubs now receive larger sums. Any changes to the system would no doubt apply pressure to approve a new domestic formula. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GP05EDm9EB8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>A threat to potentially <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56795811">ban teams and players involved in the ESL</a> from the Premier League will have concentrated the minds of those clubs who are dependent on broadcasting income for their viability. The smaller clubs have less in the way of gate receipts and other commercial income so are very vulnerable to any decrease in TV revenue. A domestic league without the big six clubs has significantly decreased value and the same arguments apply at European level. </p>
<p>Fans have protested about the rich clubs getting richer and the betrayal of tradition, but the combination of the attractiveness of the Premier League product, ironically created by a split orchestrated by the FA, and the willingness of club owners to exploit their assets suggests a willingness to actively pursue change. The decision for the national governing bodies across Europe and the Uefa itself is whether to embrace and incorporate change and inevitably cede some control or stand firm and fight off the threat and with it consign professional football into a maelstrom of uncertainty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159312/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Greenfield 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>
From the emergence of Premier League to Cricket’s newer formats, the history of professional sport is full of breakups.
Steve Greenfield, Professor of Sports Law and Practice, University of Westminster
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159316
2021-04-20T12:35:52Z
2021-04-20T12:35:52Z
The ups and downs of European soccer are part of its culture – moving to a US-style ‘closed’ Super League would destroy that
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395883/original/file-20210419-15-7mlgt9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=185%2C0%2C1911%2C1072&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Super League plans have fans screaming into the void, like soccer star Lionel Messi here.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/barcelonas-argentinian-forward-lionel-messi-reacts-during-news-photo/125614181?adppopup=true">Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A dozen of the world’s biggest soccer clubs – including Barcelona, Manchester United and Liverpool FC – announced on April 18, 2021, that they are forming a new European super league, underwritten by a reported <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uefa-could-ban-super-league-players-euro-2020-world-cup-749ce4257b0f9a17b3fc34d60cccd00c">US$5.5 billion in funding from banking giant</a> J.P. Morgan Chase. The competition – membership in which is expected to expand to 20 teams – would supersede the <a href="https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/">UEFA Champions League</a>, which is the competition in which these top-tier teams usually compete.</p>
<p>The clubs have two motives for creating this breakaway league. First, the proposal would <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/19/explainer-how-will-the-new-european-super-league-work">significantly increase the number of games played among big clubs</a> from different countries. This would likely attract huge global audiences and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56800611">significantly increase revenues</a> – to be split among the member clubs. Second, the intention is that the founder clubs would be guaranteed a place in the league regardless of how they performed in the previous season. In contrast, clubs have to earn their place in the Champions League and all European national leagues. </p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.kines.umich.edu/directory/stefan-szymanski">expert on sports management</a>, co-author of the book “<a href="https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/simon-kuper/soccernomics/9781568588865/">Soccernomics</a>,” and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/economicpolicy/article-abstract/14/28/204/2366354">someone who predicted the super league some 22 years ago</a>, I can appreciate the benefit of more games. UEFA, the governing body for European soccer, was itself about to <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2940389-report-uefa-to-expand-champions-league-to-36-teams-after-super-league-formation">announce a revamped version</a> of the Champions League with more games for the big clubs. It is, I believe, a reasonable response to the level of demand.</p>
<p>But the desire of the elites to insulate themselves from competition and enhance profitability is much more questionable. And it is here that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/soccer-uefa-holds-crisis-meeting-after-breakaway-super-league-launched-2021-04-19/">much of the backlash</a> has been directed.</p>
<h2>A sporting world leagues apart</h2>
<p>To an <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2021/04/19/european-super-league-brings-lucrative-us-sports-model-overseas/">American audience</a>, the move might seem uncontroversial, but to Europeans it represents a fundamental breach with tradition and has raised enormous passions.</p>
<p>All major <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2021/04/19/european-super-league-brings-lucrative-us-sports-model-overseas/">professional leagues in North America are “closed”</a> leagues; obtaining entry to a league is secured by payment of a franchise fee, which for the major leagues would amount to billions of dollars nowadays. </p>
<p>But soccer leagues in Europe have always been “open” leagues. Divisions are ranked according to a recognized hierarchy – the best teams play in the top league, the next-best group in the second, and so on.</p>
<p>Every season the best-performing teams in lower divisions obtain promotion to the next league up, while the worst-performing teams are relegated to the next tier down. This promotion-and-relegation system characterizes the organization of soccer in almost every country in the world, with the U.S. being a notable exception.</p>
<p>The European Commission has <a href="https://www.sportaustria.at/fileadmin/Inhalte/Dokumente/Internationales/EU_European_Model_Sport.pdf">long described the system</a> as “one of the key features of the European model of sport.”</p>
<p>Americans are often puzzled by the commitment of Europeans to this promotion-and-relegation system. After all, promoted teams can be uncompetitive, ensuring relegation 12 months later. And a team currently playing in the fourth tier of its national league system is very unlikely to play in the Champions League – not soon, and probably not ever.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, fans of these <a href="https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/soccer-super-league-could-hurt-smaller-clubs-sports-finance-expert">small clubs</a> responded to news of the Super League with outrage. The belief that one’s team, no matter how small, can make it to the top tier, playing against the best clubs – regardless of the fact that the odds are stacked against this – is a dream many smaller clubs cling to. It is the soccer equivalent of the American dream.</p>
<p>And versions of this dream have happened. The English club Leicester City <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2002/oct/22/newsstory.sport5">went into bankruptcy in 2002</a> and was relegated to the third tier in 2008 – but won the <a href="https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/15447878/putting-leicester-city-5000-1-odds-perspective-other-long-shots-espn-chalk">Premier League at odds of 5,000-1</a> in 2016, guaranteeing it a place among the European elite in the Champions League the following year.</p>
<h2>An own goal?</h2>
<p>Without the opportunity to rise up the system, the European soccer system will end up much like baseball in America – a sport dominated by one major league, controlling a collection of minor league teams, with no lower-level competition to speak of.</p>
<p>But baseball in the U.S. needn’t have taken that direction. A century ago, <a href="https://www.hpb.com/products/baseball-the-golden-age-9780195059137">American baseball was more like European soccer</a> – every town of any size had a team playing in a league that commanded significant local interest. History books tell us that these teams and leagues were <a href="http://doi.org/10.1353/nin.2004.0059">killed off by radio and TV</a>, giving fans access to a higher level of competition that was deemed to be more attractive to watch.</p>
<p>But that’s not quite the whole story. Europe got radio and TV too, but every small town has its own team competing in a league at some level in the hierarchy. These teams did not die when people were able to watch higher-quality soccer on TV – because these teams embodied the one quality that lies at the core of both sport and human survival: hope. Ask any fans of a small club about whether their team could one day rise to the top, and they will likely tell you that they believe.</p>
<p>What Europeans fear, and loathe, about the proposed Super League is that it will be a first step toward ending the promotion-and-relegation system, which to supporters across the continent amounts to saying that it is the first step toward extinguishing hope.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Manchester United fans unfurl a banner against the Glazer ownership of the club." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395887/original/file-20210419-19-14oxm90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395887/original/file-20210419-19-14oxm90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395887/original/file-20210419-19-14oxm90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395887/original/file-20210419-19-14oxm90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395887/original/file-20210419-19-14oxm90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395887/original/file-20210419-19-14oxm90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395887/original/file-20210419-19-14oxm90.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">Opposition to Manchester United’s American owner was evident even before the Super League announcement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/manchester-united-fans-unfurl-a-banner-against-the-glazer-news-photo/463776989?adppopup=true">Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is also not lost on European fans that three of the prime movers of the Super League are American owners of major franchises – the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european-super-league-neville-manchester-united-b1834029.html">Glazer family</a>, which owns both Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/483802-liverpool-sold-after-years-of-uncertainty-to-boston-red-sox-owner-john-henry">John Henry</a>, Liverpool and Boston Red Sox owner; and Arsenal and Colorado Avalanche owner <a href="https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/stan-kroenke-arsenal-mikel-arteta-20418137">Stan Kroenke</a>.</p>
<p>The proposed Super League would in all likelihood increase both their profits and their power within the game. Already, the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9488185/UEFA-official-fans-slam-snake-American-billionaire-team-owners-European-Super-League.html">backlash has featured an element of anti-Americanism</a>. And given the high feelings across Europe to this proposal, that could become very ugly.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan Szymanski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
More competitive games between top soccer clubs is desirable but creating a ‘closed’ system would harm a soccer culture built on dreams, says the man who predicted the Super League two decades ago.
Stefan Szymanski, Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159292
2021-04-19T17:49:10Z
2021-04-19T17:49:10Z
European Super League: why punishing the breakaway 12 could backfire badly
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395796/original/file-20210419-23-hqr4jf.jpeg?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/soccer-ball-95315320">Mikhael Damkier</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The football world has been rocked by the announcement of a breakaway European Super League (ESL). The majority think it a bad idea, from governing bodies <a href="https://www.fifa.com/who-we-are/news/fifa-statement-x3487">Fifa</a> and <a href="https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/news/0268-12121411400e-7897186e699a-1000--statement-by-uefa-the-english-football-association-the-premier-/">Uefa</a> through to national bodies such as the FA and English Premier League. </p>
<p>The same goes for the fan groups at the six English clubs that comprise half of the ESL’s initial membership of 12: Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal from England. The remaining founders are Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid from Spain; and Juventus, AC Milan and Inter from Italy. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/19/bayern-munich-and-borussia-dortmund-not-joining-european-super-league">top German</a> and French clubs are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakgarnerpurkis/2021/04/19/why-paris-saint-germain-and-bayern-munich-bailed-on-the-super-league/?sh=43482dd299f5">not participating</a>. </p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/19/explainer-how-will-the-new-european-super-league-work">proposed system</a>, these 12 clubs would join three more unconfirmed founder members and five additional clubs that would have to qualify each year. They would play midweek fixtures in two mini-leagues of ten clubs, with the highest finishers progressing to knock-out stages and eventually a final each May. </p>
<p>Effectively replacing the <a href="https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/">Uefa Champions League</a>, the founders stand to receive €3.5 billion (£2.5 billion) in initial infrastructure payments between them, plus €10 billion for an “initial commitment period”. The 12 clubs propose to compete in their national leagues as normal. </p>
<p>The proposals are considered so outrageous that even the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/19/ministers-urged-to-take-action-over-european-super-league-plan">vowing to</a> find a way to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/19/government-pledges-to-stop-english-clubs-joining-european-super-league">block them</a> – despite not being known for his love of football. Pundits, <a href="https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12279996/gary-neville-on-european-super-league-plans-im-fuming-but-it-wont-go-through-not-a-chance">including Gary Neville</a>, the former Manchester United defender, have also been showing exasperation. </p>
<p>The ESL is being condemned as money-grabbing, since it would mostly be a “closed shop” without the jeopardy of relegation for founding clubs. Many consider it against the spirit of football’s long history, particularly with lower-league outfits struggling from the pandemic. </p>
<p>Neville thinks there is “not a chance” the proposals will go ahead, given the huge opposition. Others <a href="https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/european-super-league-teams-champions-league-reforms-arsenal-man-utd-city-liverpool-tottenham-chelsea">suggest they could</a> be intended as a bargaining chip as <a href="https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/mediaservices/mediareleases/news/0268-1213f7aa85bb-d56154ff8fe8-1000--new-uefa-club-competition-formats-from-2024-25/">Uefa unveils</a> a revamped and expanded Champions League, which it says will take place regardless of the ESL proposals. </p>
<p>In England, many also want the football authorities to punish the “big six”. Relegations, expulsions and bans on players competing in the Euros and World Cup are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/19/super-league-players-face-world-cup-and-euros-ban-warns-furious-uefa-chief">being mooted</a>. </p>
<p>But we suggest that everybody pauses for breath. Acting harshly against these clubs could achieve exactly the opposite effect to what is intended. </p>
<h2>Pots and kettles</h2>
<p>Authorities such as the English Premier League (EPL) may struggle to win hearts and minds by invoking football’s history. The EPL itself broke away from the English Football League in 1992, and the football authorities and fans were just as enraged at the time. Relegation was included in the proposal, although the clubs did not ask permission for the structure they created. </p>
<p>With the lion’s share of English football broadcasting revenues going to Premier League clubs, many in football <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/05/10/premier-league-spending-obscene-greedy-threatening-future-lower/">already criticise</a> the footballing pyramid. Not enough money filters down to the lower leagues, they argue, while years of transfer-price and wage inflation drove numerous clubs to the brink even before the pandemic.</p>
<p>Amid the empty stadiums of 2020-21, <a href="https://theconversation.com/english-football-why-financial-calamity-facing-clubs-is-even-worse-than-in-mainland-europe-147156">football is facing</a> a choice: watch more clubs go to the wall or consider some kind of reset with reduced player salaries, regulated transfers, agents removed from the game, and resources distributed more equally. </p>
<p>The clubs behind the ESL appear to be rejecting this form of sustainable austerity. They are positioning themselves above rather than atop the existing pyramid. Of course, with some <a href="https://www.espn.co.uk/football/barcelona/story/4301666/barcelonas-debt-is-greater-than-1-billion-forget-bringing-back-neymarthey-cant-even-afford-eric-garcia">sitting on</a> more than €1 billion of debt, receiving a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f00bb232-a150-4f7d-b26a-e1b62cd175c3?desktop=true&segmentId=d8d3e364-5197-20eb-17cf-2437841d178a#myft:notification:instant-email:content">signing-on bonus</a> of €200 million to €300 million may solve their own financial crises.</p>
<h2>What happens next</h2>
<p>The ESL could be a bargaining chip, of course. The big clubs have long sought Champions League reforms that benefit them financially, and timing the announcement a day ahead of Uefa confirming the Champions League revamp was clearly no accident. </p>
<p>Adding games to the congested football calendar is not something any leading club will relish. So perhaps the ESL proposal melts away in the coming days on the back of a compromise with Uefa. As Neville has pointed out, <a href="https://accessaa.co.uk/project-big-picture-scrapped-manchester-united-down-70m/">something similar happened</a> with the English Premier League in 2020 having a plan to further strengthen the big clubs called <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/gary-neville-european-super-league-sky-sports-interview-b930353.html">Project Big Picture</a>. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the big clubs could be seeking an extreme reaction from football authorities to enable them to go further. Maybe a standalone league is what the owners really have in mind, rather than the parallel mid-week league proposed.</p>
<p>The model we need to consider is that of top American sports such as American football or basketball, where there is no relegation and teams travel thousands of miles to play. They schedule matches abroad on neutral venues, and often move the team to a new city without any care for their local fan-base. </p>
<p>That owners refer to clubs as “franchises” is <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/raiders-las-vegas-move-explained/26kge720q0dv1stx8mwfqij0q">instructive</a> here: four of the proposed ESL founder clubs have US owners with arguably little interest in football except for its earning potential. </p>
<p>You can imagine them thinking a group of 20 clubs from Europe will act like a gigantic vacuum cleaner to suck all the cash from football broadcast revenues and sponsorship. Teams can play multiple times each year, and why not have the local Madrid or Manchester derbies played to packed audiences in Rio, Shanghai or LA? Indeed, why restrict yourself to European clubs when you could also add rivals from South America, the US or China?</p>
<p>To counter this threat, the governing bodies and national leagues need to keep the 12 teams in their competitions. If such a standalone league effectively became – excuse the pun – the only game in town, it might matter little to individual players if they were banned from playing for national teams. They could console themselves with the even greater salaries likely to be on offer as the whole world watches their every game.</p>
<p>We certainly don’t think the ESL would be good for the game, but knee-jerk measures could do untold damage to all outside of the elite. It could squander a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remodel the Champions League and ensure that football at all levels remains financially viable. It may come down to who has the strongest brand: the football authorities, leagues or clubs – at the moment it seems the clubs have confidence in the answer to this question.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian R. Bell receives funding from the AHRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Brooks receives funding from Innovate UK and the ESRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Urquhart 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>
Everyone seems united against the new proposals, but can they really be stopped?
Adrian R Bell, Chair in the History of Finance and Research Dean, Prosperity and Resilience, Henley Business School, University of Reading
Andrew Urquhart, Associate Professor of Finance, ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading
Chris Brooks, Professor of Finance, Henley Business School, University of Reading
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152304
2020-12-22T16:12:42Z
2020-12-22T16:12:42Z
Even though mass testing for COVID isn’t always accurate, it could still be useful – here’s why
<p>The mass testing of asymptomatic people for COVID-19 in the UK was thrown into question by a recent study. In a pilot in Liverpool, <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4848">over half the cases</a> weren’t picked up, leading some to question whether using tests that perform poorly is the best use of resources. </p>
<p>The tests involved in this study were antigen tests. These see whether someone is infected with SARS-CoV-2 by identifying structures on the outside of the virus, known as antigens, using antibodies. If the coronavirus is present in a sample, the antibodies in the test bind with the virus’s antigens and highlight an infection. </p>
<p>Antigen tests are cheap and provide results quickly. However, they are not always accurate. But what do we mean when we say that a test is inaccurate? And is it <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/878121/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-strategy.pdf">really the case</a> that “an unreliable test is worse than no test”?</p>
<h2>Sensitivity vs specificity</h2>
<p>When testing, one thing we’re interested in is how good a test is at detecting the virus in people who are actually infected. The more <em>sensitive</em> a test is, the less likely it is to deliver a false negative result to someone who has the virus.</p>
<p>False negatives can have significant costs. If people receiving them are also infectious, this may <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4916">increase the risk</a> of viral transmission, as they’ll behave as if they don’t have the virus – what’s known as “false reassurance”.</p>
<p>But sensitivity is not the only kind of accuracy that matters – we’re also interested in how good the test is at providing positive results only to those who are actually infected. The more <em>specific</em> a test is, the less likely it is to deliver false positives to those without the virus. False positives also have costs – a person’s liberty might be restricted even though they pose no risk of transmission.</p>
<h2>The Liverpool data</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/innova-lateral-flow-sars-cov-2-antigen-test-accuracy-in-liverpool-pilot-preliminary-data-26-november-2020">Preliminary data</a> from the Liverpool pilot suggests that the test used was 48.89% sensitive. That translates into a very high false negative rate, risking widespread false reassurance. The test cannot robustly confirm that someone isn’t infected.</p>
<p>However, there are other relevant points to consider from the Liverpool pilot. First, the study found that the specificity of the test was 99.93%. That means that only a small proportion of participants who weren’t infected were given a positive result by the test. This specificity is a good thing, but we shouldn’t overstate its importance; high specificity alone does not entail that a positive result is likely to be a true positive. This likelihood, or the test’s “positive predictive value”, is also partly determined by <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4460">how prevalent the virus is</a> in the tested population. </p>
<p>For instance, say you test 100,000 people with a test that is 99.93% specific, yet the rate of COVID-19 in this group is relatively low – only 70 cases per 100,000 people. Among the 99,930 people who are uninfected, the test would still return a false positive result to 0.07% of them – roughly 70 people. So in this scenario, assuming the test is perfectly sensitive and picks up all the true positives, there would only be a 50% chance of a positive result being true.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the Liverpool data also suggests that the majority of true positive results were in individuals who had higher viral loads. If – and it is an <em>if</em> – higher viral loads are strongly associated with <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0243597">greater infectivity</a>, then these will be the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2025631">most important asymptomatic cases</a> to identify. </p>
<p>The upshot of this is that antigen testing has some features in its favour for identifying positive cases. The problem is that these benefits may be small if the virus is not prevalent, and they may be massively outweighed by the costs of false reassurance if it is widespread.</p>
<h2>Can we avoid false reassurance?</h2>
<p>There might be some measures that could potentially reduce these costs. The current messaging that increased testing can “<a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3558">provide reassurance</a>” amplifies the risk of false reassurance, but it could be changed. The advertised purpose of antigen testing could instead be to identify more of the asymptomatic carriers currently flying under the radar.</p>
<p>Some context is important here. In the UK, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test">more accurate</a> testing is currently freely available only for symptomatic individuals and a small number of other groups. This strategy means that many asymptomatic carriers are being missed, and that’s a problem – <a href="https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3012">approximately 40-45%</a> of infections are estimated to be asymptomatic.</p>
<p>It might also be possible to clarify to people that positive results are robust in a way that the negative results are not. We could also impose further restrictions on people with positive results without similarly using negative results as justification for releasing individuals from other existing restrictions. </p>
<p>One problem with all of these strategies is that they are difficult public health messages to communicate. However, the extent of the problem of false reassurance is also determined by the proportion of infectious people among the false negative cases. The Liverpool data suggests an avenue of further study here. </p>
<p>If we could establish firstly that people with low viral loads pose an acceptably low risk of transmission, and secondly that the false negatives generated by antigen tests were restricted to individuals with such low viral loads, then the harm of these false negatives would also be low. We currently lack crucial data to definitively establish these things. However, if we could, then it would support <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2025631">the argument</a> that these tests could still be used as an effective containment strategy, based around highly frequent testing.</p>
<p>There are significant challenges for mitigating the harms of inaccurate mass antigen testing, and a number of <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/12/08/mike-gill-liverpools-pilot-of-mass-asymptomatic-testing-for-sars-cov-2-for-what-purpose-and-at-what-cost/">other questions</a> remain. But it’s still possible that some form of mass antigen testing could yet be useful in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Pugh currently receives funding from the UKRI, and has previously received funding from the Wellcome Trust</span></em></p>
The pilot of mass testing people in Liverpool failed to pick up over half of cases, but this isn’t the end of the road for antigen testing.
Jonathan Pugh, Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152043
2020-12-14T17:42:19Z
2020-12-14T17:42:19Z
Two doctors describe working on the frontline of Liverpool’s second wave – In Depth Out Loud podcast
<p>This episode of The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/in-depth-out-loud-podcast-46082">In Depth Out Loud podcast</a> features a report from two doctors on the frontline of the second wave of coronavirus in Liverpool. </p>
<p>Tom Wingfield, an infectious diseases physician at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the University of Liverpool, and Miriam Taegtmeyer, professor of global health at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, describe what it’s like for healthcare workers who continue to put their lives and those of their families on the line. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://player.acast.com/5e29c8205aa745a456af58c8/episodes/two-doctors-on-the-frontline-of-liverpools-second-wave?theme=default&cover=1&latest=1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="110px" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-depth-out-loud/id1316764355"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321534/original/file-20200319-22606-q84y3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=182&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4sYKE1J1T0ffwlN88NMIza"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321535/original/file-20200319-22606-1l4copl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<hr>
<p>They describe arriving at work to face daily, sometimes dangerous, staff shortages but also seeing the inherent resourcefulness of NHS healthcare workers. Some specialist colleagues have expanded their care to cover or lead COVID-19 wards. Other hospital doctors have “upskilled” to look after people needing ventilators. What is unclear, they say, is how long they can keep stepping up.</p>
<p>They set out the problems they and their colleagues are facing around the country, some lessons we might be able to learn from the first wave, and some positive developments which will make the future a little brighter. </p>
<p>You can read the text version of this <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-will-not-forget-our-colleagues-who-have-died-two-doctors-on-the-frontline-of-the-second-wave-148152">in-depth article here</a>. The audio version is read by Megan Clement and produced by Gemma Ware.</p>
<p>This story came out of a project at The Conversation called <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/coronavirus-insights-87336">Coronavirus Insights</a> supported by Research England.</p>
<p><em>The music in In Depth Out Loud is Night Caves, by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvwbOVMlp3o">Lee Rosevere</a>.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://pca.st/CcAD"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321533/original/file-20200319-22598-afljnr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Pocket Casts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://castbox.fm/channel/In-Depth%2C-Out-Loud-id2612483?country=gb"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321531/original/file-20200319-22632-t8ds9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<p><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzVlMjljODIwNWFhNzQ1YTQ1NmFmNThjOA%3D%3D"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzVlMjljODIwNWFhNzQ1YTQ1NmFmNThjOA%3D%3D"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Wingfield is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK, and an honorary research associate at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Tom Wingfield receives funding from: the Wellcome Trust, UK (209075/Z/17/Z); the Medical Research Council, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, and Wellcome Trust (Joint Global Health Trials, MR/V004832/1), the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK; and the Swedish Health Research Council, Sweden. Tom is also a consultant for the World Health Organisation</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miriam Taegtmeyer 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>
🎧 PODCAST: An audio version of an in depth article by two doctors on what it’s like fighting COVID-19 the second time around.
Tom Wingfield, Infectious Diseases Physician and Senior Clinical Lecturer, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Honorary Research Associate, University of Liverpool
Miriam Taegtmeyer, Professor of Global Health, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/149049
2020-12-02T11:43:10Z
2020-12-02T11:43:10Z
Public housing needs radical reform: here’s how
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372276/original/file-20201201-14-3ykrf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C415%2C3426%2C2272&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/xOWLqIsh7FU">Ben Allan/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Britain’s housing system is well and truly broken. House-builders <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/04/19/housebuilders-sitting-800000-home-land-bank-property-crisis/">sit on land</a> already granted planning permission and drip-feed the market to keep supply low and prices high. Despite the coronavirus crisis, house prices <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/sep/30/uk-house-prices-rise-at-fastest-rate-since-2016-says-nationwide-covid-19">continue to soar</a>, excluding most from ever reaching onto the property ladder.</p>
<p>Tax subsidies help speculative landlords exploit “<a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/the-reality-of-renting-an-extract-from-generation-rent-67302">generation rent</a>”, who face a future far less secure or prosperous than that of their parents – or even their grandparents. As the welfare state is hollowed out, property assets replace retirement benefits, deepening deprivation and inflating property bubbles.</p>
<p>Widening inequalities collide with privatisation of public housing to exacerbate the <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/320,000_people_in_britain_are_now_homeless,_as_numbers_keep_rising">homelessness crisis</a> – despite thousands of <a href="https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/">homes lying empty</a> across the country.</p>
<p>The UK’s housing problems are also grossly unevenly distributed. In economically depressed regions such as Liverpool, where I’m based, the state has been demolishing <a href="https://citiesmcr.wordpress.com/2013/03/">“obsolete” houses</a> owing to “housing market failure”.</p>
<p>Yet only a few hundred miles away lies the epicentre of the property boom, London, where demand and financial speculation are so intense that local authorities engage in the creative destruction of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/20/aylesbury-estate-ruling-future-regeneration-sajid-javid">ex-council estates</a>. Thousands of tenants are displaced, often <a href="https://southwarknotes.wordpress.com/heygate-estate/heygate-dispacement-maps/">out of London</a>, to clear sites for lucrative redevelopment as private flats with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/25/planners-must-take-back-control-of-london">minimal affordable housing</a>.</p>
<p>In both London and Liverpool – two extremes of Britain’s polarised housing market – activists have been busy re-imagining the future of public housing. One way this is being explored is through the use of <a href="http://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/what-is-a-clt/about-clts">community land trusts</a> (CLTs), a form of collective ownership of land for affordable housing and other community uses, innovated in the 1960s American civil rights movement. I’ve been studying them over the past decade and recently published <a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781789627404/">a book</a> on the topic.</p>
<p>In London, led by <a href="https://www.londonclt.org/st-clement-s">East London CLT</a> in Tower Hamlets, the CLT model has been used to contest the adverse effects – gentrification and displacement – of housing markets becoming “too hot”. </p>
<p>In Liverpool, a city where housing markets are “too cold”, having lost <a href="https://citymonitor.ai/politics/was-decline-liverpool-s-historic-population-really-unusual-3490">close to half</a> its population in the second half of the 20th century, communities facing forced eviction and the state-funded demolition of their neighbourhoods have come together to campaign for CLT alternatives. <a href="https://www.granby4streetsclt.co.uk/">Granby Four Streets</a> and <a href="http://homebaked.org.uk/">Homebaked</a> are the country’s very first to pioneer the model for inner-city regeneration in contexts of urban decline.</p>
<h2>Community alternatives</h2>
<p>Granby Four Streets <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jul/08/assemble-guerrilla-gardeners-of-granby-liverpool-terrace-turner-prize">won the Turner Prize</a> in 2015 – the first architectural project ever to do so. The award recognised the creative work of <a href="https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-four-streets-2">architects Assemble</a> in bringing residents together in a democratic do-it-yourself rehabilitation process – what they call “community homesteading”.</p>
<p>This built on years of residents’ hard graft – and creative craft – to resist the bulldozers since the 1990s and transform their neglected neighbourhood into a horticultural wonderland, with street planters, vegetable plots, climbing flowers, garden benches and artistic murals; hosting a popular street market once a month. </p>
<p>Such <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/anti.12154">guerrilla gardening</a> was inspiration for a vision to establish a CLT in 2011 to restore derelict properties as decent affordable homes. Some were too dilapidated to save, transformed instead into a beautiful <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jul/08/assemble-guerrilla-gardeners-of-granby-liverpool-terrace-turner-prize">Winter Garden</a> with subtropical plants, an artist studio and community meeting house. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372272/original/file-20201201-22-u039y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Gutted out interior of a terraced house, decorated with trees and a chandelier." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372272/original/file-20201201-22-u039y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372272/original/file-20201201-22-u039y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372272/original/file-20201201-22-u039y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372272/original/file-20201201-22-u039y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372272/original/file-20201201-22-u039y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372272/original/file-20201201-22-u039y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372272/original/file-20201201-22-u039y3.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"></a>
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<span class="caption">A view of the winter garden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Matthew Thompson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>This is about more than just bricks and mortar. The CLT is revitalising Granby’s struggling local economy through providing a permanent home for the street market, creating space for new businesses and community enterprise, providing new jobs as well as public space and community facilities for residents to engage in festivities and the collective management of their neighbourhood.</p>
<p>On the other side of the city, right opposite Liverpool Football Club, is Homebaked. This started life as a public arts project funded by the 2010 <a href="https://www.biennial.com/2016/exhibition/locations/homebaked">Liverpool Biennial</a> called “2up2down”, which invited residents to <a href="https://www.biennial.com/journal/issue-2">re-imagine the terraced house</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1331929631532969985"}"></div></p>
<p>Having successfully campaigned to save the local bakery and its terraced row from demolition, 2up2down evolved into Homebaked CLT to take on the ownership of the buildings and bring the bakery back into use. Plans are <a href="http://homebaked.org.uk/now/blog/the_planning_process_for_the_terrace_has_begun/">now afoot</a> to renovate the terrace into cooperative housing and, on the ground floor, provide space for community enterprise, including their sister organisations Homebaked bakery co-op and Homegrown, a food growing and beer brewing collective. All of this is part of a long-term vision to democratically transform the neighbourhood.</p>
<h2>Stronger foundations</h2>
<p>CLTs such as Granby and Homebaked provide an inspiring blueprint for <a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781789627404/">reconstructing public housing</a> on stronger social and economic foundations. </p>
<p>They are legally incorporated with an “asset lock” which protects the land from being sold off and ensures that all surpluses from renting buildings get reinvested for community benefit. They are governed democratically through a trust structure with board members elected by the wider CLT membership, open to all local residents. </p>
<p>This also enables a <a href="https://www.common-wealth.co.uk/reports/public-common-partnerships-building-new-circuits-of-collective-ownership">public-common partnership</a> approach with local authorities. In return for public land transfer and development expertise, CLTs make their permanently affordable homes available to local people in need.</p>
<p>But Granby and Homebaked remain artistic exemplars – too few and far between to make a huge difference to widespread housing problems. These extraordinary practices need to be replicated across <a href="https://liverpoolcityregioncommunityledhomes.co.uk/">Liverpool</a>, <a href="https://www.communityledhousing.london/">London</a> and beyond through <a href="https://minim-municipalism.org/magazine/land-commissions-and-municipalist-strategy">radical new initiatives</a>, so they become more ordinary features of public housing.</p>
<h2>Learning from Liverpool</h2>
<p>Public housing in the UK is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/oct/28/meet-the-councils-quietly-building-a-housing-revolution">witnessing a revival</a>. Tight borrowing constraints imposed on councils have been <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/246d425e-c703-11e8-ba8f-ee390057b8c9">loosened</a> to enable the construction of new council housing for the first time in decades. </p>
<p>Yet it is vital that local authorities don’t repeat past mistakes. Bureaucratic and paternalistic management of council estates and the undemocratic commissioning of alienating designs, unresponsive to residents’ needs, inspired a backlash from tenants and gave hostile politicians the ammunition they needed to <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2019/02/19/book-review-the-new-enclosure-the-appropriation-of-public-land-in-neoliberal-britain-by-brett-christophers/">systematically privatise</a> public housing.</p>
<p>By outsourcing public services to unaccountable firms seeking higher profit margins at all costs, privatisation paved the way for the <a href="http://www.gmhousingaction.com/grenfell-preventable-disaster/">Grenfell Tower tragedy</a>, when 72 people lost their lives. Learning from more imaginative and democratic alternatives to this broken system is urgently needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Thompson receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>
In both London and Liverpool – two extremes of Britain’s polarised housing market – activists have been busy re-imagining the future of public housing.
Matthew Thompson, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148152
2020-12-02T10:33:15Z
2020-12-02T10:33:15Z
‘We will not forget our colleagues who have died’: two doctors on the frontline of the second wave
<p>During the first wave of coronavirus in April, <a href="https://theconversation.com/healthcare-workers-and-coronavirus-behind-the-stiff-upper-lip-we-are-highly-vulnerable-133864">we wrote</a> about our experiences as frontline healthcare workers in Liverpool. While working on COVID-19 wards, we described the stark psychological and health vulnerabilities faced by health workers around the UK. In those early days of the pandemic, our health systems were bogged down by inadequate communication, PPE shortages, and testing limitations. </p>
<p>We also warned of the need to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-turn-the-second-wave-into-a-ripple-and-we-may-stay-afloat-x2z75d3b2">plan ahead</a> to mitigate an inevitable second wave and avoid the negative knock-on effects on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/15/liverpool-covid-admissions-will-devastate-other-hospital-care">routine hospital care</a>. Now, that second wave is here. </p>
<p>After a lull over summer, Liverpool has been at the forefront of the second wave seeing a <a href="https://liverpool.gov.uk/covidcases">dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases</a>. The city was one of the first areas to be placed under <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-covid-alert-level-very-high-liverpool-city-region#:%7E:text=Liverpool%20City%20Region%20is%20in,as%20a%20'local%20lockdown'.">“very high” alert tier 3</a> as part of the government’s three-tier system of coronavirus restrictions. During November, numbers of hospital admissions for COVID-19 were higher than <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3977">the first wave</a> and intensive care units were <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hospital-breaking-point-camera-crews-19120342">close to capacity</a>. </p>
<p>Around the country, healthcare workers continue to <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3582">put our lives and those of our families on the line</a>. We arrive at work to face daily, sometimes dangerous, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8c5f27ac-000d-432f-ab98-40fb59317d9a">staff shortages</a> but also to see the inherent resourcefulness of NHS healthcare workers. In Liverpool, genito-urinary medicine and palliative care specialist colleagues have again expanded their care to cover or lead COVID-19 wards. Other hospital doctors have “<a href="https://www.csp.org.uk/news/coronavirus/workplace-employment-guidance/upskilling-redeployment/faqs">upskilled</a>” to look after people needing ventilators. What is unclear is how long we can keep stepping up.</p>
<p>As frontline workers, we are concerned about the long winter that <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/16/uk-cases-covid-19-deaths-coronavirus-numbers-today/">looms for the UK</a>. Here, we set out the problems we and our colleagues are facing around the country, some lessons we might be able to learn from the first wave, and some positive developments which will make the future a little brighter. </p>
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<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">
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<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>
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<h2>Understaffed and burned out</h2>
<p>Health systems are only as resilient as the healthcare workers who dedicate their lives to them.</p>
<p>In August, in a <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/media/3070/bma-covid-tracker-survey-full-results-aug-2020.pdf">survey of 4,000 doctors by the British Medical Association</a>, a third reported increased stress and anxiety related to coronavirus. Half reported a lack of confidence in their ability to manage patient demand during a second wave. Excess hours, redeployment, and cancelled leave have meant that many of us have not been able to look after our own health and wellbeing. We have struggled to reset, are <a href="https://rcni.com/nursing-standard/newsroom/news/covid-19-exhausted-nurses-urged-to-take-annual-leave-and-focus-well-being-163081">exhausted</a> and, in some cases, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-54233683">fearful</a>. </p>
<p>This is limiting our ability to tackle the second wave. Hospitals are having <a href="https://bylinetimes.com/2020/09/23/nurse-recruitment-second-covid-19-wave/">difficulty recruiting</a> new hires and wards are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-54844786">chronically understaffed</a>. We have seen that even <a href="https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/coronavirus/call-for-10-pay-bonus-for-nurses-working-during-outbreak-24-04-2020/">financial incentives</a> are not enough to fill the gaps. Understandably, tired staff value their mental and physical wellbeing more than remuneration. </p>
<h2>At risk of infection</h2>
<p>Research during the first wave showed <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30164-X/fulltext">variable rates of coronavirus infection in healthcare workers</a> around the world. In the UK, rates were high. Between <a href="https://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2020/08/28/thoraxjnl-2020-215414">a quarter</a> and <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31484-7/fulltext">nearly half</a> of frontline UK healthcare workers showed evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Those working in acute medicine, COVID-19 wards or as cleaning staff were at particularly high risk. </p>
<p>In our local area, rates of staff sickness have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/20/nhs-sickness-rate-record-high-coronavirus-peak-england">approached those of the first peak</a>. This is despite previous exposure among healthcare workers, improved use of PPE, and near universal mask-wearing in communal areas. </p>
<p>A number of healthcare workers have also developed <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/ebn/2020/09/06/health-care-professionals-with-long-covid-have-they-been-forgotten/">long COVID</a>, rendering them unable to work. Worryingly, some healthcare employers <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/the-jobs-that-covid-crushed">do not recognise COVID-19</a> as an occupational exposure. This curtails the access to financial protection of those affected. In some cases, this has cost employees their jobs and forced them to claim benefits. </p>
<p>High rates of COVID-19 in badly affected areas indicate that community transmission could represent the highest risk of exposure for healthcare workers. This is the case in places like Liverpool, as it was in <a href="https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30356-X/fulltext">London</a> during the first wave. This clearly demonstrates the inextricable connections between community, health systems, and healthcare workers.</p>
<h2>Mourning our colleagues</h2>
<p>Deaths among healthcare workers tell their own, grim story. </p>
<p>The pandemic has killed <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/09/amnesty-analysis-7000-health-workers-have-died-from-covid19/">thousands of our colleagues globally</a>. A disproportionate number of those deaths have occurred in the UK, where the majority (63%) have been healthcare workers from <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/covid-19/your-health/covid-19-the-risk-to-bame-doctors">Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups</a>. Another significant proportion of deaths globally has been among <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e6.htm">older</a> workers and <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2005696?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed">re-hired retirees</a>.</p>
<p>There is currently <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-nhs-staff-deaths-secret-cover-ministers-a9667156.html">a review</a> of healthcare worker deaths in England and Wales underway. However, it is unclear whether the results will be made public. These unacceptable deaths are a clarion call for better protection of healthcare workers, especially those from vulnerable groups, during this second wave. <a href="https://www.bmj.com/covid-memorial">We will not forget</a> our colleagues who have died.</p>
<h2>Facing the second wave</h2>
<p>The second wave of COVID-19 is not a mere repeat of the first. </p>
<p>The UK government initially responded to rising infections by locking down parts of the country through its tier system, which was reintroduced on December 2. This meant that regions with high rates of COVID-19, such as Liverpool, were treated as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/18/like-the-80s-liverpool-faces-a-tough-opponent-but-now-it-feels-different">outliers</a>”. </p>
<p>An outlier narrative, whether directly or indirectly, put a political squeeze on hospitals to <a href="https://www.hsj.co.uk/liverpool-university-hospitals-nhs-foundation-trust/exclusive-covid-hit-trust-scales-back-electives-and-prepares-staff-for-redeployment/7028617.article">continue necessary routine activities</a>. This impeded formal recognition that hospitals and health systems in our region were becoming overwhelmed. So, with an alleged lack of backing from <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-liverpool-hospital-nhs-patient-safety-england-cqc-b1504979.html">regional or national NHS bodies</a>, hospitals were forced to struggle on with a “business as usual” response. This regional response lacked the necessary mobilisation of staff and resources to deal with escalating admissions. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the health system at large has still not recovered from the first wave. In July, Sir Simon Stevens, the CEO of the NHS, urged healthcare facilities to <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/07/Phase-3-letter-July-31-2020.pdf">accelerate non-COVID services to make use of a window of opportunity</a> before cases rose again in winter. Although it could have come earlier, this was the right response. </p>
<p>But the plan has been hampered by low staff numbers and inadequate resources to clear the backlog in non-COVID care. This includes a waiting list for routine operations that is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/12/nhs-england-52-week-hospital-waiting-list-highest-since-2008">at its highest level since 2008</a> and predicted to expand from <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52984742">four to ten million people by the end of 2020</a>. </p>
<h2>Coronavirus in winter</h2>
<p>There is no doubt that we are staring down the barrel of a <a href="https://acmedsci.ac.uk/file-download/51353957">harsh and challenging winter</a>. In recent winters, NHS bed capacity has regularly exceeded 95% and emergency attendances <a href="https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/nhs-hospital-bed-numbers">continue to drive upwards</a>. The reality is that many hospitals, including those in our area, have already been <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/53272e22-a42b-4f10-8744-004d0328fdfa">working at capacity</a> due to COVID-19 since September. </p>
<p>Even with adequate PPE practices, hospitals working at capacity increase the <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2013">likelihood of in-hospital COVID-19 transmission and deaths</a>. This is compounded by the UK’s
low per capita hospital <a href="https://www.hsib.org.uk/documents/258/hsib-summary-report-covid-19-transmission-hospitals.pdf">bed capacity</a>, which makes it very difficult to separate people with and without COVID-19. </p>
<p>Subsequent outbreak investigations should be cautious to dissect system failures rather than <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k4001.full">apportion blame at the doors of healthcare workers</a>. In the current scenario, any <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m366.full">fault-finding missions are misjudged</a>, misplaced, and only serve to further undermine staff morale.</p>
<p>Influenza season will soon begin in earnest. The interaction of flu and the novel coronavirus is <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4098">still unclear</a>. Social distancing and mask wearing could contribute to reducing flu transmission. However, it appears people who are co-infected with flu and SARS-CoV-2 are <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3720">twice as likely to die</a> as those with COVID-19 alone. </p>
<p>Overlapping flu and COVID-19 symptoms will create difficulties for diagnosis and may overwhelm an already <a href="https://theconversation.com/englands-contact-tracing-system-needs-better-data-handling-to-beat-covid-19-148551">underperforming national trace and test system</a>. To combat this, we should continue to urge those who are eligible to get their <a href="https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/news-events/media/bbc-radio-merseyside-with-lstms-dr-tom-wingfield-0">flu vaccinations</a>.</p>
<h2>The good news</h2>
<p>Amid all this doom and gloom, it can be hard to see the huge, positive advances made towards addressing COVID-19. Although <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/coronavirus-clap-carers-ppe-shortage-boris-johnson-nhs-a9525596.html">clap for carers</a> has long fallen silent, the health workforce continues to be an integral part of this response.</p>
<p>Locally, we have seen many examples of good leadership, teamwork, transformation, and clear guidance. This has had a positive impact, empowering clinician leaders and beginning to sweep away some of the <a href="https://www.nhsconfed.org/%7E/media/Confederation/Files/Publications/Documents/challenging-bureaucracy.pdf">ingrained bureaucracy and hierarchy</a> that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-nhs-needs-a-culture-shift-from-blame-and-fear-to-learning-118707">exists within the NHS</a>. It has highlighted the importance of communication and trust both within and <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/892376/COVID_stakeholder_engagement_synthesis_beyond_the_data.pdf">outside of the health system</a>. And it has also led to improvements in how we <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30082-0/fulltext">safely use, share, and relay health system and trials data</a> in real time. </p>
<p>Procurement and distribution of PPE has improved. There are currently few instances of PPE shortage. However, <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/more-pain-19-deaths-linked-19126696">rates of hospital transmission</a> of COVID-19 in our region <a href="https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/the-ongoing-problem-of-hospital-acquired-infections-across-the-uk/">and more widely</a> are concerning. It is essential to maintain the regular staff training, support, and championing of high PPE standards that we achieved during the first wave.</p>
<p>There have been huge steps forward in our understanding of COVID-19. Indeed, scientific progress has been so fast that it is hard for frontline healthcare workers to <a href="https://www.hcpc-uk.org/covid-19/keeping-up-to-date/">keep abreast of developments</a>. </p>
<p>Multiple vaccine studies have shown <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-vaccines-are-coming-how-will-we-know-they-work-and-are-safe-146158">promising efficacy and safety results</a>. We are proud in Liverpool to have been a <a href="https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/covid-19-vaccine-trial">major recruiter</a> to the Oxford vaccine trial, which has also shown <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11-23-oxford-university-breakthrough-global-covid-19-vaccine">highly favourable interim results</a>. This week, it was announced that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55145696">approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine</a> for use in the UK. We look forward to the roll-out of this and, potentially, other vaccines during the course of 2021. If the efficacy of these vaccines is maintained during large-scale use, this will be one giant leap forward in gaining control of COVID-19.</p>
<p>The factors associated with severe disease and death from COVID-19 are also now much clearer. We have new tools to predict the <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3731">risk of hospital admission</a> or, in those already hospitalised, <a href="https://isaric4c.net/risk/">death from COVID-19</a>. Such scores are hugely useful for the pandemic planning carried out by modellers, epidemiologists, and policymakers. They are also useful to us as healthcare workers to discuss risk and prognosis with patients and their families.</p>
<p>And there have been major breakthroughs in COVID-19 treatments. These include the <a href="https://www.recoverytrial.net/">UK-led RECOVERY trial</a>, to which our city is a big recruiter. RECOVERY found that the steroid dexamethasone <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2021436#:%7E:text=The%20RECOVERY%20trial%20provides%20evidence,who%20did%20not%20require%20oxyge.">reduced the likelihood</a> of death in people with COVID-19 requiring supplemental oxygen. On the wards, we are seeing firsthand the positive effects of dexamethasone on our patients’ outcomes. The results for remdesivir, another potential treatment, have been less impressive and accompanied by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/06/global-shortage-of-key-covid-drug-leads-to-nhs-rationing-remdesivir">rationing issues</a>. </p>
<p>Our knowledge concerning <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-has-changed-how-we-support-people-with-failing-lungs-a-doctor-explains-why-149960">non-invasive ventilation</a> for people with COVID-19 and respiratory failure is also <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30163-2/fulltext">increasing</a>. Specifically, our unit shared encouraging early data about the potential role of <a href="https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/7/1/e000639">continuous positive airways pressure masks</a> to avoid having to put patients onto mechanical ventilators. </p>
<p>Despite these advances, feedback from people with COVID-19 and their families about the care they have received has been broadly overlooked. This is a shortcoming we are <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3496">trying to rectify</a> by surveying our patients about their experiences.</p>
<h2>Better strategies</h2>
<p>As the second wave progresses, we need strategies that support healthcare workers who have been <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30458-8/fulltext">exposed to COVID-19</a> – this will be vital to rebuild trust among a demoralised workforce. </p>
<p>This should involve suitable clinical monitoring of staff, access to <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30562-4/fulltext?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email">rapid testing</a> and transparent policies regarding staff removal or <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-management-of-exposed-healthcare-workers-and-patients-in-hospital-settings/covid-19-management-of-exposed-healthcare-workers-and-patients-in-hospital-settings">return to work</a>. We also need specific strategies that respond to the needs of at-risk groups, including health workers from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. Finally, it is only right that, alongside other risk groups, healthcare workers are prioritised to <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-should-get-the-coronavirus-vaccine-first-france-and-the-uk-have-different-answers-149875">receive a COVID-19 vaccine first</a>.</p>
<p>In Liverpool, it is hard not to consider the impact on infection prevention and control efforts of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-50828141">hugely delayed opening of a new, state-of-the-art hospital</a>. The new hospital <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-52483971">opened briefly to look after people with COVID-19 in May</a> but has since closed again and is not due to properly reopen until 2022. The hospital is fitted out with single-room, en-suite occupancy throughout, facilities that would be very helpful in limiting the spread of coronavirus. </p>
<p>Some priorities are broader than the health system. Protecting the NHS and its workers depends on minimising coronavirus transmission not only in hospitals but also in the community. This relies on robust public health surveillance for COVID-19 and influenza, and efficient contacting tracing. </p>
<p>The recent roll-out of a <a href="https://liverpool.gov.uk/communities-and-safety/emergency-planning/coronavirus/how-to-get-tested/">mass testing pilot in Liverpool</a> has had promising take up. More than <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/latest-mass-testing-results-third-19341537">100,000 people</a> have been tested and over 900 positive cases without symptoms identified. We hope that other cities will be able to learn from Liverpool’s lead and refine mass testing to meet the needs of their communities.</p>
<h2>Where next?</h2>
<p>The current government policy for COVID-19 appears vague. The end goals are unclear. We understood “Protect the NHS”, but now what? There is a damaging <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32153-X/fulltext">lack of direction or consensus</a> at the highest levels, which erodes trust and seems to shift accountability to local authorities. This muddled approach could also contribute to the spread of dangerous <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/covid19/2020/05/07/government-and-media-misinformation-about-covid-19-is-confusing-the-public/">misinformation</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, we need a transparent, meaningful public debate between multiple sectors about the inevitable health, economic, and social trade-offs entailed in COVID-19 policy. A healthy dose of trust and, where the health system is concerned, forgiveness between healthcare workers and NHS leaders and government, will be required.</p>
<h2>Thank you for your support</h2>
<p>We have learned much over the last year. The pace of change has been breathless. But whether you are a healthcare worker, epidemiologist, or prime minister, there is still much more to learn. New government health policies have been introduced rapidly with variable communication. Considerations around the practicalities of implementing policy change have, on several occasions, been found wanting. </p>
<p>We are doing our best to stop the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals. However, we have seen that, when hospitals are pushed to capacity, infection prevention becomes difficult. </p>
<p>A single person acquiring this disease in hospital is one too many and someone we have let down. Breaking the news to the person affected and their family is an awful conversation for a health worker to have. At present, due to visiting restrictions, that conversation with family members is often had over the phone. We look forward to a time when hospitals receive visitors again and we can restart face-to-face discussions about care.</p>
<p>We appreciate the outpouring of support for the NHS from the UK public. We know the efforts everyone is making to reduce community transmission. We see the take-up of coronavirus tests, wearing of masks, and adherence to social distancing. These community actions are the best way to prevent hospital transmission of COVID-19. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/29/on-wards-where-i-work-it-doesnt-feel-like-any-end-to-covid-is-in-sight">Although tired</a>, frontline NHS healthcare workers are striving to provide the best care possible during this second wave. We have seen with our own eyes that the care patients receive and the outcomes of people with COVID-19 have improved. It is a joyful feeling to see those affected walk out of hospital. Nearly eight decades after it opened, the NHS remains here for those who need it. Thankfully, that’s one thing that COVID-19 won’t change.</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">
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<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><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-stopped-us-doing-life-changing-surgery-so-we-invented-a-new-form-of-ppe-144752?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Coronavirus stopped us doing life-changing surgery, so we invented a new form of PPE</a></em><br></li>
<li><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-developing-countries-can-teach-rich-countries-about-how-to-respond-to-a-pandemic-146784?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">What developing countries can teach rich countries about how to respond to a pandemic</a></em><br></li>
<li><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-worried-should-we-be-about-the-coronavirus-resurgence-in-europe-three-experts-weigh-in-143858?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">How worried should we be about the coronavirus resurgence in Europe? Three experts weigh in</a></em><br></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/148152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Wingfield is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK, and an honorary research associate at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Tom Wingfield receives funding from: the Wellcome Trust, UK (209075/Z/17/Z); the Medical Research Council, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, and Wellcome Trust (Joint Global Health Trials, MR/V004832/1), the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK; and the Swedish Health Research Council, Sweden. Tom is also a consultant for the World Health Organisation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miriam Taegtmeyer 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 what it’s like fighting COVID-19 the second time around.
Tom Wingfield, Infectious Diseases Physician and Senior Clinical Lecturer, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Honorary Research Associate, University of Liverpool
Miriam Taegtmeyer, Professor of Global Health, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148594
2020-10-23T13:19:36Z
2020-10-23T13:19:36Z
Andy 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>
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<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 Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/147869
2020-10-15T12:38:04Z
2020-10-15T12:38:04Z
Vulnerable workers have been hit hardest by the pandemic – this is why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363370/original/file-20201014-19-kva0zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7348%2C4912&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/pretty-young-shop-owner-turning-closed-760163290">Dragon Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Deprived communities and the most vulnerable in society are bearing the brunt of hardship in the pandemic. </p>
<p>Various forms of state intervention, such as furlough and job support schemes, VAT reductions and mortgage holidays, have been used to mitigate financial hardship for many. Yet barely enough has been done for the <a href="https://discoversociety.org/2020/03/26/coronavirus-poverty-precarious-work-and-the-need-for-a-universal-basic-income/">most vulnerable</a>. </p>
<p>My research on deprived communities, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Social-Problems-in-the-UK-An-Introduction/Isaacs/p/book/9780415719995">social problems</a> and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Universal-Basic-Income/McDonough-Morales/p/book/9781138476301">welfare reform</a> has been underpinned by how societal factors determine the ways ordinary people live and make sense of their lives. </p>
<p>More than anything else, it is economic and political forces that shape the opportunities available to people and which determine their chances to succeed. </p>
<p>The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic have affected some groups more than others – in particular, workers whose jobs rely on social contact. Neglectful government policies have done little to help this group in particular. </p>
<h2>Lack of support</h2>
<p>First, the closure of schools put further <a href="https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/covid-realities-families-low-income-pandemic">strain on families</a> who rely on the financial and social support that schools provide. For some of the most deprived communities across Britain, schools offer a community space where children are not only educated but cared for and even fed.</p>
<p>Next came the tidal wave of redundancies. The number of people falling into <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/30/cut-to-20-a-week-covid-boost-will-lead-to-big-rise-in-poverty-uk-charities-warn">deep poverty</a> is expanding rapidly. They include service-sector workers – transport workers, retail assistants and cashiers and bar and restaurant staff. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="hands pulling a pint in a pub" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363657/original/file-20201015-23-111tgn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363657/original/file-20201015-23-111tgn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363657/original/file-20201015-23-111tgn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363657/original/file-20201015-23-111tgn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363657/original/file-20201015-23-111tgn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363657/original/file-20201015-23-111tgn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363657/original/file-20201015-23-111tgn4.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">Service sector workers, such as pub staff, have been vulnerable to losing their jobs or income as a result of the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bartender-pours-beer-into-glass-tap-1709728237">Anton Bannov/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These are the frontline workers of Britain who are not only more likely to be at risk of catching COVID-19, but are also most likely to lose their jobs or see their hours cut as a consequence of the virus. </p>
<p>Using the government’s <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/classificationsandstandards/standardoccupationalclassificationsoc/soc2020">standard occupational classification</a>, these are workers who fall under sales and customer services (shop assistants, front-of-house staff), elementary occupations (office and shop cleaners, road sweepers and unskilled labourers) and caring and leisure services (the hospitality industry and care work).</p>
<p>Workers in these service-sector occupations are more likely than others to have been let go during or after periods of lockdown. They work for pub chains like <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54451739">Greene King</a>, which has closed 79 sites and cut 800 jobs, or shops like the retail company <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52990612">Monsoon</a>, which is closing 35 stores across the UK, leading to 545 job losses. The people who work in these service-sector jobs, and many others like them, are presently being hit the hardest. </p>
<p>The service sector largely relies on precarious workers – people in low-skilled, low-paid, and insecure forms of employment. These workers and their families lack basic security and are the most vulnerable to economic shocks. </p>
<p>In 2016, some reports estimated there were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/15/more-than-7m-britons-in-precarious-employment">seven million precarious workers</a> in Britain, though “precarious work” is often difficult to measure. Many of these workers are on zero-hour or low-hour contracts – like those who were let go when the cinema chain Cineworld announced the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/05/cineworld-zero-hours-workers-pay-redundancy">temporary closure of 127 sites</a>, with an expected 5,500 job losses. Zero-hours workers like these may not qualify for a redundancy payout. </p>
<p>Some have fared better than others in this crisis. When the government asked the public to work from home, it was managers and senior officials and those in professional occupations who were more likely to be able to switch to remote working – not the cleaners, retail workers and those in the hospitality sector. </p>
<h2>New measures</h2>
<p>A new three-tier system with different lockdown measures has been introduced in England in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus. Liverpool has been placed under the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/14/lockdown-local-areas-liverpool-nottingham-uk-wales-scotland-three-tier-rules/">highest tier</a>, with a new local lockdown resulting in the closure of pubs, gyms and betting shops. </p>
<p>Liverpool is a city with a local economy that thrives off the nightlife, entertainment and hospitality scene. The lockdown measures will have a devastating impact on the lives of working-class families across the city. Like other northern cities, Liverpool has suffered from economic deprivation and a <a href="https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/opinion/2017/07/government-must-invest-north">lack of government investment</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Street with empty outdoor restaurant seating area" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363497/original/file-20201014-19-1m5oimr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363497/original/file-20201014-19-1m5oimr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363497/original/file-20201014-19-1m5oimr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363497/original/file-20201014-19-1m5oimr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363497/original/file-20201014-19-1m5oimr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363497/original/file-20201014-19-1m5oimr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363497/original/file-20201014-19-1m5oimr.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">Bold Street, Liverpool, where hospitality is big business.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/liverpool-uk-september-24th-2020-bold-1823431856">Alex Yeung/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Liverpool City Region mayor, Steve Rotheram, urged the government to act quickly to rescue the city, whose hospitality and leisure sector employs around <a href="https://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Article/2020/10/05/Emergency-fund-announced-for-hospitality-businesses-in-Liverpool-City-Region#:%7E:text=Liverpool%20City%20Region's%20hospitality%20and,year%20to%20the%20local%20economy.">50,000 people</a>. The sector contributes £5 billion to the local economy each year. </p>
<p>Among others affected, the restrictions will decimate the incomes of bartenders, restaurant waiting staff, local musicians, nightclub workers and doormen and women who rely on picking up shifts in a precarious economy. Many also rely on cash-in-hand payments, as both wages and in tips.</p>
<p>The government currently has nothing significant to offer the most vulnerable in this economic crisis. There is no package to better help northern cities like Liverpool, or to help precarious workers up and down the country who don’t qualify for furlough or self-employment schemes. Even those who must reluctantly turn to
universal credit have to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/11/universal-credit-wait-first-payment-real-shock-new-claimants">wait for payment</a>. </p>
<p>As the least well off are hit the most by the economic consequences of the virus, social inequalities in Britain are being exacerbated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian McDonough 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>
People in precarious employment are hit hardest by economic shocks.
Brian McDonough, Course Leader in Sociology, Solent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148032
2020-10-14T10:37:58Z
2020-10-14T10:37:58Z
Northern 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 London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/138742
2020-05-26T13:12:26Z
2020-05-26T13:12:26Z
Liverpool close to bankruptcy: how decades of stigma have pushed the city into financial ruin
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337582/original/file-20200526-106848-cvwx7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5099%2C3088&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/liverpooluk-august-28th-2018-homeless-tent-1182750481">Marbury/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thanks in part to a rich cultural and sporting heritage Liverpool is an internationally renowned city. But the municipal authority has a <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/boris-johnson-will-look-liverpool-18234810?utm_source=sharebar&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sharebar">£44 million (US$54m) funding black hole</a> and is on the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-52494414">brink of bankruptcy</a>. The city’s latest financial woes are a result of the coronavirus crisis, as the UK <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/10/the-guardian-view-on-municipal-england-the-great-betrayal">government backtracks</a> on promises of funding. </p>
<p>However, like the pattern of illness, the financial impact of the pandemic has not been evenly spread. It has amplified existing <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsinvolvingcovid19bylocalareasanddeprivation/deathsoccurringbetween1marchand17april">inequalities</a>, including in Liverpool, which has the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/835115/IoD2019_Statistical_Release.pdf">highest number of the most deprived areas</a> in the UK.</p>
<p>The disproportionate impact on Liverpool is the latest trial for the city, which has suffered repeated financial setbacks as a result of a long history of stigmatisation. My <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/sociology-social-policy-and-criminology/research/postgraduate-research-students/abigail-oconnor/">academic research</a> traces decades of stigma to explore how this affects urban deprivation and governance in Liverpool. </p>
<h2>History of stigma</h2>
<p>In the UK, Liverpool has long been portrayed as deviant and degenerate. The reporting of the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/toxteths-toxic-legacy-liverpool-is-still-feeling-the-impact-of-the-toxteth-riots-2305044.html">1981 Toxteth riots</a> painted Liverpool as toxic and disorderly. This resurfaced in much media coverage of the Hillsborough disaster, which blamed Liverpudlians for the deaths of 96 innocent lives. This portrayal, not helped by the actions of the <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-devastating-failure-british-justice-17346617">criminal justice system</a> and UK governments, has left tangible scars in the city.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hillsborough-at-last-the-shameful-truth-is-out-58456">Hillsborough: at last, the shameful truth is out</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Such stereotypes have been coupled with degrading <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223401832_The_Construction_of_Images_of_People_and_Place_Labelling_Liverpool_and_Stereotyping_Scousers">caricatures of the “scouser”</a> in TV and film, such as Harry Enfield’s infamous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaccLMuLa7o">“calm down” sketch</a>. These portrayals determine understandings and treatment of the city today. </p>
<p>Liverpool is subject to what is known as a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240641755_Territorial_Stigmatization_in_the_Age_of_Advanced_Marginality">“blemish of place”</a>. This means that vilification constructed by the media and in political and public life has resulted in real socio-economic decline. </p>
<h2>Political repercussions</h2>
<p>The reproduction of discrimination by government decision-makers has terrible consequences. Long-term stigmatisation can become a <a href="https://www.zedbooks.net/blog/posts/from-revolting-subjects-to-stigma-machines/">governing strategy</a>. Infamously, Margaret Thatcher’s administration advocated for the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-leaving-of-liverpool/">managed decline of the city</a>. </p>
<p>This pattern has continued. Currently, ten of Liverpool’s 30 wards contain an area ranked among the most deprived 1% in England. Despite this, Liverpool has shouldered a <a href="https://www.centreforcities.org/press/austerity-hit-cities-twice-as-hard-as-the-rest-of-britain/">disproportionate level</a> of spending cuts enforced from central government. </p>
<p>Between 2010 and 2019, Liverpool’s budget <a href="https://liverpoolexpress.co.uk/liverpool-city-council-budget-factfile/">has been cut by 63%</a>. In real terms, this equates to more than £800 per household. This is compared to an increase in funding of more than £100 per household in Oxford, for example. While other cities such as Manchester and Nottingham have also experienced unequal distributions of cuts, Liverpool is substantially worse off.</p>
<p>These cuts have had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/liverpool-northern-austerity-tory-cuts-council">significant impacts</a>. Liverpool has <a href="https://liverpoolexpress.co.uk/liverpool-city-council-budget-factfile/">suffered</a> more than 2,500 redundancies, a £350 million reduction in funding for educational programmes and a significant squeeze on social care and homelessness support. </p>
<h2>Turning to privatisation</h2>
<p>To cope with the desperate need for welfare provision among the city’s <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/support-for-liverpools-vulnerable-residents-at-risk-as-coronavirus-funding-falls-short-warns-mayor-66281">most vulnerable</a>, Liverpool’s leaders have been forced to embrace privatisation. The city has been seeking commercial investments, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/austerity-local-council-sell-off-parks-public-buildings-funding-save-our-spaces-locality-a8404081.html">selling off assets</a> and outsourcing public services to private investors.</p>
<p>The failure of the controversial <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17255852">Housing Market Renewal</a> scheme is a case in point. The scheme saw working class communities moved out of their homes to allow for regeneration which never materialised, and left empty lots across the city. To remedy mass dereliction, Liverpool council sold vacant houses to owner-occupiers for <a href="https://liverpool.gov.uk/housing/homes-for-a-pound/">£1</a>. As further funding reductions gripped the city, streets remained abandoned, before being <a href="http://theflanagangroup.com/commercial-projects/flanagan-major-projects/tunstall-street/">possessed</a> by private investors to rent for profit. </p>
<p>The protection of public services has been largely replaced by an emphasis on the need to invest in productive capital, which promises to rescue the city from long-term decline. For example, council-led use of compulsory purchase orders in Anfield made way for Liverpool Football Club’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/gallery/2013/may/07/anfield-liverpool-in-pictures">stadium expansion</a>. This prioritisation of economic revival resulted in the uprooting of long-standing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2013/may/06/anfield-liverpool-david-conn">communities</a>. It was justified by the need to re-brand and renew another area left to decline by the Housing Market Renewal scheme.</p>
<p>The position of the city council has become clear. It has been managed into decline like a failing business by central government policy. It is at the mercy of private financial gains and now a global pandemic, to the continuing detriment of its people.</p>
<p>Liverpool cannot hope that the current government is free from the influence of its historic stigma. Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, published an article when he was editor of The Spectator magazine that claimed that the city had an “excessive predilection for <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/bigley-s-fate">welfarism and victim status</a>”.</p>
<p>The council’s reserves were almost exhausted even before the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, as the city battles high rates of coronavirus infection, sustaining financial cuts risks further deaths as the council <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/support-for-liverpools-vulnerable-residents-at-risk-as-coronavirus-funding-falls-short-warns-mayor-66281">must choose</a> which vulnerable groups to support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abi O'Connor receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>
The city’s latest financial woes are a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Abi O'Connor, PhD Researcher, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131794
2020-03-06T16:34:18Z
2020-03-06T16:34:18Z
The forgotten women who helped to build British Islam
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318719/original/file-20200304-66056-ocq13e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C216%2C799%2C353&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Group photo outside the Memorial Hall at the Shah Jahan Mosque complex in Woking.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.wokingmuslim.org/photos/kh-early.htm">Woking Mission Photos Index</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The two first British mosques were established in 1889 in Liverpool and Woking, and women played a major contribution to the communities that helped to set up these mosques. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it. Indeed, women’s contributions throughout history are consistently forgotten – often lost so the past becomes “his story”. I hope <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/2/62">my new research</a> will play a part in changing this.</p>
<p>I used archive material linked to the two earliest British mosques to examine the everyday lives of women in these historical communities. This research presents a coherent and compelling narrative of women’s lives and roles as contributors and leaders of their communities.</p>
<p>Women in these communities were usually middle-class converts, who encountered Islam through travel, mosque publications or public lectures. They lived in an environment that viewed Islam and Muslims with suspicion and ridicule. British Muslims were perceived as <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/loyal-enemies/">“loyal enemies”</a> and <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-infidel-within/">“infidels within”</a> the society of that time.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318400/original/file-20200303-66106-mziqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318400/original/file-20200303-66106-mziqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318400/original/file-20200303-66106-mziqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318400/original/file-20200303-66106-mziqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318400/original/file-20200303-66106-mziqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1258&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318400/original/file-20200303-66106-mziqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318400/original/file-20200303-66106-mziqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1258&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One woman, Jessie Ameena Davidson, wrote about her conversion in The Islamic Review in June 1926.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At both the Liverpool and Woking mosques, women were included in Eid celebrations, debates and other events. The women at the Liverpool mosque also ran a home for the city’s “destitute” children, which was established in January 1897. </p>
<p>Women wrote for mosque publications, which also celebrated women’s achievements. In January 1895, the Liverpool Mosque newsletter noted that Mrs Zubeida Ali Akbar had the honour of being presented to the Queen. On March 20 1895, it noted that Miss Teyba Bilgrami, “a young Mahommedan lady of Hyderabad”, had passed the first exam in the arts at Madras University. </p>
<h2>Refreshments and entertainment</h2>
<p>Women were nearly always in charge of refreshments and “entertainment” at mosque events, including an annual Christmas breakfast that the Liverpool Muslim Institute organised. Women were initially excluded from the literary and debating society – this being only for “young men”. Then in March 1896, for the first time a woman, Rosa Warren, gave a talk on the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318402/original/file-20200303-66106-1ezb4qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318402/original/file-20200303-66106-1ezb4qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318402/original/file-20200303-66106-1ezb4qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318402/original/file-20200303-66106-1ezb4qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318402/original/file-20200303-66106-1ezb4qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318402/original/file-20200303-66106-1ezb4qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318402/original/file-20200303-66106-1ezb4qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this photograph from the Woking Mosque Archives, a few women sit at the back participating in the prayer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Articles in mosque publications, usually written by men, show how Muslim patriarchy of the time converged with that of Victorian society to marginalise women. For example, poetry published in the Liverpool Mosque newsletter derides “the New Woman” who: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>had studied mathematics … knew all about mythology … her mind was drilled in science … knew all the dates of history … Could talk with great loquacity on questions of capacity, but couldn’t sew a button on her little brother’s pants.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Trailblazing women</h2>
<p>Yet there were also women who challenged these patriarchies. As part of my research, I uncovered many interesting stories of women and their roles in the mosques. There was Mrs Nafeesa T Keep, for example, a convert to Islam who arrived in Liverpool from the United States. She gave talks on Islam and women’s rights, challenging both patriarchal understandings of Islam and stereotypes of Islam. She was appointed the assistant superintendent of the Medressah-i-iyyum-al-Sebbah, an institution aimed at educating young Muslims on religion. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318404/original/file-20200303-66052-8z7r8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318404/original/file-20200303-66052-8z7r8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318404/original/file-20200303-66052-8z7r8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318404/original/file-20200303-66052-8z7r8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318404/original/file-20200303-66052-8z7r8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318404/original/file-20200303-66052-8z7r8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318404/original/file-20200303-66052-8z7r8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zainab Cobbold (born Lady Evelyn Murray) was a Scottish diarist, traveller and noblewoman who was known for her conversion to Islam in the Victorian era.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was also Madame Teresa Griffin Viele (1831–1906), who took the Muslim name Sadika Hanoum. She was a news correspondent for the Liverpool Mosque, writing the “Resume of Political Events” in its journal from September 1894 to April 1895. And Lady Evelyn Zainab Cobbold, a high-profile convert from an aristocratic British family, who became one of the first European women to perform the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Extraordinarily for her time, she performed the pilgrimage on her own, in a motor car and then wrote a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Pilgrimage_to_Mecca.html?id=rBwuAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">best-selling book</a> in 1934 about her experiences. </p>
<p>Other women in this community include Fatima Cates, who was a key member and indeed founding treasurer of the Liverpool Muslim Institute, the body that itself founded Britain’s first mosque in the city. Meanwhile, another woman, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Muslim_Women_Reform_and_Princely_Patrona.html?id=y0a3AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Begum Shah Jahan</a> of Bhopal, India, funded Britain’s first purpose-built mosque in Woking. Women were therefore central to the foundation of the first mosques in Britain.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318406/original/file-20200303-66099-s7lkqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318406/original/file-20200303-66099-s7lkqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318406/original/file-20200303-66099-s7lkqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318406/original/file-20200303-66099-s7lkqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318406/original/file-20200303-66099-s7lkqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318406/original/file-20200303-66099-s7lkqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318406/original/file-20200303-66099-s7lkqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Shah Jahan Mosque in Oriental Road, Woking, England, is the first purpose-built mosque in the UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rewriting history</h2>
<p>Indeed, as my research shows, history puts women at the centre of the establishment of Islam in Britain. And in their own different ways, these women took on roles of leadership and representation. They lived at a time that was socially and culturally extremely different from that of contemporary British Muslims. Yet the issues these women encountered in their practice of Islam, their negotiations with multiple patriarchies, and their daily lives are not unlike the issues around gender and mosque leadership debated in contemporary Britain.</p>
<p>By shining a light on the history of Muslim women in Britain, contemporary issues seem less insurmountable. These women shaped the Muslim communities of their time and it is imperative that their stories are known.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust small grants scheme (grant number SG151945)</span></em></p>
My new research highlights a little known story of women’s roles in British Muslim history.
Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, Assistant Professor in Faith and Peaceful Relations at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.