The cities project conference: Creativity and partnerships for cities urban regeneration Neil McInroy Chief Executive Centre for Local Economic Strategies Resilient Cities: the Role of the Creative Economy

What is CLES? Independent UK based charity. No commercial sponsor or government grants Economic development but with social fairness and within limits of environment Most of work in UK, but also increasingly international Established 1986 Planners, geographers, local government, environmental scientists, economists Hybrid; research, consultancy, Local government members What is CLES? Run online magazine: NewStart

Climate change, peak oil, peak water, peak soil, energy insecurity Places need to adapt, new ways of sustainable living Ageing and migration Challenge to find the public resources Economic turbulence Global interdependency but local economies matter more Development of place is getting harder. The need for creativity: A new era for place making

Challenging times ! New economies Importance of capital Networks Creativity and Innovation The ingredients to success

The I Ching (Classic chinese text) ‘Look at what connects and separates people’

= Exploring Ill health, deprivation and the economy Source: London Health Observatory

Need to work at success?

Scare planners and economic developers!

But we all want some material progress!

Human Capital

HUMAN CAPITAL

Social Capital

Private/Physical Capital Private Capital

Public Capital

Environmental Capital

Harnessing the capital and assets

Resilience v sustainability

Nick Crossley, Poetics, Volume 37, Issue 1, Pages 1-98 (February 2009)

Resilience Resilience is not about the passive maintenance of a situation Its more active, its about: being ready to take on opportunities. responding to shocks dealing with change being adaptable and creative taking a punch and bouncing back making our places and cities go

Resilience

Maggie Leininger 2004

“Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas of concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts, creativity is fuelled by the process of conscious or unconscious insight.” and “creativity as an assumptions breaking process” Creativity assisting resilience

Resilience Lu Xinjian

Need to understand and harness the ‘dna of place’ We need to search for and nurture qualities in place (the conditions) which harness creativity and adaptability to huge, economic, environmental, social, and cultural change The ‘capitals’, assets and cultures of place are of great importance The importance of understanding and building creative networks and partnerships Need to build resilient place based relationships.

Creation of place resilience Governance Health and wellbeing Environment Identity history and context

The local economy

Stages of resilience

The local economy

The resilience work CLES piloted work in six cities around the world (Portland, Yokkaichi, Haiphong, Culiacan, Gdansk, Coimbatore and now worked in: Northumberland Ashfield and Mansfield Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk Cherwell Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Manchester Southern Staffordshire Dandenong, Australia Blackburn with Darwen

The resilience scale Resilient – Compelling evidence of robust relationships between the different spheres in the economy Stable – Evidence of sound relationships between the different spheres. Vulnerable – Relationships between the different sectors are significantly underdeveloped. Brittle – Little evidence of relationships between different sectors.

PUBLIC COMMERCIAL SOCIAL BROAD ECONOMIC CONTEXT GOVERNMENT WORKING WITHIN ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS LOCAL ECONOMIC TERRITORY LOCAL IDENTITY AND CONTEXT HISTORY AND CULTURE Very resilient. With balance between sectors Creativity between sectors Public sector and economy enables Urban growth boundary Strong ‘green’ identity, percolating through place and activity Portland-Oregon, USA

PUBLIC COMMERCIAL SOCIAL BROAD ECONOMIC CONTEXT GOVERNMENT WORKING WITHIN ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS LOCAL ECONOMIC TERRITORY LOCAL IDENTITY AND CONTEXT HISTORY AND CULTURE Stable to Vulnerable. Bolstered by EU funds Public sector interaction with the social and commercial sector is weak. Competition –V - Cooperation in wider city region Some creativity within rather than between sectors Gdansk, Poland

PUBLIC COMMERCIAL SOCIAL BROAD ECONOMIC CONTEXT GOVERNMENT WORKING WITHIN ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS LOCAL ECONOMIC TERRITORY LOCAL IDENTITY AND CONTEXT HISTORY AND CULTURE Brittle. Lack of connection between the sectors. Dominated by ‘fragile’ US Investment. State-level strategy, dominated by business Environment degraded. Culiacan-Sinaloa, Mexico

PUBLIC COMMERCIAL SOCIAL BROAD ECONOMIC CONTEXT GOVERNMENT WORKING WITHIN ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS LOCAL ECONOMIC TERRITORY LOCAL IDENTITY AND CONTEXT HISTORY AND CULTURE Vulnerable to stable An entrepreneurial culture. Local government providing little more than services Genuine philanthrocapitalism, filling the gaps with NGOs Creativity through ‘absence’ of public sector Coimbatore-Tamil Nadu, India

PUBLIC COMMERCIAL SOCIAL BROAD ECONOMIC CONTEXT GOVERNMENT WORKING WITHIN ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS LOCAL ECONOMIC TERRITORY LOCAL IDENTITY AND CONTEXT HISTORY AND CULTURE Vulnerable to stable Strong drive from government, from national down to city Starting to embrace the free market A strong entrepreneurial spirit Planned creativity? Haiphong, Vietnam

PUBLIC COMMERCIAL SOCIAL BROAD ECONOMIC CONTEXT GOVERNMENT WORKING WITHIN ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS LOCAL ECONOMIC TERRITORY LOCAL IDENTITY AND CONTEXT HISTORY AND CULTURE Resilient. Despite ongoing recession from 90’s Public sector key actor A strong focus on innovation –a ‘technological and innovation DNA’ – running through the place Strong collective, place based culture Yokkaichi and Mie Prefecture, Japan

TIME Performance An opportunity or a shock/negative change Resilient Vulnerable Stable Brittle Timeline following an event or opportunity

Partnerships in BLackburn

Informal Networks: Who are your 3 closest work colleagues, people you would go to solve a work problem, to talk something through or to have a creative conversation with?

Let’s assume some change: Does it matter?

Conclusions Successful places are predicated on creative relationships, and innovative interactions between public, commercial and social sectors Place shielding Existing economic development models have failed to factor in wider role of culture, capitals and assets Our places are dependent upon complex connections Vulnerable to small disturbances Creativity is key connecting element

Conclusions from Pilot areas to date What are the danger signs for an un-resilient place? Poor blend of sectors Great plans but not based on an understanding of functioning and malfunctioning relationship Simple assumptions that cause and effect is linear. Narrow definitions of ‘success’ Poor consideration of the cultural condictions Poor understanding of local/global connections Rigid governance - hierarchical Conclusions on resilience

Centre for Local Economic Strategies - Web - Magazine - Twitter Phone - (0044) Centre for Local Economic Strategies