1. Delivering the Virtual Promise? QEII June 19, 2000 e-commerce and cultural connection Social Contexts of Virtual Manchester Penny Harvey, Sarah Green & Jon Agar

2. Manchester’s New Economy?

3. Being New in the Same Old Way So place matters: – it has to be made out of histories of connection

4. Places are Networks If UK to be best ‘place’ for e-commerce by 2002, negotiation between local and global networks is needed, not incorporation This: Needs to be seen as this:

5. Manchester Ship Canal Lowry’s image of Manchester: Ancoats: not quite developed yet… Some Manchester Networks

6. Negotiating between networks

7. As a barrier: –The source of irrational attitudes, constraint on development. –The source of subversive attitudes, resistance to development. –Diversity as a barrier to common standards As a resource: –You can’t remove culture, it would mean removing people –Putting people back means negotiating between networks, not removing one (culture/people) so as to have the other (ICTs/global standards) Culture: barrier or resource?

8. Culture in the networks Culture is not a problem, but a fact of life Culture cannot be standardised People at their computers are always somewhere in particular

9. Protecting the spaces between global flows and oblivion Place matters Places are social networks Policy must embrace cultural diversity, not ignore it.