Going for Growth: Prestige Projects in Three British Cities

Abstract

Sum m ary. In resp onse to the glob al restru cturing of industry in the 1970s and 1980s, the elected govern m ents of econ om ically depressed cities have increasin gly adopted grow th-orien tated local econ om ic develop m ent policies. A key com ponent of pro-grow th local econ om ic develop m ent strategi es, adopted by UK city govern m ents and central govern m ent agen cies has been investm ent in, and prom otion of, high-pro® le prestige prop erty develop m ents and civic boosteris m activitie s. T his paper provid es a review of the local econ om ic develop m ent resp onses of three UK local authorities (B irm ingham , Shef® eld and M anchester) to econ om ic restru cturing and the intensi® cation of inter-city com petition . T hrou gh an exam ination of thethree case studies, the paper highligh ts: the debate con cernin g the valid ity of pro-gro wth, local econ om ic develop m ent policies; the ration ales behind the adoption of such policies; the ® nancing and im plem entation of pro-grow th strategi es; econ om ic im pacts; and the distrib ution al con sequences of pro-grow th strategi es focu sed on prestige develop m ents.

Tourists' Consumption and Interpretation of Sport Event Imagery

“…The strategies adopted by three English cities -Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield -have been analyzed to provide indications of such effects. The cities were chosen as there is significant evidence that they have deliberately used sport events to enhance their image (Loftman and Nevin, 1996;Smith, 2005a).…”

Reimaging the City

“…The case study cities are good examples of where regeneration has been undertaken to stimulate post-industrial revival; and, as Loftman and Nevin (1996) identify, sport and tourism are prominent themes in the regeneration strategies pursued by all three cities.…”

“…Although several authors (Loftman and Nevin 1996;Loftman and Spirou 1996;van den Berg et al 2000;Whitelegg 2000;Whitson and MacIntosh 1993) have examined the relationship between sport and city image, the vast majority of this work focuses on the use of sport reimaging, rather than the resultant image effects. In this paper the intention is to evaluate the value of sport reimaging initiatives by identifying whether they actually affect tourist images of city destinations.…”

“…The alleged symbolic capacity of sport stadia means that they are also used in sport reimaging, either in association with, or independently of, specific events. Indeed, the construction of spectacular 'flagship' or 'prestige' sport facilities (Loftman and Nevin 1996;Loftman and Spirou 1996;Smyth 1994) is often justified by their supposed capacity to connote various qualities from machismo (Schimmel 1995), to modernity (Nielsen 1995) and progress (Rowe 1995).…”

Birmingham: whose urban renaissance? Regeneration as a response to economic restructuring

“…They criticised the apparent lack of employment benefit for the city's deprived populations -for example, noting that, in 1991, 42% of employment at the ICC and 71% at the NIA were in low paid, insecure cleaning, catering and security classifications (Loftman and Nevin, 1994) -and that substantial local authority funds used to build the ICC were diverted from front-line services such as education and housing which were most heavily used and need by Birmingham's poorer communities. For example, they argue that, during the construction of the ICC and NIA (1986 to 1992), Birmingham City Council spent £120 million less on housing than the average for all local authorities in England (Loftman and Nevin, 1996). One consequence of this underinvestment in front-line services is Birmingham's (until recently) categorisation as a "weak" council in the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment, especially in respect of housing and children's social services (Audit Commission, 2004).…”