Full Description
This timely book examines how screen industry development has emerged as a vital strategy for economic and cultural regeneration in England's post-industrial regions.
While Bristol, Manchester, and Liverpool have become established creative hubs, this study shifts focus to three underrepresented areas—The Solent and South Hampshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, and Sunderland—each grappling with decline and persistent underinvestment. Through comparative case studies, the book reveals how these regions are attempting to address these issues by developing screen industry initiatives despite having only limited resources. It analyses how local stakeholders navigate the interplay of infrastructure, governance, cultural capital, and narrative positioning to build creative ecosystems that strengthen cultural identity and promote place-based storytelling.
Set against the backdrop of devolution, regional policy failures, and "Levelling Up" rhetoric, this research offers practical insights into how historically excluded areas can challenge established patterns of creative investment concentration. As such, it is essential reading for policymakers, creative professionals, researchers, and students in media studies, cultural policy, regional development, and economic geography interested in place-based cultural regeneration strategies.
Contents
Introduction 1. Levelling Up and Moving Out: Clusters, Corridors and Creative Policy 2. A Desire to Make Waves: Navigating the New Waters of the Solent's Burgeoning Film Industry 3. Balancing Heritage and Progress: Reimagining the Potteries as a Centre for Digital Film Production 4. Telling a Different Story: Hollywood on the Wear 5. Looking Inward and Doubling Down: Beyond the Broken Promises of Levelling Up Coda: The Stories That We Tell
