Developing a Creative Cluster in a Postindustrial City: CIDS and Manchester

In the last 20 years the image of Manchester has gone from that of a declining industrial to a re-invented ‘post-industrial’ city. Central to this new image have been both the subsidised arts – with major investment in infrastructure and events and more commercial popular culture, most notably popular music (Haslam, 1999). This narrative in which arts and popular culture become emblematic of a transformative ‘spirit of place’ is now well established within ‘celebratory’ texts on the city (Manchester City Council, 2002; 2004; King, 2006) and more critical and academic literature (Peck and Emmerick, 1992; O’Connor and Wynne, 1996; Taylor et al, 1996; Wynne and O’Connor, 1998; O’Connor, 1998; Brown et al, 2000; Ward, 2000; 2003; Peck and Ward, 2002; Haslam, 2005; Hetherington, 2007). Since 1998, when the UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) launched a new definition and set of policy directions (DCMS 1998), this culture-led regeneration narrative has also used the term ‘creative industries’ alongside ‘arts and culture’.