To launch Feeling Towns and bring together our community of practice, we present our first online webinar, “Whose pride is it anyway?” The ‘Levelling Up’ agenda has highlighted the political value of pride in place. The government white paper enshrines “restoring local pride” as one of its 12 central missions. More broadly, “civic” or “local” pride is increasingly cited in public policy: it serves to reanimate declining high streets, attract economic investment, boost tourism, and celebrate festivals such as UK City of Culture. Despite this engagement, the way people feel about where they live remains relatively undefined and under-examined in policy documents and practice. What does “pride in place” actually mean? Why is it so important to policymakers? What is the impact of this political agenda on the communities whose pride is so eagerly sought? To respond to these questions, the University of Southampton’s Institute for Arts and Humanities (SIAH) has developed a knowledge exchange project, Feeling Towns, funded by the AHRC. Working with partners including Historic England, Darlington Borough Council, Wirral Council, Rural Media, and Southampton City Council, this project offers conceptual, practical and critical expertise on the subject of pride. The event will include short presentations from perspectives and disciplines across policy, practice and research. A Q&A and discussion will follow. Speakers and respondents include: Gavin Sullivan (IPU Berlin) Will Jennings (Univ. of Southampton) Jack Shaw (Institute for Public Policy Research) Alice Butler-Warke (RGU Aberdeen) If you have any questions about this event or want to find out more about Feeling Towns, please: Visit our website — www.AndTowns.co.uk/feelingtowns Contact us by email — AndTowns@soton.ac.uk Follow us on Twitter — @AndTowns

On Monday 17th March the IHR's Centre for the History of People, Place and Community and History & Policy(Opens in new window) were joined by University of Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities(Opens in new window) for Levelling up: Histories, Cultures, Challenges. The government’s ‘Levelling Up’ agenda comes at a time when Covid has revealed, and often increased, existing structural inequalities in the UK. These range from employment to housing, and education to healthcare. They include regional disparities in wealth, widening gaps in life expectancy across ethnicity, and uneven access to resources from libraries to leisure centres. What might a cultural history of Levelling Up tell us about the new political narratives being shaped around this agenda? How might the government’s emphasis on ‘stronger towns’ rebalance our economic map of the UK? What might a level playing field look like in terms schooling, accommodation, or wellbeing? What does ‘Levelling Up’ mean, and how will we know if it has succeeded? Drawing on a variety of disciplines, methods, places, and possibilities, this online forum will include new perspectives from Whitehall and town halls, offer provocations from the education sector to the NHS, and consider the role of researchers, policy-makers and communities in addressing these challenges. The event included micro-presentations from a range of perspectives and disciplines across policy and research and was followed by a Q&A and discussion. Introductions from Professor Catherine Clarke (CHPPC), Professor Philip Murphy (IHR and History & Policy) and Professor Nicky Marsh(Opens in new window) (University of Southampton) Speakers included: * Melissa Benn, Writer and Campaigner * Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist, Bank of England * Will Jennings, Director, Centre for Towns; Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Southampton * Owain Lloyd James, Head of Places Strategy, Historic England * Helen Nicholson, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Royal Holloway, University of London * Jenny Hughes, Professor in Drama, University of Manchester * Simon Szreter, Professor of History and Public Policy, University of Cambridge * Jonathan Gross, Lecturer in Culture, Media & Creative Industries, King's College London