Sense of place

Manchester City Council recently launched A Sense of Place, a framework for engaging the city’s residents. The theory behind the project is that by better understanding residents, their culture and stories, community cohesion will improve and the council will be better placed to tailor services to the community.

Such an initiative is often dismissed as an unnecessary departure from the core business of local government. Indeed, the value of such projects is notoriously difficult to measure. However, projects such as Manchester’s are becoming increasingly important as local authorities try to make their area one where people want to live.

With the percentage of the working age population decreasing, cities have to compete harder to retain talent and lure it back. Young, skilled professionals are highly mobile and gravitating towards the South East.

It’s not a problem that is Manchester’s alone. It’s faced by many northern cities as well as internationally. As a New Zealander it’s a problem I’m very familiar with. Travelling is something people will always do. Our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, all did it. Human history is one of migration.

The question for cities such as Manchester is how to reverse the trend. It is difficult for Manchester to compete on job opportunities or other economic factors alone and that’s where sense of place comes in. For people to stay in and return to Manchester they need to feel an affinity with it.

Scotland has managed to buck the trend, with young people returning there to work. New Zealand isn’t doing so well. Accurate official figures are not available, but there are estimates that as many as one in every five New Zealanders lives overseas.

So cities have to tap into what connects people to a place and gives them a sense of belonging. Often it’s their friends or family, sometimes it’s the football team they support, for many it can be a physical place. For me it’s the view of the Rimutaka Hills from Wellington’s western suburbs. As Meteria Turei once said “Aotearoa is buried in my soul.” It’s a sentiment that I’m sure is shared by many New Zealanders, and one that expatriates of any nationality could relate to. The question for local authorities is: how do you capitalise on that sense of belonging so that it becomes a desire to return?