Levelling Up the Screen Industries?
by Mark McKenna
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Book Presentation:
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―that are 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, who are interested in place-based cultural regeneration strategies.
About the Author:
Mark McKenna is an Associate Professor in Film and Media Industries at the University of Staffordshire. His work has explored those industries from a range of different perspectives, considering marketing and branding practice, regulatory policy, and media labour. He has published widely in these areas and is the author of Nasty Business: The Marketing and Distribution of the Video Nasties (2020), Snuff (2022), Big Wednesday: Lamenting Lost Youth in the New Hollywood (Routledge, 2024), and is the co-editor (with William Proctor) of Horror Franchise Cinema (Routledge, 2021). In addition to his academic work, he co-authored (with Andrew Lennon) the report Silicon Stoke: Developing Film, TV and Other Content Production in North Staffordshire, which explored the opportunities that are available locally for stimulating the growth of North Staffordshire’s screen industry, set against the backdrop of the government’s “Levelling Up” agenda. That work informs this book.
Press Reviews:
"Mark McKenna’s Levelling Up the Screen Industries? represents a superb contribution to research on the British screen industries. Deftly combining political economy with cultural studies, McKenna gets to the core of how media policy decisions are made in the UK and the obstacles that stop them from being successfully implemented. In-depth researched and highly topical, the book will be an invaluable resource for policy makers and screen media researchers and students alike."
- Yannis Tzioumakis, Professor of Film and Media Industries, University of Liverpool
"In this perceptive study that should be required reading for media scholars and policy makers alike, Mark McKenna departs from the usual focus on global ‘media capitals’ to turn the spotlight on the smaller urban areas that have been ‘left behind’ in the urban regeneration spearheaded by the cultural industries. Through three contrasting case studies – the Solent, Stoke-on-Trent and Sunderland – he deploys a wealth of empirical evidence to scrutinise their respective struggles to create a compelling ‘brand’ capable of attracting either public or private investment. While demonstrating trenchantly the inconsistencies and elisions of political rhetoric – ‘Levelling Up’ – and the failure to tackle the deep-seated and disabling regional inequalities that mar UK polity, McKenna also highlights the continuing importance of local and regional efforts to reimagine their future."
- Andrew Spicer, Professor of Cultural Production, University of the West of England, Bristol
"McKenna’s book offers a stimulating and timely contribution to understanding how creative industries, cultural policy and economic geography are interwoven. Focusing on ‘left behind’ cities, it convincingly shows how regeneration through creative industries needs to be adapted to local and regional contexts to work effectively. Discussion of creative cities often focuses on large cities that are regional centres, ignoring smaller cities and communities nearby. McKenna’s study brings to life three fascinating case-studies of cities using culture and creative industries to stimulate local regeneration and skills, and to address regional inequality. It presents us with a potential reimagining of the UK’s creative geography, where cities and regions might work together in partnership rather than in competition."
- Phillip Drake, Professor of Media and Creative Industries, University of Liverpool
See the publisher website: Routledge
> From the same author:
Big Wednesday (2024)
Lamenting Lost Youth in the New Hollywood
by Mark McKenna
Subject: One Film > Big Wednesday
Nasty Business (2020)
The Marketing and Distribution of the Video Nasties
by Mark McKenna
Subject: Economics
> On a related topic:
London as Screen Gateway (2024)
Dir. Elizabeth Evans and Malini Guha
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry (1994)
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Transatlantic Television Drama (2019)
Industries, Programs, and Fans
by Michele Hilmes, Matt Hills and Roberta Pearson
Entertainment Industrialised (2008)
The Emergence of the International Film Industry, 1890–1940
Subject: Economics
'Film Europe' and 'Film America' (1999)
Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange 1920-1939
Dir. Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby
Subject: History of Cinema
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