This is Manchester. We do things differently here: Performance, enterprise, and the city region

DRAM30442 This is Manchester. We do things differently here: Performance, enterprise, and the city region 20 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 6 Jennifer Hughes Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 Taking its cue from Manchester’s self-identification as a city of radical enterprise - captured by the phrase ‘This is Manchester: We do things differently here’ (commonly attributed to music entrepreneur Tony Wilson) - the course engages with performances that have made a difference in the city. Locating the history of Manchester, the original ‘shock city’, in relation to the broader networks of colonialisation, imperialism and industrialisation that underpinned its development, the course explores how performance practices shaped the city region, its public spaces and communities. Students will explore performances that represent contrasting modalities of radical enterprise, from the Workers Theatre Movement between the wars through to the ‘Madchester’ rave culture of the late 1980s/early 1990s. They will encounter new ways of thinking about creativity, enterprise and performance, and learn how to apply this thinking as part of individual and collective work on their own original projects.The first part of the course engages with histories of performance in the city, paying careful attention to inequities relating to identity, labour and resource, and making use of critical scholarship on cultures of liberal and neoliberal capitalism. At the mid-way point, students will be encouraged to ‘think differently about doing things differently’, drawing on social justice approaches, indigenous epistemologies, and ecological and relational theory. From here, students will work collaboratively and in workshop mode to develop a series of individual proposals for performance projects in the city region, supported by reflective practice exercises, theoretical reading and ongoing encounters with examples of performance practices that are imaginative, hopeful and critical.    Taking its cue from Manchester’s self-identification as a city of radical enterprise - captured by the phrase ‘This is Manchester: We do things differently here’ (commonly attributed to music entrepreneur Tony Wilson) - the course engages with performances that have made a difference in the city. Locating the history of Manchester, the original ‘shock city’, in relation to the broader networks of colonialisation, imperialism and industrialisation that underpinned its development, the course explores how performance practices shaped the city region, its public spaces and communities. Students will explore performances that represent contrasting modalities of radical enterprise, from the Workers Theatre Movement between the wars through to the ‘Madchester’ rave culture of the late 1980s/early 1990s. They will encounter new ways of thinking about creativity, enterprise and performance, and learn how to apply this thinking as part of individual and collective work on their own original projects.The first part of the course engages with histories of performance in the city, paying careful attention to inequities relating to identity, labour and resource, and making use of critical scholarship on cultures of liberal and neoliberal capitalism. At the mid-way point, students will be encouraged to ‘think differently about doing things differently’, drawing on social justice approaches, indigenous epistemologies, and ecological and relational theory. From here, students will work collaboratively and in workshop mode to develop a series of individual proposals for performance projects in the city region, supported by reflective practice exercises, theoretical reading and ongoing encounters with examples of performance practices that are imaginative, hopeful and critical.    The unit aims to equip students with conceptual and practical tools that will enable them to understand and evaluate the ways in which performance practices shape urban environments (specifically the towns and cities of Greater Manchester) and, thereby, to prepare students to engage in critically informed and responsive creative work across a range of environments.  <ul><li>Demonstrate awareness of of the complex relationship between performance, processes of material production, and place, with reference to historical and contemporary performance cultures in Manchester  </li><li>Critically evaluate claims for originality, entrepreneurship and innovation in performance practice, by placing these claims in historical context and making use of relevant cultural critique  </li><li>Demonstrate knowledge of a range of approaches to reflective practice used in cultural practice, and evaluate their effectiveness</li></ul> <ul><li>Make effective use of, whilst also evaluating the limits of, historical evidence relating to performance and cultural innovation   </li><li>Critically analyse the processes by which innovation comes to be recognised in the cultural sector, in particular by reflecting on their relationship to histories of social harm and inequity, as well as to future global challenges and uncertainties   </li><li>Synthesise and analyse information from a range of sources, and use this information to inform individual and collective decision-making </li></ul> <ul><li>Conceptualise, plan and evaluate an original proposal for a performance project</li><li>Conduct and apply independent research in areas where evidence may be partial, and use research findings to make decisions about future-oriented plans  </li><li>Work independently and collaboratively to address the challenge of ‘doing things differently’  </li></ul> <ul><li>Apply awareness of practical approaches to strategic planning used by cultural practitioners to develop new projects, and apply this to their own practical ideas</li><li>Understand, and be able to facilitate, a process of peer planning, review and evaluation to strengthen project proposals </li><li>Draw on individual and collaborative processes to develop practices of performance and place that are imaginative, hopeful, critical and progressive </li></ul> Group/team working Enhanced ability to work productively, both independently and as part of a group, and as part of learning processes that present complex challenges Innovation/creativity Advanced ability to exercise initiative and personal responsibility Oral communication Enhanced ability to adapt self-presentation to different audiences/contexts, especially when communicating complex ideas Problem solving Advanced critical thinking, problem-solving and planning skills 0 Other 40% 2 Written assignment (inc essay) 60% Historical case study leading to contribution to digital playlist   40%Written reflective essay on ‘Doing things differently’ individual project proposal   60%Contribution to digital playlist  Formative Reflective essay  Historical case study leading to contribution to digital playlist - Formative feedback given in class and via written feedback on individual plansWritten reflective essay on ‘Doing things differently’ individual project proposal - Formative feedback given in-class.  Written feedback on individual essay plansContribution to digital playlist Reflective essay - Formative feedback given in class and via written feedback on individual plans                  Any first year core unit in Drama & Film, or any first year core in Creative and Cultural Industries   Y <ul><li>Adrienne Maree Brown. 2017. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. AK Press</li><li>Mark Banks. 2017. Creative Justice: Cultural Industries, Work and Inequality. Rowman and Littlefield</li><li>Orian Brook, Dave O’Brien and Mark Taylor. 2020. Culture Is Bad For You. Manchester University Press</li><li>Jen Harvie. 2013. Fair Play: Art, Performance and Neoliberalism. Palgrave Macmillan</li><li>Dave Haslam. 2000. Manchester, England. Fourth Estate</li><li>Alan Kidd. 2008 (fourth edition). Manchester: A History. Carnegie</li><li>Robin Wall Kimmerer. 2020. The Democracy of Species. Penguin</li><li>Oli Mould. 2018. Against Creativity. Verso</li><li>Angela McRobbie. 2016. Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries. Polity  </li><li>Angela McRobbie. 2011. ‘Rethinking Creative Economy as Radical Social Enterprise’ Variant 41  </li><li>Helen Nicholson, Jenny Hughes, Gemma Edwards, Cara Gray. 2022. Theatre in Towns. Routledge</li><li>Rocio Nogales Muriel. 2023. Social Innovation, Social Enterprises and the Cultural Economy: Cultural and Artistic Social Enterprises in Practice. Routledge</li><li>Lara D. Nielsen and Patricia Ybarra. 2012. eds. Neoliberalism and Global Theatres. Palgrave Macmillan</li><li>Harold L. Platt. 2005. Shock Cities: The Environmental Transformation and Reform of Manchester and Chicago. University of Chicago Press</li><li>Boaventura de Sousa Santos. 2014. Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide. Routledge</li><li>Isabelle Stengers. 2005. ‘Introductory Notes on an Ecology of Practices’ Cultural Studies Review, 11:1, 184-196</li><li>Olúfémi O. Táíwò. 2022. Elite Capture. Pluto Press</li><li>Janet Wolff with Mike Savage. 2013. Culture in Manchester: Institutions and Urban Change since 1850. Manchester University Press </li></ul> Seminars 33 0 167