Feeling Towns: the role of place and identity in governance and local policy

文化政策举措中对自豪感和地位的强调已变得司空见惯——例如，这是2021年《升级招股说明书》的核心内容。然而，在政策文件、实践和评估中，公民自豪感和地方依恋的概念、经验和机制往往是不明确的，也没有得到检验。同样，它的社会政治意义和价值往好了说也受到争议，往坏了说也未被探索，甚至被忽视。该项目将利用我们对城镇、自豪感和指标的现有研究，与主要合作伙伴和广泛的实践社区合作，创造性地、集体地探索公民自豪感和地方依恋监测、评估和报告的方法和指标。我们认为这是一个分享定性方法和指标的价值和范围的机会，这些方法和指标可以补充更主流的计量经济学方法，用于文化、再生和当地经济。该项目将学术研究与国家文化机构和地方当局进行对话，以交流有关地方依恋（被理解为人与地方之间的情感纽带）与当地文化生态健康之间关系的知识。此次合作将直接说明我们与合作伙伴建立的一套共同制作的评估指标的需求，以理解自豪感和地位。

The emphasis on pride and place in cultural policy initiatives has become commonplace - it is, for example, core to the 2021 Levelling Up Prospectus. Yet the concept, experience, and mechanics of civic pride and place attachment often remain undefined and unexamined in policy documents, practice and evaluations. Likewise, its socio-political meanings and values are at best contested and at worst unexplored or even ignored. This project will use our existing research on towns, pride and metrics to work with lead partners and a broad community of practice to creatively and collectively explore methods and metrics of civic pride and place attachment monitoring, evaluating and reporting. We understand this to be an opportunity to share the value and range of qualitative methods and metrics which can complement the more dominant econometric approaches towards culture, regeneration and local economies.The project brings academic research into conversation with national cultural bodies and local authorities to exchange knowledge regarding the correlation between place attachment (understood as the emotional bond between people and place) and the health of local cultural ecologies. The collaboration will speak directly to the need, established with our partners, for a set of co-produced evaluative metrics for understanding pride and place.