Nikolaos-Foivos Ntounis
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Ntounis, Nikolaos-Foivos (2018) Place management through different lenses. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University. Downloaded from: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/621520/ Usage rights: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Deriva- tive Works 4.0 Please cite the published version https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk PLACE MANAGEMENT THROUGH DIFFERENT LENSES NIKOLAOS-FOIVOS NTOUNIS A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Marketing, Retail and Tourism Manchester Metropolitan University August 2018 Declaration I declare that this thesis and the work contained herein has been generated by me except where explicitly stated otherwise in the text, with due reference to the literature, acknowledgement of collaborative research, and in accordance with the Institutional Code of Practice and Research Degree Regulations. Parts of this thesis have previously been included in published research articles. These are: Ntounis N and Kanellopoulou E (2017) Normalising jurisdictional heterotopias through place branding: The cases of Christiania and Metelkova. Environment and Planning A 49(10): 2223–2240. Ntounis N and Parker C (2017) Engaged scholarship on the High Street: the case of HSUK2020. Journal of Place Management and Development 10(4): 349–363. Ntounis N and Kavaratzis M (2017) Re-branding the High Street: the place branding process and reflections from three UK towns. Journal of Place Management and Development 10(4): 392–403. Signed i Abstract The main aim of this thesis is to tackle the lack of conceptual clarity that surrounds place management, and seeks to establish place management as an interdisciplinary boundary concept that combines a variety of conceptual lenses and allows for the problematisation of the field from different theoretical approaches. Throughout the thesis, the ‘social spatialisation’ of place management via the examination of emergent and deliberate practices that shape the strategic, economic, social and political use of places is suggested. Nuanced descriptions of place and space that stem from a plethora of geographic theories are combined with the adoption of ontologically and epistemologically diverse theoretical foundations, and suggest a turn towards an engaged, pluralistic theory of the place management concept. By adopting a multi-sited ethnographic approach, coupled with the extended case method, this study seeks to understand how place management practices construct both global and local understandings of places. Reflexive accounts of the place management process, as this was observed and studied in ten UK towns, and in the squatted areas Christiania and Metelkova, are presented in the form of structural tales, and led to the development of a reflexive account of the place management process in multiple locales. Based on the detailed analysis of both empirical studies, it is argued that a reflexive, hybrid approach towards place management allows for the development of more inclusive leadership models that gain more legitimacy and accountability. Furthermore, it is shown that place management is a deeply politicised process that signifies possibilities for alternative understandings of places from conditions of spontaneity, experimentation, and political engagement. Ultimately, it is argued that practices of collective knowledge exchange, place ownership, self-organisation and self-management, can prevent the vacillation, mundanity and annihilation of the soft spaces where place management is enacted. This reflexive deliberation opens up possibilities for dialogical understanding and consensus in place management, and fosters conditions for collective and co-creative capacities for place development. ii Acknowledgements There are a number of people who have contributed towards the completion of this thesis in various ways over the past five-plus years. Firstly, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my Director of Studies, Cathy Parker, for her constant support, advice, and commitment throughout the duration of my studies. Cathy, your vision and enthusiasm for people and places inspired me to pursue interest in the field of place management, and encouraged me to challenge the normative ideas behind its theory and practice. You gave me the freedom and time to develop my ideas and even steer away from the goal, only to come back again. Finally, you offered me an academic home at the Institute of Place Management, helped me to start my career as a researcher and work with an amazing group of people. I am forever grateful to have you as a mentor and guide. I am foremost grateful to my supervisors, David Bennison, Steve Millington and Dominic Medway. David, your wisdom, research advice, and invaluable lessons in life in academia where really important during the first years of my studies. Steve, thank you for planting the seed of geography in my mind. Your input and sound guidance was invaluable and drastically influenced my thinking and the focus of this thesis. Last but not least, thank you Dom for your calmness, your instrumental feedback and comments on almost the entire thesis, and your much-needed guidance and presence down the stretch. A very warm thank you goes to the following people who contributed in various stages of this thesis in a number of ways. Simon Quin, for his leadership and insightful input during the high street project. Ares Kalandides, for the delightful conversations we had, his unique views on places and their multiple manifestations has influenced me profoundly. Mihalis Kavaratzis, for our discussions in place branding and collaboration in co-authoring. Costas Theodoridis, for his valuable support and collaboration in research. The Slovenian connection for their wonderful hospitality and support during data collection. Most importantly, a very special thanks goes to Jenny Kanellopoulou. Her amazing spirit and passion for research (and life in general!) iii are a constant inspiration for me. I am forever grateful for our collaboration and friendship. Thanks to all my friends who supported me and tolerated me throughout the duration of my thesis, and helped me to escape from the horrors of doing a PhD plenty of times: Antonis for the countless gigs and times we got drunk, Robin for the wonderful trips and festivals (more to come!), Nantia and Avramis, Manolis and Marilena, Stavros and Georgia, Chara and Spyros, Stathis, Mihalis, Akis, Konstantinos, Panagiotis, Jason, Andronikos, Alex P., Chris G., Fede and everybody in Manchester for their friendship and company, my bandmates (Paul, Nick, Luke, Dave) who had to put up with my weird schedule, conference, research and home trips (it’s only going to get worse), Civir and Nadine for the York weekend breaks, all my friends back in Greece and abroad (Artemis, Giannis, Giorgos, Ilias, Ira, Dimitris B., Petros, Konstantinos D., Jim B., Teo, Dimitris P., Chris K., Spyros Z., Alex, Sofia, Stavros, Katerina, Dimitris K., John T., Marios M. and everybody idn the Speedblow family) who have been always there for me. Julia, you know I could not have done this without you. You are my pillar of strength, and your patience and perseverance helped me during some very tough times, especially during this last year. Thank you for all your love and support, I am so blessed to have you in my life. Finally, I would like to express my utmost love and gratitude to my family. Thank you mum and dad for your unconditional love and faith in me and for always being there when I doubted myself. Your support means the world to me. Thank you Lida and Myrto for your love and encouragement all these years, and to everybody in my family for their endless support. Manchester, 27 March 2018 Nikos Ntounis iv Table of Contents DECLARATION I ABSTRACT II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III TABLE OF CONTENTS V LIST OF TABLES X LIST OF FIGURES XI PART I: PROBLEMATISING PLACE MANAGEMENT 1 CHAPTER 1 PLACE MANAGEMENT: AN INTRODUCTION 2 1.1 THE HISTORICAL EMERGENCE OF PLACE MANAGEMENT ACROSS MULTIPLE SCALES 2 1.1.1 Place management in the local context 5 1.2 THE PRACTICE OF PLACE MANAGEMENT 7 1.3 THE PROBLEM WITH PLACE MANAGEMENT 9 1.3.1 Place management as an interdisciplinary boundary concept 10 1.4 SUMMARY OF FORTHCOMING CHAPTERS 11 CHAPTER 2 DELINEATING PLACE MANAGEMENT: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF PLACE MANAGEMENT’S ADJACENT FIELDS 12 2.1 PLACE MARKETING 12 2.1.1 The “managerial” approach 14 2.1.2 “Contemporary” place marketing 17 2.1.3 “Politico-economic” place marketing 18 2.2 PLACE BRANDING 21 2.2.1 Early place branding approaches 22 2.2.2 Paradigm change and participatory place branding 26 2.2.3 Place branding in the context of place management 28 2.3 STRATEGIC SPATIAL PLANNING 30 v 2.3.1 The communicative/collaborative turn in strategic spatial planning 32 2.3.2 Alternative approaches to strategic spatial planning 34 2.3.3 Soft spaces in strategic spatial planning 36 2.4 PLACEMAKING 38 2.4.1 People, community, and relational placemaking 41 2.5 ENCAPSULATING THE THEORETICAL CONTEXT OF PLACE MANAGEMENT 44 2.5.1 The 8Cs 44 2.5.2 Moving from nomothetic to relational and pluralist: place management as a strategy formation process 48 2.6 A HEURISTIC FRAMEWORK FOR ADVANCING PLACE MANAGEMENT THEORY 52 2.7 CONCLUSION 57 CHAPTER 3 ‘PLACE’, ‘SPACE’, ‘PEOPLE’: AN OVERVIEW OF MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS IN GEOGRAPHY AND THEIR IMPORTANCE FOR PLACE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH 59 3.1 PHENOMENOLOGICAL ACCOUNTS OF ‘PLACE’ AND ‘SPACE’: HUMANISTIC GEOGRAPHY 60 3.1.1 Situating humanistic