Abstract

The Howie Smith Project (THSP) is a social enterprise that was formed in response to David Cameron’s Conservative Party’s political ideology, The Big Society. A practice-led study, THSP occupies derelict properties and enables space for creative enterprise, start-up opportunities, development of creative practice, entrepreneurship, collaboration and progress in an attempt to secure affordable long-term space for continued creative use as the city evolves. Regeneration strategies in the UK have targeted the creative industries and the rise in digital technology, bio-tech and green energy solutions, and introduced creative catalysts to encourage wider city developments from private investment, influencing gentrification, and displacing artistic progress. Nottingham was perhaps the last major city in the UK to initiate a creative quarter strategy and target future development in The Lace Market and Hockley area in support of the city’s growth and the creative class it seeks to attract alongside its regeneration vision. This thesis reveals the ethnographical methodology in documenting a portfolio of case studies in Nottingham, Leicester and Southwell, following research into The Big Society and strategies toward regeneration and the creative community. Often the artist, musician and performer lose out as cities gentrify, forced to develop their practice on the fringe of society and Bohemia. This thesis is an autoethnographic account of this experience and looks to understanding the practical methods that were pursued to achieve this goal. It presents a regeneration model that was developed through this research, considering an alternate and sustainable approach to the top-down authority-led initiatives.