Patrycja Rozbicka (Aston University, UK)
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This paper concentrates on the participants within the Birmingham live music ecology, the qualitative aspects of the research and the consultation process that feeds into it. With a core network of local actors including Birmingham City Council, the Birmingham Music Coalition, and the Birmingham Music Archive – as well as national agencies – the project seeks to incorporate stakeholder perspectives throughout the research as part of a process of the co-production of knowledge. Building on the previous papers’ accounts of the national and international policy contexts, and the data gathering, this section of the panel moves onto a synthesis of the specific implications for local businesses and policymakers of the research findings. It provides a picture of the key concerns for Birmingham’s live music ecology, drawing on the wider dataset and first-hand accounts of both the historical and present-day cultural activity in the city, and their intersection with local government and civil society. With a view of the wider structural picture provided by the overarching research findings, this paper looks to strategies for communication and co-ordination in response to the challenges thrown up by Brexit for Birmingham and the West Midlands – the localized approach to national policy shifts.