[Commlist] New Book: Levelling Up the Screen Industries?

Mark Mckenna is pleased to announce that the new monograph: /Levelling 
Up the Screen Industries? Film and Television Production as Regenerative 
Strategy in Places Left Behind /(Routledge, 2025) is now available.

Please find the description below, together with some testimonials


*Description*


This timely book examines how screen industry development has emerged as 
a vital strategy for economic and cultural regeneration in England's 
post-industrial regions. While Bristol, Manchester, and Liverpool have 
become established creative hubs, this study shifts focus to three 
underrepresented areas—The Solent and South Hampshire, Stoke-on-Trent 
and Staffordshire, and Sunderland—that are grappling with decline and 
persistent underinvestment. Through comparative case studies, the book 
reveals how these regions are attempting to address these issues by 
developing screen industry initiatives despite having only limited 
resources. It analyses how local stakeholders navigate the interplay of 
infrastructure, governance, cultural capital, and narrative positioning 
to build creative ecosystems that strengthen cultural identity and 
promote place-based storytelling. Set against the backdrop of 
devolution, regional policy failures, and "Levelling Up" rhetoric, this 
research offers practical insights into how historically excluded areas 
can challenge established patterns of creative investment concentration. 
As such, it is essential reading for policymakers, creative 
professionals, researchers, and students in media studies, cultural 
policy, regional development, and economic geography, who are interested 
in place-based cultural regeneration strategies.


*Testimonials *


"Mark McKenna’s /Levelling Up the Screen Industries/? represents a 
superb contribution to research on the British screen industries. Deftly 
combining political economy with cultural studies, McKenna gets to the 
core of how media policy decisions are made in the UK and the obstacles 
that stop them from being successfully implemented. In-depth researched 
and highly topical, the book will be an invaluable resource for policy 
makers and screen media researchers and students alike."

- Yannis Tzioumakis, /Professor of Film and Media Industries, University 
of Liverpool/
“In this perceptive study that should be required reading for media 
scholars and policy makers alike, Mark McKenna departs from the usual 
focus on global ‘media capitals’ to turn the spotlight on the smaller 
urban areas that have been ‘left behind’ in the urban regeneration 
spearheaded by the cultural industries. Through three contrasting case 
studies – the Solent, Stoke-on-Trent and Sunderland – he deploys a 
wealth of empirical evidence to scrutinise their respective struggles to 
create a compelling ‘brand’ capable of attracting either public or 
private investment. While demonstrating trenchantly the inconsistencies 
and elisions of political rhetoric – ‘Levelling Up’ – and the failure to 
tackle the deep-seated and disabling regional inequalities that mar UK 
polity, McKenna also highlights the continuing importance of local and 
regional efforts to reimagine their future.”
- Andrew Spicer, /Professor of Cultural Production, University of the 
West of England, Bristol/
"McKenna’s book offers a stimulating and timely contribution to 
understanding how creative industries, cultural policy and economic 
geography are interwoven. Focusing on ‘left behind’ cities, it 
convincingly shows how regeneration through creative industries needs to 
be adapted to local and regional contexts to work effectively. 
Discussion of creative cities often focuses on large cities that are 
regional centres, ignoring smaller cities and communities nearby. 
McKenna’s study brings to life three fascinating case-studies of cities 
using culture and creative industries to stimulate local regeneration 
and skills, and to address regional inequality. It presents us with a 
potential reimagining of the UK’s creative geography, where cities and 
regions might work together in partnership rather than in competition."
- Phillip Drake, /Professor of Media and Creative Industries, University 
of Liverpool/
*
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Available from the publisher's website:
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*https://www.routledge.com/Levelling-Up-the-Screen-Industries-Film-and-Television-Production-as-Regenerative-Strategy-in-Places-Left-Behind/McKenna/p/book/9781032887753 

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