City Series is a public lecture series in Leicester that delivers free events relating to a wide range of urban topics, such as architecture, history and geography. This is a collaboration between Leicester City Council, De Montfort University, University of Leicester, and Loughborough University, with speakers from those institutions and from the wider community.
The latest event will be on the findings of an exciting local research project into the dynamics of ‘buzz’ in helping shape the new urban economy in a city like Leicester. It has been argued that ‘buzz’ is said to emerge from the concentration of socially and culturally significant sites, such as music venues, restaurants and bars, cultural quarters, and marketplaces. An example would be the LCB Depot and Leicester’s Cultural Quarter. Such ‘buzzy’ sites are key urban amenities that are believed to attract ‘talent’, make cities ‘liveable’, and are thus imagined to be vital to the economic competitiveness of cities. Exploring recent investment in the urban environment of the city centre, a series of short talks will look to unpack the concept and explore what it practically means for the future development of a place like Leicester.
The event will feature contributions from the team leading the research project out of the University of Leicester: Dr Stefano De Sabbata, Prof Gavin Brown and Dr Ben Coles. Prof Loretta Lees will chair the event. A Q+A session will follow.
This event is in partnership with: LCB Depot and CAMEo (Research Institute for Cultural and Media Economies).