Entrepreneurial City Project: Hmp Swansea

Entrepreneurial City Project: HMP Swansea

CONTENTS

This assignment will include the following:

1. A critical reflection on the learning experience of the Entrepreneurial City Project.

2. A critical analysis of the following two texts:

(a) Hubbard, Phil and Tim Hall (1998) " The Entrepreneurial city and the 'New Urban Politics'" In: Hall, Tim, and Phil Hubbard (eds.) The Entrepreneurial City. Geographies of Politics, Regime and representation. Chichester: John Wiley. 1-23.

(b)Macleod, Gordon, Mike Raco, and Kevin Ward (2003) "Negotiating the contemporary city: Introduction." In: Urban Studies. Vol.40.No.9 (August). 1655-1671.

The 'Entrepreneurial City Project' was challenging and interesting. It involved learning new skills to meet the demands of the course.

My Myers Briggs Type Indicator (ENTJ) explains the reason why my approach to the entrepreneurial city project was so decisive and why I probably talked the most in the group. I work out my ideas by talking through them, I learn best by doing or discussing (Extraversion). I take in information by seeing the bigger picture, focusing on the relationships and connections between facts. I am energised by evaluating and analysing what's wrong so I can solve it (Thinking). I want to make decisions, come to closure and move on (Judging).

Having missed the day of the field trip for the project I had as my starting point the two texts. My project was heavily influenced by the first part of the work by Hubbard, Phil and Tim Hall (1998) who stated that Cities were "Carceral in design". I was keen to explore this further. However, my learning experience involved a fair amount of apprehension.

I have never previously considered myself an academic. I am from a working class family, the eldest of five boys in one of the poorest council estates in Swansea. I left school in 1984 in the middle of an economic slump. Options for employment were limited. 5 years after leaving school I joined the Prison Service where I rose through the ranks to reach the position of Governor Grade.

During my time in the prison service I took responsibility for my own self development and undertook management undergraduate courses through distance learning with the Open University.

The context of my background is I believe fundamental to my learning experience of the material encountered on the course and the connections I have made.

My first thought on this project was 'will this be the time they find me out?' Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries (2005) stated: "This neurotic imposture, as psychologists call it, is not a false humility. It is the flip side of giftedness and causes many talented, hardworking, and capable leaders - men and women who have achieved great things - to believe they don't deserve their success."

Whilst I don't profess to 'giftedness' I have certainly harboured private thoughts at times as to how I have managed against all odds and opposition to reach my current position when there were other more senior and experienced staff in the service. Am I worthy of this confidence? It also applies to my experience of learning with the MBA. There are people on the course with far greater skills and qualifications than mine. Am I then the 'fake'?

Did my parents sub-consciously with-hold encouragement as my ambitions were not their expectations? It was certainly expected of me to follow my father's footsteps into the building trade; management was for another class of society, and in a union entrenched culture, often the enemy.

Kets de Vries said that "Feelings of imposture are more common among first born children...[Who are expected to be]... models of maturity." As the eldest child, I was responsible for helping with the care of my younger brothers. I have also been somewhat of a role model for them. I have found them all their first employment and two are now in Senior Management Positions. None are in the building trade. I am often the one called upon to settle family disputes.

Kets de Vries went on to say that some "fear success will hurt them in some way". I am sure that my family are proud of my achievements but similarly I have lost friends because of my advancement and that does affect you, although you learn to live with this as part of the price to pay of career progression.

Although I have not displayed symptoms to the extreme as referred to in Kets de Vries's article it has been useful to know the signs to look out for in myself and employees, how self evaluation can avoid this train of thought and also how to avoid this negativity that can damage the individual or organisation. I have seen examples in my workplace where this has occurred.

From reading the texts I walked around Swansea and probably for the first time in 40 years critically analysed the 'ugly, lovely town' (Dylan Thomas, 1943) that I reside in.

I have viewed firsthand the changes that the City has gone through during the 70's, 80's and 90's. I therefore found it easy to relate to the articles and material that were discussed. Even so this project has opened my eyes to the way the City has evolved, how it has evolved and made me more aware of influences in this process.

I started to ask how this development started, what was its motivating factor, what effect it had on other areas of the City? I was interested in the history of the industrialism, its decline and the emergence of new industry to replace the lost jobs. How did this create the East West divide? The more I walked around, the more I researched the more I understood the City.

Because of my affinity with the City I could identify with most of the viewpoints form the two texts provided. My approach to this project started with trying to define what an entrepreneurial city was.

Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum stated the three defining features of entrepreneurial cities were:

* An entrepreneurial city pursues innovative strategies intended to maintain or enhance its economic competitiveness