Creating an Ideopolis - case study of Manchester, sponsored by Manchester City Council, builds on the findings of Ideopolis: Knowledge City-Regions. It focuses on the policy and institutional architecture that is needed to enable cities to develop the nine Ideopolis drivers and to realise their potential as Ideopolises, and considers Manchester as a detailed case study.
Our research has found that an Ideopolis is created through the combination of national, regional and sub-regional policies and institutions. However there is not a ‘neat’ solution to the architecture for Ideopolises: different policies will require decisions and funding at different levels in different places. This ‘institutional messiness’ can be a source of innovation: the most successful cities are those that have had a range of solutions and been able to evolve how they work over time