Manchester Metropolitan University strengthens global place management links through IPM visit to Turku, Finland

Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Place Management (IPM) Professor Steve Millington will be visiting Turku, Finland this January as part of the Institute’s expanding programme of international research and practice-based collaboration. The visit follows Professor Millington’s recent international engagements, including speaking at the International Place Branding Association in Thailand, and leading work in Norway with the Telemark Research Institute. It also builds specifically on Professor Millington’s recent work hosting a delegation of Nigerian policymakers in Manchester, where discussions focused on the governance and management of privately owned public spaces in rapidly growing urban contexts.

Located on the Baltic Sea in south-west Finland, Turku is the country’s oldest city and a long-established international harbour. With a growing population of over 200,000 and a strong tradition of collaboration between public, private, and civic actors, Turku provides a valuable context for discussions on public space management and place governance. During the visit, Professor Millington will contribute to a research seminar and lead a stakeholder workshop focused on balancing control and disorder in the management of public and visitor spaces. His visit is hosted by Kirsi Eronen, IPM Member and Executive Director of the Turku City Centre Association, reflecting the strength of IPM’s international practitioner-academic network.

The research seminar brings together academics, property owners, developers, and place management practitioners from across Finland, and builds on IPM’s work on privately owned public spaces (POPS) - publicly accessible but privately managed environments that increasingly shape everyday urban experience. Drawing on research using Blackpool North Pier as a heritage case study, Professor Millington’s contribution will explore how public-private spaces are governed in practice, and how place managers balance safety, commercial pressures, access, and lived experience.  Alongside this, Professor Millington will lead a practice-focused workshop exploring what good public space management looks like in Turku, including whether a shared Public Space Charter could support more coordinated decision-making across publicly owned, privately owned, and hybrid spaces.

The visit also allows Prof Millington to connect with Manchester Metropolitan University’s wider research into Circular Society Innovations, which examines how more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable approaches to urban regeneration are shaped by place. CSI includes international case studies from London, Utrecht, Turku, and Chicago. Following the seminar, Professor Millington will also meet with colleagues at the University of Turku to help strengthen international links between academic institutions to share knowledge.

To connect with Kirsi Eronen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsi-eronen-8a2816a5/?originalSubdomain=fi

Connect with Prof Steve Millington: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drsdmillington/

About the author

Steve Millington

Steve is a Professor of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University. Steve guides the Institute's work on placemaking  He is currently the academic lead for research impact for the Faculty of Business and Law. Outside the university he is a Trustee of the Manchester Geographical Society. Steve has also conducted academic research on lighting and public space, place and creativity, and placemaking and football. He has edited two books including Rethinking the Cultural Economy. Between 2019-2024 Steve was appointed as a High Streets Task Force Expert, a role in which he designed and delivered a national placemaking programme in 40 locations across England.  In addition to leading the IPM's Vital and Viable Neighbourhoods work, Steve's current research involves supports an ESRC Project on Circular Society innovations and place-based living.