A community event hosted by Manchester Digital Laboratory, better known as MadLab, in Stockport, England / Courtesy of MadLab
Aging populations, rural towns losing their pulse and main streets hollowed out by years of decline. It may sound like a familiar portrait of Korea’s struggling regional centers. But the same scene could just as easily be found 8,800 kilometers away in Stockport, a town in Greater Manchester, England.
Once a thriving textile hub, Stockport saw its fortunes fade in the 20th century as Britain’s cotton industry collapsed. The decline stretched well into recent years as shops continued to shutter and residents drifted toward London, and later the booming city of Manchester.
Today, neighborhoods around Stockport’s town center remain among the most deprived in the United Kingdom, grappling with demographic decline and elevated rates of disability and depression.
It was to this landscape that the Manchester Digital Laboratory, better known as MadLab, made an unexpected move in 2018.
Originally founded in 2009 in Manchester’s city center as a grassroots technology community organization, MadLab began with a simple idea: to create “human-sized spaces” where creatives could gather — somewhere between the formality of large institutions and the looseness of pub back rooms.
It soon grew into a DIY haven where creativity, technology and art collided. At one point, it played host to nearly 100 programs a month, ranging from electronics hacking and game development to cryptocurrency meetups and science fiction clubs.
After its early experimental years, organizers began to notice that some participants were traveling from other parts of the country just to be closer to the culture MadLab had cultivated.
Rachel Turner, co-founder and executive director of MadLab / Courtesy of British Council
“We were being inclusive, but sort of in a passive way. Then we started asking ourselves: Who isn’t here?” MadLab co-founder and executive director Rachel Turner told The Korea Times.
Source: Korea Times News
