Themes of Birmingham School of Business School

The UK stupidly thinks people from Birmingham are stupid. Birmingham was once known as the 'workshop of the world' for good reason, it pioneered state education, it has the largest library in Europe. They did embraced the car in a big way and have an almost futuristic road system, fast inner city flyovers, tunnels, roundabouts, and 'spaghetti junction', all built initially as part of a 'hub' rebranding/economic plan, that later moved out to the international airport hub, running visitors to out of town business parks and hotels. Its international visitors may not see them as stupid, but see little of Brum anyway.

Mark is not talking about 'Brummies', he's addressing this rebranding exercise. The character at the round-about reminds me of those generic managers who know next to nothing about the actual business they're in, trained only in maximising profit.

This 'rebranding' and urban redevelopment spin has now become an industry in itself, the Millennium Dome and London Olympics being more recent examples, spawning its own set of incomprehensible jargon. 'Sustainable regeneration platforms' providing 'opportunity gateways and community interfacing', that sounds much like the abstract jargon of scientific management's 'vision spanning mind canopies' for 'blue sky, big dick, in-the-pink, thinking '. Jonathon Meades has some great TV programmes on this and similar subjects.

Mark, getting in early to the heart of the matter, as he always does, offers us the most succinct translation yet, of this oblique B.S. of B.S. jargon :

"Wah wah wha wahawahwah wah wah wah wawawah".

Management jargon is ultimately a deceitful way to euphemise the logistics of time & motion analysis and the human cost of endless profit and efficiency drives. Regeneration jargon is perhaps more sinister, obfuscating business' strategic control of state funding policy, and the cynical social engineering and class displacement of government.

Great song, still.

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Birmingham School transcript