During the 2022 Research Festival Simon Collister carried out a live Citizen Research Project entitled 'What is Manxness'.
The most mentioned qualities were:
- Culture
- History
- Community / togetherness / belonging
- Independence
- Proud / Pride
What insight does this give?
There is a real sense of the Island's unique history and culture informing Manxness. There is also a sense of existing in a strong community with togetherness and belonging (resilience and support) being important attributes. The feeling of independence and pride is interesting because arguably these are very important for stability and resilience.
Other qualities
Participants also highlighted:
- Natural world
- Clean skies
- Clean air
- Nature
- Farming
These are very much in keeping with sustainability and environmental concerns people have. Clearly this is strong in the consciousness of the Manx public.
There were some negative attributes included by participants:
- Sexist
- Old fashioned
- Isolated
- Siloed