The social life of measurement: how methods have shaped the idea of culture in urban regeneration

ABSTRACT

Although ‘culture-led regeneration’ has been critiqued as both a concept and practice, it is clear that policy-makers continue to make efforts to use cultural activity of varying forms to achieve ends which could be (and are) described in terms of urban ‘regeneration’. Whilst the idea of culture-led urban regeneration had gained considerable prominence in a range of policy by the early twenty-first century, many questions have remained over how exactly such ‘regenerative’ outcomes could be convincingly demonstrated, despite much activity to attempt such demonstration over the course of preceding years. The desire for convincing evidence can be seen in a continued, and increasing, focus on evaluation, and methods aimed at providing evidence of impact and outcomes. In light of the renewed political focus in recent years on ‘proving’ the effects and value of cultural activity, this paper considers the continuation of practice in this area, and asks what lessons, if any, have been learned in evaluative practice which seeks to demonstrate the regenerative effects of culture. In light of the continuation of apparently problematic practices, the paper seeks to delineate and account for what has been learned, and what has not.

KEYWORDS:

• Culture-led regeneration
• evidence
• evaluation
• cultural value
• methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Peter Campbell is a lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Liverpool. His research to date has focussed upon cultural policy, and on attempts to align culture and creativity with processes of socio-economic urban regeneration. In addition to doctoral research studying political discourse and activity regarding the ‘creative industries’, and their broader social role, he has worked on evaluation of the European Capital of Culture research programme, and the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Tamsin Cox is Head of Policy and Research at DHA, and an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool. She has undertaken a range of work with funding bodies, local authorities, organisations, networks, and events.

Dave O’Brien is a Chancellor's Fellow in Cultural and Creative Industries at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. He has published extensively on cultural policy, cultural and creative work, cultural value, and culture-led urban regeneration. His most recent books are the edited collections Routledge Companion to Global Cultural Policy, After Urban Regeneration, and the monograph Cultural Policy.

Notes

1. A full list of sources consulted can be found in Campbell et al. (2015).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number AH/L014505/1].