A heritage-inspired cultural mega-event in a stigmatized city: Hull UK City of Culture 2017

ABSTRACT

While the impacts of cultural mega-events on a city’s projected image have been extensively explored, less attention has been devoted to their role in relation to territorial stigmatization. These events have, in some cases, engaged with issues of stigmatization, as happened in Glasgow (European City of Culture 1990) and Derry-Londonderry (UK City of Culture 2013). This paper explores how built heritage is mobilized through a cultural mega-event in relation to stigma, through a case study of the city of Hull, in Northern England. Despite being among the country’s main ports until the 1930s, Hull suffered from steady structural socio-economic decline, in particular due to the demise of its fishing industry from the 1970s onwards. Hull UK City of Culture 2017 was understood as an opportunity to counter negative external perceptions. Heritage was mobilized to tell the story of the city, engage residents and visitors in cultural activities and boost civic pride. Events in 2017 and beyond promoted heritage learning in innovative ways, also through the spectacularisation of heritage spaces. However, the official evaluation of Hull 2017 shows how positive immediate results were later scaled down, suggesting that these events are not sufficient on their own to counter stigmatization.

KEYWORDS:

• Built heritage
• cultural mega-events
• stigmatized cities
• UK City of Culture

Acknowledgments

Sections of this paper are based on and supported by the research conducted within the JPI Cultural Heritage research project ‘HOMEE – Heritage Opportunities/ Threats within Mega-Events in Europe’, with a grant issued by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ten semi-structured interviews were undertaken in March-August 2019 to prepare a case study about heritage opportunities and threats in relation to Hull 2017 as part of the HOMEE project. The role of heritage in countering negative internal and external perceptions of the city was a key theme emerging from the interviews. This research strand about on heritage, territorial stigmatization and cultural mega events benefitted from the authors’ work on the evaluation of Hull 2017 (undertaken by the Culture, Place and Policy Institute of the University of Hull).

2 The media analysis focused on online items from local and national sources issued in 2014–2019. Articles published by the local newspaper (Hull Daily Mail) were analysed alongside others from local newspapers from across Northern England mentioning Hull 2017. The analysis of the national media encompassed national newspapers (The Guardian, The Independent), broadcasters (BBC, ITV), and political magazines (New Statesman, The Economist, The New European). Critical discourse analysis (Wodak 2001) was used to detect recurrent discourses and storylines (Hajer 2003).

3 During the research process, the UK City of Culture 2017 has been perceived as relatively less important for Hull since 2018, mostly due to unrelated factors such as Brexit, the impact of austerity policies and lately the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversely, heritage-led regeneration has become increasingly important, as demonstrated by the interest around the Hull: Yorkshire’s Maritime City project.

4 In 2019, 27.2% of the local population held a NVQ4 qualification or above, while 8.9% had no qualification, in comparison with 40.3% and 7.7% in Great Britain; the unemployment rate in 2019 was 6.6% against 3.9% nationally (Source: Office for National Statistics). Hull displayed the third highest proportion of neighbourhoods among the 10% most deprived in England (Source: Department for Communities and Local Government, 2015). The proportion of adults diagnosed with chronic mental health problems is above the national average (source: Hull Data Observatory, PHOF and DWP), as are figures for stroke, coronary heart disease and respiratory problems (source: Hull City Council, 2018).

5 Source: Department for Communities and Local Government, 2015.

6 As noted by Bianchini, Albano, and Bollo (2013) for the 2005–2011 period, ECoCs in the last twenty years have included small and medium-sized cities. Final operational budget figures are from Fox and Rampton (2017), Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (2018) and EFECTIV Consortium (2019).

7 Source: Visit Hull and East Yorkshire (2019).

8 A cruise terminal is planned to be built near the iconic aquarium The Deep, at walking distance from Hull’s Old Town.