Event and Sustainable Culture-Led Regeneration: Lessons from the 2008 European Capital of Culture, Liverpool

Yi-De Liu

doi:10.3390/su11071869

Abstract

Culture-led regeneration has been widely accepted by European cities as an important component of urban renewal and sustainable development. However, the instrumental role of culture in urban regeneration has revealed several controversies. The study aims at contributing to the debate on urban cultural policy and management by answering two research questions: What are the key success factors for sustainable culture-led regeneration? How can cities strike a balance between the dilemmas of culture-led regeneration? Based on a case study of Liverpool as the 2008 European Capital of Culture, this research draws on long-term and multi-faceted data. The study period is from 2007 to 2018, with a view to tracking the long-term impact of event. Liverpool’s strategies for sustainable culture-led regeneration are investigated from three aspects: cultural funding dilemma, economic dilemma and spatial dilemma. The findings reveal that incorporating events in a city’s long-term regeneration trajectory, continued support and enhancement of local cultural processes and structures, and highlighting community involvement and development are major factors to ensure the cultural sustainability of event.

Highlights

In recent years, cities are gradually integrating culture into one of the cores of sustainable planning and policy discussions
Despite the conceptual and operational challenges, the paradigm of culture and sustainable development will continue to provide a platform for future discussions on sustainability [2]
As the “fourth pillar” of sustainable development, this paper aims to answer two key research questions related to cultural sustainability: What are the key success factors for sustainable culture-led regeneration? To what extent does Liverpool strike a balance between the three dilemmas of culture-led regeneration? This article is concluded by referring to these two questions, and by outlining the theoretical and empirical implications

Summary

Introduction

Cities are gradually integrating culture into one of the cores of sustainable planning and policy discussions. Bianchini and Parkinson [7] first launch this debate to explore the dilemmas that cultural applications may face in urban regeneration They point out that, in order to maintain sustainable development, cities need to strike a balance in investing on ‘ephemeral’ activity (e.g., events or festivals) and ‘permanent’ activity (e.g., facilities or infrastructures); between cultural production and consumption; as well as between the development of city centre and its periphery. They call these “cultural funding dilemma”, “economic dilemma”, and “spatial dilemma.”.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion