Liverpool City Research Articles

The City as a Laboratory of Shadows: Exposing Secret Histories While Thinking of the Future

This paper lays out a particular way of ‘seeing’ or looking at cities – one that allows us to see beneath the physical surface of buildings and infrastructure and which thus opens the door to considering the ‘shadows’ of a city as a source of inspiration. In these shadows, it suggests, we can see the city as a ‘laboratory of ideas.’ Specifically, the paper examines the city of Liverpool but its themes are applicable worldwide. It aims to expose Liverpool’s ‘poetic’ qualities and suggests that those best placed to understand it, and guide its development, may not be architects or planners, but rather those that inhabit it most intensely – its people. As a result, the paper becomes a tale about time and movement and the everyday (and night) life of a port city with a history stretching back over centuries. Despite this history, the city has over the past two decades received a whole range of development grants that have and are, right now, changing the physical nature of its urban environment radically. In the context of these physical, externally funded changes to the city’s make-up that mirror conditions found in cities across the world, it is perhaps more important than ever to redirect our thoughts to what lies beneath the surface – to the city’s social, economic and cultural heart. The thinking and experience that underlies this suggestion began in the 1960s when architecture was taught alongside sociology. Imagine a radical School of Art & Design with a sociologist on the staff, in which Richard Hoggart’s The Uses and Misuses of Literacy was on the agenda, and the writings of the Marxist social theorist Raymond Williams were essential reading – Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, in particular. This author comes out of this tradition, and it is in this tradition that this paper sees the future of cities to be a future without architects or, at least, a future in which architects do not dictate to the people for whom they design. It is an argument applicable across the globe.

A Study on Public-Private Partnership in Liverpool City Region

A Study on Public-Private Partnership in Liverpool City Region

The “Lord Mayor of Beatle-land”: Popular Music, Local Government, and the Promotion of Place in 1960s Liverpool

This article offers an analysis of the relationship between city government institutions and popular music through an examination of the discourses, attitudes, and actions of Liverpool's city officials in relation to the Beatles. Focusing on the mid-1960s it presents the first academic analysis of a substantial archive of original correspondence relating to the Beatles which was sent and received by the Lord Mayor's Office in Liverpool. Drawing on this material, it discusses the relationship between popular music and city strategy at a time when institutional thinking about such relations was utterly unformed or embryonic at best. Capturing a particular moment within the social and cultural life of Liverpool, the archive reveals how some city officials and local citizens were registering a nascent realization of the role that popular music could play in a reimagining of the city.

Briefing: A strategic direction for Liverpool's gay village

The Stanley Street area is widely recognised as the ‘gay village’ of Liverpool with an identity as the centre of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGB&T) scene. It hosts a vibrant night-time economy comprising bars, pubs and clubs that cater for the LGB&T community. Feria Urbanism, a Bournemouth-based urban design practice, was commissioned by Liverpool City Council to develop a strategic direction for the area. The project investigated a wide range of topics, including the redesign of the street, the creation of a new public space, the use of planning controls, architectural modifications to listed buildings and traffic management.

Liverpool Playhouse: A Theatre and Its City ed. by Ros Merkin (review)

Ros Merkin’s well-illustrated volume is an excellent account of the relationship that a theatre can have with its city: the book’s wealth of documentary evidence demonstrates the ways that the Liverpool Playhouse has been a cornerstone of the city of Liverpool – partly, because the theatre was owned by the people of Liverpool rather than funded by a wealthy sponsor or the city itself.

Defibrillators in schools: A legal perspective

Would your school’s staff know how to react in the event of a pupil, staff member or visitor suffering a cardiac arrest? Currently, there is no legal requirement for places of education to have access to a defibrillator. However, campaigners are pushing for new laws to bring about the introduction of defibrillators in all public places, including schools—and some schools have already decided to install the devices. The issue has been making headlines due to young people dying from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) while in school. Every year, more than 600 young people in the UK die from SCA—with almost half of these deaths taking place in schools. The coverage is backed by organisations such as the Oliver King Foundation, which campaigns to raise awareness of the condition and for measures to be put in place to prevent future SCA-related deaths from taking place. The Foundation’s recent e-petition called for the government to ‘introduce defibrillators to all public buildings by 2017’ and it garnered more than 110,000 signatures, sparking a debate in Parliament. And while ministers have said they are not minded to introduce legislation, similar campaigns in the US have resulted in the passing of laws enforcing the implementation of on-site defibrillators and the campaign in the UK is continuing to gain support. Recently, plans were approved by Liverpool City Council to install a defibrillator in every primary school in the city.

Alcohol-related mortality in deprived UK cities: worrying trends in young women challenge recent national downward trends

BackgroundGlasgow, the largest city in Scotland, has high levels of deprivation and a poor-health profile compared with other parts of Europe, which cannot be fully explained by the high levels...

Managing the mendicant: regeneration and repression in Liverpool

In 2010, Liverpool was the most deprived local authority area in England. Its position was unchanged from earlier surveys conducted in 2004 and 2007. Almost a quarter of England's 100 most deprived smaller areas were located in the city (Liverpool City Council, 2011). The city was also the ‘easiest place to die – 35 per cent above the national average – …’ (Armstrong, 2012) while one third of its children lived in poverty.. What has been the local state's response to this dire state of affairs? It has developed a strategy built on governing poverty through regenerating the city, particularly its central shopping hub.

Tots talk programme - how a strategy for quality provision achieved results

An innovative project that has reached 120 local settings is boosting the language development of two-year-olds, says Liverpool City Council's Colette Bentley.

Housing Vacancy and the Shrinking City: Trends and Policies in the UK and the City of Liverpool

In the context of the discourse around shrinking cities, the aim of the paper was to try and better understand and differentiate the various types and causes of urban housing vacancy and to ask whether policy responses including planning policies appropriately reflect this variety. The paper briefly discusses the issue of shrinking cities, before considering theoretical explanations for housing vacancy and examining the relationships between population change, housing vacancy and policy responses in the Liverpool conurbation. Conclusions are then drawn about the nature of housing vacancy and the effectiveness of policy responses.

The struggle for grassroots involvement in football club governance: experiences of a supporter-activist

This study highlights the struggle of fans of English Premier League club, Everton FC, to influence the governance of their football club. The author is Secretary of Keeping Everton in Our City (KEIOC), a group that was instrumental in opposing their board of directors’ plans to remove the club out of the City of Liverpool in order to set up a stadium in the neighbouring Merseyside borough of Knowsley. This work affords us a first-hand experience and understanding of the football club fan-owner struggle. As well as offering an insight into the group’s ability to mobilize opposition to unpopular, commercially driven stratagems devised by and for the benefit of the club owners, the author also highlights the part played by KEIOC in the launch of a major community project to regenerate run-down districts of inner-city Liverpool. This study acknowledges the efforts of fans in recognizing that the cultural capital of football is not only something that can be commodified for the benefit of football club owners, but can also be harnessed for local social ends.

Pet ownership, dog types and attachment to pets in 9–10 year old children in Liverpool, UK

BackgroundLittle is known about ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic differences in childhood ownership and attitudes to pets. The objective of this study was to describe the factors associated with living with different pet types, as well as factors that may influence the intensity of relationship or ‘attachment’ that children have to their pet. Data were collected using a survey of 1021 9–10 year old primary school children in a deprived area of the city of Liverpool, UK.ResultsDogs were the most common pet owned, most common ‘favourite’ pet, and species most attached to. Twenty-seven percent of dog-owning children (10% of all children surveyed) reported living with a ‘Bull Breed’ dog (which includes Pit Bulls and Staffordshire Bull Terriers), and the most popular dog breed owned was the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Multivariable regression modelling identified a number of variables associated with ownership of different pets and the strength of attachment to the child’s favourite pet. Girls were more likely to own most pet types, but were no more or less attached to their favourite pet than boys. Children of white ethnicity were more likely to own dogs, rodents and ‘other’ pets but were no more or less attached to their pets than children of non-white ethnicity. Single and youngest children were no more or less likely to own pets than those with younger brothers and sisters, but they showed greater attachment to their pets. Children that owned dogs lived in more deprived areas than those without dogs, and deprivation increased with number of dogs owned. ‘Pit Bull or cross’ and ‘Bull Breed’ dogs were more likely to be found in more deprived areas than other dog types. Non-whites were also more likely to report owning a ‘Pit Bull or cross’ than Whites.ConclusionsGender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status were associated with pet ownership, and sibling status with level of attachment to the pet. These are important to consider when conducting research into the health benefits and risks of the common childhood phenomenon of growing up with pets.

Liverpool's appetite for change

The city of Liverpool has a fine legacy of nineteenth century and early twentieth century townscape. Its remarkable history as an international seaport and its impressive historic and cultural heritage have resulted in much of the city centre being designated a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Over the past decade, the city has developed a confident understanding of placemaking and has rejuvenated much of its tired and shabby public realm. The city now boasts an enviable network of streets and open spaces on a par with many of its European counterparts. This paper traces the unfolding of Liverpool’s fortunes and identifies the components that have helped the city regain its new-found confidence. Embedded within its story are many practical lessons for the quality of urban life and sustainable development in the twenty-first century.

The political (mis)management of (homo)sexuality and (in)securities

Set against national research indicating the prolific nature of homophobic bullying towards children and young people, Liverpool City Council (LCC) made a commitment to prevent homophobia on a local level. Research commissioned by LCC into the perceived safety of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) communities in Liverpool identified concerns regarding bullying experienced by children and young people.

Gender, Space, and Drunkenness: Liverpool's Licensed Premises, 1860–1914

The British licensing system regulated public houses both as social centers and as providers of alcohol. In the northern port city of Liverpool—which police statistics consistently showed to be one of the most drunken cities in Britain—the spatial technology of licensing worked to shape drinking and drunkenness with a particular emphasis on the regulation of female drinking. Between 1850 and 1915 women accounted for 40 percent of all apprehensions for drunkenness in the city. Women who entered public houses were subjected to greater public scrutiny than men, and the law also helped construct the pub as a masculine space. Social reformers also played a crucial role in shaping public debates about licensing and licensed premises. Allied to concerns about prostitution, subsequent attempts to prevent women from using pubs risked encouraging private drinking. In this way, changes to licensed space influenced behavior even in unlicensed and thus formally unregulated spaces such as the home, where the consumption of alcohol could not be controlled in the same way as in the public house. Although its decisions and policies seemed only to apply to public houses, the licensing system played a much broader role in the gendered construction and consumption of urban space.

Establishing forensic search methodologies and geophysical surveying for the detection of clandestine graves in coastal beach environments

A 2010 UK police search for a clandestine burial highlighted the need for more information and quantitative data to aid coastal beach searches. This study aimed to address this by establishing relevant forensic search methodologies to aid the search for clandestine coastal burial sites, using the North West English coastline as a search area. A set of parameters were established, including criteria such as tidal range, proximity to vehicular access points and distance from inhabited areas, which may inform forensic searches by prioritising likely locations of clandestine burials. Three prioritised coastal locations were subsequently identified: (1) coastal dunes at Formby, (2) coastal dunes and (3) beach foreshore at Southport, all sites part of the Liverpool City Region in the United Kingdom. At all locations, simulated clandestine graves were hand-dug by spades into which a naked adult-sized, metal-jointed fiberglass mannequin was buried at 0.5 m below ground level. Trial geophysical surveys were then undertaken with the aim of identifying the optimal geophysical instrumentation and technique to deploy in such environments. GPR data showed 450 MHz frequency antennae to be optimal, with significantly poor data obtained from the foreshore area due to saline seawater. Electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility surveys were successful in coastal environments in target detection (albeit not in non-vegetated sand dunes), with resistivity fixed-offset configurations deemed optimal. The latter survey successes may be due to the recent disturbed 'grave' rather than the target, which itself is of interest in terms of identifying the most recent clandestine burials.

O1-1.4 The patterning of deprivation and its effects on health outcomes in three post industrial cities in Britain

Scotland has some of the worst reported health in the developed world. In comparison to England and Wales it has higher mortality rates, as well as higher incidence and prevalence...

Managing UK Highways Act section 278 projects – a collaborative approach

Liverpool City Council has developed a collaborative approach to managing section 278 agreements under the UK Highways Act 1980 through its highways development control service. This paper examines how highways development control has changed in recent years in Liverpool, and some of the different approaches to managing section 278 agreements used by local authorities. It provides details of a new system currently being utilised in Liverpool, which employs an open book approach. This system has been proven to bring clarity to all those involved in the section 278 process; the developer, the highway authority, and the technical service provider (increasingly common as authorities outsource technical service provision). It also suggests how some local authorities might improve this area of service provision, through collaborative working. The city council formed the 2020Liverpool Ltd joint venture with Mouchel in 2003 for the provision of technical and professional services across the authority, and the paper is written jointly from the perspectives of the highway authority and the technical service provider.

Sure Start: Sure Start: Liverpool City Council - battling to deal with an 11.5m funding shortfall

While Liverpool is feeling the pain of drastic cuts, it is determined to maintain vital services for children and families in all areas of the city. Mary Evans hears how.

Welfare, exclusion and rough sleeping in Liverpool

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the relationship between rough sleepers, welfare and policy in the city of Liverpool, taking Liverpool City Council's Homelessness Strategy 2008‐2011 as a starting point. The paper takes as its premise the notion of rough sleepers as among the most vulnerable and marginalised in society, and questions how well they are protected by policy.Design/methodology/approachThe approach used is analysis and contextualisation of the strategy document in terms of welfare and criminological perspectives.FindingsThe paper posits that the city's European Capital of Culture Status for 2008 has acted as a springboard for further consumerist and regeneration‐driven aspirations, facilitated by restriction of entitlement to access city space for groups such as rough sleepers. The piece explores responses to rough sleepers and other “undesirable” city centre space users in Liverpool and contends that their behaviour and activities are criminalised. Ultimately, it is argued that the city, whilst it prioritises its goal of becoming a “world‐class city”, fails to deliver in terms of its welfare obligations.Originality/valueIt is argued that the failure of the strategy to adequately consider the direct needs of rough sleepers renders them subject to other approaches, namely criminalisation. The article is valuable to both academics interested in aspects of social justice and practitioners engaged in policy making, in that it highlights some of the ways in which policy can fail to meet its basic requirements.