Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008: An Ethnographic Approach to Impact Evaluations

Abstract

This chapter analyses the possible contributions of ethnography to the flourishing market for impact evaluations of culture-led regeneration policies. The growing need for accountability has multiplied university engagement in commissioned evaluations, as these seem to provide good financial support for research. These evaluations, however, have to follow a work rhythm that threatens to transform scientific research into the production of consumer goods as only certain methods can produce results fast enough for the dominant agenda. The predominance of quantitative, or at least quantifiable, data concerning evaluations of cultural policy is hence no surprise. Sticking to the requirements of classic ethnography seems therefore to exclude the participation of social anthropology in this market or - seen by the perspective this paper adopts - deprives policy-makers of valuable insights into the impacts of cultural policy on local population (the use of ethnography in policy research is also discussed in Chapter 6). The chapter will refer to a post-doctoral research project jointly funded by two UK research councils, the Arts and Humanities (AHRC) and the Economic and Social (ESRC)¹ about the qualitative impacts of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) awarded to Liverpool in 2008.