Does Cultural Regeneration Work? : The Tate Gallery Liverpool and the Greater Albert Dock Re-development

This paper takes a holistic approach to the imposition of a cultural institution in the city of Liverpool as a means towards regeneration. The background to this research is based on an enquiry into the viability of cultural regeneration and whether local circumstances have a particular role to play in the process of regeneration. A subsequent question is the degree to which regeneration takes place. In short does it address the underlying causes of deprivation and poverty. The example of Liverpool is apposite because it looks not just at the opening of the Tate Liverpool, although that was a catalyst, but the development of the entire Royal Albert Dock area. This process of ‘gentrification’ Jauhiainen (2011) notes requires the migration of capital and population. David Harvey explains that cities that once saw themselves as centres for production had become centres for consumption (Harvey, 1989) and as Christopher Law (2000) observes leisure activities became the driving force for regeneration. The purpose of the study is to better understand the reasons behind the plans for regeneration and whether those reasons are the common denominator behind all cultural regeneration projects. The method I employ is to some extent comparative and has evolved out of academic discourse on this subject. The results are that in the case of Liverpool, as with Bilbao, although social deprivation was the catalyst for regeneration, it has not been proven to have alleviated the underlying conditions of unemployment and poverty to a significant degree. The implications of this research, therefore, cast doubt on the assumption that cultural regeneration directly benefits the local population, in spite of the greater tourist revenue accrued by the city and the modest growth in ancillary industries.