interests | current | completed | fora | projects

Keywords: cultural policy, urban regeneration, city marketing, cultural impacts, long-term legacies of major events and festivals

Specific Interests: mega-events, Olympic Games, Cultural Olympiad,
European Capital of Culture, cultural and arts festivals

Since early 1997, my research has focused on studying the regeneration potential of cultural programmes staged within major national and world events. My main interest is to assess their long-term cultural legacies as distinct from other economic, physical and social impacts. With this in mind, I have developed a set of cultural indicators and longitudinal qualitative methodologies that complement established approaches to economic and physical impact analysis in order to advance the understanding of social and cultural impacts specifically.

In my role as Director of the Impacts 08 research programme into the effects of hosting the 2008 European Capital of Culture in Liverpool, I am involved in the establishment of a model for the longitudinal assessment of the multiple impacts of culture-led regeneration programmes, in particular, event-led regeneration initiatives. Impacts 08 combines methodologies for the assessment of economic as well as social, physical/environmental and cultural impacts. [Research summary] [Main website]

Prior to Impacts 08, I was the principal investigator for a retrospective study of the long term legacy of Glasgow 1990, European City of Culture. [Research summary]

Throughout, my work has also involved the assessment of the cultural dimensions of the Olympic Games, in particular, the Cultural Olympiad or official Olympic Arts Festivals. I have conducted fieldwork on the cultural programmes of the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000, Salt Lake 2002, Athens 2004, Torino 2006 and Beijing 2008. I am currently acting as academic observer and advisor to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. I also conducted the evaluation of Cultureshock, the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games Cultural Programme. [Main website] [Funded projects : 2004, 2006 ] [Monograph]