Re-Imagining the City of Liverpool As a Capital of Consumption

The purpose of this paper then is to explore whether or not the city of Liverpool, during its ‘cultural moment’, has really become representative of anything distinctive and different, or has, in fact, the project seen the place become just another conventional landscape of consumption, characterized only by the homogenized symbols of multinational stores that line its streets, losing along the way, something of its true identity? Naturally, the focus will be on the consumers not inconsiderable role in Liverpool’s cultural metamorphosis. The promise of consumer marketing, after all -- whether it is called ‘place marketing’, ‘city branding’, ‘tourism marketing’, ‘destination marketing’, or ‘place branding’ -- serves as the rationale behind all of these cultural transformational packages (OECD 2009; Miles and Miles 2004). Two main empirical issues will be explored: whether the negative perceptions of Liverpool have been altered by the project; and the extent to which local people are involved or not. Finally, some conclusions will be drawn about the future Liverpool faces in respect of the ECoC project’s legacy.

Citation:

Anthony Patterson and Julia Hodgson (2011) ,"Re-Imagining the City of Liverpool As a Capital of Consumption", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 297-303.