Evaluating Cultural Legacy – From Policy to Engaged Research

Independently of the scale, cultural events have proliferated across the globe as instruments of economic conversion with a significant impact on cultural policies. The debate on capturing the value of cultural events has fuelled dichotomous positions that trumpet narrative of success or question the event impact and public spending. This chapter discusses events evaluation as a social phenomenon embedded within particular contexts. It contributes to the field by drawing on the author’s prior and ongoing experience as a sociologist of evaluation for Impact 18 (an evaluation of the 2008 Liverpool European Capital of Culture ten year on) and the Liverpool Boroughs of Culture. This chapter reframed events impact evaluation as a social phenomenon embedded within particular contexts. By drawing on real-world practice of reflexive and collaborative evaluation that recognises cultural policy in interaction with other policy spheres, it offers possible strategies to navigate pragmatic cultural events evaluation and advance the debate beyond the prevailing issues on evidencing cultural value