Liverpool's European Capital of Culture legacy narrative: a selective heritage?

Liverpool hosted the European Capital of Cultural (ECoC) in 2008, four years after the city was granted UNESCO World Heritage Site status. A decade later the city council celebrated the anniversary of hosting, while at the same time UNESCO debated the imminent delisting of the city’s world heritage site. Concentrating on data collected during this anniversary year, this paper critically examines the extent to which an ECoC legacy narrative in the city remains intrinsically linked to an economic regeneration-dominated understanding of the role of culture that has changed very little since the bidding and hosting process. Large scale events and visitor economy strategies dominate the cultural offer, whilst heritage, in particular the World Heritage Site, is at best drawn upon in property or tourism led redevelopment advertisement, or, at worst, seen as negatively competing with the progress of a perceived city ‘renaissance’. This article draws upon cross sector multi-stakeholder mapping workshops, interviews and document analysis to explore how a selective legacy narrative continues to affect the development of a more embedded approach to cultural heritage within the city