Re-Imagining the City of Liverpool as a Capital of Consumption
European Advances in Consumer Research, Volume 9, 2010
7 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2012
Date Written: February, 21 2012
Abstract
Have “ewe” heard that over a hundred Superlambananas recently roamed through the city of Liverpool? More of a playful and colourful way to brighten up the city than a commentary on genetic cloning, the public art event called “Wild in Art” was a huge success, and has been one of many novel ideas the Liverpool Culture Company have called upon to re-imagine the city of Liverpool. And it did reimagine it. For until recently, Liverpool had a thoroughly maudlin narrative, a mawkish mythology that cast it as a blot on the landscape, a national cultural joke, Cinderella at the national city ball (Grunenberg and Knifton 2007; Belchem 2006). Thoroughly woe betided, Liverpool was frequently characterized as “one of Britain’s most blighted cities” (Kivell 1993, p.164), a dystopia mired in “decay and dereliction, high levels of unemployment, poor housing conditions” (Savage and Warde 1996, p.267), and as “a scarred, de-industrialized landscape” (Childs and Storry 1999, p.283).
Keywords: Liverpool, City Branding
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