Creating the baseline: data relations and frictions of UK City of Culture evaluation
Creating the baseline: data relations and frictions of UK City of Culture evaluation
Purpose: Socioeconomic aims and impacts are an explicit part of the UK City of Culture (UKCoC) application, bidding, delivery and evaluation stages. This article engages with existing debates on evaluating cities of culture and introduces perspectives from critical data studies to examine the collection and analysis of different data for the purposes of the CoC application and evaluation processes. Design/methodology/approach: The meta-methodological concept of accompanying researcher is used to analyse the experiences of researchers based within a city bidding for UKCoC 2025 in dialogue with the evaluation reports from past UKCoC host cities. Findings: Findings are analysed under three themes: defining data morsels; local histories and infrastructures of data generation and sharing; and resources, capacities and expertise for data generation and evaluation. The discussion examines data still to be generated and/or brought into relation; tensions around data and measurement; and how constructing an evaluation baseline is generative—creating new organisations, relationships and practices. Practical implications: The conceptual and methodological approach and empirical findings will be relevant for academic, policymakers and practitioners engaging with cultural evaluation. Originality/value: In focussing on the bidding stage in real time through the accompanying researcher position, this article presents original empirical insights into the process of creating a baseline for cities of culture evaluation. The conceptual originality of this article is in using critical data studies to explain strategies of data generation and analyse data relations and frictions.
City of Culture, Culture, Data, Evaluation, Placemaking
14-28
Ashton, Daniel
b267eae4-7bdb-4fe3-9267-5ebad36e86f7
Gowland-Pryde, Ronda
e1ea18b3-8a04-4107-b09e-0fca1d6f02a9
Roth, Silke
cd4e63d8-bd84-45c1-b317-5850d2a362b6
Sturt, Fraser
442e14e1-136f-4159-bd8e-b002bf6b95f6
3 April 2024
Ashton, Daniel
b267eae4-7bdb-4fe3-9267-5ebad36e86f7
Gowland-Pryde, Ronda
e1ea18b3-8a04-4107-b09e-0fca1d6f02a9
Roth, Silke
cd4e63d8-bd84-45c1-b317-5850d2a362b6
Sturt, Fraser
442e14e1-136f-4159-bd8e-b002bf6b95f6
Ashton, Daniel, Gowland-Pryde, Ronda, Roth, Silke and Sturt, Fraser
(2024)
Creating the baseline: data relations and frictions of UK City of Culture evaluation.
Arts and the Market, 14 (1), .
(doi:10.1108/AAM-08-2021-0038).
Abstract
Purpose: Socioeconomic aims and impacts are an explicit part of the UK City of Culture (UKCoC) application, bidding, delivery and evaluation stages. This article engages with existing debates on evaluating cities of culture and introduces perspectives from critical data studies to examine the collection and analysis of different data for the purposes of the CoC application and evaluation processes. Design/methodology/approach: The meta-methodological concept of accompanying researcher is used to analyse the experiences of researchers based within a city bidding for UKCoC 2025 in dialogue with the evaluation reports from past UKCoC host cities. Findings: Findings are analysed under three themes: defining data morsels; local histories and infrastructures of data generation and sharing; and resources, capacities and expertise for data generation and evaluation. The discussion examines data still to be generated and/or brought into relation; tensions around data and measurement; and how constructing an evaluation baseline is generative—creating new organisations, relationships and practices. Practical implications: The conceptual and methodological approach and empirical findings will be relevant for academic, policymakers and practitioners engaging with cultural evaluation. Originality/value: In focussing on the bidding stage in real time through the accompanying researcher position, this article presents original empirical insights into the process of creating a baseline for cities of culture evaluation. The conceptual originality of this article is in using critical data studies to explain strategies of data generation and analyse data relations and frictions.
Text
Ashton, Gowland Pryde, Roth, Sturt (2023) Creating the Baseline (author accepted manuscript)
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 7 July 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 30 September 2023
Published date: 3 April 2024
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Keywords:
City of Culture, Culture, Data, Evaluation, Placemaking
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 481550
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/481550
ISSN: 2056-4945
PURE UUID: 6f25c32e-b3ee-4bf9-b131-5608fa0c2c18
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 01 Sep 2023 16:58
Last modified: 18 Sep 2024 01:48
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