Abstract

This chapter offers a case study of practices of evidence-gathering relating to regeneration and culture in Great Britain. It reviews literature from the last decade to explore the ‘regenerative’ outcomes sought from cultural interventions, the types of proposition that underlie these outcomes, and the types of evidence produced to support these propositions. This offers an analytical framework that elucidates key aspects of the policy discourse relating to culture (i.e. what activities are funded and what claims are made for them) and the approaches to ‘evidencing’ the claims made within that discourse. In doing so, we reflect upon the nature of this evidence base and upon some of the common methodological challenges encountered in the production of evidence.