SONIC GEOGRAPHY, PLACE AND RACE IN THE FORMATION OF LOCAL IDENTITY: LIVERPOOL AND SCOUSERS

SONIC GEOGRAPHY, PLACE AND RACE IN THE FORMATION OF LOCAL IDENTITY: LIVERPOOL AND SCOUSERS

© The author 2010Journal compilation © 2010 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography 1

SONIC GEOGRAPHY, PLACE AND RACE IN THE FORMATION OF LOCAL IDENTITY:

LIVERPOOL AND SCOUSERS

byPhilip Boland

BOLAND, P. (2010): ‘Sonic geography, place and race in the for-mation of local identity: Liverpool and Scousers’, GeografiskaAnnaler: Series B, Human Geography 92 (1): 1–22

ABSTRACT. The concept of identity has attracted significant ac-ademic attention. This article unpacks what constitutes the Scouseidentity, how it is constructed and its different dimensions, withparticular reference to place, phonology and race. Its novelty liesin developing the underused concept of “sonic geography” to ex-amine the extent to which sound, for example a distinctive accentand/or dialect, affects the construction of local identity. Empiricallythis is conducted through a detailed analysis of the Scouse, or Liv-erpudlian, identity. The article also deploys the concept of “sonicexclusion” to examine the role a distinguishing vernacular plays inshaping local identity and the extent to which it determines “whois in” and “who is out” as a Scouser. The conclusion is that an ef-fective understanding of a Scouser is not only spatial – someoneborn in Liverpool – because the sonoric landscape of spokenScouse, and thereby Scouse identity, extends beyond the contem-porary political and geographic boundaries of the City of Liverpool.

Key words: identity, place, phonology, race, territory, Scousers

Identity is not as transparent or unproblematicas we may think. Perhaps instead of thinkingof identity as an already established fact,which the new cultural practices represent, weshould think, instead, of identity as a ‘produc-tion’, which is never complete, always inprocess, and always constituted within, notoutside, representation.

(Hall 1998, p. 222)

The distinctive ‘scouse’ culture or ‘Liverpoolstew’ has been described as a cosmopolitanblend of ‘Lancashire amiability, Irish blarney,Welsh acerbity, as well as bits of Chinese,German, Scandinavian, to name only the obvi-ous ones’. A permanent marker of the city’scosmopolitan demographic roots, this ‘accentexceedingly rare’ was to become Liverpool’sinstantly recognizable badge of difference.(Belchem and MacRaild 2006, pp. 387–388)

IntroductionThe above epigraphs set the context for this articlein two ways: first, identity is not fixed or essential-

ized rather it is produced and constructed; second,Scouse identity has a unique or exceptional quality(Belchem 2006a). Identity has long occupied theminds of scholars across the social sciences (Gell-ner 1983; Anderson 1991; Hobsbawm 1991;Jenkins 1996; Smith 1996; Woodward 1997; Nairn1997; Hall 1998; Martin 2005). It is traditionallyframed with respect to place, territory, borders,gender, sexuality, class, culture, race, religion andcommunity (Butler 1993a; Hall 1993, 1998; Ru-therford 1998; Paasi 2001, 2002, 2003a, b; New-man 2003; Amin 2004; Cresswell 2004; Massey2004a, b). Paasi (2002, p. 139) notes how identitycan be a ‘form of categorisation’ using boundariesto differentiate areas and separate “us” from “oth-ers”. Bunnell (2008, pp. 256–257) acknowledgesthe ‘myriad of sources’ of identity, but suggests wemove beyond an over-emphasis on ‘rigid bounda-ries’ to explain identity. This article responds, inpart, to that invitation in developing the theoreticaldevice of “sonic geography” (Matless 2005) to ex-amine the extent to which sound, in this instance adistinctive accent and/or dialect, affects the con-struction of local identity.

Empirically this is embedded in a study of thedifferent dimensions of the Scouse, or Liverpudli-an, identity. To outsiders Liverpudlian is a synonymfor Scouser, however locally the term typically re-fers to a supporter of Liverpool Football Club(LFC) with the city divided between those who fol-low Liverpool and Everton Football Clubs (EFC)(Kennedy and Collins 2006). Russell (2007, p. 18)erroneously claims that ‘people of this city … iden-tify themselves, primarily, as Liverpudlians’. ManyEverton fans baulk at this suggestion because of itsconnotations to LFC, their identity is Evertonianand/or Scouse definitely not Liverpudlian. Greyand Grant (2007, p. 1, original emphasis) make arelated, but less generalized, point in stating that‘not everyone from Liverpool is flattered’ to becalled a Scouser, with ‘some preferring the termLiverpudlian’. This is due to powerful and en-trenched, largely media-fuelled, images, stereotypes

PHILIP BOLAND

© The author 2010Journal compilation © 2010 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography2

and caricatures of Scousers in British society rang-ing from the positive, for instance, sense of humourand friendliness, to the negative, such as unemploy-ment, deprivation and crime (Boland 2008a; alsoGrant 2007; Robinson 2008). In recent years localstakeholders have been busy re-imaging the cityand the latest example is the re-branding of Liver-pool as the 2008 European Capital of Culture em-phasizing the cache of Scouse culture and identity(Jones and Wilks-Heeg 2004; Griffiths 2006;Boland 2007, forthcoming).

The UK hosts a range of national and local iden-tities, for example Scottish Jocks, Welsh Taffies,Liverpool Scousers, Birmingham Brummies, Lon-don Cockneys, Newcastle Geordies and Manches-ter Mancs. One manifestation of these highly terri-torialized place identities is the strong sporting andcultural rivalry between Scousers and Mancs infootball and music. Although these identities arereal, or more accurately imagined (Paasi 2003a, pp.477, 480), and widely articulated they are not un-problematic. Rather they throw up important ques-tions for geographical inquiry. For example, placeidentities are not singular or cohesive; they are mul-ti-dimensional, layered, socially constructed, re-constructed and bought into by various groups ofpeople, sometimes for different reasons.

This article unpacks what constitutes the Scouseidentity and how it is constructed. It begins with aninvestigation of the relevant literature and thenpresents a theoretically informed analysis of thedifferent dimensions of Scouse identity, with par-ticular reference to place, phonology and race. Thenovelty of this article lies in the utilization of theunderused notion of “sonic exclusion” (Matless2005) to examine the role a distinguishing vernac-ular plays in shaping local identity and the extent towhich it determines “who is in” and “who is out”as a Scouser.

In addition to our understanding of existing spa-tial and social factors, this article offers an insightinto the importance of linguistic characteristics inlocal identity. The thrust of this article is that an ef-fective understanding of a Scouser is not only spa-tial – someone born in Liverpool – because the so-noric landscape of spoken Scouse, and therebyScouse identity, extends beyond the contemporarypolitical-administrative-geographic boundary ofthe City of Liverpool. The other important contri-bution is a detailed analysis of racial and ethnic fac-tors and the influence of local and non-local forcesin shaping local people’s identities. Primarily thisinvolves a discussion of the Black population of

Liverpool, accompanied by nods to those of Irish,Malay and Chinese descent. It reveals there are dif-ferent identities at work in Liverpool and that indi-viduals will often look outwardly to their parents’country of birth and inwardly to the city in whichthey grew up for important aspects of their localidentity. Other points of discussion include the dif-ferent ways that place structures identity, for exam-ple territoriality, layers of identity, length of resi-dence, performativity of identity and the legitimacyof being a “true Scouser”.

Theorizing identity: a review of the extant literature

‘Identity’ has become one of the unifyingframeworks of intellectual debate in the1990s. Everybody, it seems, has something tosay about it: sociologists, anthropologists, po-litical scientists, psychologists, geographers,historians, philosophers.

(Jenkins, 1996, p. 7)

Paasi (2004, p. 479) states that identity ‘provides ananswer to the question “where do I belong”?’ Thereis, however, no academic consensus on identity.Anderson (1991, p. 3) claims it is ‘notoriously dif-ficult to define’, Gellner (1983, p. 5) cautions thatit ‘presents grave difficulties’ while Billig (1995, p.5) highlights its ‘misleading use’. Theoretical de-bates fissure between those who advocate a primor-dial view and those who believe identity is socially,discursively and materially constructed (Gellner1983; Anderson 1991; Hobsbawm 1991; Hall1993, 1998; Smith 1996; Calhoun 2004; Nairn1997; Woodward 1997; Rutherford 1998; Martin2005). In his discussion of the ethnic origins of na-tions, Smith (1996, p. 386) posits: ‘Nothing comesfrom nothing’. In contrast, Hall (1993, p. 362) ar-gues that ‘in the modern world, and I believe irrev-ocably, identity is always an open, complex, unfin-ished game – always under construction’. Similar-ly, Cox (2002, p. 203, original emphasis) states:‘People aren’t born English, French, or German;they are made.’

Another conceptual cut is that in an essentialistinterpretation identities are ‘shared and collective’through ‘common historical experiences’ and ‘cul-tural codes’ leading to ‘oneness’; whereas a non-essentialist view emphasizes ‘difference’ in addi-tion to shared characteristics where identities are‘transformed and positioned’ in society, acrossspace and through time (Woodward 1997, pp. 11–

SONIC GEOGRAPHY, PLACE AND RACE IN THE FORMATION OF LOCAL IDENTITY


12; Hall 1998, pp. 223–225). In this sense, ‘the no-tion of identity simultaneously establishes two pos-sible relations of comparison between persons orthings: similarity, on the one hand, and difference,on the other’ (Jenkins 1996, pp. 3–4, original em-phasis). This article adopts a non-essentialist, so-cial constructionist approach to Scouse identity.

Place, territory, race and identityPolitical geographers speak of the relationship be-tween territory, place and the construction of per-sonal and political identity; how our identities arebound up with social relations conducted throughspace and in place (Muir 1997; Agnew 2002; Cox2002; Staeheli, 2003; Jones et al. 2004; Blacksell2006). Although place traditionally refers to the lo-cal context of people’s daily lives, there is an im-portant scalar dimension extending beyond indi-vidual micro geographies. People develop relation-ships and cognitions about places – whether it is astreet, neighbourhood, city, region or country –through a variety of lived experiences that havepowerful influences on individual and collectivebehaviour (Cresswell 2004). From this people con-struct a sense of place/belonging which is one man-ifestation of the politics in/about/of place (Cress-well 1999, 2004; Amin 2004; Paasi 2004). Identityis therefore a ‘social process’ (Paasi 2003a, p. 476).Ashworth and Graham (2005, p. 3) explain: ‘In de-fining the discourses of inclusion and exclusionthat constitute identity, people call upon an affinitywith places’.

Paasi (2003b) and Newman (2003) comment onthe inclusivity and exclusivity of territory and dif-ferent types of material, symbolic and metaphoricboundaries, explaining how people’s lives are de-fined, delimited and their identities shaped. Relatedto this is Cox’s (2002, pp. 2–6, 8–9) discussion ofterritoriality, whereby people identify very strong-ly with their local area and, on occasions, vehe-mently defend its interests. Belfast in Northern Ire-land is an obvious example whereby “The Trou-bles” involved an unhealthy cocktail of violenceover religious affiliation (Catholic-Protestant), na-tional identity (Irish-British) and territorial sover-eignty (Ireland-UK). Indeed, despite the progressof the Peace Process evidence shows that the prob-lem of inter, and indeed intra, community conflictcontinues (Shirlow 2006; also Gallaher andShirlow 2006; Monaghan and McLaughlin 2006; ÓDochartaigh 2007; BBC 1 2008a).

Taking these issues together, there is an impor-

tant relation between place and identity, and a po-tent politics of identity (Paasi 2003a, p. 480) andpolitics of difference (Rutherford 1998, p. 10). Inhis important writings on race and diasporic iden-tities, Hall (1998, p. 226, original emphasis) offersthis relevant insight:

It is always constructed through memory, fan-tasy, narrative and myth. Cultural identitiesare the points of identification, the unstablepoints of identification or suture, which aremade, within the discourses of history andculture. Not an essence but a positioning.Hence, there is always a politics of identity, apolitics of position, which has no absoluteguarantee in an unproblematic, transcendental‘law of origin’.

Massey’s (1991, 1995, 2004a, b) work on sense ofplace has been influential. She argues space, placeand identities are relational whereby ‘our beings,our identities, are constituted in and through thoseengagements, those practices of interaction’ (Mas-sey 2004a, p. 5). In a similar vein, Rutherford(1998, p. 10) argues that the ‘cultural politics of dif-ference recognises both the interdependent and re-lational nature of identities’. For Massey, our iden-tities are not unchanging rather they are mutable.She questions the view that sense of place is un-problematic – providing ‘stability, security androotedness’ – because places, like individuals, havemultiple identities (1991, pp. 26–28; also Paasi,2003a, p. 476). Similarly, Billig (1995, p. 7) andCox (2002, p. 147) contend that people have dif-ferent layers of identity that are triggered by par-ticular social contexts, events and circumstance.Massey (1995) refers to the relationship betweenpast, present and future in constructions of placeidentities. In this reading, people of different racialand ethnic backgrounds often look inwardly andoutwardly in terms of constructing identities, whatshe calls a ‘global sense of place’ (Massey 1991, p.24). Likewise, Rutherford (1998, p. 19) states:‘Identity marks the conjuncture of our past with thesocial, cultural and economic relations we livewithin’, and Paasi (2001, p. 20) highlights ‘the nar-ratives and memories of the past, images of thepresent and often utopias of the future’. The claimis that we ought not to think of places as boundedterritories but as networks of social relations andunderstandings involving the local and the global(Massey 1991, 2004a, b). This resonates with Bun-nell’s (2008) warning over the rigidity of territori-

PHILIP BOLAND


alized interpretations of identity, and Paasi’s (2002,p. 138) declaration that identity is not always com-mensurate with administrative boundaries.

Massey (1991, p. 28) also questions the misiden-tification of place with community because com-munities are not coterminous, nor do people devel-op a single sense of place because they perform dif-ferent roles and have different identities within acommunity in any given social, spatial and tempo-ral context. The utility of community, whether it isplace bound or aspatial, is conceptually and polit-ically challenging (Clarke 2008; Hayes-Conroy2008; Staeheli 2008a, b). Latham et al. (2009, p.148) explain: ‘Yet for all its apparent simplicitycommunity is one of the most ill-defined and ar-gued about concepts in the social sciences’. Re-search on Merseyside reveals that effectively delin-eating “the community” in public policy is practi-cally problematic because it often becomes the ter-rain upon which power relations are played out(Boland 1999; Meegan and Mitchell 2001).

Anderson’s (1991, pp. 4–5) notion of an imag-ined community is, however, relevant to this study.It is imagined in the sense that people may onlyknow a few of the many who constitute the com-munity but nevertheless share a common bond. Themost obvious example is the passionate singing ofnational anthems during international sporting fix-tures where “the nation” comes together (70,000–80,000 on average), or the ritual weekly meeting offootball fans accompanied by the performance ofsongs and chants expressing a collective affinity to-wards their club. Similarly, with respect to race andethnicity Hall (1993, pp. 349–350) emphasizes‘cultural politics’ in the construction of identitywhereby people place themselves as members of a‘knowable community’.

Sonic geography, performativity and identityIn discussing the various elements that give mean-ing and depth to identity, and how it is represented,commentators have recognized the importance oflanguage (Woodward 1997, p. 8; Paasi 2004, p.477). Cox (2002, pp. 143–161) refers to shared ‘in-terpretative frameworks’, for example language,customs and culture, leading to the social construc-tion of sense(s) of identity binding people togetherand the politics of difference separating “us andthem”. Mac Giolla Chríost and Thomas (2008) andValentine et al. (2008) address the lack of attentionthat spatial planners and human geographers pay tothe role of language in the formation of identity. For

Mac Giolla Chríost and Thomas (2008) languageplays an important part in the construction of socialidentities in the city such that language planningwarrants more discussion from academic theoristsand policy makers. Valentine et al. (2008, p. 377)comment on the ‘mutually constitutive’ relation-ship between language and identity, and how lan-guage is a performative activity whereby ‘individ-uals’ verbal repertoires contribute towards definingthe self’. There is however a connection to be madeto research on sonic geography (or soundscapes,sonic ecology, auditory landscape, acoustic territo-ries and sonic knowledges) which examines therole of sound in defining identity. As noted by Ar-kette (2004, p. 162), ‘Each community has sets ofsound markers which reinforce its own identity’.

In improving our understanding and experienceof the world authors suggest moving beyond the vis-ual to engage with the sonoric landscape and auralgeography of place, for example sounds and localidentity (Matless 2005), music and identity (Smith2000), music and the politics of sound (Revill2000), geographies of music (Wood et al. 2007) andsounds in/of the city (Arkette 2004; Atkinson 2006,2007). Matless (2005) offers interesting themes forscholastic investigation: (1) how a place is ‘definedand contested through sound’ (p. 747); (2) ‘whichstyles of voice belong in the landscape’ (p. 747); and(3) a place’s ‘particular voice’ and ‘sounds deemedout of place’ (p. 750; also Revill 2000, p. 601). Whatthis suggests is the potential for ‘sonic exclusion’(Matless 2005, p. 758) whereby moral, political andcultural judgements define ‘sounds that belong inthe desired sonic dialect’ (p. 762).

As indicated above, performativity has rele-vance for this article. In her discussion of sexed andgendered identities, Butler (1993a, b, 1995, 1999)argues they are constructed and materializedthrough a variety of ‘regulated, reiterative or ritualpractices’ (1993a, pp. 1, 10, 12, 15, 20). In thissense, performativity is not ‘a singular or deliberate“act”, but, rather, the reiterative and citational prac-tice by which the discourse produces the effectsthat it names’ (p. 2). Drawing on Butler’s work,Bell (1999, p. 3) postulates that it is problematic tostate that we belong to a particular group because‘identity is the effect of performance, and not viceversa’. Identities are thus not pre-given; rather theyare performed, often repeatedly and ritually, by in-dividuals and groups of people.

The idea that identity is inherently performedhas infiltrated geographical thinking through the‘imaginative and material geographies of cultural



performativity and embodiment’ (Nash 2000, p.654). This is evident in Nash’s (2000) rethinking ofdance, Holt (2008) on social capital, Cloke et al.(2008) on homelessness in Bristol and Bunnell(2008) on the Malay community in Liverpool.What can be extrapolated from these literatures isthe different ways identity is performed in place.With respect to this article this will develop our ‘un-derstanding of how practices enact identities’(Cloke et al. 2008, p. 245) and the ‘spatial contextsof performances’ (Holt 2008, p. 237).

The article now moves on to examine the relativeimportance of these geographic concepts – place,race and phonology – in the construction of Scouseidentity. Pooley (2006, pp. 171–172) provides anentry point into these discussions:

Much has been made of Liverpool’s excep-tionalism, with most emphasis placed on thedistinctive characteristics of Liverpudliansthemselves: their culture, language, humourand identity … While most authors have em-phasized the distinctiveness of Liverpudlians,it must also be remembered that people live inplaces, and that the characteristics and person-ality of a population cannot be consideredwithout reference to place … the ways inwhich individuals constantly construct and re-construct such identities. In other words, it canbe argued that it is the interaction of peopleand place that creates uniqueness.

Place, race and phonology in the construction of Scouse identity

Liverpool has a unique spirit arising from itsunique position, which, over the centuries, hasbrought people from most countries of theworld to live in this city. This diversity com-bines with a strong sense of place and identityto create unity alongside difference. Liverpoolpeople have wit, energy and humour, an unbeat-able spirit in the hard times, a well-known gen-erosity in the good times. The people are Liver-pool’s great strength.

(Russell 2007, p. 33)

Reflecting on the above let us begin with a brief dis-cussion of national versus local identity. During herfieldwork as an overseas researcher Brown (2005,p. 15) noticed that ‘local identities are often oppo-sitional and proudly anti-English, as the case ofLiverpool’s “Scousers”’. It is this author’s conten-

tion, drawing upon his experience of growing up inLiverpool, that Scouse identity is stronger than na-tionalist sentiment (also Rookwood and Millward,forthcoming). LFC footballer Jamie Carragher(2008, p. 189) commented thus on low levels of en-thusiasm for England:

I’m sure there are a whole range of social rea-sons for this. During the 1970s and 1980s,Merseysiders became increasingly alienatedfrom the rest of the country. The ‘us’ and‘them’ syndrome developed, and it’s still go-ing strong here. I’ve heard The Kop1 sing‘We’re not English, we are Scouse’. There’sno affinity with the national team.

Early colloquialisms for local people were DickySam, a Lancastrian phrase for a Liverpool man bornnear a specific church in the city centre (and a pseu-donym for a local author), and Liverpolitan (also alocal publication). The more culturally gutsy term ofScouser became popularized in the 1950s throughmusical hall performances of “Scouser songs” by“whackers” (another name for locals), comedy andlight entertainment performers on radio and televi-sion and the promotion of “Scouse lingo” by “cul-tural brokers” like Frank Shaw, Fritz Spiegl and StanKelly (Belchem 2006b, p. 49; Grant, 2007, p. 144).

Scouse has a culinary etymology, truncated fromLobscouse (Labskaus in German, lapskaus in Nor-wegian and lapskojs in Swedish), which is a popu-lar local stew of meat and vegetables and, likewisefor Cassoulet, Paella and Bouillabaisse, is the sig-nature dish of place. Oddly, the European Capitalof Culture celebrations involved a competition tocreate a modernized local recipe ‘reflecting the newLiverpool’ (Liverpool Echo 2008, p. 19), which isactually part of a wider agenda to re-image Liver-pool to the outside world (Boland 2007). It seemsimplausible that gastronomic re-branding of thisnature would even be considered in Castlenaudary,Valencia or Marseille. Martin King, Director ofTourism at The Mersey Partnership (cited in Liver-pool Echo 2008, p. 19), explains:

Scouse is an important part of our history andit is worth celebrating in itself but we thoughtit would be interesting, especially this year, totest the creativity and skills of chefs across theregion. It is a great opportunity to create a newsignature dish, one that reflects the passion,the creativity, the culture and the changes thatare going on in the city.

PHILIP BOLAND


The standard definition is that Scouse is the distinc-tive vernacular of Liverpool and Scouser is some-one born in Liverpool. However, linguistic expertsargue that Liverpool English is found in Liverpooland other areas of Merseyside,2 that is, Sefton, Wir-ral and Knowsley (Honeybone and Watson 2006;Honeybone 2007). This raises important geograph-ical issues concerning ‘identification and classifi-cation criteria’ (Paasi 2003a, p. 480). For example,what cartographic terminology is used to define theboundary of Liverpool and Scouse? Is it political,economic or sonoric? Can we accept a territorial,place-bound definition of Scouse identity? Is a son-ic conceptualization equally or more appropriate?Put another way, is Scouse identity determined bywhere a person is born or how they sound? It isthese issues that lie at the heart of the followinganalysis.

Phonological definitions of ScousersTheir identity is constructed, indeed it is im-mediately established, by how they speakrather than by what they say. Instantly recog-nisable, the accent is the essential medium forthe projection and representation of the localmicro-culture, the ‘scouse’ blend of truculentdefiance, collective solidarity, scallywaggeryand fatalist humour which sets Liverpool andits inhabitants apart.

(Belchem 2006a, p. 33)

The Liverpool accent, probably alongsideBrummie and Geordie, is one of Britain’smost recognisable urban accents today, espe-cially the more identifiably working class ac-cent. Few people in Britain would not haveheard of the term Scouse, the word used to in-dicate the special distinctive combination ofaccent, grammar and vocabulary associatedwith Liverpool.

(Grey and Grant 2007,p. 1, original emphasis)

The defining characteristic of Scousers is how theyverbally communicate because Liverpool Englishis very distinctive (Honeybone and Watson 2006).The variety of English changes as you move north-wards beyond the City of Liverpool; it becomesless Scouse in places such as Southport and Form-by, and further eastwards to the edge of Merseysidewhen it shades into Lancastrian (Grey and Richard-son 2007, p. 83). Grant (2007, p. 149) notes the ab-

sence of definitive work on diasporic Scouse, thosepeople relocated from Liverpool to places likeSkelmersdale, Runcorn, Maghull and Kirkby in thepost war era. For some Scouse is an accent becausethere are few local phrases which are non-standard(Sardais 2005; Belchem 2006a, pp. 32–33); othersargue it is a dialect because the grammar and vo-cabulary are not always identical to Standard Eng-lish (Honeybone 2007).

What is indisputable is that Scousers sound andspeak differently to other English people and espe-cially those of the North West region in which Liv-erpool sits. This is why locals refer to residents ofRuncorn and Widnes (in Halton), Warrington (inCheshire) and St. Helens as “woollybacks” andpeople from (parts of) Wirral as “plastic Scousers”:‘someone who wishes to give the impression thatthey are Scouse but are not’ (Grant 2007, p. 156).These are local phrases that linguistically define“the other” and represent Matless’ (2005) idea ofsonic exclusion whereby those who do not sharethe requisite voice are deemed not to belong. More-over, some locals from Liverpool would adhere toa strict spatial definition of Scouse in labelling peo-ple from Knowsley in the same vein.

There is actually a difference between sonic ex-clusion whereby people are excluded due to the factthat they sound different (e.g. woollybacks from St.Helens) and geographic exclusion when people areexcluded because they reside in another area ofMerseyside (e.g. plastic Scousers from Wirral andto a lesser extent Knowsley). This links to Paasi’s(2001, pp. 18–20, 2002, pp. 137–139) discussion ofthe relationship between bounded spaces and con-structions of identity differentiating “us” from“them”.

Historians (Belchem 2006a), linguists (Grantand Grey 2007) and sociologists (Lane 1997)identify the growth of the port and huge in-migra-tion as major contributory factors in the rise ofScouse. Prior to the influx of 300,000 Irish mi-grants from the nineteenth century onwards, andmany from Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Manplus those from Europe and other parts of theworld, people in Liverpool spoke with a Lancas-trian brogue. However, this diverse linguisticmelting pot reformulated the local lingua franca,especially amongst the significant dock work-force, and led to the rise of Scouse (Belchem2006a, p. 46). Honeybone (2007) argues that theScouse dialect was created through the mixture ofmany varieties of English, not just Irish and Lan-castrian as is commonly argued (e.g. Belchem



2006a). Grey (2007, p. 193) suggests Scouse ‘de-veloped a life of its own over the years, taking in-comers’ accents here and there, but also retainingsome very old features of northwestern English’.

In recent years journalists and social commen-tators have claimed that localized accents, includ-ing Scouse, are under threat due to the rise of Es-tuary English, often attributed to increasing socialmobility and the media (i.e. EastEnders3 factor),and extensive use of the glottal stop (Jenkins 1999;Marks 1999; Mullan 1999; Young 1999). However,phonological studies of geographical diffusion andlevelling have concluded that, in contrast to otherBritish cities, Scouse has resisted many of the ten-dencies towards linguistic homogeneity (Watson2006, 2007a, 2007b). Although the accent is evolv-ing, it continues to retain its distinctiveness. Buck-ing the national trend, “Scouse is getting Scouser”and this is especially true among young males innorthern parts of the city (Watson 2007b; alsoMelville et al. 2007).

Related to this are debates on the appeal of theScouse accent. It is not uncommon for famous sonsand daughters of Liverpool to deliberately lose ormodify their accents in order to further their ca-reers, examples include comedy actor LeonardRossiter, former Conservative MP Edwina Currie,television personality Cilla Black and novelist Ber-yl Bainbridge (Davis 2004). The latter has gone onrecord slating the Liverpool accent stating that chil-dren ought to be given elocution lessons to ‘wipeout’ their accents (Bainbridge cited in Doig 1999).Then there are competing business surveys of theattractiveness of the Scouse accent. One found thatScousers were perceived as ‘straight, understand-ing and friendly’ (Ward 2000) while another re-garded those with a Scouse accent as ‘generally un-successful’ (North 2005; similar negativity existson the Brummie accent: BBC 2008a; Fleming2008; MacRae and Hope 2008). This can be attrib-uted, to a large extent, to the media stigmatizationof Scousers through the ‘thieving’ and ‘calm down’caricatures (Boland 2008a, pp. 360–361).

Whilst there are differing views on the appealof the Scouse accent, it is undeniably a culturalsymbol of people and place. The accent, morethan anything else, identifies Scousers as ‘it is aclear marker of their regional identity’ (Watson2007b, p. 236). To broaden the discussion, the dif-ferent pronunciations of the letter h in Belfast re-veal an individual’s religious denomination(Catholic or Protestant) and community identity(Nationalist or Unionist). Connecting to an earlier

point, not all who speak with the particular voicecome from Liverpool and this is due to the polit-ical-linguistic geography of Merseyside. The ar-gument put forward here is that Scousers can beresidents of neighbouring Knowsley and Seftondue to locals’ similar, if not identical, intonationsand their self-identification as a Scouser. The keypoint is that it is not possible to draw lines arounda geographical area and state confidently that itcovers all those who speak Scouse (Honeybone2007).

A similar point is made by Massey (1995, p.188) that maps only take us so far, what is more im-portant are the social, in this case vocal, relationsarticulated through space and time. Some of thestrongest Scouse accents are possessed by peopleoriginating from other parts of Merseyside, for ex-ample Cantril Farm in Knowsley (former footballerMickey Quinn), Huyton in Knowsley (comedianStan Boardman), Kirkby in Knowsley (actressMargi Clarke), Whiston in Knowsley (Spice GirlMel C), Birkenhead in Wirral (television presenterPaul O’Grady) and Port Sunlight in Wirral (singerPete Burns4). Nationally acclaimed playwrightWilly Russell tempers his Scouse status with thisremark: ‘Strangely I’m not really an authentic Liv-erpudlian because I was born in Whiston and wasbrought up for the first five years of my life in Rain-hill’ (cited in Robinson 2008).

Then we have Scouse footballers even thoughthey are technically not from Liverpool: Jamie Car-ragher (LFC) hails from Bootle, Sefton, Joey Bar-ton (Newcastle United Football Club) comes fromHuyton, Knowsley; however, the most high profileare Steven Gerrard (LFC and England) and WayneRooney (Manchester United Football Club andEngland). Gerrard was born in Whiston, grew up inHuyton (both in Knowsley) and now lives in Form-by in Sefton, so he has actually never lived in Liv-erpool and yet he is one of the most globally rec-ognised Scousers. Interestingly, reflecting on Car-ragher’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the gameGerrard (2007, p. 185) says: ‘He’s not a thickScouser from Bootle’. In November 2008 Gerrardwas given the freedom of his home Borough ofKnowsley (BBC 2008b), while the same honourwas previously bestowed on Carragher for his serv-ices to Sefton (BBC 2005). This demonstrates theircivic affiliation to areas of Merseyside other thanLiverpool. In one sense Rooney is a “proper Scous-er” as he was brought up in Liverpool’s Croxtethdistrict. However, his accent is less Scouse thanCarragher and Gerrard, plus his controversial trans-

PHILIP BOLAND


fer from EFC to Manchester United in 2004 seri-ously undermined his Scouse status (Blue Kipper2009).

There are also “honorary Scousers” like JanMølby and Dietmar Hamann, professional foot-ballers from Denmark and Germany who devel-oped a Scouse enunciation during their spell livingin the city. Again, this reinforces the importance ofvocality in defining a Scouser. It must also be notedthat this form of social acceptance is bestowedupon established non-natives who have not takenon the accent, for example former LFC player andmanager Kenny Dalglish. When asked what itmeant being a Scouser, successful television pro-ducer Phil Redmond (born in Huyton, Knowsley)explained:

I think the accent is one that’s known all overthe world. I just think it’s that sense of belong-ing and even if you’re not from here you get it,you enjoy the crack. You don’t seem to wit-ness the same relationship in other towns asyou do when two scousers come together. It’spride in everything.

(cited in Liverpool Xtra 2008, p. 5)

If we adopt this classification system then the def-inition of a Scouser is not spatially restrictive. Whatthese examples reveal is that a more encompassingdefinition of Scouser must have a vocal frame ofreference, and not simply territorial. Therefore, be-ing Scouse is not limited to coming from within thelocal authority boundary of Liverpool, a commonview of many outsiders and, it has to be said, someinsiders.

There is also an important distinction betweenexternal and internal identifications of Scousers. Ingeneral, locals would not consider the residents ofWirral as proper (as opposed to plastic) Scousersdue to their location across the River Mersey inclose proximity to Wales. In addition, such peoplewould normally distinguish their own Wirral iden-tity from that of Scouse. For example, supporters ofTranmere Rovers Football Club were angeredwhen Liverpool08 was displayed across players’shirts as part of the club’s sponsorship of the Euro-pean Capital of Culture. They felt their identity asresidents of Wirral, not Liverpool, was being com-promised leading the Chairman of the Supporters’Association to protest: ‘Tranmere is Wirral’s teamand we are proud of our home’ (Andy Doyle citedin Owens 2006). Another example comes from a lo-cal teenager who explained the various geographi-

cal differences between Wirral and Liverpool andhis dislike at being labelled a Scouser (cited inCampbell 2005):

In a way yeah, cos we’re not like, we’re notlike them in a way cos we’re separate aren’twe. We’re from one side of the water they arefrom the other, and like the accent is different… I hate bein’ compared to a Scouser, cos if Iwear my, like I’m wearing my Lacoste trackietoday, if I went down town in this I get staredat by all the security guards. But if I wentdown in jeans and shoes I wouldn’t get staredat.

Here a natural physical geographical feature thatseparates space – a river – leads to an important hu-man geographical division between people. Howev-er, this view from over the River Mersey is not uni-versally accepted. Former Premiership footballerDavid Thompson, a product of Birkenhead, identi-fies himself as a Scouser. When asked on live televi-sion how he was coping with football retirement he(somewhat annoyingly) played up to the Scouse ster-eotype by saying: ‘I’m a Scouser, I don’t want a job’(Sky 2008). Then there is popular television person-ality Paul O’Grady. His very strong Scouse accentnaturally leads people to believe him to be a Scouser,whereas he would not necessarily accept that label-ling.5 His website makes no reference to Liverpool oranything Scouse, merely informing: ‘Paul was bornin Birkenhead on the Wirral’ (Channel 4 2008). Else-where though, he admitted that although he lived inLiverpool during his teenage years he remains a‘woollyback from Birkenhead’ (O’Grady cited inCollard et al. 2007). The point being in some areasof Wirral the accent is very Scouse (e.g., Birkenhead)in others it is not (e.g., West Kirby).

Taking this point further, there are studies show-ing nuances in spoken Scouse across Merseyside:geographically (e.g., between Liverpool and Wir-ral, Liverpool and St. Helens, north and south Liv-erpool), socially (between working and middleclass areas, i.e. “Posh Scouse” and “ScallyScouse”), demographically (between males and fe-males, young and old) and temporally (“oldScouse” and “contemporary Scouse”) (Watson2006, 2007a, 2007b; Grey 2007; Honeybone 2007;Melville et al. 2007). Interestingly Grey (2007, p.197) reveals the ‘broadest varieties of Scouse maynot be actually spoken in the inner city areas’ ofLiverpool, rather they are evident in northern andsouthern suburbs such as Norris Green, Croxteth



and Speke, and fringe areas like Stockbridge Vil-lage (formerly Cantril Farm), Huyton, Halewoodand Kirkby (all in Knowsley). Another discovery isthat people living in the same street can often ex-hibit variable strength in their Scouse accents (Grey2007, p. 206).

Notwithstanding these internal variations, whatis clear is that Scouse continues to retain its pho-nological integrity and vocal uniqueness. Whatthese examples show is that Scousers can comefrom areas of Merseyside other than Liverpool; infact, the geographically broader Liverpool City-Region (strangely extending into Cheshire andNorth Wales) is the latest scalar nomenclature usedby local place marketers to promote the economicdynamism of Liverpool across a wider spatial area(see Boland 2007).

However, one area of Merseyside which does notqualify for Scouse status is St. Helens. As mentionedearlier the residents are referred to as woollybacksbecause their inflection is more Lancastrian or Man-cunian than Scouse (e.g., comedian Johnny Vegas)and they live closer to Lancashire and Greater Man-chester. Most locals would not consider themselvesas having any real cultural connection with Liver-pool; for example, their primary sporting interest isrugby league whereas the Scouse passion is football.One resident offered this rejoinder: ‘St. Helens is notLiverpool. I’m not a Manc either. We’ve got our ownidentity’ (Rigby 2005). An ironic footnote is thatpeople from Cardiff, South Wales, often label inhab-itants of Wrexham and Rhyl, North Wales, as Scous-ers due to perceived accent similarities and closenessto Liverpool. Moreover, a common sardonic refer-ence to Liverpool is the “unofficial capital of northWales” (Honeybone 2007), not forgetting the similarcomparison with respect to the Irish diaspora where-by Liverpool became “the second capital of Ireland”(Leonard 2005).

Performing Scouse identityAs revealed above the most obvious performanceof Scouseness is sonic, while another is dress codeand in particular the “shell-suited scally”. This vis-ual representation was originally personified bycharacters in Brookside6 later becoming a nationalcomedy caricature through Harry Enfield’sScousers7 satire sketch. With respect to BrooksideGrant (2007, p. 153) argues for ‘non-Scousespeakers it is (perhaps inaccurately) a shibbolethof Scouse identity’. Then there is the performanceof Scouse comedians and comedic actors, holiday

encounters and work based meetings with joke-filled Scousers, football fans’ quick witted banterand humorous flags, the singing of their club songssuch as LFC’s ‘You’ll never walk alone’, wearingof football club shirts and more negatively the ster-eotype of Scousers with criminality, gangs, drugsand violence in various arms of the media (seeBoland 2008a). Not only does the singing of clubsongs reflect ‘the embodiment of music in per-formance’ (Wood et al. 2007, p. 869) it also showshow music gives people ‘a sense of their … differ-ence from others, of their distinction and, crucial-ly, of their own, shared identity’ (Smith 2000, p.622).

With respect to a different type of performance,anecdotal evidence indicates that local youngstersrepetitively play up to the Scouse stereotype ofcriminality and violence (BBC 1998). The per-formance of territorialized gang identity was cap-tured in all its ignominy by the BBC’s Panoramateam with local teenagers clad in their uniforms(dark tracksuits), openly celebrating acts of vio-lence (e.g., shootings) and illegal activities (e.g.,drugs) and brazenly parading an arsenal of weap-onry (BBC 1 2008b, similar clips were posted onYouTube). A less problematic, but equally inter-esting, performance is the dressing up in footballclub colours because it simultaneously reveals twodifferent but related identities: one, as a Scouser,and two, as a “Red” Liverpudlian or “Blue” Ever-tonian. The most poignant examples were the“Merseyside FA Cup Finals” of 1986 and in par-ticular 1989.

Performativity is also important in a differentcontext, for example in the construction of Liver-pool-Irish (Belchem 2005; Leonard 2005) and Ma-laysian (Bunnell 2008) identities. Leonard (2005,pp. 519–523) explains how the regular enactment ofIrish music and dance for second and third genera-tion Irish in Liverpool is crucial to their expressionand embodiment of an ‘Irish cultural identity’. Onoccasions, however, family members and friends inIreland would consider their performance of Irish-ness as ‘inauthentic’ and ‘plastic’ (p. 521); this per-ception of illegitimate identity neatly dovetails withthe earlier discussion of plastic Scousers. Similarly,Bunnell (2008) makes reference to the performanceof Malay culture and identity during local celebra-tions for Merdeka (Malaysian independence) in Au-gust 2004 involving traditional attire and indigenousfood. Clearly there are different ways that local andnon-local identities are enacted, embodied and per-formed in Liverpool.

PHILIP BOLAND


Length of residence in the city: defining “true Scousers”Another aspect of the debate on the legitimacy of atrue Scouser concerns being born in the city com-pared to length of time living in the city. This con-nects to the point raised by Cox (2002, pp. 153–157) and Massey (1995, p. 185) regarding ‘lengthof residence’ in place and the labelling of outsidersas distinct from insiders, for example, migrant la-bour and people moving into an area compared tothose with long established roots in place. Not onlyis it applicable to the discussion about what deter-mines a genuine Scouser, it is equally relevant tothe racism inflicted upon the first generation ofBlacks, Irish and Chinese to arrive in Liverpool. Itis argued that the long presence of Black people inLiverpool has been seriously unrecognized render-ing them ‘invisible’ by White institutions therebyundermining their legitimacy as ‘being local’(Brown 2005, pp. 81–82, 92). This ‘historic invis-ibility’ is also relevant to the Malays in Liverpool(Bunnell 2008, p. 258).

The dispute recounted here concerns two highprofile Scouse celebrities whereby a private fall-outbetween Cilla Black8 and Ricky Tomlinson9 be-came a public war of words played out in the localmedia. Tomlinson was born in Blackpool, Lanca-shire after his family were evacuated from Liver-pool during World War II but mother and child re-turned very soon after. Apart from a two year prisonsentence,10 Tomlinson has lived his entire life inLiverpool (along with spells in North Wales). Incontrast, Cilla was born in Liverpool but upon be-coming a popular singer in the 1960s she moved toLondon and has never returned to live in the city; itis the same for other successful Scousers like TheBeatles and comics such as Jimmy Tarbuck11 andFreddy Starr. Tellingly, on a television chat showformer Beatle Ringo Starr was asked if he missedanything about Liverpool, to a roar of audiencelaughter he replied: ‘Err No’ (BBC 1, 2008c). Thisneeds to be put in context, for he had spent the pre-vious weekend back in Liverpool headlining thelaunch party for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture.Maybe feeling at a safe distance in London enabledhim to be more honest than he was in his formerhome town.

Contrast this with the words of Terry Leah, ChiefExecutive of British supermarket chain Tesco: ‘Myroots matter a lot … I grew up in Liverpool … Somepeople leave a place like Liverpool and never wantto go back. I’m not like that. I’m quite loyal’ (quot-ed in Lawson 2008). Celebrities like Ringo Starr

are what Tomlinson (2003) calls ‘professionalScousers’ who appear eager to leave and contributelittle back to the city (the other surviving BeatlePaul McCartney12 is an exception); instead, theyare happy earning a living ‘trading on the accentand humour, but living elsewhere’ (p. 362).

Obviously people have a right to live whereverthey choose. However, the issue for many locals isexiles’ constant playing of their Scouseness, likeCilla’s excruciatingly dodgy accent, whilst notvisiting the city regularly. To widen the discus-sion, leaving Liverpool for work as opposed to be-cause of work was a decision faced by tens ofthousands of unemployed Scousers, includingthis author, in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s(Meegan 1989, pp. 223–224; Murden 2006, p.470). Below is Tomlinson’s (2003, p. 363), typi-cally comical, rebuttal of Cilla’s essentialist inter-pretation of a true Scouser:

‘Well he’s not even a Scouser’, she responded.‘He wasn’t born in Liverpool’. My responsewas ‘I may have been away from Liverpoolfor the first three days of my life, but she’sbeen away for the last forty years’. The Liver-pool Echo picked up on the story and wenthard on the feud angle. They even offeredreaders the chance to vote on the person theybelieved to be the truest Scouser. Cilla got an-nihilated.

Community, territoriality and gang identityAlthough Scouse identity is very powerful it existsalongside other identities, for example those relat-ing to smaller spatial communities, and competingsporting allegiances to LFC and EFC. In particular,it is accompanied with or substituted by a micro po-litical geography where people identify themselveswith the neighbourhoods in which they live. For ex-ample, Meegan’s (1989, p. 227) study into theplight of Merseyside’s troubled outer estates in thelate 1980s discovered that many residents of Kirk-by identified themselves as “Kirkbyites”. This isone example of the existence of a potent territorialidentity, indicating that locals could be Kirkbyitesnot Scousers or Kirkbyites and Scousers depend-ing on the situation in which they found them-selves.

More recent research uncovered the continuedexistence of territorialized estate identities pertain-ing to the allocation of European Union StructuralFunding (Boland 1999; Meegan and Mitchell



2001). In this sense local people would relate toeach other as Scousers but also feel very differentin terms of their competing residential (Kirkbyitesand Halewoodites) and football club identities(Reds and Blues). This can be linked to Hall’s(1998, p. 227) notion of the ‘doubleness’ of simi-larity and difference amongst Caribbean identities,where a collective Black identity exists alongside,and in some ways is in competition with, differentisland identities.

Liverpool has prided itself on a strong sense ofcommunity (e.g., self-help networks, communityactivism, informal labour markets, “burying ourown dead”) developed during the economic and so-cial problems experienced by Merseyside’s estatesduring the 1970s and 1980s (Meegan 1989, pp.226–231). However, ongoing events serve to raisequestions as to whether this is being threatened.Like a number of British cities the illegal drugseconomy plays a significant economic and socialrole in Liverpool (Boland 2008b). This has createda heightened degree of gang/estate territorialityover geographical control of local drugs markets. Itis alleged that a shocking outcome of this resultedin an innocent child killed in the ongoing turf warsbetween the Croxteth “Crockie Crew” (or “YoungGuns”) and Norris Green “Strand Gang” (or “Nog-ga Dogz”) in north Liverpool (sharing the sameL11 postcode).

The BBC has uncovered evidence that gangs in-creasingly dominate these and other estates in thecity with many residents living in fear, both real andperceived (BBC 1 2008b). In his summing up to thejury in the killing of Rhys Jones, Judge Irwin toldLiverpool Crown Court: ‘This terrible killing hascaught the attention of the whole country and indeedhas appalled the whole country … The glimpse offear caused by the agenda of gangs’ (BBC 2008c).This tragic incident raises questions over whetherthe dominance of the drugs trade and gang territori-ality is overriding Scouse identity, and undermininga sense of community. Moreover, and connectingback to the major theoretical debate, it would seemthat Liverpool is an example whereby the increasingprominence of an explicitly geographical gang iden-tity is becoming more significant than the imaginedcommunity of Scouse identity.

These are young people from similar back-grounds and similar geographical locations,but they are not gangs. Elements of the mediahave bagged them gangs and they have takenthat title because it gives them recognition that

they don’t really deserve. We have to be care-ful about the term ‘gang’, it implies a level oforganisation. There is no hierarchy

(Chief Superintendent Moore of MerseysidePolice cited in Kelly 2008)

As indicated above there is an alternative analysisof gang activities. A recent Sky television investi-gation claims the rivalry between the Crockie Crewand Strand Gang is no longer about drugs, many ofthe key players are either dead or imprisoned, rath-er it is fundamentally geographic: ‘Streets innit,gangs innit, two fucking different gangs’ (respond-ent cited in Sky 1 2009). Heale (2008) suggests thisrepresents ‘a form of hypermasculinity expressedthrough violent territorialism’. The hatred rests onthe housing estates where people are from and littleelse although there are trivial squabbles over re-spect, girls and juvenile name calling.

The hidden irony lies in the fact that members ofboth gangs attended the same secondary school, DeLa Salle (a well-respected school during this au-thor’s teenage years), and are therefore not com-plete strangers. However, if they cross the borderbetween the two estates, in this case a main road,then ‘they’re fucked’ and ‘get dealt with’ (respond-ents cited in Sky 1 2009). Moreover, in this readingthese gangs are not highly organized criminal en-terprises, ‘just a bunch of lads who sit by the shops’,but the ‘passionate hatred and love of territory’ re-mains massive (Heale 2008). One local youth ex-plained: ‘To you it’s gangs, to them it’s just mateshanging around, having a laugh. If you’re all matesand it forms a gang, you do things together’ (citedin Bilton 2008).

Clearly they are not highly organized but theirplace identities represent a highly volatile manifes-tation of territorialized power relations over space,where boundaries are patrolled, access is limitedand streets are defended. In this sense these demar-cations of social space reflect what Paasi (2003b, p.112) terms the ‘territorialisation of everyday life’. Italso connects to Newman’s (2003) reference to theway such boundaries restrict the freedom of people,in this case youths, to move safely through physicalspace. The construction and regulation of bounda-ries in Liverpool reveals how place and territorialityare instrumental in the politics of identity.

The above discussion adds another dimension tothe layering of identity that exists in Liverpool. Thefirst is cultural in the Scouser identity which can bedefined both geographically (someone born in theCity of Liverpool) and sonically (person who lives

PHILIP BOLAND


in other areas of Merseyside but exhibits the dis-tinctive sonic dialect). Then there is the Liverpud-lian and Evertonian sporting identities which haveno clear geography, unlike cities like Belfast andGlasgow, because allegiances are determined by arange of factors. The next identity is determined byplace of residence and is evidenced by Kirkbyites(named after a large estate constructed during the1950s–1960s–1970s to house families moved fromcentral Liverpool; similar initiatives occurred inSpeke, Huyton and Halewood). Finally, there aregang-related identities such as the Young Guns,Nogga Dogz and Speke Soldiers who display fierceloyalty to small neighbourhoods or streets. How-ever, these are not mutually discrete as people mayperform different identities during different social,spatial and temporal contexts (following Massey1991; Billig 1995; Cox 2002). For example, a localyouth may act out his role as a “solja” during con-flict with another gang, become a Liverpudlian orEvertonian during attendance at a football match,and perform a Scouser role when visiting, or meet-ing people from another city or country.

Macilwee (2008, pp. 1–15) makes the point thatprior to the rise of the drugs trade gangs in Liver-pool, although large in number and often extremelyviolent, were not highly organized and did not mir-ror the major firms of London or Glasgow. He sug-gests: ‘Liverpool gangs lacked the discipline, am-bition and structure to create lasting criminal enter-prises’ (p. 12). In his overview of the variety ofgangs that existed in Liverpool in the nineteenthand twentieth centuries he indicates that geographywas an important factor through ‘sense of pride inbelonging to a particular area’ (p. 14). Interesting-ly, these “territorial mobs” are still evident today inthe Crockie Crew, Strand Gang and Speke Soldiers;they are not highly organized in a gang or criminalsense, rather they are loose groups of local lads whorepresent their streets, engage in turf wars and var-ious forms of anti-social behaviour. This is not tosuggest that highly organized criminal enterprisesdo not exist in Liverpool. Following the onset of theillegal drugs trade in recent decades local drugsbarons, and their sophisticated and tightly coordi-nated gangs, occupy a pivotal role in UK and Eu-ropean importation and distribution networks(Barnes et al. 2000; Johnson 2007).

Race, ethnicity and Liverpool-born BlacksAs indicated earlier, there is an important racial andethnic dimension to identity. With respect to Liver-

pool, Brown (2005, p. 4) argues the city offers a ‘fas-cinating site for the study of race and place’. In ad-dition to the Irish (Belchem 2005; Leonard 2005),Liverpool’s history is characterized by large in-mi-gration from different parts of the world (Lane 1997;Belchem 2007), in particular West Africa (Frost1995, 2000), Somalia (Uduku 2003), China and theCaribbean (Belchem and MacRaild 2006) and to alesser extent Malaysia (Bunnell 2007, 2008).13

Uduku (2003, p. 125) explains that the Black com-munity (i.e., those not categorized as White) in Liv-erpool is not homogenous in terms of ethnicity, cul-ture or class (also Christian 1997, p. 72).

However, Bunnell (2008, p. 258) warns that thegeneralization of non-White as Black ‘runs the riskof obscuring a diversity of lived experiences andidentities’. Uduku (2003, pp. 135–136) suggeststhat the residential and cultural assimilation of mi-grants in Liverpool has been limited to those ofWhite skin, and that this isolationism continues toexist today. This is particularly true of the Somalicommunity in Toxteth (an area of Liverpool with alarge Black population) which ‘retains its uniqueidentity’ and ‘remains to a large extent a separategroup’ (pp. 136–137).14 Toxteth became publicknowledge following the “race riots” of 1981 withthe area acquiring a serious racially prejudiced neg-ative external and, to an extent, internal image(Boland 2008a).15

Lane (1997 p. 82) explains that although a com-mon identity developed amongst the varied nation-alities who lived, worked and socialized alongsideLiverpool’s docklands, they were simultaneouslydisunited over religion (Catholic and Protestant)and race (White and Black). In particular, the lifeexperiences of Liverpool’s ethnic communitieswere very difficult (Lane 1997, p. 95):

Liverpool docklands certainly had an ex-tremely varied population, but only those ofEuropean origin were wholly accepted. Theothers experienced enforced segregation injobs and housing even though intermarriagewas the norm until the arrival, after the SecondWorld War, of African, West Indian and Chi-nese women. Nevertheless, the descendants ofWest African, Chinese and West Indian menare unmistakeably Liverpudlian as whiteCatholic or Protestants. Despite the discrimi-nations and the prejudices, the essential expe-riences of living in the other Liverpool hasmade them as self-confidently forthright astheir white neighbours.



According to Frost (1995, 2000) Scouse is a Whiteworking class culture that excludes Black people.This can be traced back to the systemic and insti-tutional racism subjected to large numbers of WestAfricans, for example the pathologization and pro-filing of Black people as a ‘social and economicproblem’ (2000, pp. 198–208), who settled in Liv-erpool during the city’s role as a strategic tradingport of the British Empire (Lane 1997, pp. 87–95;Belchem 2007). The Fletcher Report 1930 into lo-cal mixed race families and their children was a dis-turbing example of institutional racism (Christian2008).16 The racism in Liverpool led to the ‘exclu-sion of Black people as not belonging’ and their la-belling as an “other” (Frost 2000, pp. 196, 204). Inthe face of racism, negativity and oppression theredeveloped a collective Black identity which was‘positive, embracing and inclusive’ (pp. 204–205).Moreover, she suggests that “Black Scousers”‘identify themselves as black first and scouse sec-ond’ (p. 211). In essence, Black identity and senseof belonging is constructed out of adversity, in con-trast to the cultural celebration of White Scouse-ness. What it also shows is that there is a Scousecomponent of Black identity, but that it is subordi-nate to race, that is, Black Scousers. Their Scous-eness is determined, to a large extent, through shar-ing many social and cultural attributes and speak-ing with the same distinctive tongue as Whitefriends and neighbours: ‘We only know one lan-guage, that’s Liverpudlian’ (respondent cited inBrown 2005, p. 109).

Frost’s assertion that Scouse is exclusivelyWhite is, however, overly-generalized. She offersinteresting verbatim quotes but we are not givenany indication of the extent to which these viewsare shared by the wider Black constituency of Liv-erpool. To counterpoise her quotations, let us con-sider Stephen French, a well known mixed origin(Irish mother and Black father) underworld figurefrom Toxteth. In his celebratory autobiography17

he refers to himself, on more than one occasion, asthe “Scouse nigger” (his words) rather than BlackScouser (Johnson 2007). Given that Scouse pre-cedes the n word (despite its racist overtones it hasbeen used as a term of affection and identityamongst Black people) it could be interpreted thathis identity is Scouse first and Black second. Fail-ing that, it does show that Blackness and Scouse-ness are not rigidly sequential as Frost suggests.

Based on this author’s experience of living inLiverpool and knowing a number of Black people,it is also perfectly legitimate to argue that a sizeable

number would self-identify as Scousers (confirmedby Christian 2000). It is suggested here that Frost’sgeneralization that Scouse is exclusively White isnot universally held amongst different ethnicgroups in the city. Frost is not completely wrong,however, for there are people who identify them-selves in the way she claims, but whether it is awidely accepted view is questionable. The positionput forward here is that a more effective method fordefining Scousers is through sonority not colour.This does not exclude racial or ethnic groups; iron-ically, what it does exclude is other White groupswho do not share the same accent (i.e. woollybacksand plastic Scousers). In this context it is inclusiveof different skin colours but exclusive towards dif-ferent phonologies, or put another way racial inclu-sion but sonic exclusion.

Locally born experts of Black identity also haveissues with Frost’s analysis. For example, Christianfeels that her work is symptomatic of outsiders(Frost works at the University of Liverpool but isnot from Liverpool) who misrepresent the com-plexity of Black identity (personal communicationJanuary 2008). His own analysis shows the varietyof identities that exist: Black, Black British, Liver-pool-born Black, Scouse Black, half-caste, Blackman, Black woman, mixed race, mixed origin andeven a person (Christian 2000, pp. 23–41). It is alsoclaimed that Liverpool-born Black is unique to Liv-erpool as there is no similar referent in London orBirmingham which also have large Black commu-nities (Christian 1997, p. 72).

The issue is how different demographics ofBlack people (old and young, men and women) de-fine themselves in relation to broader society andsocial relations (Christian 2000, p. 58). Interesting-ly, one respondent explained that he was a Scouser,because he was born in Liverpool, but his cultureand identity were Black: ‘He somehow distin-guished between being born and raised in Liver-pool and being “Black”; they were essentially twoseparate entities’ (p. 27). There are also different‘shades of Blackness’ in Liverpool which have ledto tensions between African and Afro-Caribbeangroups (pp. 60–79). For many of Christian’s re-spondents the issue of being Black is not concernedwith colour, rather it represents a ‘consciousness’.His conclusion, in contradistinction to Frost, is thatit is not possible to generalize with respect to Blackgroups in Liverpool (p. 85). Black identities are notfixed rather they are continually made and re-madedue to the influence of key social relations, for in-stance, family, peer group and schooling plus so-

PHILIP BOLAND


cial, cultural and political events (Christian 1997,pp. 68–70, 74). In rejecting Frost’s ‘essentialist/rig-id/Black and White’ interpretation he states (emailcommunication 16 January 2008):

There are different “types” of Black Scousers:1) those that see the world from the perspec-tive of Blacks; 2) those that see the worldlargely from a White perspective/culture; 3)those that don’t do either, not knowing whatheritage they are and therefore just as“Scouse” as the next Liverpudlian.

Liverpool-born Black (LBB) has become an im-portant concept on racial identity in the city. Themost recent is Brown’s (2005, pp. 5, 23, 25) studyof the different, and competing, identities that existamongst the city’s Black population. She offers twokey findings: one, that ‘oppositional racial identi-ties’ exist in the city, and two, the importance of thelocal (racism and life in Liverpool) and the global(resident African seaman, Caribbean migrants andAfrican American soldiers stationed in the NorthWest) in constructions of local identities, especial-ly LBBs. This is captured in the ‘multiply fraughtpolitics of place, localness, and Blackness’ (p. 32).According to Brown (2005, p. 34), an important de-velopment in identity construction during recentdecades was the transformation from half-caste (ahated reference to children of Black and White par-entage) to Black, evidenced in the increasing use ofLBB. Another claim is that LBB becomes a ‘polit-ical practice’, exemplified in ‘radical Blackness’and ‘racial politics’ of the 1970s, rather than an es-sentialized ‘biological category’ whereby localsconstruct their Black identity by moving ‘beyondthe family in search of answers’ (p. 71).18 The1970s also witnessed this discovery of Black iden-tity, and its cultural umbilical cord with Africa,amongst Jamaicans (Hall 1998, p. 231). For Ru-therford (1998, p. 12) this would be exampleswhereby Black politics would ‘turn those placesfrom sites of oppression and discrimination intospaces of resistance’.

Returning to Liverpool, Brown (2005, pp. 46,52–53, 99) reveals that some Afro-Caribbean andAfrican fathers exclude their children from theircultural heritages. These children then develop anidentity that is heavily localized; one respondentexplained to Brown (2005, p. 109): ‘We only knowone culture, that’s the English culture’. Bunnell(2008) makes the same point with respect to theMalay community in Liverpool; he recalls how one

respondent ‘laments having grown up without be-ing exposed to his “father’s culture”’, while othersexpressed ‘embarrassment’ and ‘guilt’ at not beingable to converse in their parent’s native language(p. 262). Whilst the older generation (pakcik-pa-kcik) ‘self-identify as “Malay”’ (2008, p. 252), formany of the descendants of Malay sailors, likeLBBs the products of mixed marriages with localwomen, their ‘home is in Liverpool’ (Bunnell2007, p. 421) and their identity is ‘born and bredLiverpudlians’ (Bunnell 2008, p. 263). Moreover,they would be labelled as ‘not-Malay’ by most Ma-laysians, especially Malay students in the city, be-cause they were not Muslim and could speak verylittle, if any, Malay (2008, p. 262).

In Brown’s (2005, p. 92, original emphasis)view: ‘Blacks’ genealogies do not reproduce an in-dividual Black’s racial identity but the Black com-munity’s local identity’. The importance of LBBlay in the ‘localization’ and ‘politicization’ of iden-tity, whereby locals emphasized the role of geog-raphy (‘we were born here’) and race (Black) as keydeterminants of their identity (p. 94). EchoingUduku (2003), some respondents claimed that lo-cal Blacks lacked a strong identity to bind them to-gether like Somalis and Chinese with their distinc-tive culture, strong family units and cohesive com-munities: ‘Unlike the cultural identities named Af-rican, Somali, or Chinese, Liverpool-born Blackexpresses the uniquely dire consequences of birthin the city’ (Brown 2005, p. 94, original emphasis).

Note in Brown’s study, contrary to Frost, that Liv-erpool precedes Black, revealing ‘their sense of be-longing as Liverpudlians first, and raced, classed andgendered subject-citizens second. Place, as “Liver-pool-born” trumps all other forms of subjectivity’(Campt 2007, p. 374). Moreover, there are ‘contra-dictory racial positionings’ between LBBs, Afro-Caribbeans and Africans due to different cultural,migratory and settlement histories and processes ofracialization (Brown 2005, pp. 98–99). Another is-sue is that the origins and utility of LBB is not un-contentious: ‘Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, and evensome Blacks born here are quick to highlight the so-cial construction of LBB’ (p. 114). One African re-spondent felt it emerged following the 1981 riots (re-placing half-caste), another argued it showed thatLBBs ‘lacked a natural identity’, whilst a LBB ques-tioned the ‘overly local focus that it lends to Blackpolitics at the expense of both a global and a more ex-plicitly Afrocentric one’ (p. 114).

This leads Brown (2005, p. 115, original empha-sis) to claim that ‘members of this heterogeneous



Black community contest the category Liverpool-born Black’. Those who resisted LBB preferredphraseology such as African, Caribbean or de-scendants thereof. In return, LBBs rejected thesecategories because they privileged ethnicity (na-tional background) over race (Black) and under-mined their right to call themselves LBB. Finally,and most seriously, Brown (2005, p. 126, originalemphasis) claims the beliefs and political actions ofLBBs replicated White racism:

The irony of LBB politics is that they have adistinctively anti-immigrant tenor that resem-bles that of White British nationalism. Theirown ‘birth here’ politic plays directly, if inad-vertently, into the racial premises that servedto exclude them from rightfully belonging tothe nation insofar as, to repeat, ‘birth here’colludes with the ideology that it ostensiblyresists: that Black and immigrant are synony-mous terms. LBBs also couch their critique ofimmigrants in the same political-economicterms voiced by the White working classes:‘Immigrants are taking away our jobs’. Andsome Blacks who are not immigrants are es-sentially treated as such.

In 2007 Antipode carried a symposium of papers onBrown’s study, regarded as a significant contributionto understanding the inter-relationships betweenplace, race and identity (Campt 2007; Clarke 2007;Nash 2007; Powell 2007; Wade 2007; also Brown2007). However, polite intellectual exchangesamongst academics not from Liverpool (one worksat the University of Liverpool, two others are formeremployees that is part justification for their contri-butions) are countered by Christian (2009), a localexpert on Black identity currently based at MiamiUniversity, Ohio. Not only did Christian grow up inLiverpool he helped, along with other local activists,facilitate Brown’s stay in and study of Liverpool. Inan uncompromising style he charges Brown’s anal-ysis with major theoretical, methodological and his-torical weaknesses; he contends: ‘this study reeks ofthe worst type of patronizing and trivialized inter-pretation of largely Black working-class respond-ents’ (Christian 2009, p. 657).

Setting aside Christian’s trenchant but informedcritique, this author also has some fundamental is-sues with Brown’s book. Whilst her work is inter-esting, the key findings are not new (she is alsoguilty of some inexcusably sloppy factual errorsand careless coverage of significant events19). This

stems from the fact that she makes no explicit nodsin the text to the extant work of Christian (1997,2000), Frost (1995, 2000) and Uduku (2003)(Christian and Frost appear in her bibliography,Uduku does not); this is even more peculiar since,as revealed earlier, Christian was the first academicto utilize LBB. Brown’s inexplicable failure toopenly engage with published research on localBlack identities, and LBBs in particular, leads to amore serious offence; by ignoring existing work onthis subject she offers her analysis as the definitivestudy of Blacks in Liverpool. At the very least thissmacks of academic disingenuousness. Moreover,to accuse LBBs of perpetrating racism upon otherBlack people is, at best, insensitive.20

Connecting to a conceptual issue flagged up ear-lier, Frost (2000, pp. 208–209) acknowledges thatlocal Blacks developed ‘multiple identities’, for ex-ample Kru, Sierra Leone, West African, Black andScouse. Therefore, is it not possible to be Scousefirst and Black second during a football match atAnfield or Goodison Park?21 Let us think back tothe celebrations that accompanied LFC’s EuropeanChampions’ League victory in May 2005. The citycentre was thronged with people from all races:overwhelmingly White,22 but there were also size-able numbers of Black and Asian faces in thecrowds. This is an example of Anderson’s (1991)imagined community, in this instance Liverpudli-ans (using the proper local definition) sharing acommon identity imbued by sporting allegiance totheir club. It is more relevant because Frost (1995,p. 56, 2000, pp. 213–214) reveals that LFC is asymbol of Scouseness. However, many supportersof EFC postulate their team is the true Scouse clubbecause its fans are locals, whereas LFC attracts in-terest from a wider catchment area (national andglobal) due its history of success in domestic andEuropean competitions. The assertion that moreScousers support Everton than Liverpool is, how-ever, anecdotal and in the absence of proper empir-ical analysis remains a contested urban myth.

One of Brown’s (2005, p. 115, original emphasisand inset) respondents, whilst commenting on thepolitical activities of the Liverpool Black Organi-zation (LBO), offered this questioning observationon community:

Then the direction of the action changed be-cause as far as I was concerned, it was an LBOaction. It was an LBO meeting, and LBOmembers, and the LBO that went down thereto take it over [Caribbean Centre]. And now

PHILIP BOLAND


people were saying, ‘Well, this is “the com-munity” what’s done this, that it was “thecommunity” that was in here making these de-mands’. So now we get this vague ‘communi-ty’ thing so all statements that went out to thepress – particularly the Black press, the Car-ibbean Times, etcetera – particular spokesper-sons were elected to talk on behalf of this im-aginary ‘community’ and, like, I myself madeit personally clear that I was angry about it …Now at the time, you’re not even going to goagainst that. You’re going to say, ‘Okay, let itbe a community action’ with the understand-ing that you’re not going to make a big pointof it. But maybe we should have.

Like the West Africans and Afro-Caribbeans Liv-erpool’s Irish population also experienced horrificracism (Belchem 2005, 2006a, p. 56; Belchem andMacRaild 2006, pp. 326–344). As the product of aLiverpool-Irish family this author is acutely awareof the ethnic insults hurled at those of Irish descent.For example, his late paternal grandmother uncom-fortably recalled incidents of vitriolic verbal abusefrom local Protestants, the most common being:‘Fuck off back to Ireland’; in more recent timesthere have been occasions when he himself hasbeen ferociously harangued as a ‘Feinian bastard’.

The contemporary stereotype of Scousers as“reckless and feckless” and a “moral problem” canactually be traced back to the racial profiling ofIrish settlers in the nineteenth and twentieth cen-turies. In Leonard’s (2005) study respondents re-ferred to a ‘double sense of identity’ (p. 522) – out-wardly to Ireland and inwardly to Liverpool – giv-ing rise to a ‘Liverpool-Irish culture’ (p. 526). Thisauthor’s late father mentioned these same process-es of identity formation, emphasizing that hisidentity was rooted in place and the opportunitiesLiverpool afforded his family after they left Ire-land in search of a better life. Born in Dublin butraised in Toxteth, he explained his identity withthese words: ‘Oh I’m a Scouser. I’d never deny myIrish history, but my family, a mother and six kids,owes everything to this city’ (personal conversa-tion 11 January 2008). Liverpool’s other large andlong established, and racially abused, ethnic pop-ulation is the Chinese (Belchem and MacRaild2006, pp. 368–387; Belchem 2007, p. 52). Localbusinessman Stephen Yip, Chief Executive ofKIND (a national charity for disadvantagedyoungsters), explains his identity in very clearterms (cited in Grant, 1999):

I’m not Chinese. I’m a Scouser. I didn’t learnto speak Chinese because my dad was away. Igo into a Chinese restaurant and people expectme to be able to order in Chinese, and then Isay, ‘Number 10 please’.

A final issue is that particular places in the city be-came extremely important in the construction andperformance of identity. For the Irish Catholics itwas the “North End” of the city, while the Blackpopulation resided in the “South End” (Belchem2005). More specifically, the Irish coalescedaround Scotland Road, the earlier generations ofAfricans, Chinese and many other nationalitieswere located in and around Pitt Street (near thecity centre), Granby Street (in Toxteth) becamehome for the post-war influx of Afro-Caribbeans(Brown 2005; Belchem and MacRaild 2006;Belchem 2007), while 7 Jermyn Street (in Tox-teth) became a community space where Malay-sians congregated (Bunnell 2008).23

Interestingly, Belchem (2005, p. 151) revealsthe ‘dramatic transformation’ during the late1800s of identity-driven spatial divisions in Liv-erpool whereby the North End of the city changedfrom a ‘cosmopolitan area’ for numerous nation-alities into an Irish-Catholic enclave into whichBlacks and other racial and ethnic groups from theSouth End rarely entered: a ‘no go territory forblacks’. Fast forward to more contemporarytimes, Brown (2005) offers competing views ofGranby: it is an area from which many Black peo-ple would not venture as they feel safe in beingaround people they know and identify with; how-ever, others argue this leads to counter-productivegeographic-cultural isolationism. Other long es-tablished spaces of performativity include theGladys Street end at Goodison Park, The Kop atAnfield, streets on council estates across the citywhere local gangs (in its loosest sense) assembleand the areas in the city centre where groups ofyouths mingle and socialize, for example skate-boarders, Goths, “hoodies”/“chavs” (on the lattersee Boland 2008a).

The example of race, ethnicity and Scousersconnects to Massey’s (1991, 1995) point on peoplelooking outwardly, to Africa, the Caribbean, Ire-land, Malaysia, China, and inwardly to life experi-ences in Liverpool for important aspects of theiridentity. It also shows that for local Black peopleand those of Irish, Chinese, Malay and other originstheir identity is constructed both locally and glo-bally, and that they perform different identities in



different social and spatial situations. Bunnell(2008, p. 256) is therefore correct in stating that‘important sources of individual and collectiveidentity for many British people extend beyond theshores of the British Isles’.

ConclusionsThe empirical analysis of this article covered fivethemes. One, phonological definitions of Scousers;two, the performance of Scouse identity; three,length of residence in the city and true Scousers;four, community, territoriality and gang identity; fi-nally, race, ethnicity, Black Scousers and LBBs.The conclusion begins with a discussion of the spe-cific findings. There are several categories with re-spect to those classified as in/proper and out/plasticScousers: (1) those who identify themselves asScousers based on accent, geography and sense ofplace/belonging; (2) those deemed not to belongdue to their non-Scouse phonologies and residenceoutside Liverpool, for instance woollybacks; (3)those who sound Scouse to outsiders and are la-belled as such, for example the residents of Wirral,but who do not identify themselves as Scouse; (4)those who class themselves as Scousers, as resi-dents of Birkenhead in Wirral or Halewood, Kirkbyand Huyton in Knowsley, but who are defined oth-erwise as plastic Scousers by true Scousers fromwithin the administrative boundary of the City ofLiverpool; (5) some Black people identify them-selves as Scousers, others identify themselves asLBB and others identify themselves as Black; (6)there are different types of identity performance fordifferent groups of people involving language,dance, music, sport, food and attire; (7) there aredifferent layers of identity that exist in Liverpool,some look inwardly to the city while others lookoutwardly to other parts of the world; (8) there issome tentative evidence that territorial gang iden-tities are becoming more important than the imag-ined community of Scousers; (9) finally, there aretwo types of boundary that shape identity: the firstis geographic and the second is sonic, both affectthe construction of Scouse identity and differential-ly determine the legitimacy of being a true Scouser.

In short, this article shows that there are differenttypes of identity that exist in Liverpool. As suchthere is no single universal definition of a Scouser,rather there are competing interpretations that varybetween people and places within Liverpool,across Merseyside and the Liverpool City-Region.This article has explored the different dimensions

of Scouse identity and how it can be understoodthrough the analytical lens of place (local and non-local), race and sonic geographies. It has shownthat there are competing interpretations of what aScouser is, and where they come from. What thisarticle can confidently declare, however, is that amore inclusive and meaningful conceptualizationof Scouser must have a vocal frame of reference,rather than narrowly geographical, because the ac-cent/dialect is the primary social and cultural iden-tifier of a Scouser.

The article has offered an insight into how in-dividuals and groups construct their identities,how they create a sense of belonging, how theyare defined by others and how they variously per-form those identities. Liverpool is a city where anassortment of spatial, social and cultural forcesimpact upon people’s identity. Identities are so-cial constructs, whether it is Scouse, Speke Sol-diers or the Strand Gang, but the increasing prom-inence of gang identities is potentially damaging.An imagined community (following Anderson1991) that creates a sense of belonging and self-identification is more benign than the currentfashion of tribal estate rivalries driven by height-ened senses of place identity and violent territo-riality. In Liverpool maybe we are witnessing thebeginning of a local reformulation of the Scouseridentity based around territorialized street identi-ties. In this sense geography matters, and as suchit adds another dimension to the problematizationof the concept of identity and its social and spatialimplications.

The major contribution to geographical knowl-edge on local identity of this article lies in devel-oping Matless’ (2005) concepts of sonic geographyand sonic exclusion. The analysis presented herereveals how sound is an important, if not defining,element in the construction of identity. Those whopossess the appropriate accent/dialect are deemedto rightfully belong while those exhibiting a vocaldeemed out of place are consequently sonically ex-cluded. Indeed there are local phrases that excludethose who sound different. This is very much partof the Scouse identity whereby the distinctive ac-cent/dialect defines those in/belonging and thoseout/excluded. This indicates that Scousers are to asignificant degree identified through sonic geogra-phy.

There are another set of contributions to the ac-ademe. The study of gangs in Liverpool developsthe work of Paasi (2003b), Cox (2002) and New-man (2003) on the inclusivity and exclusivity of

PHILIP BOLAND


boundaries, borders and territoriality. It revealshow territories (streets) are defended and howthey form a crucial component in the constructionof estate identities. Cresswell (1999, 2004), Amin(2004) and Paasi (2003a, 2004) speak of the pol-itics of place and identity; again, the study herehelps to advance how local identities within Liv-erpool are highly politicized and how they exhibita strong sense of place and difference from others.In the study of race and ethnicity in Liverpool, thispaper adds another example to Massey’s (1991,1995, 2004a, b) notion of a global and local senseof place. The analysis of LBBs and LiverpoolIrish develop this idea of looking inwardly (lifeand opportunity in Liverpool) and outwardly(globally to parents’ origins) for important as-pects of their sense of place and identity. OnCloke et al. (2008) and Holt’s (2008) notions ofthe cultural performativity of identity this articlereveals the diverse arenas and contexts in andthrough which Scouse identity is enacted, embod-ied and performed. In so doing it shows thatScousers perform certain social and cultural prac-tices through sound, sport and culture in particu-lar spaces and places in the city.

In conclusion, this article has shown sonic ge-ography to be an extremely useful conceptual de-vice in understanding the construction of localidentity, working alongside traditional notions ofplace, race, territory, community and performa-tivity. The paper also reveals that place identitiesare scaled, not singular or cohesive; they are lay-ered, socially constructed, contested and boughtinto by various groups of people to create a senseof belonging and point of difference (followingMassey 1995; Cox 2002; Paasi 2003a; ). In sum-mary, the paper substantiates the claim by Matless(2005) that our understanding of local identitiescan be enhanced through analyses of vocal soundsand sonic geographies, and deepens our appreci-ation of suggestions by Bunnell (2008) and Paasi(2002) that territorialized notions of local identitycan be restrictive and limit our grasp of local iden-tities. Through an analysis of Liverpool andScousers this article has shown identity to be in-herently political; whereby the politics of place,race and phonology contribute to the social con-struction of a distinctive local, vocally driven,identity alongside competing place identities. Fi-nally, future research would do well to pay moreattention to the role sonic geography can play inenriching theoretical and empirical insights intothe construction of local identities.

AcknowledgementsThanks to John Lovering and Paul Boland for com-ments on an earlier version of this paper. Specialthanks go to the reviewers for their constructivecomments and the editor for his meticulous guidinghand. This paper is dedicated to the memory of myfather, Philip Boland, 1936–2008, RIP.

Notes1. A famous area of Anfield Stadium that is home to Liverpool

fans, or Kopites.2. Merseyside consists of the local authority areas of Liver-

pool, Knowsley, Sefton, St. Helens, Wirral and more recent-ly Halton.

3. A popular British television “soap opera” set in the workingclass East End of London.

4. This information is taken from Wikipedia. His personalwebsite states that he and his band, Dead or Alive, ‘hailfrom Liverpool’ (Dead or Alive 2009).

5. O’Grady did not respond to an email communication on thismatter.

6. A local television soap opera that ran from 1982 until 2003.Its main “scally” characters were Barry and Damon Grant,Terry Sullivan, Jimmy Corkhill and Tim “Tinhead”O’Leary.

7. Harry Enfield is a very successful British television comedi-an who has written and starred in many hit comedy shows.

8. Following her musical career, in recent years Cilla, as she isaffectionately known to her fans, became a popular televi-sion personality hosting programmes such as Blind Dateand Surprise Surprise.

9. A successful actor in many television and film productions;these include Brookside, The Royle Family, Dockers andMike Bassett England Manager.

10. Along with Des Warren, Tomlinson formed the ShrewsburyTwo imprisoned in late 1973 for ‘conspiracy to intimidate’whilst picketing in Shrewsbury; they were released in July1975 (Tomlinson 2003, pp. 143–202).

11. A popular comedian in the 1960s and 1970s; in later dec-ades he moved into hosting successful television game andvariety shows becoming a well-known television personali-ty, as Tarby, epitomized by his quick “Scouse wit”. Duringthe 1980s, like Cilla, he was an open supporter of MargaretThatcher which did not endear either of them to the peopleof Liverpool who were suffering at the hands of her eco-nomic policies.

12 Although he has not lived in Liverpool since he found fameand fortune, he did invest large sums of money into setting upthe Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts in 1996 (LIPA2009). He remains the lead patron. The school educates andprepares students for careers in the arts and entertainment.

13. Cardiff is another city that experienced huge in-migrationduring the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,‘from four corners of the world’ to the extent that almost 50different nationalities and even more ethnic groups lived inthe Butetown area (Jordan 1988, p. 53; Sherwood 1991). Toa large extent, this was driven by Cardiff’s role as a globalexporter of coal (Hooper 2006, pp. 2–9).

14. A similar observation has been made about the Somali com-munity in Cardiff (Sherwood 1991, p. 64).

15. This racial discrimination was replicated in Cardiff throughthe stigmatization of Butetown (Thomas 2004, pp. 274–276): ‘constructed as dirty, violent, diseased and immoral’(Jordan 1988, p. 53).



16. Sherwood (1991, pp. 52–57) offers an equally chilling ac-count of the racism inflicted upon Black people in Cardiff.

17. The book is written in the first person by a local crime jour-nalist.

18. A similar “racialized Butetown identity” has occurred inCardiff, for example through the Butetown History and ArtsCentre (Thomas 2004, p. 276; on resistance to racism seeSherwood 1991, pp. 58–67).

19. The Hillsborough football tragedy, where 96 not 95 Liver-pudlians lost their lives, occurred in 1989 and not 1991(Brown 2005, p. 147). Equally irritating are the conflationof the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies and careless asso-ciation of the latter with ‘violence’ (Brown 2005, p. 130).

20. It is very surprising that no locally born Black experts, forexample Mark Christian, Stephen Small or Ray Costello,acted as reviewers for Antipode (this author did contact theorganizer of the symposium on this matter but received noreply).

21. The respective grounds of Liverpool and Everton FootballClubs.

22. Liverpool is now one of the least ethnically diverse cities inthe UK (Belchem 2007, p. 48).

23. A similar geographical process occurred in Cardiff wherethe Butetown area of the city, historically also known as Ti-ger Bay and the Docks, became home for diverse groups ofmigrants who came to the city (Jordan 1988; Sherwood1991; Thomas 2004).

Philip BolandSchool of Planning, Architectureand Civil EngineeringQueen’s University BelfastDavid Keir BuildingStranmillis RoadBelfast BT9 5AGUnited KingdomE-mail: [email protected]

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SONIC GEOGRAPHY, PLACE AND RACE IN THE FORMATION OF LOCAL IDENTITY: LIVERPOOL AND SCOUSERS

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