The Cultural Politics of Europe: European capitals of culture and European Union since the 1980s

by Patel; Kiran Klaus

• ISBN13: 9780415521499
• ISBN10: 0415521491
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-02-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Europeanization is mostly associated with new forms of European governance and rarely encompasses wider processes of societal and economic change, or of identity formation. This book provides a richer analysis of Europeanization by taking stock of European cultural policies, with a focus on The European Capitals of Culture (ECOC). The ECOC program, established in 1985, is the highest profile EU cultural initiative and creates 'local Europes' by simultaneously localizing the 'European' and Europeanizing the 'local'. This book offers an empirical analysis of the trajectory of the ECOC program and situates it in the wider framework of EU cultural policy and European integration during this period. Offering a set of case studies which discuss the appropriation of the program by local actors in various urban settings, the authors scrutinize the central role of transnational experts in the design and implementation of the ECOC program. They provide a thorough examination of the inter-related official negotiations at the national and the EU levels and explore how these cultural programs endeavour to re-awaken a sense of European identity. Challenging the dominant interpretation of European cultural policies, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of European studies, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, historians and cultural studies.