ABSTRACT
Culture is one of the most complex and contested fields of European integration. This book analyzes EU cultural politics since their emergence in the 1980s with a particular focus on the European Capital of Culture program, the flagship of EU cultural policy. It discusses both the central as well as local levels and contextualizes EU policies with programmes of other European organisations, such as the Council of Europe.
By asking what "Europe" actually means for European cultural policy, the book goes beyond the confines of official organizations and the political sphere, to discuss the contribution, impact and appropriation among a more diverse group of actors and participants, such as transnational experts, local bureaucrats, cultural managers, urban dwellers and the visitors. Its principal aim is to debunk the myth of Brussels as the centre of cultural Europeanization. Instead, it argues that European cultural policy has to be seen as a relational, multi-directional movement, involving a wide variety of stakeholders and leading to conflicts and collaborations at various levels. This book combines the perspectives of political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians, at the intersection between EU, urban, and cultural studies, and changes our understanding of ‘Europeanization’ by opening up new empirical and conceptual avenues.
Challenging the dominant interpretation of European cultural policies, The Cultural Politics of Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of European studies, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, historians and cultural studies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |76 pages
The trajectory of EU cultural policy
chapter |20 pages
The European Capitals of Culture in context
chapter |16 pages
The changing concept of the European Capitals of Culture
chapter |17 pages
Europe's several Capitals of Culture
part |84 pages
Creating local Europes
chapter |13 pages
Wall city visions
chapter |14 pages
Peripheral ECOCs between cultural policy and cultural governance
chapter |20 pages
Europeanisation from the margins?
part |40 pages
European cultural policies in context