European Capitals of Culture – Digging Deeper into the Governance of the Mega-Event

Abstract

This article examines the concept of governance as a process of making and implementing decisions about the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) mega-event. In considering the actors who prepare and realize the event, as well as the temporary or permanent societal structures formed around it, ECOC governance becomes not merely an issue between the European Union on the one hand, and the 'branded' cities and their relevant national authorities on the other. Rather more creative, mixed partnerships emerge transcending spatial-administrative hierarchies, initiating co-operation along more horizontal, relational networks. Moments of inclusion and exclusion, conflict and cooperation play out in the governance of such mega-events, governance processes which are therefore contingent, emergent and transient. The study is based on ECOC documents, media sources and in-depth interviews with actors engaged in the projects. Through a focus on the Hungarian Pécs 2010 and Finnish Turku 2011 projects ECOC governance is characterized not only by compromises and hard decisions but also by new co-operation, increasing social involvement as well as the emerging and resolved conflicts that ensue. Besides the analytical accounts of the governance of the two projects the research explores the ways and reasons regional governance practices are diversified by dissimilar relational processes.EXTRACTO En este artículo se analiza el concepto de gobernanza como un proceso en el que se toman y ejecutan decisiones sobre el mega evento Capital Europea de la Cultura. Al tener en cuenta a los responsables de preparar y hacer realidad este acontecimiento, así como las estructuras sociales temporales o permanentes formadas en torno al mismo, la gobernanza de la Capital Europea de la Cultura no acaba siendo simplemente una cuestión entre la UE, por una parte, y las ciudades designadas y sus respectivas autoridades nacionales, por otra. En vez de ello, surgen colaboraciones combinadas y más creativas que trascienden las jerarquías administrativas-espaciales, estableciendo una cooperación con redes más horizontales y relacionales. En la gobernanza de estos mega proyectos ocurren momentos de inclusión y exclusión, conflicto y cooperación, lo que hace que los procesos de gobernanza sean contingentes, emergentes y transitorios. El estudio se basa en documentos de la CEC, fuentes de los medios de comunicación y entrevistas exhaustivas con actores que participan en los proyectos. Centrándose en el proyecto húngaro Pécs de 2010 y el proyecto finlandés Turku de 2011, la gobernanza de la CEC se caracteriza no solamente por compromisos y decisiones difíciles sino también por una nueva cooperación, una creciente participación social así como conflictos emergentes y resueltos que surgen. Además de los relatos analíticos de la gobernanza de los dos proyectos, en el estudio se analiza cómo y por qué las prácticas de gobernanza regional están diversificadas mediante procesos relacionales distintos.RÉSUMÉ Cet article cherche à examiner la notion de gouvernance comme u...

Neoliberal place competition and culturephilia: explored through the lens of Derry~Londonderry

“…This is termed 'the politics of ECoC' that has generated 'tension, debate, objection' in host cities (Authors, 2016;Lähdesmäki 2013;Ooi et al, 2014). Useful examples include Cork (O'Callaghan 2012; O'Callaghan & Linehan 2007), Glasgow (Mooney, 2004;Tretter, 2009), Liverpool (Boland, 2010(Boland, , 2013O'Brien, 2011), Turku (Lähdesmäki, 2013), Pécs (Németh, 2016) and Istanbul (Gunay, 2010).…”

Indikatori interkulturizma u lokalnim kulturnim politikama

“…For analytical purposes and following previous works dealing with the governance processes of European Capitals of Culture (Németh, 2016), the bidding process is intended as a sample of local cultural policies, able to summarise and reflect the key characteristics concerning the discourse, governance, and cultural contents dimensions.…”

“…The reason for this choice is twofold. First, European Capitals of Culture, as moments of emergence of new forms of cultural governance and interactions between different communities (Németh, 2016), are considered to be interesting cases for the observation of the development of multicultural or intercultural dynamics. The candidature process initiated by each city within this European programme serves as comparative ground to study the changes of local cultural policies under the same conditions and pressures.…”

Synergies and Frictions between Mega-events and Local Urban Heritage

“…For example, the 1990 Glasgow ECoC played a significant role in shifting perceptions about the city of Glasgow, seemingly transforming it from a down and out post-industrial city to a new cultural destination (García 2005). Though the actual realities of those transformations have been questioned (Mooney 2004;Robertson 1996), the change in understanding of the city affected the long-term decisions made regarding the future direction of the city (Gómez 1998;Németh 2015). Therefore, while in some respects the ECoC may not be considered as large in terms of size or funding as an Olympics or Expo, the ECoC has been used in similar ways leading to significant impacts for many European cities.…”