Book 22

European Capital of Culture

by Kristina Jacobsen

Published 13 December 2021

The «European Capital of Culture» initiative offered dazzling programmes at the RUHR.2010 and Marseille-Provence 2013 locations; these programmes also claimed to have cultural-political sustainability. The study examines to what extent the concepts of the two cities contributed to processes of cultural policy transformation at the locations in terms of sustainable governance structures in the cultural sector. It also shows how intrinsic identities affected a culturally shaped transformation of the two sites. The need to reform the ECoC initiative is also discussed.