The "European Capital of Culture" programme between local and international cultural policies: an observation and analysis of debates and strategies employed by German cities when applying to be European Capital of Culture 2025

欧盟目前的欧洲文化之都计划是基于20世纪80年代的一项倡议，该倡议旨在建立一种平衡，以平衡对欧洲统一进程的纯粹经济或技术官僚的理解。以独特的方式，文化，城市和欧洲相关的话语和实践在这个方案中浓缩；对它进行学术研究似乎是一个非常有希望的切入点，可以分析和背景化当前的文化、城市和欧洲辩论。2025年，根据商定的时间表，两个欧洲文化之都之一将在德国。该城市将在2019/2020年通过两步选择程序选出。在提交该项目的同时，几个德国城市正在准备申请成为2025年欧洲文化之都。该研究项目旨在根据定性社会研究方法，观察和比较分析文化、城市和欧洲与起草其应用程序有关的辩论和决策过程。与以往的研究不同，本项目不仅基于对最终申请文件的分析和回顾性访谈，还基于候选城市的辩论和决策过程。它可以被描述为多地点的民族志研究，从而能够全面地重建这些过程。因此，该项目将填补关于欧洲文化之都方案的现有研究文献的空白，并将提供新的经验见解和分析，尤其是在对该方案经常引起争议的社会评价方面。它将提供有关以下方面的分析和解释：a)城市社会中文化活动的当代功能（在社会和个人意义之间，地方品牌，旅游发展和社会整合工具），以及b)通常被诊断为关键的欧洲统一进程的塑造。除了具体的主题之外，该项目还提供了对当前城市文化政策和欧洲相关话语的深入理解。

The current EU programme for the European Capital of Culture is based on an initiative from the 1980s which was aimed at setting up a counterweight to purely economic or technocratic understandings of the European unification process. In a unique manner, cultural, urban and Europe-related discourses and practices are condensed within this programme; an academic study of it seems to be a highly promising entry point for analysing and contextualizing current cultural, urban and European debates. In 2025, in accordance with the agreed schedule, one of the two European Capitals of Culture will be in Germany. The city will be chosen on the basis of a two-step selection procedure in 2019/2020. At the moment of the submission of this project, several German cities are preparing their application to be considered as European Capital of Culture 2025. The research project aims to observe and to make a comparative analysis of the cultural, urban and European debates and decision-making processes related to the drafting of their applications, grounded on qualitative social research methods. In contrast to previous research, this project is based not only on the analysis of the final application documents and retrospective interviews, but also on the debates and decision-making processes in the candidate cities. It can be described as multi-sited ethnographic research, and is thus able to reconstruct these processes in a comprehensive way. Thus, the project will fill a gap in the existing research literature on the European Capital of Culture programme, and will offer new empirical insights and analyses, not least in respect of the often controversial societal evaluations of the programme. It will provide analyses and interpretations relating to a) the contemporary functions of cultural activities in urban societies (between societal and individual meaningfulness, place branding, tourism development, and social integration tool), and b) the shaping of the European unification process which is commonly diagnosed as critical. Beyond its specific subject, the project offers an in-depth understanding of current cultural policies within cities and of Europe-related discourse.