Bidding for the european capital of culture: common strengths and weaknesses at the preselection stage

• Author: Florin Nechita
• Position: Faculty of Sociology and Communication, University Transilvania of Brasov
• Pages: 103-118

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 8 (57) No. 1 - 2015

BIDDING FOR THE EUROPEAN CAPITAL

OF CULTURE: COMMON STRENGTHS

AND WEAKNESSES AT THE PRE-

SELECTION STAGE

Florin NECHITA1

Abstract: This article explores the common strengths and weaknesses, as they

are revealed by the pre-selection reports issued after Selection Panels analyses

the applications of the cities competing for the European Capital of Culture

(ECOC) title. The results of the content analysis of the 11 pre-selection reports

that cover the years 2013 to 2019 of the ECOC title could add a new

interpretation to the guides for cities preparing to bid and concentrates

directions for future research on successful bidding approaches.

Key words: European Capital of Culture, community engagement,

European Dimension, bidding strategies.

1 Faculty of Sociology and Communication, University Transilvania of Brasov.

1. Introduction

The European Capital of Culture

(ECOC), named European City of Culture

until 2001 is one of the most successful

and well-known European projects. The

ECOC initiative was launched in 1985 by

Melina Mercouri with the main goal to

bring the member states closer together

through the “expression of a culture which,

in its historical emergence and

contemporary development, is

characterized by having both common

elements and a richness born of diversity”

[9]. Starting from 1985 to the 2019 (the

year in which the names of the ECOC are

known), 60 cities would have held the title

of this flagship cultural initiative of the

European Union. From 2020 to 2033, the

legal basis for ECOC designation will be

Decision No 445/2014 of the European

Parliament and of the Council of the

European Union of 16 April 2014.

The ECOC project is an annual mega-

event, which provides an excellent

opportunity to challenge and engage local

citizens, thus generating feelings of

common citizenship. As festivals occupy a

special place in almost all cultures, and

celebrate community values, ideologies,

identity and continuity, they have been

well-researched and theorized by scholars

in the disciplines of anthropology and

sociology [18].

ECOC initiative has evolved

significantly from a celebration of the arts

in a city to a major driver for the raising of

the awareness and the role of culture in the

life of cities to the contribution to citizens'

well-being. Culture is beginning to play a

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series VII • Vol. 8 (57) No. 1 - 2015

104

crucial role in the process of attracting

increasingly mobile public, especially in

the ‘declining industrial cities’ which

needed to shift the base of their economies

from production to consumption in order to

replace lost employment opportunities

[36]. Some authors considered the

Glasgow designation for 1990 title as

starting point for using the ECOC as

instrument to urban regeneration, since this

city was in industrial decline [14], [15],

[22], [36]. For instance, various ECOCs

have used the designation as a tool to

revive the city space [25].

The competition for title of ECOC city

brought so many energies and is so intense

that it could be compared with the

Olympic Games nomination [36]. The

strong competition and the less developed

procedures for evaluation compared with

the present ones produced nine awarded

cities from the same number of applicants

for the year 2000 title. The ECOC event is

composed by a series of events that take

place in a one full-year, the international

attention to the hosting city starts many

month and years before and after, and the

benefits for urban and regional

development are consistent.

The bid application process formally start

after the call for applications from the

relevant national authority (Ministry of

Culture), but the experience has shown that

many of the previous designated ECOC start

their preparation with many years in

advance as the host country are known with

more than 10 years in advance. The

competitive rules of the ECOC programme

have become more and more demanding,

and participants cannot afford to opt for

lesser or different visions and promises than

those offered by their competitors [30].

The reports produced by the Selection

Panel influenced the reports submitted by

the candidate cities qualified for the next

stage, or influenced the content of the

reports prepared for pre-selection stage by

candidates for the years that come. The

members of the Selection Panel could be

considered as a part of public cultural

performance, as they influenced the first

shape of the ECOC project for each city

[7]. The findings that came after analysis

of the pre-selection reports direct to the

most important issues that cities bidding

for ECOC title should be aware of.

2. Methodology

For the purpose of this study the content of

11 pre-selection reports were analyzed [11].

This reports issued by Selection Panels cover

the bid for the years 2013-2019 ECOC title.

Three pre-selection reports have been

excluded from analysis because of the lack of

specific reference to the cities (France), or

having only one candidate (Belgium2015 and

Malta2018). As indicated in the Table 1, only

the relevant part of the pre-selection reports

was included in the content analysis. The

analyzed texts have references from 69 cities

entering in the pre-selection phase and 39 of

these proceeded to the second round or final

selection stage. In the analysis tables, the

cities proceeding to the second round is

written in bold. After the name of the city and

year of ECOC, in parenthesis is written a

number that indicated how many times the

corresponding variable was incremented for a

specific city.