Interpretations of Cultural Identities in the European Capital of Culture Events

The European Capital of Culture (ECOC) is one of the E.U's longest running cultural initiatives. Since 1985, the EU has designated a city or cities as European Cities of Culture and later as European Capitals of Culture for one year at a time. The designation enables and prerequisites the cities to introduce and promote various sectors of their artistic and cultural life. However, the designation is not meaningful only in an artistic and cultural sense: it has an impact on various other sectors of the society, such as economics and social well-being. In addition, the designation enables 'identity work' in which notions on various identities - particularly area-based cultural identities - can be maintained and cherished, and also rethought and revised