2 Conceptual and
Methodological Framework
2.1 RESEARCH AS A PROCESS OF UNDERSTANDING
The ECOC initiative pertains to several areas in the society: arts and culture, identity, urban planning, infrastructure, cultural management, governance, politics, branding, marketing, economy, tourism, social well-being, civil participation, intercultural encounters, education, etc. Due to the inter- and cross-disciplinarity of the initiative, understanding its points of departure, implementation, and outcomes requires openness for different perspectives. In this section the conceptual and methodological framework of the study at hand is defined and its approaches and position in the interdisciplinary research field are outlined.
The ECOC initiative and the designated cities have been actively investigated in the academia since the 1990s with various theoretical approaches. However, the emphasis of the research has been in the aspects of cultural policy, urban studies, and sociology. The main interests of these studies have focused on cultural political and urban political processes at the EU and local levels, cultural political decision-making, policy discourses, development of cultural management, and notions and experiences of the cultural agents, managers, and decision-makers involved in the ECOC initiative and its implementation (e.g.
Sassatelli 2002; 2006; 2009; Richards 2000; García 2004a; 2005; Lassur, Tafel-Viia, Summatavet & Terk 2010; Bergsgard & Vassenden 2011; Patel (ed.) 2013).
Besides policy level analysis, the aspects of culture-led or cultural regeneration (on the concepts e.g., Evans 2005) and regional development and the cultural and creative industries have dominated the interests of investigations (e.g., Heikkinen 2000; Richards 2000; García 2004a; 2004b;
Rommetvedt 2008; Campbell 2011). This reflects broader trends in recent urban policies: the ECOC was introduced at a time when the culture-led and cultural urban regeneration approaches were about to emerge, and European cities started to reimage their role as cultural centers (Sassatelli 2009, 95). The investigations of the ECOC initiative as a culture-led or cultural regeneration can also be seen in light of the increased interest in festival and mega-event research. The ECOC designation has also been actively researched in the broad and interdisciplinary frame of the European Studies by focusing the theoretical discussion on the topics of the EU policies and governance and a common
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European identity (e.g., Hansen 2002; Reme 2002). In addition, scholars have been interested in the media discourses and representations of the designated cities (e.g., Aiello & Trulow 2006; García 2005; 2010).
The diverse impacts of the ECOC designation at local and regional levels have been analyzed in several national research projects, particularly at the universities located in the designated cities. These studies have covered diverse issues ranging from the tangible cultural outcomes to the residents’ and visitors’
impressions on the city (e.g., Richards & Wilson 2004; Berg & Rommetvedt 2009), and from the networks of cultural operators (e.g., Bergsgard & Vassenden 2011; Campbell 2011) to the economic impact measured e.g., through hotel stays and tourist visits (e.g., Herrero et. al. 2006; Richards & Rotariu 2011). The impacts of the designation have also been among the main focuses of the ex post evaluations commissioned both by local authorities and the EU. According to Sassatelli (2009, 97), the impact studies still lack a proper view on the symbolic dimension of the ECOC designation, i.e., how reality and identities are culturally framed in the ECOCs. In addition, neither the impact studies nor the ex post evaluations have systematically or critically analyzed the influence of the designation to the contents of the art and cultural offerings in the ECOCs:
whether the designation has affected the topics, expressions, and quality of the artistic and cultural products or has it only influenced the facilities of producing them and their promotion. The impact studies have usually investigated the influences of the designation soon after the ECOC year. Investigations of long-term impacts would broaden the views on the initiative and help future ECOCs to plan and implement their cultural year in a more effective and sustainable manner.
Analyzing the implementation and impacts of the ECOC initiative, scholars have often confined themselves to presenting a deeper analysis of just one case city. However, some broader investigations have applied a comparative approach to the implementation of the initiative (e.g. Sassatelli 2002; 2009).
Particularly the studies of John Myerscough (1994) (focusing on the ECOCs of 1984–1994), Robert Palmer (2004a; 2004b) (focusing on the ECOCs of 1995–2004), Ropert Palmer and Greg Richards (2007; 2009), and Ropert Palmer, Greg Richards and Diane Dodd (2011; 2012) have offered useful comparative results and background information for further research.
The aim of the research at hand is to focus on identity politics in the frame of the ECOC initiative and investigate especially the four core area-based identities intertwined with the policy discourses of the initiative – local, regional, national, and European identities – and their interdependence and mutual relations.
These different identity concepts criss-cross and produce each other in a complex way in the policy and promotional discourses, in the cultural expressions of the ECOC events, and in the reception of the cultural events in the ECOCs. The key identity concepts are approached in the study on three levels: in the policy rhetoric of the EU, in the promotional rhetoric of the
23 designated cities, and in the audience reception of the ECOC events. The main research questions in the study are: What kind of identity politics is involved in the policies, promotion, and reception of the ECOC initiative and what are its motives and aims? How are the area-based identities produced, defined, used, and perceived in the ECOC initiative? In addition, each article selected for the dissertation has more focused research questions. The main focuses in each article are introduced in section 4. The fundamental aim of the research is to combine policy, urban, and reception studies with the idea of identity politics as a penetrating aspect. In the study, identity politics is understood in a broader sense than just as a political discourse. Besides political discourse, it comprises diverse ways of manifesting identities in culture and of interpreting them. The investigation aims to bring to the fore the issues which Sassatelli considered still lacking from the ECOC research – to discuss how different identities are culturally framed in the ECOCs.
By focusing on the concepts of local, regional, national, and European identities at the EU, local, and grass roots levels, the study aims to bring to the fore continuities and breaks between macro and micro structures in identity politics. The starting point for the research has been in the hypothesis that area-based identity concepts obtain different meanings, contents, and significances at different scalarly levels. At the EU policy level these concepts are extremely abstract and undefined. However, undefined concepts have their tacit meanings, which may obey certain ideologies and politics. The designated ECOCs follow the EU policy rhetoric in their promotional material, sometimes even in detail, because it is a prerequisite for the designation. The cities are expected to make the EU policy rhetoric and abstract ideological formulations concrete in their cultural program. (Lähdesmäki 2008.) However, the relations and logic of area-based identity concepts vary in the designated cities due to their different historical, social, cultural, and demographical backgrounds. In addition, the audiences of the ECOC events have diverse notions on how the events represent and bring to the fore local, regional, and European identities, and what kind of identity politics the ECOC events should eventually focus on. Although the ECOC initiative includes explicit criteria for the candidate cities and the agenda which the designed cities are expected to follow, it also gives the cities freedom to interpret from their own point of view the common themes involved in the initiative. This freedom, the diversity of the cities, and the organisatorial differences in their ECOC programs makes the comparison of the ECOCs difficult. It is, however, an exercise to which many scholars and policy makers (including the EC) pay a lot of attention.
Research is always a process – and, at its best, a process the results of which are unpredictable. Moreover, the phases of the process may also be unpredictable. In spite of meticulous planning, the research process is often influenced by diverse contingencies and coincidences which may open up new pathways, close old ones, and lead one to new areas of interest and more
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focused research questions. Research is thus a process which teaches the researcher to see the essentialities of the topic, understand its basis, structures, and broader connections and perceive what kind of views are important to be raised as the topics of discussion for the scientific community.
The research at hand is a compilation dissertation in sociology. In addition to the introductory chapter, it comprises five articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 2010 and 2014. These articles are selected from several publications produced within the research project titled ‘Identity politics in Pécs, Tallinn and Turku as European Capitals of Culture (ID-ECC)’ funded by the Academy of Finland between 2011 and 2013. The research on the topic was, however, started already in 2007. This compilation dissertation is at the same time a document of the research process and a summary of its main results. The selected articles bring to the fore different kinds of approaches and theoretical points of view on the core theme of the study: identity politics. Their focuses vary from the broader macro level analysis to individual micro level cases. At the same time the selected articles function as documents of the development in understanding the topic of the study, deepening its points of view, and the increased focus of the main concepts. The theoretical discussions in the articles combine aspects from the fields of sociology, European studies, cultural policy research, cultural studies, human geography, and reception studies.
During the first phase of the research process, the main interest of the investigation was in the local policy and promotional discourses. Reading the application books of seven Finnish candidate cities for the ECOC2011 nomination revealed how the definitions and meanings of local, regional, national, and European identities varied, and how they had an essentially flexible nature as concepts: they could be used in diverse ways to promote the city, emphasize its particularity, and/or indicate its international or supranational connections. In addition, the applications revealed how the concept of culture is even more flexible. Depending on the city, it included e.g., sport, education, or food. The concept of culture could be utilized as a tool for diverse purposes. In order to broaden the investigation into the international level, the application books of other recently designated ECOCs – Pécs, Tallinn, Essen, and Istanbul – and some candidate cities from Hungary and Estonia were included in the study. For closer analyses, the case ECOCs were limited to Pécs, Tallinn, and Turku. The analysis revealed both common and differing notions on area-based identities and rhetorical strategies in the meaning-making processes in the case cities. It also enabled broadening the focus of the research to cover other relevant research topics related to identity politics.
In addition to the different area-based identity concepts, in the early phase the research focused on a theme that penetrates the EU policy discourse, the promotional rhetoric at the local level, and the focus of the various cultural events and performances in the three case cities. This theme is intercultural dialogue – to use the term familiar from recent EU policy rhetoric. At the local
25 level, the theme was usually referred to as multiculturalism. In this study it is generally discussed as cultural diversity. Discussions on the theme have been extremely topical in the societal, political, and cultural sectors of European countries. The investigation of the local policy and promotional discourses raised interest in broadening the research into the EU cultural policy discourses and the identity politics of the ECOC initiative at the EU level.
In order to investigate whether the identity political policy and promotional discourses were transmitted to the grass roots level or whether there was a gap between the EU and the grass roots level, a questionnaire study was conducted among the ECOC audiences in three case cities. The preliminary survey was conducted in Pécs as an online study, after which the questionnaire data was collected using printed forms during the field research periods in the case cities.
The field research enabled various discussions with local people, cultural operators, artists, performers, scholars, volunteers, and workers at the management offices of the ECOCs; the participation in different kinds of cultural events: the listening of tens of opening speeches at the ECOC events; and following the regeneration and development projects in the cities. The dissertation includes one article utilizing the questionnaire data. Some of the core results of the questionnaire study, which were published in several separate articles, are summarized in section 3.2 in order to broaden the discussion on the meaning-making of identities at the local level of the initiative. This discussion increases the understanding of the complexity of identity politics in the ECOC initiative and brings to the fore the continuities and discontinuities in the mediation of the identity policies and politics from the EU level to the local level.
The field research in Pécs and Tallinn and the visits to some other ECOCs in the recently joined EU member states led into combining the investigation on identity politics with the exploration of urban regeneration and development practices and discourses. Besides the three case cities, the research discusses the identity politics in relation to urban regeneration in Sibiu (Romania), Vilnius (Lithuania), Maribor (Slovenia), Košice (Slovakia), Riga (Latvia), and Pilsen (Czech Republic). In addition, the field research in the case cities brought to the fore diverse conflicts and contradictions related to the ECOC scheme and its implementation at the local level. One of these conflicts was included in the research project in order to discuss the influence of the ECOC initiative on micro level structures at the grass roots level. All phases of the study have deepened and broadened the understanding of the main focus of the research: identity politics in the ECOC initiative. The results of the research have been reported in numerous articles published along the research process in peer-reviewed international journals and conference proceedings.
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2.2 THREE CASE CITIES: PÉCS, TALLINN, AND TURKU