Europeanization in the context of the European Capital of Culture: analysis of the effects of budget and population size

Abstract

The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) is one of the greatest tools of the EU Cultural Policy. The ECoC allows for selected cities in the EU, and candidate states to be promoted in the European and international spotlight. Furthermore, it acts as a catalyst for development being viewed a ‘mega-event’. However, winning a ECoC nomination requires years of work leading up to the title year. The ECoC acts as a tool furthering Europeanization among the selected cities by having to satisfy the criteria of the ECoC. This thesis argues that population and budget sizes of ECoC cities impacts the process of Europeanization. Through the theoretical framework of Europeanization, the analysis focuses on four interviews with ECoC officials combined with qualitative content analysis of ECoC monitoring reports to uncover understanding of how the population size and the budget of the ECoCs affects the process of Europeanization.