European Capitals of Culture and Cross-border Urban Cohesion (CECCUT)

Conference

The European network "CECCUT" aims to investigate the potential of the European Capital of Culture initiative to act as a lever for cross-border urban cohesion. This cohesion is approached based on three themes: 1) Strengthening the sense of belonging to a common cultural space, 2) Social inclusion through culture, particularly that of young people and marginalised groups, and 3) Promoting urban development based on the cultural and creative economy.

The CECCUT network conference taking place on 7 March 2019 at the Belval Campus (Luxembourg) has two objectives. First, draw up the major issues of cross-border urban cohesion through cultural policies based on the experience of urban stakeholders in charge of setting up the European Capital of Culture initiative. Second, following these debates in the plenary room, three workshops will be held in parallel of each on the themes previously mentioned. The exchanges held in these workshops will act to orientate and organise future works of the CECCUT network. This includes the production of a good practices guide and an evaluation of the European Capitals of Culture located in border areas.

The CECCUT network was set up by LISER, the Catholic University of Louvain, the University of Lille and the University of West Timisoara. It is based on collaborations between the academic sphere and practitioners specialising in the development of cultural policies and cross-border cooperation, in particular the University of Luxembourg and the UNeECC (University Network of the European Capitals of Culture) network. Its work programme runs from 2018 to 2021. Finally, it is co-financed by the European Union's Erasmus+ programme (Reference: 599614-EPP-1-2018-1-LU-EPPJMO-NETWORK).

More information on the CECCUT website.