«Abstract
European Capitals of Culture (ECOC) are still
nowadays the most ambitious cultural collaborative project most performed in
Europe. During 15 years (from 1985, the date of its creation, until 2000)
several capitals and main cities in each of the European countries hosted it.
After, less known and less large cities had also the opportunity of hosting it.
After 32 years of the first designation of a European Capital of Culture, what
can we tell about the regeneration and impacts of its hosting by medium sized
cities like Guimarães (ECOC in 2012) and Košice (ECOC in 2013)? What has been the
capacity of the ECOC to change the socioeconomic profile of those cities? What
was its capacity of rebranding the cities and enhancing their tourism industry?
And what about the change verified in the cultural programme supplied? These
are the main questions to which we will try answer in the present paper. For
that, it was made use of primary and secondary sources referred to the two
cities mentioned, such as the Urban Audit statistics and semi-structured interviews
conducted to local and regional stakeholders. The main results attained tell us
that ...
Keywords: European Capital of Culture; Events Impacts; Cultural Legacy; Medium Sized Cities; Cities Socioeconomic Profile»
