"The European Capitals of Culture and their capacity to change the socioeconomic profile of the hosting cities – the cases of Guimarães and Košice"

Trabalho em progresso:

«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»