Kiran Klaus Patel is Professor of European and global history at Maastricht University.

1. Introduction Kiran Klaus Patel 2. The European Capitals of Culture in Context: Cultural Policy and the European Integration Process Uta Staiger 3. The Changing Concept of the European Capitals of Culture: Between the Endorsement of European Identity and City Advertising Jürgen Mittag 4. Europe's Several Capitals of Culture: From Celebration over Regeneration to Polycentric Capitalization Monica Sassatelli 5.Integration by Expertise: Transnational Experts and the European Commission in European Cultural Policies Kiran Klaus Patel 6. Florence European Capital of Culture 1986 and the Legitimization of an EEC Cultural Policy Oriane Calligaro 7. Wall-City Visions: Representations of Europe in the Context of 'Berlin - Kulturhauptstadt Europas' (1988) Marc Schalenberg 8. Peripheral ECOCs between Cultural Policy and Cultural Governance: The Case of Sibiu 2007 Daniel Habit 9. 'We keep on building': The 'unsuccessful' application of Görlitz/Zgorzelec 2010 Annina Lottermann 10. Europeanization from the Margins? Istanbul's Cultural Capital Initiative and the Formation of European Cultural Policies Banu Karaca 11. Mediating European Heritage: Practices and Appropriations of European Heritage Policy in Serbia Claske Vos 12. Lefkosia/Lefköa: Europeanization and the Politics of Culture in a Divided City Gisela Welz

Culture is one of the most complex and contested fields of European integration. This book analyzes EU cultural politics since their emergence in the 1980s with a particular focus on the European Capital of Culture program, the flagship of EU cultural policy. It discusses both the central as well as local levels and contextualizes EU policies with programmes of other European organisations, such as the Council of Europe.
By asking what "Europe" actually means for European cultural policy, the book goes beyond the confines of official organizations and the political sphere, to discuss the contribution, impact and appropriation among a more diverse group of actors and participants, such as transnational experts, local bureaucrats, cultural managers, urban dwellers and the visitors. Its principal aim is to debunk the myth of Brussels as the centre of cultural Europeanization. Instead, it argues that European cultural policy has to be seen as a relational, multi-directional movement, involving a wide variety of stakeholders and leading to conflicts and collaborations at various levels. This book combines the perspectives of political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians, at the intersection between EU, urban, and cultural studies, and changes our understanding of 'Europeanization' by opening up new empirical and conceptual avenues.
Challenging the dominant interpretation of European cultural policies, The Cultural Politics of Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of European studies, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, historians and cultural studies.