Changing City Spaces: New Challenges to Cultural Policy in Europe
Bo Stråth directing an EUI research team as a partner in an EU Framework Project coordinated by Ulrike Meinhof, University of Southampton.
The Project Rationale was to focus on multicultural metropolitan spaces for
exploring the new challenges and opportunities associated with contemporary social and
cultural transformations; especially those associated with migrant and ethnic minority
populations. In selecting seven capital cities with complex interconnections, the research
brought out the dynamics and directions of change in European society and culture in
the 21st century. All the cities raise a range of issues concerning migration and
multiculturalism in the European space: post-imperial migration and its legacy; new
patterns of global migration; and the significance of East-West migration (including that
between the current EU and ascendant nations).
To explore these issues, the research took as its central focus urban culture
and policy in the European space in order to address broader questions of sociocultural
diversity, interaction and citizenship. The aim of the project was to examine a range of
cultural institutions, practices and policies in diverse city environments and to do so with
respect to particular cultural industries and forms (media, music, events, cinema) and
their multiple audiences in metropolitan settings. The over-arching aim was to
articulate valid and workable principles of multicultural practice and policy and to oppose
xenophobia and racism.
The Research Aim was to identify challenges to European culture in the context of
contemporary change, focusing on multicultural European metropolitan spaces; and to
identify advice and help realise cultural policies and practices that will further social
inclusivity for the diverse populations in Europe.
