Search

In May 2017, Denmark and China signed a film co-production agreement, marking Denmark as the first and only Nordic country to establish such a treaty with China. Taking two recent China-Denmark film co-productions as examples, Bille August's The Chinese Widow (2017) and Lin Jianjie's Brief History of a Family (2024), this paper investigates why China chose to sign a film agreement with Denmark and vice versa. It also examines the cultural and film policies that catalysed the emergence and development of this new co-production partnership. This paper aims to address two emergent trends in transnational screen studies: conceptual engagement with soft power and transnational talent development. It discusses how cinema serves as an instrument for states, institutions, and corporations to mediate diplomatic and political goals, generate soft power, and engage in nation branding. This paper argues that the transformation in geopolitical relationships between these two countries and their respective film and cultural policies over the past decade has led to this new collaborative partnership. Furthermore, it suggests that the latest European cultural policies supporting Sino-European co-production and transnational talent development have facilitated Sino-Danish film co-production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), despite being regarded as the most developed integration project in the post-Soviet area, has faced different hurdles in acquiring international recognition. Especially, the EU, the EAEU's Significant Other, has been reluctant to formally recognize it, in spite of close ties with EAEU member states as well as of its own self-image as a supporter of regional integrations. This paper focuses on this puzzle and examines how the EU has been discursively explaining its non-recognition of the EAEU at the institutional level. Based on the analysis of EU-articulated narratives since 2010, the paper reveals three dominant representations of the EAEU in the EU discourse: (1) Russia's geopolitical project; (2) a protectionist union; and (3) a dysfunctional union. These narratives have been used by Brussels to create the EAEU's image as a threatening Other, thus justifying why the EU cannot formally recognize the EAEU and officially engage with it. The paper also identifies five different stages of the EU's discursive representation of the EAEU since 2010, when its tone and content varied. The paper concludes that such non-recognition from the Significant Other still limits the EAEU's international agency despite its increasing interest in cooperation with non-Western actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the impact of European Union (EU) funds on corruption in the EU ex-communist countries by following a panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The panel includes 10 former EU communist countries, over 2007–2019. The key findings reveal that an improvement in the EU funds paid and their rate of absorption can reduce the level of corruption in the long-run in the recipient EU ex-communist countries. This is due to better monitoring of EU funds paid compared with national resources, and a more efficient and fairer channel of EU funds absorption. In parallel with the EU funds, corruption can be controlled in certain conditions by the degree of economic development, size of government, level of democratisation and religiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on Euroscepticism tends to portray parties opposing European integration or criticising the European Union (EU) as a family of Eurosceptic parties (either hard or soft). Recent literature, however, offers empirical evidence on the ambivalence and diversity of the EU critique. What is still unclear are the reasons behind the chameleonic nature of Euroscepticism and the implications that this may have for the EU critique and the changes proposed about EU policy or institutions. The present article addresses this question exploring the role of EU crises to capture the changing nature of Euroscepticism and suggests that it is related to contextual pressures on the political debate around the EU. The paper develops this argument and illustrates it through the analysis of the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, covering the EU crises of the last decade, including the recent period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine invasion. Drawing on a corpus of party manifestos and speeches between 2013 and 2022, this study shows that there are three main frames used by the party to criticise the EU. It also concludes that these frames involve distinct political implications for the EU critique and the alternative proposals presented by the party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses attitudes around the projection of the EU among Latin American elites, namely the determinants of support for a Free Trade Agreement between the two regions and the trustworthiness of the EU government. We take as data elite surveys conducted in 15 Latin American countries (2014–2019) and consider sociodemographics, ideology, support for democracy, views of foreign powers, exports to the EU, and electoral democracy. Results show that ideology and support for democracy are key determinants of support for an interregional FTA, and that the trustworthiness of governments in the US, China, and Spain covary with attitudes toward the EU. The latter (trust in the government in Spain) proves to be the main driver and, furthermore, its impact is conditional on the economic strength (observed as exports) of the EU: wherever the EU is not a strong economic actor in Latin America, trust in the Spanish government does nothing but improve the image of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which factors influence bilateral counterterrorism (CT) cooperation between EU Member States? Although scholars have studied European CT, the question still needs to be answered. This paper addresses the issue by introducing a new theoretical framework that combines CT and Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) literature. As citizens' threat perception increases, governments are pressed to act. Overall, centrist cabinets tend to rely more on cooperation agreements; likewise, pushed by threat perception, left-wing executives also recourse to international cooperation. I tested this framework on a newly collected dataset, which comprehends bilateral CT agreements signed among EU Members from 2002 to 2017. As such, this paper fosters studies on EU CT, focusing on a less debated issue: bilateral cooperation between EU Member States. The results support the initial hypotheses, disclosing a robust influence of threat perception and cabinet ideology on the number of bilateral CT agreements signed. Furthermore, they show that the perception of the threat is more influential on cooperation than the actual impact of terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the live music industry have received much attention, little consideration has been given to regional music production clusters more broadly. Evaluating the impacts of the pandemic on the music economy of North West England, this paper identifies key areas of support required as music businesses transition into a digitally-orientated post-COVID period. Findings demonstrate the ways in which the pandemic encouraged or forced music businesses to innovate with new digital ways of showcasing, promoting and distributing music. Yet, while digitalisation offers many opportunities, these are often difficult for businesses to capitalise upon. The paper argues the need to place business support at the heart of local cultural policy. More specifically, the paper makes the case for a soft institutionalist approach whereby local policymakers, the market and civil society work together to generate and distribute crucial resources of human, financial and social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established in 1951, the Children's Film Foundation (CFF) contributed to the growth of children's film culture in Britain. This paper aims to show how the CFF's active involvement of public authorities, film industry organisations and educationalists resulted in partnerships between them and in the growing production of children's films in Britain. Drawing on under-investigated archival materials, this paper argues that the Advisory Council of the Children's Film Department and Children's Entertainment Films, precursors of the CFF, offered significant platforms for mediation between public authorities, industry organisations and educationalists, and for shaping new beliefs about child audiences and children's cinema, which resulted in both the film industry's and educationalists' support for, and commitment to, producing films with entertaining and educational values. The case study demonstrates how the CFF overcame a commerce – culture dichotomy. It therefore offers a more nuanced understanding of state–market–civic relations in British cultural policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to clarify how social positioning and modes of cultural participation shape the meanings people attach to the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 initiative. The authors analyse both quantitative and qualitative evidence for narratives on ECOC, drawing on data collected in a survey (N = 1000) in 2017 and qualitative group interviews (10 FGIs) in 2016 and 2017. A literature-based narrative on the ECOC legacy is first reconstructed as a point of reference. Local perspectives on ECOC 2016 are derived from a representative survey and in-depth qualitative analysis to reveal bottom-up perspectives on what ECOC 2016 was. The paper examines the relationship between ECOC's values and the socioeconomic and sociocultural characteristics of city residents who support and oppose it, to determine how ECOC's values are related to class dimensions of social positioning and modes of cultural participation. The paper concludes that ways of understanding and narrating ECOC are derived primarily from cultural practices. Socio-demographic variables are of secondary importance. Both affirmative narratives of ECOC's achievements in cultural policy and critical accounts can be viewed as informative markers of who and how perceives cultural policy successes and failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), as policy concepts, are globalized, has been a matter of debate. This paper engages with the debate while seeking to move beyond the binary division of global and local scales of analysis. Empirically, it examines the emergence and politics of CCIs in Vietnam, with a focus on its connection with the implementation of the UNESCO 2005 Convention. The paper explores the complexity of the policy translation process, which shows the degrees to which neoliberal ideas can be translated in a post-socialist context. It also examines the role of UNESCO and questions the consistency of its position against the commodification of culture. Conceptually, it brings together different approaches to policy translation from language studies, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and postcolonial studies. The paper suggests that this interdisciplinary framework can further the understanding of both paradigmatic and pragmatic dimensions of policy travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the use of intangible cultural heritage as a vehicle for soft power in the service of geostrategic competitions between Iran and Turkey, two regional powers in West Asia. We focus on two significant trans-regional instances of intangible cultural heritage relevant to both countries: the mystic poet Rumi and the New Year's celebration of Nowruz. We draw on theories in political science and cultrual heritage as well as a host of sources in Persian, Turkish, and Azerbaijani, to demonstrate how heritage is mobilised concurrently as a nation-building device and a tool for soft power in international relations. We conclude by suggesting that, despite strong grounds for its claims, Iran's response in this competition has been reactive rather than proactive. Overall, the paper contributes to the scholarship on soft power and heritage diplomacy by presenting the first comparative analysis of cases of shared intangible heritage in West Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data from qualitative interviews and participant observation with those involved in artistic production in New Orleans, this paper considers the effect of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic on cities and artists. It investigates the supports available to artists before and during the pandemic and the relationship between cultural workers and tourism in New Orleans. This relationship creates a paradox: New Orleans is unique because it is the site of enduring local cultural traditions and emerging creative production, and yet the city must sell its culture to tourists to remain economically solvent. Left to fend for themselves by larger institutions, arts communities and nonprofit organizations came together to mutually support each other. The paper concludes that what we can learn from this case is how people 'make do' and survive during an extended period of crisis – especially when the lessons of survival have been taught and tested through preceding crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage (e.g., historic buildings, memorials and museums) has been used to construct and negotiate various identities and meanings in the present, specifically in the context of nation-states. In transforming the past into heritage, however, States may disregard other histories-ones which deviate from the historical narratives they promote. In this paper, I discuss the case of the Heritage Plan, Israel’s official cultural heritage policy. Specifically, by using the discursive approach, I expose and assess cases of silencing competing histories which would challenge the history promoted by the Heritage Plan. My findings suggest that, in addition to privileging Jewish heritage, the Heritage Plan is used as a mechanism for erasing competing, non-Jewish histories. This article presents three case-studies of silencing: the first investigates the Druze heritage center; the second inquires into Israeli heritage practices in the West Bank; the third examines the Castel national heritage site associated with the 1948 war. The analysis of these cases reveals how the Heritage Plan is guided by ethnic and religious factors, whereby heritage assets are not necessarily promoted according to their full historical value, but are instead used to sustain current power structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the epistemic dimension of exclusionary institutional structures in the German cultural sector in relation to cultural production, this article searches for decolonial cultural policy conceptions that are critical of knowledge-related power imbalances and their entanglements. By taking the international art exhibition documenta fifteen in Kassel in 2022 as a case study, the paper examines the community- and collectivity-based practices and methodologies introduced by the Indonesian artist collective ruangrupa. In particular, this empirically grounded inquiry focuses on ruangrupa’s lumbung values as a proposition of epistemic pluriversality. In this way, it also reveals various conflicts that occurred before and during the fifteenth edition of the exhibition, arisen from epistemological differences in perspectives, narratives, aesthetics and artistic methodologies between colonial and capitalism-critical cultural practices and Western art institutions. Following the tenets of the decolonial turn and decolonial thought, the paper explores alternatives to the dominant Eurocentric universalism of knowledge through the example of documenta fifteen, transcending the binary of either/or and advocating pluriversality as a universal option, rather than Eurocentric universalism as a singular totality, as proposed by Walter Mignolo. Following Catherine Walsh, the quest for the recognition and dissemination of pluriversal perspectives is intrinsically linked to the search for other ways of knowing, thinking, theorising and being that resist totalising power. In doing so, the authors ultimately seek to outline some attributes of decolonial conceptions of cultural policymaking, aiming at reducing epistemological inequalities in accessing cultural production for marginalised and racialised artists and cultural practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pennsylvania's (PA) processes and policies for landscape-scale cultural and visual resource conservation are lacking. In PA, like much of the United States (US), landscape change policies are prescriptive and concerned mainly with ecology, health, safety, and welfare issues. These factors combined relegate cultural and scenic aspects to ancillary matters, often leading to their degradation. Culturally focused fields, such as landscape architecture, archaeology, and planning call for rescaling cultural conservation planning to regional scale. Rescaling would treat cultural resources like other environmental and ecological resources, giving cultural resources equal weight in conservation evaluations. The United Kingdom (UK) has policies specifically for visual impact assessment required for development projects. This paper discusses scale issues and political processes within regional visual and cultural resource conservation in PA, US, compares nascent regional-scale planning efforts in PA and the UK, and proposes improvements to PA and, by extension, US cultural landscape conservation policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the styles and the role of monumentality have undergone significant transformations in the West, in line with wider trends of democratization and demystification of arts. Nevertheless, statues depicting human figures are still important landmarks in urban cultures. The statue wars that have erupted in several countries during recent years to challenge the racist, colonial and/or patriarchal vision embodied by many monuments, are a tangible demonstration of this. However, the topic remains understudied in the scientific literature. This research paper is intended as a contribution to begin addressing this gap by focusing on the dimension of gender in public monuments. We analyze statues in Italy depicting contemporary secular female figures. The aim of this paper is to research gender-based patterns or stereotypes that are specific to cultural heritage and urban design. The sample consists of 34 statues, distributed throughout the Italian national territory. A thematic analysis is conducted on the corpus integrating visual, narrative, aesthetic and sociological elements. The results reveal the existence of evident and widespread forms of stereotyping and discrediting of the female figure in Italian monuments, as well as the inadequacy of cultural policies, both in small provincial as well as larger urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent does the sense of touch matter in cultural consumption? After an extended period of limited social gathering due to COVID-19, it is vital to assess the importance of physical contacts in cultural events. Focused on the live music industry, our paper addresses the following question: How important is the perception and experience of tactile value amongst festival- and concertgoers? For this purpose, we conducted a survey between September and November 2021 and collected 142 exploitable questionnaires. Our goal was to detect structural relationships between latent variables related to touch through a Structural Equation Model. The latter reveals the relative pleasantness of tactile value experienced by our respondents, with effects on their live music experience. In view of the importance of tactile value in live music events, we formulate several recommendations to practitioners and cultural policy in order to further take into account this variable in decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the life experiences of creative expats and the associated impact of, and on, the built environment of their host localities. Grounded on participants' testimonies, we develop the concept of transient mentality as a potential mediating factor in-between such reciprocal relations. Employing an interview and survey-based research approach and drawing on grounded theory for data collection and analysis in Beijing, China, we found that the prevalence of a transient mentality among creative expats is influenced by the nature of their occupations, the fluidity of their social relationships, and the rapid transformations in the built environment. This transient mentality, in turn, affects the production of the cityscape through the consumption preferences of these expats. We argue that understanding such a transient mentality is crucial for urban planning and cultural policy, particularly in (emerging) global cities that work to brand themselves as international creative hubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research investigates the response of public libraries to the COVID crisis in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy). Group interviews were conducted involving 36 librarians from the 9 provinces of the Region, using the ethnographic methodology of “deep hanging out”. Results show the resilience of public libraries during the crisis; the importance of libraries as social infrastructure beyond the services they provide, highlighting how the digital divide has affected the demand for the libraries’ services; the need to implement librarian communication and digitization skills, as well as a lack of consistent support from the Region were noted. The first section of the paper provides framework over cultural institutions and the COVID crisis. The second introduces the methodology for the sample choice and for conducting the interviews. The third section presents findings from the interviews. The fourth section presents conclusive remarks and policy indications for the support of public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the need for local cultural policies targeting cinema exhibition. Portugal evidences extreme dependency upon the central government, including for local movie screening, thus expressing the Portuguese high territorial asymmetry. Our research discusses the importance of noncommercial exhibition for countering this situation, as it is implemented by local agents (not only film societies) with a wider cultural intervention. When reflecting on the European countries policies for cinema and acknowledging the big socioeconomic and historical differences between Portugal and the Nordic countries, the regional-local initiatives of the latter emerged as an important issue for decentralization, especially the Norwegian scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decolonising the curriculum is a global imperative that takes different forms and urgency depending on the context. Developments across the globe such as BlackLivesMatter and student responses to the pandemic and online learning have raised new questions about the curriculum – critically questioning higher education institutions' plans about not only providing access to resources but about the (cultural) authority of curricula, pedagogical and research practices that are still dominated by Western discourses. This paper examines three experiences of curriculum decolonisation in cultural policy and management, an applied subject that has culture as its object, in three different contexts, Serbia, Puerto Rico and South Africa: namely how the pursuit of a pluriversal knowledge ecology found expression in the curriculum, content and pedagogical practices deployed to deliver locally relevant education; and how educators resolved the ontological and epistemic discontinuities between the standard disciplinary canon and local realities to embed and contextualise the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory paper, we discuss local cultural political tensions in Austria's three largest cities (Vienna, Graz, and Linz). Against the backdrop of COVID-19, which hampered, yet also created new opportunities to host cultural events in public space, we analyze large-scale cultural events (Vienna and Graz), and a newly emerging cultural policy theme (Linz). Drawing on 30 qualitative interviews with cultural politicians, administrators, cultural producers, and artists (2020–2022), situational mapping, and the analysis of media coverage, we unpack (1) agential conflicts that manifest in unequal access to funding and decision-making; (2) symbolic conflicts that variously instrumentalize culture; (3) procedural conflicts that problematize lack of transparency and collaboration; and (4) spatial conflicts that materialize in diverging views about safety, cleanliness, and ownership of public space between state and self-organized cultural actors. Ultimately, we argue for a conflict-oriented approach to cultural policy to grasp the interrelations between power, agency, and space in cultural politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how the policies of international cultural exchange of socialist Yugoslavia are reflected at the level of biennial crossroads, using the example of the Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Arts (IBGA). Our research is based on the analysis of archival materials, existing literature, and interviews with the participants of the Biennial in the studied period. The Cuban example is highlighted in this paper to examine the example of the renowned designer and graphic artist Félix Beltrán to show that there was no firm international cultural policy on the Yugoslavian institutional level. With the transition to market socialism and the liberalization with which Yugoslavia began to approach the Western capitalist economy, something similar happened at the level of international cultural policy. The West held the leading position in global cultural politics, which managed to preserve capitalism and make it part of the culture with its hegemonic cultural code. This also announced the beginning of the decline of international socialist history, which was very noticeable in the field of cultural crossings, such as biennials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses significant changes in the political rationality underpinning Sweden's official reading policy between the 1940s and 1980s. Using official inquiry reports as empirical material and drawing on a discourse analytical method, we examine policy changes regarding ideal readers (what reading should result in) and administrative practices (what policy actions could be used) and the kinds of academic knowledge that was used to justify specific measures. It is found that official reading policy ceased to be limited to distributing literature and expanded to include active reading promotion. The replacement of sociological perspectives by cognitive viewpoints as constituting knowledge is also noted. It is concluded that changes in the political rationality had consequences for how the individual reader was construed, from a subject with the potential to change society to a subject who had to adjust to society. We argue that the cultivation of readers evident in reading policy constitutes a specific technique of governance not sufficiently considered in previous cultural policy research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article states that the philosophical nature/ambiguity/controversy of the issue of authenticity undermines its usefulness as a tool in conservation practice. The main drawback is the inability to objectively define the notion of authenticity. In conservation philosophy, the meaning of authenticity relativizes along with the widespread consent to the reproducibility of cultural heritage, whereas the recognition of its intangibility negates the sense of authenticity. In the World Heritage (WH) policy and practice, the uselessness/counterproductivity of authenticity as a necessary requirement is visible in the inconsistency of this system in the treatment of the commonly realized reproducibility of cultural heritage, and in relation to heritage with a prevailing intangibility, which is illustrated by the example of Gdańsk as a potential WH site. Although the article provides many arguments for departing from the concept of authenticity in the WH system, authenticity introduces the socially beneficial element of discretion (it cannot be considered binarily), as it forces a discussion that raises cultural awareness in an increasingly homogenized world. Finally, to reduce some inconsistencies in the WH system, this paper recommends restoring autonomy to criterion (vi) in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with public policies to promote entrepreneurship within the cultural and religious-based creative industries. Creative industries deal with activities whose final production results in symbolic consumer goods. The research locus is the municipality of Juazeiro do Norte-CE, since this municipality has a relevant set of creative professionals who direct their work to a religious theme. In this way, the main objective was defined to identify the content and analyze the adequacy of public policies for the activities of cultural-religious based creative industries. The study follows a qualitative path, operationalized by focus groups, in-depth interview and content analysis. Field research has revealed that the Federal and State public authorities partially meet the needs of these creative entrepreneurs through the call for proposals, and the municipality has a passive or almost absent action in this field. There is also a need for the municipal administration to consider the three main types of tourists that have different profiles: the conventional tourist, the religious tourist and the pilgrim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within recent years, China has experienced growth in the construction and development of museums. Encouraged by financial and cultural policy measures, China’s public museums have opened to the world with the aim of introducing Chinese culture to a broad audience and connecting with the global cultural marketplace. Cross-cultural collaboration has formed a prominent part of this strategy, functioning as a diplomatic tool to nurture mutual understanding between nations. Using empirical data from a research project that examined the production and consumption of an overseas exhibition hosted by Nanjing Museum (南京博物院: nanjing bowuyuan), this paper explores the processes of negotiation and avenues of innovation that emerged from the production of the exhibition and collaborative research project. By reflecting on the lessons learned from this partnership, practical solutions are offered to help inform future strategies and ways of working that may promote sustainable engagement and collaboration between UK and Chinese cultural institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent did the Covid-19 pandemic affect the tools, priorities and organisation of cultural policies? And did the pandemic enhance the digital aspect of these policies? This paper compares pandemic cultural policy measures in seven European countries to answer these questions. The countries all installed a plurality of mitigating measures, combining grants and subsidies, compensation of lost income, income support and financial flexibility, creating a tendency towards cultural policy turning into economic policy, fiscal policy, and labour market policy. Cultural policies have not been fundamentally challenged by the pandemic, in the sense that it has affected the essential political tools, divisions of labour, or core goals. The responses have confirmed an existing policy structure or enhanced existing developments. The importance of a state-centred or a federalist cultural policy system has not been challenged in a substantial way. Secondly there is little evidence to show a general acceleration of national digital cultural policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction to the special issue on 'The Europeanisation of identities through everyday practices', we argue for a more thorough shift towards everyday practices, lifeworlds and leisure-time activities as important terrains for research into (ultimately also politically relevant) identifications among Europeans. Doing so entails the idea that the Europeanisation of identities might unfold in a more subliminal manner, and might hence be anchored less in policy changes and people's positionings towards political issues in a narrower sense. In contrast, mindsets, aspirations and frames of reference might undo a more unconscious transformation due to various activities in lifeworldly, cultural, leisure time-related, and even private spheres. Drawing on a multitude of fields (e.g. cultural heritage, university cooperation, everyday routines in the border region, arts, sports and gaming) as well as varying approaches and different methodologies, this Special Issue aims at demonstrating that ever more Europeanised identities might emerge from multiple sources and activities, which are not obviously tied to political agendas and frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Europeanisation of national political parties is often considered a crucial element in the democratisation of the EU. Yet, party Europeanisation has remained limited. The traditional argument explaining this is that the low political relevance of European affairs creates limited incentives for party organisations to Europeanise. But what happens in a context where Europe ìs politically relevant? Denmark, with its high parliamentary and public scrutiny of European affairs, provides us with such a case, allowing a view through the looking glass on whether and how national political parties Europeanise in a Europeanisation-friendly context. This article finds that Danish parties Europeanise rather differently from what has previously been found elsewhere, focusing strongly on internal cohesion, to the detriment of transnational cooperation. As such, empirically scrutinising a long-standing theoretical argument, this article adds much-needed nuance to the debate on party Europeanisation, its causes and relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a bottom-up perspective, cleavage theory links the socio-economic trends existing in the political community with the shape acquired by party politics. Globalization and European integration impacted European society, creating novel socio-economic divides and bringing new social, cultural and economic issues into the political discussion. The impact of the novel cleavage over the pre-existent societal socio-political fractures acquires a central role in the study of European Union politicization. Deploying critical discourse analysis (CDA) and discourse-historical approach (DHA), this study aims to comprehend how the emergence of a novel cleavage has influenced the discourse of the mainstream European parties. The manifestos of the European Christian democratic, socialist and liberal parties from the last three European Parliament elections are analyzed to assess the contemporary relevance of the left-right political competition in a scenario characterized by the salience gained by transnational issues and the electoral success of populist elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agreements on Next Generation EU (NGEU) and the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021–2027 (MFF 2021–2027) are extraordinary milestones for the EU integration process. Not only do both regulations have important redistributive effects within a defined timeframe, but both regulations shape the hierarchy of objectives and instruments of EU budgetary policies. This is particularly true for cohesion policy, which has been characterised as the model of EU multilevel governance (MLG). Drawing on historical institutionalism and Peter Hall's classification of policy change, this text examines the dynamics of change in MLG. In particular, this research looks at the timing and scope of changes in EU cohesion policy since the 1980s. We ask whether or not the adoption of NGEU and the MFF 2021–2027 is likely to represent a critical juncture for the MLG and to what extent both regulations modify objectives and instruments of cohesion policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has developed cultural policy initiatives that seek to promote cultural Europeanization with the purpose of constructing European identity narratives and facilitating citizens' sense of belonging to Europe and the EU. The article focuses on the citizens' perspective to cultural Europeanization through ethnographic research on one central action in the EU cultural policy, European Heritage Label (EHL). We analyse the interviews conducted in selected EHL sites with Central and East European (CEE) citizens who were visiting the sites as well as with cultural heritage practitioners working at three EHL sites located in CEE countries. We ask how the practitioners and the visitors engage with European identity narratives and elaborate their European belonging. We especially scrutinize how everyday encounters and experiences, such as mobility, shape identifications with 'Europe' and perceptions of what is 'European'. The interviews are interpreted in the theoretical framework of 'being' and 'becoming' European. This framework indicates a centuries-long liminal position of the Central and Eastern Europe. It enables us to scrutinize CEE citizens' sense of belonging to Europe in an intersection of dual Europeanization, i.e. cultural Europeanization and 'Europeanization' of the CEE countries to overcome this liminal position and become 'true' Europeans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]