European Cultural Competence

During the recent decades, the EU has actively participated in the negotiations on territorial attachments and identities in Europe. Identity politics has become an increasingly important domain of the EU’s cultural policies and the action of the European Commission (Stråth, 2002; Shore, 2000; 2004). The trajectory is manifested, for example, in the increase of EU civic and cultural programs and initiatives that focus on strengthening local, regional, and European identities, and in the establishment of financing tools directed to regional development and increasing European cohesion. One of the EU’s longest-running cultural initiatives—with high identity political aims—is the annual designation of the

European Capital of Culture (ECOC). Since 1985, the EU has designated cities as European Cities of Culture in order to bring to the fore the common culture and cultural diversity among European countries. In 1999, the initiative was given a regular legal base when it was transformed into a Community action of the European Parliament and the European Council and renamed the European Capital of Culture.

The establishment of the ECOC initiative in 1999 strengthened its identity political focus. Fostering and promoting local, regional, and European cultural identities were articulated as the EU’s major ideological goal for the ECOC initiative. The fundamental political agenda of the initiative was to get the cities to present themselves and their culture as part of the common European culture—to present the local as European (Lähdesmäki, 2012). In the designated ECOCs, the cultural programs, plans, and promotional rhetoric have obeyed the ideological goals, criteria, and instructions set by the EU—even in detail— because they form a prerequisite for the designation. Even though the policy rhetoric of the ECOC does not include the national scale, the cities have also used the designation as an opportunity to support, promote, and market national culture and its characteristics (Lähdesmäki, 2011).

During their ECOC year, the designated cities organize hundreds of cultural events and performances that manifest, either directly or indirectly, diverse territorial cultural identities. These identities are fostered in the cities’ official promotional rhetoric. The promotional rhetoric repeated, for example, in the media, in the form of advertisements, leaflets, information material, and opening speeches of the events, produces an identity political frame of interpretation that not only directs the implementation of the events but also has an influence on their reception. Case studies of the ECOC audiences indicate that the audiences have recognized and interpreted different kinds of manifestations Unauthenticated Download Date | 11/23/16 12:12 PM 71 The Influence of Cultural Competence on the Interpretations of Territorial Identities in European Capitals of Culture Baltic Journal of European Studies Tallinn University of Technology (ISSN 2228-0588), Vol. 4, No. 1 (16) of territorial cultural identities from what the ECOCs offer in cultural terms (Lähdesmäki, 2011; 2013a; Richards & Rotariu, 2010).

However, the contents of these interpretations vary drastically and the reasons for such variety in the interpretations have not yet been analyzed. Why do some people seem to be more able and competent to recognize representations of territorial cultural identities? Why is it easier for some people to explicate and describe their perceptions of territorial cultural identities? Is the ability and competence of perceiving and interpreting them related to some social determinants of the people? How do the interpretations of the representations of territorial cultural identities differ between people with different social background and cultural behavior?

This article focuses on the audience reception of the ECOC events in three cities: Pécs2010 (Hungary), Tallinn2011 (Estonia), and Turku2011 (Finland). Even though the cities differ greatly in their social, economic, cultural, and historical background, their ECOC programs followed the same policy guidelines determined by the EU. During their ECOC year, the cities aimed to promote and foster territorial cultural characteristics and identities. Various ECOC events in the cities focused more or less on bringing to the fore the characteristics of the city, region, nation, and/or Europe and the cultures of their people. The investigation of the audience’s reception of representations of territorial cultural identities in the ECOC events is based on a questionnaire study implemented in the case cities.

In order to answer the core questions regarding the social determinants in the interpretations of the representations of territorial cultural identities, the investigation adapts the discussions on diverse forms of ‘capitals’—a conceptualization formulated by Pierre Bourdieu—and their impact on people’s cultural competence, worldviews, and value systems. The article aims to investigate whether the same social determinants that, according to various sociological studies, influence people’s cultural preferences and tastes also impact people’s notions and interpretations of the representations of territorial cultural identities. Do the sociological views on cultural capital offer new insights for understanding people’s notions on territorial cultural identities?