The unwanted past and urban regeneration of Communist heritage cities. Case study: European Capitals of Culture (ECoC) Riga 2014, Pilsen 2015 and Wroclaw 2016

• Authors: Corina Turșie
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Within the ECoC programme, it has been argued that the European dimension is most visible when the candidates reflect their own history as a part of  European history, particularly when hinting at their involvement with the major ideologies of twentieth century, such as National Socialism or Communism. ECoC is about cities re-inventing their identities, re-narrating their history in a European context. But how should ex-communist cities deal with their unwanted past and narrate it in order to fit into the European dimension of the project? The focus of this investigation is on three ex-ECOCs from ex-Communist Europe, chosen for several reasons: geographical position (Central, Eastern/Northern European countries, ex-communist past, new membership of the European Union (since 2004), the year of holding the title (the two ECoC selection criteria exist since 2010). Using qualitative content analysis on a set of documents (application books, official web pages and ex-post evaluations) the study will offer an analysis of cities’ politics of memory and urban regeneration strategies.

Keywords

EN

unwanted past, image, urban regeneration, culture, European

• Publisher: Fundacja Pro Scientia Publica
• Journal: Journal of Education Culture and Society
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 122-138

Dates

published

2020-01-02

Contributors

author

Corina Turșie

• West University of Timisoara, 4 V. Parvan Blvd., 300223, Timisoara, Romania

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Identifiers

DOI

10.15503/jecs20152.122.138