European Capitals of Culture - Digging Deeper into the Governance of the Mega-Event

Abstract This article examines the concept of governance as a process of making and implementing decisions about the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) mega-event. In considering the actors who prepare and realize the event, as well as the temporary or permanent societal structures formed around it, ECOC governance becomes not merely an issue between the European Union on the one hand, and the 'branded' cities and their relevant national authorities on the other. Rather more creative, mixed partnerships emerge transcending spatial-administrative hierarchies, initiating co-operation along more horizontal, relational networks. Moments of inclusion and exclusion, conflict and cooperation play out in the governance of such mega-events, governance processes which are therefore contingent, emergent and transient. The study is based on ECOC documents, media sources and in-depth interviews with actors engaged in the projects. Through a focus on the Hungarian Pecs 2010 and Finnish Turku 2011 projects ECOC governance is characterized not only by compromises and hard decisions but also by new co-operation, increasing social involvement as well as the emerging and resolved conflicts that ensue. Besides the analytical accounts of the governance of the two projects the research explores the ways and reasons regional governance practices are diversified by dissimilar relational processes.