CITYFUL

Gemeinsamer EU-Antrag mit der Roskilde University (Lead Partner), Lund University, Uppsala University, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Università degli Studi Roma 'Tor Vergata', Open University UK und Anthropology company, Dänemark.

CITYFUL starts from the idea of European identity and how it is reconstructed while facing three main types of global challenges: the financial crisis, the totalitarian legacies and the increasing diversity of religions. These are challenges that indicate a pressure upon Europe to go beyond its scope of interests and to specify the European dimension of a cosmopolitan culture. CITYFUL takes up the challenge with a focal point in the European city region. The CITYFUL consortium wants to study the ways in which European identities are contested, reformulated, and implemented at the urban level. The idea of a national identity is a historical and contextual one, the history of the construction of Europe as a region of the world is a process of, by and large, the last half century only. In the post-war years the idea of Europe as a space of common experience appeared as a political tool in international politics - as safeguard against wars between nations in Europe. In the 1950ies as a tool of economic policies with the formation of EEC: European nations should stand together to the benefits and wealth of all. In the 1990ies the idea of a European identity again came to the fore due to war inside the borders of Europe, this time the civil war in Balkan urged European citizens to vote for EU treatises for different reasons than economic ones. Today the idea of a Europe identity has extended into social life. The EU has introduced a cultural policy. This includes symbolic initiatives, among which is the creation of the 'European Cities of Culture' (ECC), that are a primary example of EU attempts at awakening European consciousness by promoting its symbols, while respecting the content of national cultures. The CITYFUL consortium sees the city region as a full-scale laboratory to analyse identity making at work in social life.