Lectures of Invited Researchers : Christian Lamour (LISER Luxembourg) and Emilia Palonen (University of Helsinki)

Actualizat: May 10th, 2019 la 02:33 pm

“Investigating a European identity in a cross-border-region: The duality and opportunity of culture in the institutional discourse”, Christian Lamour

  Christian Lamour is a researcher in urban, cultural, and border studies at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER). He is also a research associate at the Information and Communication Sciences Department of the University of Lorraine in France, the CREM and a full member of the Observatory of Regional Politics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. His research topics include spatial policies, governance strategies, cultural practices, and bordering processes in European metropolitan regions. One of his areas of interest is media production/reception and its role in the definition of territoriality within metropolises. He also pays attention to therepresentation of mobility within Schengen Europe in the current context of right-wing populism and border securitization.

“European Capitals of Culture – an ackward European cultural policy”, Emilia Palonen

The talk discusses European Capitals of Culture programme as a challenging cultural and European policy. It investigates what “Europe” means in the ECoC policy. This should highlight what is sought after with the policy, and how do the values of the EU particularly at that given period also reflect the policy? Instead cultural Europe, the policy has shifted focus to an economic Europe. The ackwardness of the ECoC policy is related to the way in which funding is not really sourced from the European union, which leaves the local events volatile to local challenges and transformations – as well as the transforming enthusiasm with the European project. Finally, the presentation ponders on the unevenness of how the ECoC event is present in the event cities.

Emilia Palonen  is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, and researcher and WP leader on Populism and Democracy at the Academy of Finland funded research consortium on Mainstreaming Populism in the 21st Century (MAPO). Besides coordinating teaching of populism and supervising a number of PhD students and postdocs, engaging in the analysis of populism through media and presentations in Finland and abroad.