What remains is a question asked to all European Capitals of Culture. Territorial aspects were so far underexplored!
By Sylvia Amann, inforelais & Laura Csóka, HETFA
What remains once the title year is over? Which changes take root in the host city and its wider region, and which fade away? These questions are at the heart of ESPON SECC – “Spill-over effects of European Capitals of Culture on territorial development”, a research project that has now opened a Europe-wide survey to the ECOC community.
Commissioned by ESPON together with four former European Capitals of Culture (Guimarães, Veszprém, Bodø, and Salzkammergut) the project gathers territorial evidence on how the title shapes host cities and their surrounding regions. The territorial and cross-sectoral aspects are at the heart ot the research. With this approach existing evaluation frameworks for ECOCs are complemented.
What are the effects of a multi-annual endeavour to bring forward positive change with culture? Which lasting territorial, social, economic and institutional developments can be generated? Which kind of novel territorial governance frameworks can be observed and potentially provide learning for other regional development projects? These are some of the core questions which are explored by the reserach project.
The insights of the ECOC communities are crucial to better understand these territorial patterns of this emblematic European initiative. The ECOC community for the puropose of the survey is defined broadly in order to gain a diversity of insights from a wide range of (leading and operational) perspectives. The survey is addressed to a wide audience: cities and regions that have held the title, applied for it or are preparing a bid, together with national authorities, universities, community representatives and other organisations involved in an ECOC.
The survey is organised in two parts: one exploring the territorial experiences and legacies of past and present capitals, the other inviting respondents to set out where they would welcome research and support. Together, the answers will feed into evidence-based recommendations to help future capitals plan for their legacy from the outset.
Completing the questionnaire takes about 10-15 minutes. As a thank-you for taking part, every respondent will receive a concise summary of the survey findings, which will provide insitghts to practical lessons on territorial cooperation, governance models, spill-over effects and long-term cultural-development strategies. The survey findings are to be shared in the course of autumn 2026. The results can be shared in case you provide an email-address (optional) at the end of the survey.All responses are treated confidentially and used solely for research within the project.
SURVEY LINK
The survey is open until 30 June 2026 and can be completed here.
PROJECT INFORMATION
ESPON SECC – “Spill-over effects of European Capitals of Culture on territorial development”
The project is carried out by an international consortium led by HÉTFA Research Institute (Hungary), with ÖIR (Austria), CRIA (Portugal), Nordregio (Sweden) and Sylvia Amann / Inforelais (Austria).
