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The ECoC evidence base

The Archive

Forty years of European Capitals of Culture in their own words: what cities promised, what they did, and what the evaluations found.

documents
472

documents

cities
190

cities

evaluations
53

evaluations

bid books
182

bid books

1985–2031

title years covered

All shelvesEvaluations 53Monitoring and progress reports 1Bid books 182Selection and monitoring reports 111EU framework and official documents 27Strategies and action plans 5Research, guides and frameworks 33Shared by cities 1Sent in by members 59Published by cities 12
TypeBid book (pre-selection) 17Bid book (final selection) 15Ex-post evaluation 12Strategy 1Research 2Other 3 Any type
What the document types mean
Bid book (pre-selection)
A city's first application for the title, judged by the selection panel to make the shortlist.
Evidence of intent: what a city promised, not what it delivered.
Bid book (final selection)
A shortlisted city's full, final application for the title, with its programme, budget and plans.
Evidence of intent: what a city promised, not what it delivered.
Selection panel report
The EU expert panel's assessment of the bids in one competition, with its reasons and its recommendation.
Context: useful background, not a city's own evidence of what happened.
Monitoring panel report
The EU expert panel's report on a designated city's preparations before its title year, with its advice.
Context: useful background, not a city's own evidence of what happened.
Ex-post evaluation
An assessment, written after the title year or a programme, of what it actually achieved, usually by independent evaluators.
Evidence of outcome: what actually happened.
Monitoring or progress report
A city's own report on how its programme is going, written while it runs, with the figures it has tracked.
Evidence of outcome: what actually happened.
Strategy
A city's long-term plan or policy for culture, including legacy strategies and council decisions.
A plan: how a city meant to deliver and keep going.
Action plan
A concrete plan of what a city or organisation will do, by when and with what resources.
A plan: how a city meant to deliver and keep going.
Guide or toolkit
Practical how-to material that others can reuse: guides, toolkits, handbooks and templates.
Context: useful background, not a city's own evidence of what happened.
Research
Studies, frameworks and papers across one or more cities, written by researchers rather than by a city.
Context: useful background, not a city's own evidence of what happened.
Other
Anything else: news, memos, programme brochures and documents that fit no type above.
Context: useful background, not a city's own evidence of what happened.

5 documents of type research or other for “Diversity”

Clear
Ask Encore: “Diversity”An answer from across the Archive, every claim cited to its document.

Found inside the documents

  • Promoting Europe through ‘Unity in Diversity’: Avignon as European Capital of Culture in 2000
Avignon · 2000

“Unity in Diversity” as a Form of Cosmopolitanism Within the now extensive anthropological literature on European integration, one key object of research has been the theme of “unity in diversity” as promoted by the European Union since…

  • OK Analyza brnenske kulturni sceny ENG 2025_WEB
    Brno. Contributed by Brno and published to everyone.Brno

    Smaller segments, such as the CCI extension area of tourism (6%), the fine arts (6%) and others, reflect the wider diversity of educational opportunities that allow students to find employment in a variety of creative industries.

  • European Capitals of Culture: success strategies and long-term effects (Garcia and Cox, European Parliament, 2013)
    2013

    In the cities, cultural diversity is related to the global imagery of popular culture, street culture and contemporary art. In addition, the cities stress the canon of Western art history as a base for common Europeanness compounded of…

  • the_missing_pillar.pdf

    “Cultural Diversity.” Website. UNESCO. Accessed May 21, 2019. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human- sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/cultural-diversity/ 16 “Cultural Diversity.” Website. UNESCO.

  • DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL renewing a Union action for the European Capitals of Culture for the years 2034 to 2047 and repealing Decision No 445/2014/EU
    Cluj-Napoca. Contributed by Cluj-Napoca and published to everyone.Cluj-Napoca · 2026

    EN 11 EN (a) to safeguard and promote the diversity of cultures in Europe and to highlight the common features they share, as well as to increase a European sense of belonging to a common cultural area and to promote the values on which…