The decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on Union action for the European Capitals of Culture for the period 2020-2033 refers to the UN Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (see Chapter 2). Through the Convention, the European Union is committed to promoting cultural diversity and intercultural interaction at both local and international levels.

The decision stresses the role of the European Capitals of Culture in promoting social inclusion and equal opportunities and ensuring the widest possible participation of all social groups in the development and implementation of the cultural programme. In particular, European Capitals of Culture should ensure equal opportunities for disadvantaged groups and young people at risk of discrimination.  

According to the decision, the general objectives of the European Capital of Culture are, among other things, to protect and promote the diversity of European cultures and to highlight their common features, as well as to strengthen citizens' sense of belonging to a common cultural area.

The specific objectives of the activities, such as strengthening the range and diversity of cultural offerings in cities and expanding access to and participation in them, support the implementation of equality.

Source: DECISION No 445/2014/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

The European Commission's guide to cities preparing to apply for 2020-2033 highlights the benefits of previous European Capitals of Culture. From the perspective of promoting equality, it is particularly important to increase the participation of underrepresented groups and audiences.

The guide strongly emphasises that the European Capital of Culture process is a unique opportunity for cities that can have not only cultural and economic impacts but also social significance.

To do this, cities should be prepared to do things in a new way. In terms of strengthening equality in the cultural sector, the European Commission's guidelines should be understood as a transformation driven by diversity thinking. This means for the city understanding, willingness and new concrete ways to support culture, develop multidisciplinary interaction, gain new audiences and promote their inclusion.

In this context, the guide highlights in particular the way in which the applicant cities are prepared to map out more widely the cultural expressions of their region - including immigrant communities - and to expose the population to the richness and diversity of cultural expressions from abroad.

”Is our city prepared to map out more widely the cultural expressions of our region including immigrant communities and to expose the population to the richness and diversity of cultural expressions from abroad?”

In order to ensure long-term effects, the transformation work should be sustainable and this requires more cultural investment.

These objectives are reflected in the selection criteria for the European Capital of Culture. The implementation of equality is reflected in criteria such as how cities are able to anticipate the long-term social impacts of their own implementations. Diversity work in this context can mean being prepared to combine new, innovative and experimental cultural expressions with local cultural heritage and traditional art forms.

The objective of promoting equality and diversity is also strongly reflected in the European dimension criterion. The aim is to promote a broad and high-quality inter-cultural dialogue and mutual understanding among the citizens of the Union.

”The fact that a city is located in Europe, has a live and international current cultural offering, or that its population is multicultural is not, as such, a strong interpretation of the European dimension."

The most important thing is what kind of opportunity the Capital of Culture activities offer the city and its residents to expand their understanding and awareness of cultural diversity and to learn openly from others.

In particular, the impact sector criteria highlight how candidate cities create new and sustainable opportunities for participation for under-represented groups in the cultural sector, such as young people, the excluded and the disadvantaged.

The guide pays special attention to minorities and highlights how people with disabilities and the elderly, for example, are able to participate. Urban investment to improve the accessibility of cultural spaces plays a crucial role in this.    

In order to meet the criteria, the guide recommends that extensive and active inclusion activities should be launched already in the preparatory phase. It is important to involve groups that do not normally participate in the cultural life of the city and reach out to outside communities.

The aim is inclusion, i.e. promoting the empowerment of underrepresented groups in the cultural sector.

This goal places a strong emphasis on the dimensions of urban diversity and non-discrimination work, which contribute to increasing equal opportunities for inclusion, as a result of which cultural activities become more diverse and, at the same time, the audience base expands.

Source: European Capitals of Culture 2020-2033 - Guide for cities preparing to apply (in Finnish). European Commission. (pdf-file) 

A study of the long-term impact of the European Capitals of Culture highlights the fact that a well-planned and budgeted action plan is central to promoting equality work, the initial stage of which is to lay the groundwork for grassroots work. During the development process of the Capital of Culture, strategic and sustainable operating practices are strengthened to engage new and diverse audiences.

According to the survey, the diversification or increase in the audience of cultural events is one of the most important positive effects of the European Capitals of Culture. To ensure this, cities should recognise the importance of social impact as part of a work on equality that is as important as the programme's cultural and economic action plan.

Source: European Capitals of Culture, long-term impact (in Finnish). European Parliament. (pdf-file) 

The European Commission guidelines for cities on their own assessment of the results of the European Capital of Culture year have created indicators for monitoring and evaluating long-term impacts.

Aspects of promoting equality are included, for example, in:

General objective 1: To protect and promote the diversity of European cultures and highlight their common features, as well as to strengthen citizens' sense of belonging to a common cultural area.

Indicators for this objective are:

• Increased participation and engagement of citizens in multicultural projects, 
• The number and quality of multicultural projects, 
• Number of local grassroots initiatives involving European partners or involving multicultural themes, 
• Increased support for multicultural projects by cultural minorities

Specific Objective 2 deals with the expansion of access to and participation in cultural provision.

The success of this goal can be measured by the following indicators:

• What percentage of residents attend events, including young people, schools, minorities or the disadvantaged,
• Increased awareness of cultural offerings (generally and for the above mentioned groups) 
• The number of events and initiatives that encourage active participation and offer different levels of participation, 
• Gender equality and cultural diversity in the cultural workforce, 
• The number and quality of programmes that involve currently non-participants; 
• Increased diversity of the public (age, cultural background), 
• Number of cultural professionals trained for, or using, methods of public participation in their daily work

Specific Objective 3 is concerned with strengthening the capacity of the cultural sector and its links with other sectors.

Indicators that specifically support the monitoring of equality work include:

• The value of investment in cultural infrastructure and facilities (especially accessibility aspects!), 
• Conditions and programmes created for the development of NGOs, the cultural and creative sectors (to support diversification, quantity, growth, expanded dimension or internationalisation)
• Third sector actors working with the Culture Department - number, number of meetings, number of participating organisations

Source: European Capitals of Culture 2020-2033 - Guidance for cities on their own assessment of the results of the European Capital of Culture year (in Finnish). European Commission. (pdf-file)
 

The European Commission's collection of recommendations from the 2007-2016 European Capitals of Culture ex-post evaluations highlights good practices to support both the city application process and the implementation phases.

The recommendation that cities should invest in supplementing the current culture and not repeat the same familiar patterns emphasizes the importance of change work also from the perspective of promoting equality.

The new approaches developed in the European Capital of Culture process, the opening of the door to new expressions, diversity, multi-voices and pluralism, and the filling of local cultural life gaps and development needs bring a new level and dimension to local cultural life.

The active promotion of greater participation in cultural events is essential to promote equal opportunities. The collection highlights how important it is for all local communities to be able to benefit from the activities of the European Capital of Culture.

The task is to plan and implement new forms of culture and activities and to feed an atmosphere that supports diversity. The goal is to ensure the conditions to be reached so that under-represented groups can find content that is relevant to them and get involved as audiences and creators.

”The European Capital of Culture must make an explicit effort to expand participation in cultural events by targeting under-represented populations rather than merely wishing these groups to participate in the programme.’

The implementation of equality also requires new forms of cooperation with multidisciplinary stakeholders. If local cultural actors do not reach minority groups or cultural activities are not accessible to different groups, strong relationships and cooperation patterns should be established in the development of the Capital of Culture with entities and organisations that work with minority groups.

”In addition, openness and willingness to take risks, learn and adapt are needed from all parties."

The collection's recommendation for ‘looking beyond culture’ also includes a strong perspective on promoting equality. According to the recommendation, the aim is to eliminate inequalities in society due to discrimination. Culture, on one hand, is one area of life where discrimination occurs. On the other hand, the activities of the European Capital of Culture create unique opportunities to influence through cultural means and to ensure that people also have equal opportunities in other areas of services and life, such as working life, social services and education.

”Instead of choosing subjects that are too safe, cities with European Capitals of Culture status can choose to focus on the key issues and challenges of their city. Cities are sometimes the scene of poverty, inequality and inter-community conflict, and the European Capital of Culture programmes can help partially solve these problems rather than ignore them."

Source: Collection of recommendations from the 2007-2016 European Capitals of Culture ex-post evaluations (in Finnish), European Commission (move to pdf-file) 

In the Oulu2026 Bid Book, we highlighted how we have planned to achieve equality in the European Capital of Culture process.

The starting point for the work was a consultation forum, i.e. a series of equality workshops with many different communities, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ groups and people with disabilities.

"The forum has already challenged us to rethink our approach to cultural equity which also informs our audience development. Equal opportunities are not enough. Barriers to participation will be removed consciously and systematically."                 

As a result of this process, Oulu2026's Equality and Diversity Strategy has been drawn up. Its basic principles are courage, diversity, security and opportunities that guide all Oulu2026 activities.

"It remains a work in progress, but we are proud to be inspired by the openness and constructive way that our 2026 Equality Forum has sought to change Oulu’s diversity climate."

Source: Oulu2026 Bidbook (pdf-file)

”The panel recommends that the City of Oulu be selected as the European Capital of Culture for 2026".

The report of the expert panel on the selection phase of the European Capital of Culture in 2026 highlights that Oulu has a significant number of disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This is why the panel considered it particularly important that the Oulu programme is based on a broad audience development strategy. At its core is a strong inclusive perspective, which means, among other things: getting opinions from people who are not represented in traditional cultural audiences, turning local people into co-developers instead of just a passive audience.

From an equality perspective, the panel considered it important that inclusion and diversity were a strong starting point for the development of the Oulu2026 programme.

More than 200 meetings with representatives of local communities were had, a compilation of many opinions, and a needs analysis conducted with different target groups, including different minorities (children, elderly, LGBTQ+, Sámi).

”However, the panel points out that there is still room for improvement in the coming months and years: the definition of long-term cultural, social and economic impacts, as well as heritage activities related to the city's cultural strategy, need to be further developed."      

Source: European Capital of Culture 2026 - Expert Panel Report (in Finnish). European Commission. (pdf-file)

The baseline report prepared by Cupore, the Centre for Cultural Policy Research, is based on indicators that can be used to describe the changes that will occur in the future as a result of the implementation of the Capital of Culture activities. At this stage, the report focuses in particular on the bid book 2 prepared by the City of Oulu, on the basis of which Oulu2026 was selected as the Capital of Culture.

According to a citizen survey for reporting purposes, “72% of people who identify themselves as part of a minority/minorities in the area had expressed interest in participating as an audience or participating in organizing activities.”

Source: Oulu2026 - Towards the European Capital of Culture year. Baseline for evaluation in 2022 (in Finnish). Cultural Policy Research Centre Cupore's online publications 77. (pdf-file)