Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe (2019-2022)

In 2019, the HERA network, along with the European Commission, has invested €20 million in 20 European research teams as part of its fourth joint research programme ‘Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe’.

The theme “Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe” is intended to mobilise the wide range of multi-disciplinary perspectives necessary to the understanding of relationships between ‘public space’ culture and other phenomena, such as, European integration.

Our aim
This research is expected to provide new insights that promote the full potential of citizens’ engagement with European public and cultural spaces; to stimulate public and political and scholarly debate about the future prospects of European integration, and to study new modes of interactive and reciprocal engagement between academics and various types of stakeholders including those working in the media, creative industries, and heritage sectors, as they have proved to be the true vehicles of European integration.
The challenge for this research is to identify how the relations between culture and integration within the context of public space(s) have been modelled and how they can be better understood in order to contribute to a better world.

The projects
The 20 funded projects deal with a variety of subjects ranging from housing, healthcare, and transportation to cemeteries, festivals, and urban culture.