Dialogic approach in the EU’s international cultural relations: joint EUNIC-EU delegation projects as heritage diplomacy

ABSTRACT

Culture and cultural heritage have become central aspects in the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy that increasingly emphasizes dialogue and people-to-people connections as the basis for international cultural relations. This article explores 11 projects jointly facilitated by the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) and EU Delegations in nine countries located in Europe, Africa, and South America as part of a strategic cooperation between the European Commission, the European External Action Service and EUNIC. We identify five modes of highlighting dialogue as a key element in the EU’s international cultural relations and discuss how the ideas of dialogue, cultural heritage, values, and diplomacy are entangled and interrelated in our data. The study underlines the core role of the cooperation between EUNIC and EU Delegations and shows how a dialogic approach determines the EU’s international cultural relations and at the same time interconnects its international and internal policy aims.

KEYWORDS:

• Dialogue
• European Union
• EUNIC
• EU Delegations
• international cultural relations, heritage diplomacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland under Grant No. 330602 (HERIDI 2020–2024).

Notes on contributors

Viktorija L. A. Čeginskas

Viktorija L. A. Čeginskas (PhD in Cultural Heritage Studies, MA in Contemporary History, East European History and European Ethnology) is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of History and Ethnology of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She currently works in two research projects, SENSOMEMO (www.sensomemo.fi) and HERIDI (https://r.jyu.fi/heridi), both funded by the Academy of Finland. Čeginskas recently co-authored two monographies (Europe from Below, Brill 2021 and Creating and Governing Cultural Heritage in the European Union, Routledge 2020) and co-edited two volumes (Politics of Memory and Oblivion in the European Context, Routledge 2022 and Challenges and Solutions in Ethnographic Research, Routledge 2020). She has published in a number of peer-reviewed journals (e.g. International Journal of Heritage Studies, European Societies, Santander Art and Culture Law Review) and is editor of the open access journal Ethnologia Fennica.

Tuuli Lähdesmäki

Tuuli Lähdesmäki (PhD in Art History and Sociology) is an associate professor at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has the title of Docent in Art History at the University of Jyväskylä and in Area and Cultural Studies at the University of Helsinki. Lähdesmäki is currently leading the HERIDI project (EU Heritage Diplomacy and the Dynamics of Inter-Heritage Dialogue), funded by the Academy of Finland. In her previous projects, funded by the Academy of Finland, HORIZON2020, and ERC, she has explored the EU’s heritage, diversity, and cultural policies, intercultural dialogue, cultural identities, belonging, and public space. Lähdesmäki’s recent publications include co-authored books Learning Cultural Literacy through Creative Practices in Schools (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022); Europe from Below (Brill, 2021); and Creating and Governing Cultural Heritage in the European Union (Routledge, 2020). Lähdesmäki has worked as a Visiting Scholar/Professor at the University of Cambridge, the University of Limerick, the University of Pécs, the European University Institute, and Fulda University of Applied Sciences.