Paper short abstract:

This paper shows how by creatively engaging in EU funded cultural initiatives, civil society actors in Southeast Europe develop ‘counterpublic’, self-managed spheres to address hegemonic structures and trigger alternative democratisation processes within the local as well as international context.

Paper long abstract:

The role culture in democratisation processes has been increasingly emphasised by the EU. Insisting on the value of culture for peaceful inter-community relations, the European Commission argues that cultural and artistic spaces can become spaces for deliberation facilitating alternative engagement with politics through debate, education and free expression. The need for such spaces has grown due to rising populism, xenophobia and discrimination, not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world. It has led to an increasing emphasis on the relevance of EU cultural funds that operate both within and outside the EU. This paper examines how civil society actors in Southeast Europe create spaces of deliberation by engaging in EU funded cultural initiatives. What do these spaces look like and what is being discussed at these spaces where theatre plays are performed, discussions are held, and exhibitions are installed? In the projects that are being developed, civil society actors experiment with different forms of community-based management of resources and co-production, opening up new perspectives for social and political transformation. It has led to a boost of citizen participation in cultural projects which opened up for the emergence of ‘counterpublic’, self-managed spheres. Moreover, it has resulted in forms of ‘artivism’ in which grassroots movements dispute the hegemony of radical movements through new forms of artistic discourse. In indirect and contradictory ways the EU funding schemes are both subject as well as facilitators of the discussions held at these spaces adding new alternative dimensions to European democratisation processes.