Christiaan de Beukelaer, 26 years old from Belgium, studying at the University of Leeds (UK), is the winner of the 9th Cultural Policy Research Award 2012 (CPRA). The Award will help the young researcher to carry out his research proposal and publish his findings. The name of the winner was unveiled during the 9th CPRA Ceremony held on the evening 12 September at Goldsmiths, University of London in the framework of the 20th ENCATC Annual Conference, “Networked Culture”. This high level Award Ceremony was attended by hundreds of academics, researchers, professionals from the cultural and educational sector, organizations, students, policy makers, artists and media from more than 35 countries to support excellence in cultural policy research.

Selected amongst 24 high-quality applications from 12 countries on the wider European continent, Christiaan de Beukelaer convinced the international jury panel with a research project which aims at “Developing Culture and Culturing Development: A critical analysis of the link between cultural industries and sustainable human development in the Global South”: “we found Christiaan de Beukelaer’s research very innovative. We value his capacity of breaking with conventions without overlooking the traditional research elements”, said the CPRA Jury President, Lluís Bonet (University of Barcelona, Spain).

The winner was extremely honoured and appreciative of the jury’s recognition: “I feel extremely honoured. This is such an important award in the cultural policy research field. I see this as a sign of recognition that exceeds my expectations and I look forward to contributing my research to the sector”, said Christiaan de Beukelaer.

To learn more about the 2012 CPRA winner and the winning project proposal, click here.

The winner of the CPR Award 2010 is Claire Bullen, a 2nd year PhD Student at the Research Institute for Cosmopolitan Cultures – an inter-disciplinary research centre at the University of Manchester.

Claire Bullen was awarded the 10.000 euros prize on 7 October 2010 during the 18th ENCATC Annual Conference which took place in Brussels (6-8 October 2010). 

Videos presenting the 6 finalists and the CPRA winner are available on the ENCATC website.

A trailer for the 2010 CPRA as well as interviews with the winner, finalists and Jury Members  are also available on the ECF website.

The Winning Project Proposal:

The title of her research project is "European Capitals of Culture and everyday cultural diversity: Comparing social relations and cultural policies in Liverpool (UK) and Marseille (France)". The project will develop an analytical framework to compare everyday cultural diversity in two multi-ethnic urban neighbourhoods in France and the United Kingdom. Taking the European Capital of Culture programme as the analytical entry point, the focus will be threefold: 1) the local, national and European cultural policy contexts and their interaction with urban restructuring; 2) policy implementation at the local level; and 3) the ways in which the lives and practices of ‘ordinary people’ and cultural actors are affected by cultural policy implementation.  Using an ethnographic approach, the project will consider whether actual understandings and implementation of the European Capital of Culture programme are alike in the two cities, places with similar histories, facing comparable social and economic challenges yet situated in different national policy contexts. The project will also shed light upon the ways in which European, national and city-level debates on the norms, principles and policies of cultural diversity and culture-led regeneration interact with and impact upon the quality of lives of ordinary people.