– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the management challenges related to the transition from the application phase to the delivery phase of the project of being a European Capital of Culture (ECoC).
– Case study based on qualitative research interviews with the management team, combined with existing research on ECoC and documents on the Aarhus 2017 project.
– The first main finding is that the challenges are caused by the way in which the transition from applicant to designated ECoC includes a change in management, shifting from a project to a programme structure and change in organisation. The second main finding is that stakeholder management in relation to politicians and cultural agents is challenged by a high level of ownership and expectation.
– The study focuses on just one case and one phase of the project.
– Consequences for the way ECoC are managed and the programme organised could be drawn from this.
– The originality of the work is in that it studies this very critical phase in the project’s life-cycle in great detail, and focuses specifically on the management of ECoC.
