European Network of Cultural Centres (ENCC)

Resources on non-urban culture

Info Tc On The Market 2019
Browse our ongoing collection of resources on non-urban culture

Policy Papers

ENCC, Culture Action Europe, IETM and Trans Europe Halles, Beyond the Urban: Contemporary Arts and Culture as Keys to a Sustainable and Cohesive Europe, March 2020.

ENCC and 100+Stakeholders: Crowdsourced Manifesto: Culture for Shared, Smart, Innovative Territories, 2016-2020

RUMRA & Smart Villages Intergroup on Rural, Mountainous, and Remote Areas, European Parliament Manifesto: Building a Sustainable Future for Rural Communities in Europe, 2019

European Rural Parliament, Rural People's Declaration, 2019

Artistic Research, Action Research, and more

Beatrice Ferrara and Leandro Pisano, Manifesto of Rural Futurism, 2019

Fernando García Dory, video keynote about the Inland project for Beyond the Urban webinar, 2020

Rem Koolhaas, Countryside (complete lecture, Stedelijk Museum, 2012), Countryside (article, Icon, 2014), Countryside, The Future (exhibition, Guggenheim Museum, 2020).

Reports, Case Studies, Best Practices

IETM, FRESH PERSPECTIVES 9: Arts in Rural Areas, 2020

Culture Action Europe, Culture Crops: Cultural Practices in non-urban Territories, Beyond the Obvious Report 2019

Wolfgang Schneider and Beate Kegler (ed), Vital Village, Transcript Verlag, 2018

European Network for Rural Development, Arts and Culture in rural areas, Background material for the 5th NRN Meeting & Amsterdam Rural Forum, 2016

IN SITU, Gender dimension of CCIs in non-urban areas, 2023

Dedicated resource page of ENCC conference entitled: Artistic Processes and Cultural Participation - New Perspectives for Rural Development, the University of Hildesheim, Germany, 2017.

Academic research

John McDonagh, Birte Nienaber and Michael Woods (ed), Globalization and Europe's Rural Regions, Routledge, 2016

J. Javier Serrano, Analysing social networks in rural development: a gender approach, International Review of Social Research 2016.

Dr Ian Hunter, A Cultural Strategy for Rural England: Investing in Rural Community Creativity and Cultural Capital, LITTORAL Arts 2006.

Arora Saurabh, Bulat Sanditov, Cultures of Caste and Rural Development in the Social Network of a South Indian Village, SAGE 2015.

Jo Lee, Arnar Árnason, Andrea Nightingale and Mark Shucksmith, Networking: Social Capital and Identities in European Rural Development, European Society for Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Vol 45, Number 4, 2005.

Georg Wiesinger, The importance of social capital in rural development, networking and decision-making in rural areas, Association pour la diffusion de la recherche alpine, 2007.

Dr. Nancy Duxbury and Heather Campbell, Developing and Revitalizing Rural Communities Through Arts and Culture. Summary Overview, Centre for Policy Research on Culture and Communities, Simon Fraser University, prepared for the Creative City Network of Canada, 2009.

Jenny Briedenhann, Eugenia Wickens, Tourism routes as a tool for the economic development of rural areas—vibrant hope or impossible dream?, Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, Wellesbourne Campus, 2003.

Toivo Muilu, Niina Kotavaara, Networking rural expertise, Linking competitiveness with equity and sustainability: new ideas for the socio-economic development of rural areas, University of Oulu Finland, European Rural Development Network, 2010.

Jean-Paul Hautecoeur, Literacy and Cultural Development Strategies in Rural Areas, Alpha, 1994.

Claudia Zeiske, Transformational Fieldwork: or how might a sustainable cultural provision in the rural/small town context be framed?, 2022