The jury of the European Capital of Culture 2027 visited Evora November 28. The candidacy is in the final stages, the chosen city will be announced on December 7, so this is a great opportunity to highlight the good reasons that contribute to this. statement🇧🇷 I believe that this candidacy will be successful only if we can “associate nature with culture and culture with nature”. Evora wants to continue her wanderings, she will always be a different way of being in time and space. Let’s look at these reasons.
First, the historical-cultural reason: after the Évora Heritage of Humanity 1986, from the point of view of the political-cultural strategy, the continuation and completion of the candidacy of Évora is an act of reason. European Capital of Culture 2027.
Secondly, the urgent reason for the inversion of the socio-demographic cycle: it is necessary to establish a sign of resilience and hope in the region, and at such a close distance from 2027. cluster creative and cultural industries (ICC) and a young and accessible tourism model closely related to this clustertogether with eco-tourism and nature tourism, can reverse this cycle socio-demographic depopulation.
Thirdly, the essential reason for the pattern of territorial development: I am talking about the mutation of the city-county of Évora into the region-city of Évora Central Alentejo and, in the same sense, the mutation of the university into a “university” and a “plurality”. , a new incumbent for the development of the network society.
Fourth, an important rationale for regional development policy: the use of a unique environment for recovery and development., We are talking about the registration of the region-city of Evora in the Portugal 2030 program and in the Resilience and Recovery Program (PRR) 2026, as well as in the Cross-Border Cooperation Program.
After these four main reasons, it is important to reaffirm the close relationship between nature and culture, which will be the most distinctive feature and the most impressive sign of the Alentejo region, as in the coming decades we will witness severe weather events and some serious disruption of the relationship between natural heritage and cultural heritage. Heritage and landscape, ecology and economy, science and technology, arts and culture will form part of this decade-long commitment, which will be structured in four transitions, as follows:
— socio-ecological transition: green plan and organic city, i.e. ecological infrastructures and a network of green corridors, rehabilitation of ecosystems and ecosystem services, biophysical architecture and landscape art, elements of memory of the territory and its natural and cultural heritage;
— socio-cultural transition: recognition of arts and humanities in academia, business school of arts and technology, physical and virtual platforms for cultural and creative activities as elements of a more collaborative economy and society, a network of scientific, cultural and artistic residences in support of these platforms;
— socio-demographic transition: social innovation program for older society (active aging and cooperation clubs) and socio-professional integration for young people, in particular infrastructure and equipment of the digital society, promoting collaboration, business incubation, mobility of digital nomads. , but also non-village residents of the so-called 2nd rural area;
— socio-economic transition: launching a nearby agri-food system in the form of a municipal or inter-municipal agro-ecological park, then the Alentejo mountain forest economy and the mediterranean diet economy as examples of natural heritage trade-offs and then regional economy, examples of transition to a circular economy, precision agriculture, preventive forestry economy or in the field of creative and cultural industries, which also includes landscaping.
Last note
Evora European Capital of Culture The year 2027 is the main instrument of this four transition strategy. However, unless consolidation investments are made in the networks and interconnections of the sub-region, many of the new investments will not have a lasting impact on the quality of life of citizens, as they have been made more focused on tourism and casual visitors, rather than residents usually. Moreover, without quality tourism and regional value chains to expose them to the world, there will be no real cluster cultural and creative industries. This is a great opportunity for a low-density region, and Évora’s candidacy, if successful, could be that wanderlust that takes the art of our existence far.
The author writes in accordance with the new spelling convention
