This research project aims fill this gap by carrying out a multi-sited ethnography in the different regional cultural cooperation frameworks in which the SCIR is implemented. By drawing on insights from the anthropology of policy and practice theory the project aims to show how grassroots cultural actors interpret and take in elements of the EU programmes in which they engage, and how they by doing so are in effect making new policy in situated locales and thus co-construct the SCIR.

While extensive research has already been carried about grassroots action in the field of culture in international relations in previous projects focusing on the specific context of the Southeast Europe (particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Northern Macedonia and Serbia) this current research – which broadens the geographical scope – is currently being developed. In its development it builds on several networks. It is integrated into a call for the Jean Monnet Network “ValEUs – Research & Education Network on Contestations to EU Foreign policy” which brings together 21 partners from all over the world with an expertise in EU Foreign Policy. Additionally, it connects to the work of several scholars affiliated to ARTES, ASCA and ACES that focuses on the regions included in this project (Europe, the Mediterranean and Middle East, the former Soviet Union, the Caucasus, Central and East Asia, and Latin America) as well as on culture, art, activism, civil society, cultural diplomacy and EU governance.