Project

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PROJECT

Project essentials

DETECt project is coordinated by University of Bologna
Call: H2020-SC6-CULT-COOP-2016-2017 (Understanding Europe – Promoting the European public and cultural space)
Topic: CULT-COOP-04-2017
Grant Agreement number: 770151
Overall budget: € 2.518.443,75
Duration: 40 months starting from April 1 2018

DETECtDetecting Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives –addresses the formation of European cultural identity as a continuing process of transformation fostered by the mobility of people, products and representations across the continent. Because of the extraordinary mobility of its products, popular culture plays a decisive role in circulating representations that constitute a shared cultural asset for large sectors of the European society.

The project examines examples of crime fiction, film and TV dramas from 1989 to present, to learn how mobility strategies such as co-production, serialization, translation, adaptation, distribution, and more, have influenced the transnational dissemination of European popular culture. It also investigates how the treatment of specific ‘mobile signifiers’—including representations of gender, ethnic and class identities—affect the ability of European narratives to migrate outside their place of origin, and be appropriated elsewhere in different and variegated ways. Researching the contemporary history of the crime genre in Europe, DETECt aims to identify the practices of production, distribution and consumption that are best suited to facilitate the emergence of engaging representations of Europe’s enormously rich, plural and cross-cultural identity.

The knowledge acquired through a detailed research programme will be used in cultural, learning and public engagement initiatives designed to prompt the elaboration of new transnational formats for the European creative industries. These activities will profit from a set of experimental research and learning resources and innovative collaborative tools, aggregated and organized on DETECt Web portal. A range of activities will be addressed to the general public. In particular, the development of a Web mobile app tools will allow users to contribute to the creation of a collaborative atlas of European crime narratives.

The research is structured into eight work packages:

 WP1: Project management

 WP2: Setting the frame. A new methodology for the study of transnational popular culture

 WP3: Building the infrastructure. Resources and tools for the semantic mapping of European transcultural identity

 WP4: Creative industries. Media production and location marketing strategies for a transcultural European space

WP5: Creative audiences. Distribution, accessibility and meaning-making of transcultural European contents

 WP6: Transcultural representations. Images of Europe and Europeans in contemporary European popular culture

 WP7: Dissemination and communication

 WP8: Ethics requirements