Post by European Research Council (ERC)

Who gets to shape the city – and who gets to tell its story? The New European Bauhaus Festival concludes this weekend with democratic engagement at its core. But did you know that democratic life in cities is not only shaped by policy and planning, but also by culture? Since the European Middle Ages, the fates of theatre and the city have been intertwined. Emine Fisek Turem at the Austrian Academy of Sciences - Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW) is studying how that relationship plays out today – examining how theatre practices interact with migration, gentrification, and urban transformation across five European cities. Her research explores how performance can express belonging, challenge displacement, and reshape public understandings of the city. It asks who gets to occupy public space, whose stories are told on stage, and what role cultural institutions play when neighbourhoods change. Democratic engagement is not only political or institutional. It is also cultural, lived, and performed. 👉 Theatre and Gentrification in the European City: https://bit.ly/3SqWrXo 👉 Frontier research for the New European Bauhaus: https://bit.ly/4vtulsT ℹ️ Find out more about the festival: https://bit.ly/4uiEGHj #NewEuropeanBauhaus #NEBFestival2026 #CommunityBuilding #SocialInnovation #UrbanDesign #Research #Innovation EU Science, Research and Innovation