Léonce Bekemans is permanent Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). Currently, he is director a.i. of the Human Resources Development Department. His teaching, research and publications mainly deal with the broad field of the relationship between economy, culture and society. He is a co-founder of the Bruges' Research Initiative for Opening the Social Sciences and closely linked with the project "Bruges European Capital of Culture 2002."
Professor at the University of Alicante and visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Eduard Mira directed the programme Civitas Europa (1996-1998).At present, he directs the Instituto Cervantes in Naples. He wrote numerous publications in the fields of Architecture, Urban Sociology, Art and Aesthetics, Cultural Identity and Cultural and Political Analysis.

Contents: Léonce Bekemans & Eduard Mira: Acknowledgements - Otto von der Gablentz: Foreword - The College: A Place to Think Europe - Léonce Bekemans: European Societies between Diversity and Convergence - Eduard Mira: The " Civitas Europa " Programme - Patrick Moenaert: Bruges: A European City of Culture - Eduardo Zaplana: Flanders and the " Civitas Europa " Programme - Luc Van den Brande: Valencia and the Europe of the Cultures 2002 - Manuel Tarancón Fandos: Civitas Europa : Meeting at the Crossroads - Consuelo Císcar: Civitas Europa : Continuing Historical Links - Johan Galtung: History with and without End - Krzysztof Pomian: Europe: Linear or Cyclical History? - Benjamín Oltra: Veritas Filia Temporis - Roger Brunet: Transnational Urban Systems in Europe: Towards a New Modernity - Klaus Kunzmann: Network Europe: A Europe of City Regions - Erik Swyngedouw: The Local in the Regional, in the National and in the Global: The Re-Scaling of Europe and the Process of "Glocalisation" - Rafael Blasco Castany: The Valencian Community and International Co-operation in the Mediterranean Regions - Ignacio Ramonet:The Explosion of the Megacities - Jürgen Erdmenger: The Trans-European Transport Network - Massimo Cacciari: Europe: An Archipelago - Helena Vaz Da Silva: Civitas Europa : What Future for our Past? - Jan Tanghe: A Tale of Two Worlds - Rosa María Rodríguez-Magda: The City, a Metaphor for Convergence in Diversity - Luis Racionero Grau: Systems of Cities and Convergence - Jacek Purchla: Cities, Urban Systems and Cultural Regions - Renato Nicolini: Public Space in Cities: The Case of Naples - Jean-Pierre Blondel: Outline for an Urban Atlas Project - José Jiménez: The City, the Arts and the Idea of Europe - Fernando Castro Florez: The End of Monumental Culture - Franco Bianchini: The Role of Artists and Local Cultural Resources in Developing Innovative Approaches to Urban Policy.

An excellent, inspiring and interdisciplinary overview of major issues concerning the role of cities, urban systems and cultural regions in the past, present and future.
Views are represented from different disciplinary angles and conceptual backgrounds trying to link theory with practice, analysis with innovative approaches.
The book contains contributions by major scholars such as Franco Bianchini, Roger Brunet, Massimo Cacciari, Johan Galtung, Klaus Kunzmann, Krzysztof Pomian, Jacek Purchla, Jan Tanghe, Erik Swyngedouw and many others.
It provides an understanding of the historical, social, cultural and spatial realities of cities, urban systems and cultural regions within the complexities of changing European societies.