European inventory of
societal values of culture

Sirkka & Sivonen – Perspectives on Tampere City Cultural Strategy 2030 and its legacy project Operaatio Pirkanmaa: A case study

Sirkka, O. & Sivonen, S. (2023). Perspectives on Tampere City Cultural Strategy 2030 and its legacy project Operaatio Pirkanmaa: A case study

The first long-term cultural strategy for the city of Tampere was developed and accepted in 2019. It describes the importance of culture to the city and its residents and presents multiple strategic objectives. The strategy was created when Tampere applied to be the next Finnish European Capital of Culture (ECoC) for 2026, a title that was ultimately lost to another city. Together with other municipalities, Tampere started a legacy project called Operation Pirkanmaa to carry on the objectives outlined in the ECoC application. This case study describes both the strategy and the legacy project and examines how culture is understood, what tasks are assigned to it, and how the presented objectives are proposed to be reached through cultural policies outlined in the strategy. Additionally, we examine how societal values and megatrends such as digitalisation, migration, globalisation, and social inequality are presented in the strategy and subsequent work.