2018 was declared the European Year of Cultural Heritage. In context of this focus the Encouraging Europe through Culture and Commerce - or in short EETCC - is a project powered by Erasmus+ which enables students of five different countries to cooperate and learn in the broad field of culture.
In order to reach the project's main goals with regards to contents - to recognize cultural similarities as well as differences, to learn about cultural heritage and to understand the importance of culture for our economies and our entire life - the students are asked to work on six different modules:
(Unfortunately, the modules 4 to 6 could not be worked on and realized since we had to stop our project earlier as planned in spring 2020 because of the Covid19-pandemic.)
During the course of the project the participants will define the term “culture” for themselves and explore culture in their near environment, their home country as well as in Europe. Understanding the value of cultural assets, the relation between culture and the economy will be worked out as well as its abilities to enrich a country’s/continent’s economy. Furthermore, the participants will recognize its chance to unite people(s).
Foreigners often regard Europe as a unity. The project will help the participants to understand this unity and make them feel as “European”. In addition, working in the project shall result in an improvement of awareness and appreciation of culture regarding the own home country as well as other European countries.
In times of fast pace and digitalization, cultural values are often buried in oblivion. Therefore, this project is sensible and even necessary to antagonize superficiality and to give today’s peoples an understanding of culture – with the help of digital media. Today, digital devices are the easiest way to get access to multiple information and thus cultural facilities. There are for example many guides who use digital devices to illustrate a city tour instead of old-fashioned leaflets. Because of its importance and ubiquity, we do not want to neglect the digital trend, but integrate it.
All in all, we can say that the project supports the determination of cultural identity, cultural bond and thus participation.