10.13130/2036-461X/16395
application/pdf
2036-461X
16395
36/37
en
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Horizon 2020 Research Project - DETECt – Detecting Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
21
Projects & Abstracts
2021-11-17
2021-09-19
2021-11-17
2022-12-30
211-213
Cinéma & Cie
Federico Pagello
2021/11/17
10.13130/2036-461X/16395
211
D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara
2036-461X
36/37
en
213
Horizon 2020 Research Project - DETECt – Detecting Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/16395/14752
21
                                                                                       DETECt – Detecting Transcultural
                                                                                       Identity in European Popular Crime
                                                                                       Narratives
                                                                                       Federico Pagello / Horizon 2020 Research Project1
                                                                                       Università degli Studi ‘G. D’Annunzio’ Chieti – Pescara
                                                                                       DOI 10.13130/2036-461X/16395




                                                                                          DETECt was funded by the Horizon 2020               which looked for innovative approaches to
                                                                                       Research and Innovation Programme to                   the study, teaching and dissemination of
                                                                                       explore the ways in which popular narratives           contemporary artistic and creative practices
                                                                                       can contribute to give expression to a new,            across Europe. The consortium decided to
                                                                                       shared European cultural identity. The project         focus on crime narratives because of their
                                                                                       was launched on April 1, 2018 and will come            ability to circulate widely across borders,
                                                                                       to a close on October 31, 2021. It has been            eliciting collaboration among producers and
                                                                                       coordinated by Professor Monica Dall’Asta              making cultural exchanges among citizens
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License




                                                                                       and the University of Bologna in collaboration         all over the continent. The scholars involved
                                                                                       with 17 other institutions, both public and            in the project are from a varied disciplinary
                                                                                       private, based in 10 European countries. The           background, allowing them to engage with
                                                                                       academic partners also include Rome’s Link             different media, focusing particularly on
                                                                                       Campus University from Italy, the Universities         literary fiction, film and television. Through
                                                                                       of Limoges and Paris West-Nanterre from                a mix of literary, film and media studies,
                                                                                       France, the Universities of Aalborg and Aarhus         cultural studies, cultural history, sociology
                                                                                       from Denmark, Queen’s University Belfast               and Digital Humanities, DETECt has examined
                                                                                       from the UK, KU Leuven from Belgium,                   the creation and transnational circulation of
                                                                                       the University of Umea from Sweden, the                popular narratives in all their key aspects:
                                                                                       University of Bucharest from Romania, the              the production strategies; the modes of
                                                                                       University of Debrecen from Hungary and the            distribution; the role of reception; and the
                                                                                       University of Ioannina from Greece. The non-           central issue of representation of European
                                                                                       academic partners are Paris’ Bibliothèque              cultural identities in the specific case of crime
                                                                                       de Litterature Policières from France, the             narratives.
                                                                                       Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin                  DETECt’s research started from the
                                                                                       from Germany the public broadcaster TV2, the           study of the industrial strategies and public
                                                                                       film and television company Miso Film and the          policies that in the last few years have led
                                                                                       public tourism organization Visit Aarhus from          to an increasing ability of European crime
                                                                                       Denmark.                                               narratives to circulate internationally.
                                                                                          DETECt responded to a specific call released        Quantitative and qualitative methods have
                                                                                       in the framework of H2020 Societal Challenges          been adopted to understand how the recent
                                                                                       — Europe in a Changing World programme,                changes in the media market, particular in the


                                                                                       Cinéma & Cie vol. 21 no. 36/37 2021 · ISSN 2036-461X                                            211
television sector, have both encouraged the                 depicted often still fit into some established
implementation of transnational funding and                 stereotypes or tend to adopt a sensationalist
distribution practices and made more visible                approach, which reduced their cultural
the persistence imbalance among different                   significance. Many conferences papers
countries and regions on the European                       have been devoted to these topics and two
level. The results of this research have been               research reports have been completed. Most
presented in several conference papers,                     importantly, the research findings are being
research reports (see in particular Location                published through a series of publications,
Marketing and Cultural Tourism, eds. Cathrin                including special issues of European Review
Bengesser, Kim Toft Hansen, Lynge Stegger                   (eds. Jan Baetens, Fred Truyen, Ana Schultze),
Gemzøe) as well as two special issues of                    Academic Quarter (eds. Monica Dall’Asta,
peer-review journals: the one you are reading,              Natacha Levet, Federico Pagello), Journal of
focused on TV crime series, and one devoted                 European Popular Culture (eds. Valentina Re,
to the production and distribution of European              Thomas Morsch), as well as the publication
crime films, to appear in Alphaville: Journal of            you are reading. An edited collection entitled
Film and Screen Media and edited by Stefano                 Contemporary European Crime Fiction:
Baschiera and Markus Schleich.                              Representing History and Politics (eds.
  Research on the reception of European                     Monica Dall’Asta, Jacques Migozzi, Federico
crime narratives have allowed to compare                    Pagello, Andrew Pepper) will be published by
and contrast how the consumption of this                    Palgrave Macmillan in 2022.
genre, and TV crime series in particular, show                As per the requests of the programme to
some significant continental trends — such                  which it was responding, DETECt has put as
as the role of OTT services and pay-per-view                much emphasis on the research activities
channels — as well as the existence of obvious              as on the transferring and co-creation of
differences in the ways Europeans engage with               knowledge through the implementation
non-domestic shows depending of the country                 of a variety of innovative teaching and
or are of origin. An online survey with more                dissemination activities, including the creation
than 1,200 respondents has also collected                   of digital tools and resources. In addition
and analyzed quantitive data. The results, first            to including the topics and methodologies
presented in a confidential research report                 adopted in the research in their university
(eds. Federico Pagello, Markus Schleich), will              courses, DETECt scholars experimented
be published soon in a series of articles.                  with new learning methods involving the
  The main strand of research in DETECt                     realization of video essays and the writing of
concerned the representation of European                    Wikipedia pages. Interaction among students
cultural identity as a set of transcultural                 from different countries has been promoted
identities, expressing the complexity and                   not only through the coordination of courses
diversity of European society and history and               completing similar activities (such as the
promoting a greater mutual understanding                    editing of Wikipedia entries) but also through
among the citizens of the European Union.                   the creation of a series of learning material
DETECt scholars have therefore developed                    to be delivered through a dedicated MOODLE.
in-depth analyses of the multiple ways in                   Learning material have also been designed
which crime narratives have indeed been able                for non-university students: members of
to offer a more and more diverse image of the               DETECt delivered lectures and workshop
human geographical across the continent,                    addressed to high-school students; in-person
while showing how the stories and characters                and online conferences and masterclasses,


212                        Pagello, DETECt – Detecting Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives
also involving professionals such as writers,
screenwriters and directors were organized
by many partners institutions; and an Open
Massive Online Course entitled Euro Noir:
Cultural Identity in European Popular Crime
Narratives was made freely accessible on the
Internet. Two additional key digital outputs for
the dissemination of the project findings are
also available to scholars, students and the
general public: the DETECt Atlas of European
Crime Narratives, showing the continental
dimension of the genre, and the DETECt app,
offering walking tours on the locations of
crime in Aarhus and, in the next months, in
Bologna. A range of dissemination activities
addressed at the general public have also
been completed, including the creation of an
exhibition (L’Europe du polar, held in Paris in
2020 and now online: https://europedupolar.
paris.fr), the organisation of a screenwriting
contest accompanied by a webinar on how
to write a crime series, and the written and
audiovisual contributions of many DETECt
scholars to print media, radio programmes,
as well as literary, film and TV festivals.




 Notes
 1
     For information: federico.pagello@unich.it



Cinéma & Cie vol. 21 no. 36/37 2021 · ISSN 2036-461X   213
