The biennial conferences of the European Association for Urban History (established in 1989 with the support of the European Union) provide a multidisciplinary forum for historians, sociologists, geographers, anthropologists, art and architectural historians, economists, ecologists, planners and all others working on different aspects of urban history.

The 9th conference to be held in Lyon has a number of sessions relevant to urban cultural policy, including:

• Self-Representation and Public Culture of the Balkan Urban Classes
• The artistic districts : between urban economy and social uses of the city (XVth-XIXth centuries)
• The rise and fall of urban cultural industries: place-bound dynamics of urban cultural industries
• Urban diversity: Planning and defining vs. living and experiencing