Kristina Marion Jacobsen studied music, German and European studies in Heidelberg-Mannheim, Hamburg and Berlin, and completed her doctorate in cultural studies at the University of Hildesheim. She worked as a research associate in the German Bundestag and subsequently as the managing director of the European Studies Programme of the three major universities in Berlin. At the Department of Cultural Policy at the University of Hildesheim, she co-founded the European Capital of Culture Laboratory (ECoC LAB), within the framework of which she wrote this study, among other publications.