What is cultural policy: how is it different now, compared to what it was 50 years ago? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Cultural Policy”: Towards a Global Survey
Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2009
The field of "cultural policy" has acquired sufficient purchase internationally to warrant a comparative global survey. This article examines questions that arise preliminary to such an endeavour. It looks first at the problems posed by the divided nature of "cultural policy" research: on the one hand policy advisory work that is essentially pragmatic, and on the other so-called "theoretical" analysis which has little or no purchase on policy-making. In both cases, key elements are missed. A way out of the quandary would be to privilege a line of inquiry that analyzes the "arts and heritage" both in relation to the institutional terms and objectives of these fields but also as components of a broader "cultural system" whose dynamics can only be properly grasped in terms of the social science or "ways of life" paradigm. Such a line of inquiry would address: the ways in which subsidized cultural practice interacts with or is impacted by social, economic and political forces; the domains of public intervention where the cultural in the broader social science sense elicits policy stances and policy action; the nature of public intervention in both categories; whether and how the objects and practices of intervention are conceptualised in a holistic way. A second set of interrogations concerns axes for the comparison of "cultural policy" trans-nationally. One possible axis is provided by different state stances with respect to Raymond Williams' categories of national aggrandizement, economic reductionism, public patronage of the arts, media regulation and the negotiated construction of cultural identity. Another avenue would be to unpack interpretations of two leading current agendas, namely "cultural diversity" and the "cultural and/or creative industries". "Cultural policy" has acquired sufficient purchase internationally for a comparative global survey of different "cultural policy" stances and measures to appear both feasible and timely. The reflections that follow are prolegomena to such an endeavour, some of the necessary preliminaries to a systematic inquiry into "cultural policy" worldwide. At the outset, or even before the outset, two sets of issues should concern us. Both deeply influence the pertinence and usability of the literature one might have recourse to in carrying out such an ambitious project, short of carrying out an ethnographical inquiry in x number of selected or representative countries. First, the divided nature of research on "cultural policy": on the one hand policy advisory work that concerns itself little with higher ends and values, and on the other socalled "theoretical" analysis which has little or no purchase on policy-making. Could a third party deploy conceptual tools that could bridge the divide and if so how? The second set of interrogations concerns ways of comparing "cultural policy" trans-nationally. I shall suggest several axes of differentiation that appear relevant, but only tentatively, as I have yet to settle on an overarching analytical framework.
Cultural industries and cultural policy
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2005
This article analyses and contextualises a variety of relationships between the cultural industries and cultural policy. A principal aim is to examine policies explicitly formulated as cultural (or creative) industries policies. What lies behind such policies? How do they relate to other kinds of cultural policy, including those more oriented towards media, communications, arts and heritage? The first section asks how the cultural industries became such an important idea in cultural policy, when those industries had been largely invisible in traditional (arts‐ and heritage‐based) policy for many decades. What changed and what drove the major changes? In the second section, we look at a number of problems and conceptual tensions arising from the new importance of the cultural industries in contemporary public policy, including problems concerning definition and scope, and the accurate mapping of the sector, but also tensions surrounding the insertion of commercial and industrial culture into cultural policy regimes characterised by legacies of romanticism and idealism. We also look at problems surrounding the academic division of labour in this area of study. We conclude by summarising some of the main contemporary challenges facing cultural policy and cultural policy studies with regard to the cultural industries. The piece also serves to introduce the contributions to a special issue of International Journal of Cultural Policy on the cultural industries and cultural policy.
What is cultural policy? This time it's personal!
Through semi-autobiographical reflection, this paper is a call to energise a debate within cultural policy studies that recognises cultural policy as a personal concern for those working in the arts, and not a theoretical exercise in the development of policy rationale.
8th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL POLICY RESEARCH
Post-Apartheid South Africa’s government has officially adopted a national cultural policy in 1996 as a primary or overarching guide for cultural considerations. Within seventeen (17) years since its approval, the policy, labelled the “White Paper of Arts, Culture and Heritage”, has been subjected to a series of reviews and many strategies and action documents have developed out of it. This panel examines the review processes with the view to ascertain to what extent the exercises succeed in meeting the objectives for which they are set, as well as to evaluate them against international trends. The panel observes that, internationally, cultural policy is generally regarded as central to the development and reconstruction of cities and rural areas, as well as crucial in promoting social cohesion and economic growth. Thus, the panel advocates a legislative review approach that positions culture as a pivotal part of the country’s overall development framework that incorporates the construction of infrastructure, the creation of economic opportunities, and the building of social cohesion. The panel therefore aims to brainstorm and debate on the following key questions with regards to cultural policy implementation in South Africa: • What informs the cultural policy framework apparatus in South Africa post-1994? • How many reviews of the cultural policy have been done and to what extent did the reviews correspond with global imperatives and best practices? • How successful have the South African Cultural Policy instrument(s) been so far in the different creative sectors and in activation of national development? • Are there lessons offshoots from existing implementation praxis and community engagement? • Is South Africa’s Cultural Policy review critical to economic development as well as rural and urban development or regeneration? It is the overall objective of this panel to enter into this significant debate with a view to generate further understanding of cultural policy framing not only from a global base but from localised responses.
Mismatch or Convergence?: Cultural Policy
The Present Situation and Future Prospects of Cultural Industries, 1995
Cultural policy has historically manifested a'structural'fear of economic and industry arguments and analyses except where, as in economic benefits of the arts' arguments, agencies are able to demonstrate the economic potential of cultural activities in addition to their intrinsic merits. How, then, aside from simple arguments about the'economic benefits of the arts' in terms of the multiplier effects on local economies, etc, should the 'industry' dimension of culture and the arts be approached?
Media and cultural policy as public policy
International journal of cultural policy, 2005
This article analyses and contextualises a variety of relationships between the cultural industries and cultural policy. A principal aim is to examine policies which are explicitly formulated as cultural (or creative) industries policies. It seeks to address questions such as: what lies behind such policies? How do they relate to other kinds of cultural policy, including those more oriented towards media, communications, arts and heritage? The first section asks how the cultural industries became such an important idea in cultural policy, when those industries had been largely invisible in traditional (arts and heritage-based) policy for many decades. What changed and what drove the major changes? In the second section, we look at a number of problems and conceptual tensions which arise from the new importance of the cultural industries in contemporary public policy, including problems concerning definition and scope, and the accurate mapping of the sector, but also tensions surrounding the insertion of commercial and industrial culture into cultural policy regimes characterised by legacies of romanticism and idealism. We also look at problems surrounding the academic division of labour in this area of study. In the final section, we conclude by summarising some of the main contemporary challenges facing cultural policy and cultural policy studies with regard to the cultural industries. The piece also serves to introduce the contributions to a special issue of International Journal of Cultural Policy on 'The Cultural Industries and Cultural Policy'.
The politics of cultural policy
Litteraria Pragensia: Studies in Literature and …, 2009
This article addresses the roles of intellectuals in the shaping of cultural policy. Three distinct but interrelated political levels are discussed: the EU, the UK as a member state and Scotland as a stateless nation. The cultural and political space of the European Union is contradictory: it has a cultural presence but member states have full cultural competence. The EU's public sphere is fragmented, poised between regulation and federation. The member state therefore remains the principal focus for analysis of cultural policy debates. Next, a variety of theoretical positions on the intellectuals and the strategic uses of expertise in a 'knowledge society' is explored, illustrating how the cultural policy field is typically constituted. The article goes on to discuss how intellectuals in the UK have shaped government policy on the 'creative economy', underlining the importance of a New Labour 'policy generation' in taking ideas forward that have been globally influential as well as in Scotland. A discussion of stateless nationhood is the backdrop to showing how the Nationalists in power inherited their Labour-LibDem predecessors' approach to developing a new cultural institution, Creative Scotland. This underlines Scotland's deep policy dependency on creative economy ideas fashioned in London. Cultural policy, states and intellectuals 1 This article draws on 'The Politics of Cultural Policy', my inaugural lecture at the University of Glasgow, delivered on
Cultural policy is concerned with creating a vibrant cultural life where every citizen has access to diverse cultural expression, where artists find ample opportunities to connect to audiences, where artistic innovation is frequent and pervasive, and where art and culture serve to advance a more just and inclusive society. This chapter analyzes how sociological research, theories, and methodologies could inform cultural policy and broaden understanding of how arts and culture gets produced, distributed, and consumed by individuals and communities. The authors consider five questions that illustrate sociology’s potential contributions to a vibrant arts and culture ecosystem, including how to support and sustain 1) arts participation; 2) artists’ careers; 3) freedom of expression; 4) diverse cultural institutions; and 5) robust markets for exchange. Ultimately, cultural policy will succeed or fail based on how well it takes into account the complex social and human dynamics that shape how culture moves through the world as well as how people move through the world with culture.
Is there something special about cultural policy
2014
This paper aims to reflect on the special character of the cultural field in relation to politics, policies and the political system. We usually talk about the notion of “autonomy” as one decisive ...