CultureWatchEurope Conference 2010 Culture and the Policies of Change Culture and the Policies of Change Culture and the Policies Conference Reader Conference Reader Brussels, 6-7 September 2010 European European Economic Commission and Social Committee EUNIC CultureWatchEurope Conference 2010 “Culture and the Policies of Change” Conference Reader TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword................................................................................................................................................. 5 by Robert PALMER, Director of Culture and Cultural and Natural Heritage, Council of Europe Contribution on the Conference: Culture and the Policies of Change................................................... 7 by Jan TRUSZCZYŃSKI, Director-General for Education and Culture, European Commission Report on the Conference ...................................................................................................................... 9 by Steve GREEN, EUNIC Work Group Session Notes.................................................................................................................. 23 Background Papers.............................................................................................................................. 49 The Empathic Civilization by Jeremy RIFKIN................................................................................... 49 Empathic Education: the Transformation of Learning in an Interconnected World by Jeremy RIFKIN............................................................................................................................. 61 Re-thinking Cultural Policy by François MATARASSO .................................................................... 68 The Effects of the Economic Crisis on Culture by Péter INKEI, the Budapest Observatory............ 77 Opening Speeches............................................................................................................................. 101 by Anne-Marie SIGMUND, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee, Austria..101 by Gabriella BATTAINI-DRAGONI, Director General of Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport; General Co-ordinator for intercultural dialogue and for the Campaign “Speak out against Discrimination”, Council of Europe, France..................................................... 103 Keynote Speech 1.............................................................................................................................. 105 by Jeremy RIFKIN, Founder and President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Author, USA Interventions ....................................................................................................................................... 111 par France LEBON, Directrice générale adjointe de la Jeunesse et de l’Education permanente, Direction générale de la Culture, Ministère de la Communauté française de Belgique ................. 111 CultureWatchEurope Conference 2010 Reader 3 by Horia-Roman PATAPIEVICI, President of EUNIC, President of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Romania............................................................................................................. 115 Keynote Speech 2.............................................................................................................................. 119 by Stojan PELKO, State Secretary, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia Intervention......................................................................................................................................... 133 by Jan TRUSZCZYŃSKI, Director-General for Education and Culture, European Commission Conference Brief................................................................................................................................. 137 Culture and the Policies of Change –Conference Programme ......................................................... 100 Participants’ Biographies.................................................................................................................... 143 Brochure - CultureWatchEurope Platform.......................................................................................... 189 4 CultureWatchEurope Conference 2010 Reader Foreword by Robert PALMER, Director of Culture and Cultural and Natural Heritage, Council of Europe This report is a digest of the discussions that took place during the conference “Culture and the Policies of Change” that was held in Brussels on 6-7 September 2010. It is a document that contains various presentations, papers, summaries of workshops, and a general résumé of the issues and broad conclusions of the conference. The event took place within the framework of CultureWatchEurope, a platform initiated by the Council of Europe to monitor and evaluate trends relating to culture across Europe. Our society is moving through a set of significant transitions, and depending on how the lens is focused, different components of this transition are evident – economic restructuring and the reductions to public sector expenditure, major shifts in demographics that in some societies are presenting new challenges for living together, the severity of environmental and climate change, and the increasing recognition of the inadequacies of many of our existing governance structures. Changes of this scale are all taking place at a time when there is a strong political force for reform and modernisation. Although such an array of issues can be construed as ‘cultural’ in the broadest sense, there also needs to be a closer examination of the impacts of such profound economic and societal shifts on the cultural sector itself, provoking a re-shaping of its current models. Some might say that further development of the cultural sector will be primarily a question of its own ability for adaptation and invention. Diminishing public resources for cultural practice in many countries is adding urgency to the imperative for change. There is a current debate about the relative value of much of the existing cultural practice, as well as the relevance of our present institutional and organizational structures that historically have been created to support and manage culture. Policies for culture may require a significant overhaul in both ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ European countries; the challenge is pan-European in nature. For this reason the Council of Europe, along with other partners, took the initiative to organise this conference – certainly not the first one dealing with the subject of cultural change, and I guarantee it will not be the last. The conference was intended to be part of a collective process of re-examination. Many specific topics could have been debated, but logistics required the prioritisation of several major themes that reflected the key interests of the organising partners. These themes were grouped around three broad subject areas – mainstreaming culture, cultural diversity and resources for culture. These were further developed into nine workshops, offering significant ‘open space’ for conference participants to re-define and deal with more specialist interests. CultureWatchEurope Conference 2010 Reader 5 Many hundreds of insights were voiced and discussed at the conference, based on the experience of those involved, and these needed to be collected and distilled. The following report is only the first stage of this process of analysis. There has been an attempt to point out major pre-occupations and possible conclusions that were expressed at the conference. Deliberately, the conclusions had not been ‘pre-cooked’ by the organisers, and so the report is not organised as a neat and orderly set of easily digested proposals. In any case, big changes in society are not made through a unified simplistic action. They are invariably a result of many hundreds or thousands of initiatives by numerous different players. A major question now is ‘what next?’ Often, debates are had, duly recorded and then forgotten after the publication of the results. On this occasion, each of the partners appears committed to the challenge of continuation and follow up. The Council of Europe will organise another conference in 2011. However, more important will be the actions that will lead up to the next event through planned and unplanned conversations, and taking advantage of new connections and synergies. Whether anything practical comes of the hours of conference discussion is a matter for all of us. I want to enthusiastically thank our conference partners – The European Commission, The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), La Communauté française de Belgique, Culture Action Europe, International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA), European Culture Foundation and LabforCulture, the Allianz Kulturstiftung, the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia and the Budapest Observatory. Of course, it is the people inside and behind these organizations whose energy and commitment makes things happen. For this conference, special thanks must go to the participants for embarking so openly and honestly on a process of re-examination and getting to grips with the imperatives for change. 6 CultureWatchEurope Conference 2010 Reader Contribution on the Conference: Culture and the Policies of Change by Jan TRUSZCZYŃSKI, Director-General for Education and Culture, European Commission A striking common thread ran through the wide range of critical observations and opinions voiced in