(Re)Constructing National and Supranational Identities: the Balkans and the European Union
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Cultural policy frameworks (Re)constructing national and supranational identities: The Balkans and the European Union Aleksandar Brkić CULTURAL POLICY RESEARCH AWARD 2011 1 CUL TURAL POLIC Y RESEARCH AWARD Aleksandar Brkic´ PhD, MFA, MSc, MA, BA Lecturer, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore Dedicated to Dragan Klaić (1950-2011) 2 Cultural policy frameworks (Re)constructing national and supranational identities: The Balkans and the European Union Aleksandar Brkić CULTURAL POLICY RESEARCH AWARD 2011 3 4 Table of contents Table of contents 5 Foreword 8 Acknowledgements 10 Preface 13 Executive summary 14 Acronyms and abbreviations 16 1 Introduction: Dialogue of identities as a precondition to Europe 18 1.1 Research backdrop: Intercultural dialogue in Europe and the Balkans 18 1.2 Research questions, objectives and methods 25 1.3 Key terms and related definitions 32 1.4 Limitations of the research and the significance of the study 40 2 Setting the scene: Communities, identities and cultural policy in Europe 44 2.1 National, regional and supranational identities 47 2.2 The European Union and supranational identity 56 2.2.1 The European Union and cultural policy 56 2.2.2 Narratives of diversity and the EU 61 2.3 The Balkans and the former Yugoslavia: Culture and intercultural dialogue 68 2.3.1 The Balkans as a regional framework 68 2.3.2 Yugoslavia as a supranational framework 72 5 2.3.3 Implicit cultural policy in socialist Yugoslavia: The roles of culture in a supranational union 77 3 Questioning cultural policy frameworks for intercultural dialogue 84 3.1 New nationalism in Europe 84 3.2 Explicit cultural policy and intercultural dialogue in Europe 89 3.2.1 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 93 3.2.2 Cultural policy academic community 97 3.3 Methodological cosmopolitanism vs. methodological nationalism 100 4 Cultural networks reconnecting communities with cultural policies: case studies 106 4.1 Banlieues d’Europe: Taking dialogues from the suburbs to the centre 107 4.1.1 Introduction to Banlieues d’ Europe 107 4.1.2 Cultural policy, networking and intercultural dialogue 111 4.1.3 Summary of Banlieues d’Europe case study 119 4.2 Clubture: Culture as a process of exchange 122 4.2.1 Introduction to Clubture 122 4.2.2 Cultural policy, networking and intercultural dialogue 128 4.2.3 Summary of Clubture case study 133 4.3 Transeuropa Festival: Alternative idea for a s upranational identity 137 4.3.1 Introduction to Transeuropa Festival 137 4.3.2 Cultural policy, networking and intercultural dialogue 141 4.3.3 Summary of the Transeuropa Festival case study 147 6 5 Methodological cosmopolitanism and cultural networks in Europe 150 5.1 The power of cultural networks 150 5.2 A cultural networking model in Europe from the perspective of methodological cosmopolitanism 153 6 Conclusions and policy recommendations 160 6.1 “Us and them” paradigm: Different approaches to intercultural dialogue 160 6.2 Artivism: Bridging the two definitions of culture 164 6.3 From the margin of public space to the centre of t he political space 166 6.4 Cultural policy from the bottom up: Pledge for a new European value chain 170 7 References 175 List of CPRA 2011 Jury Members 195 Authors’ biography 200 7 Foreword At the threshold of the 60th Anniversary of the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) in 2014 we mark a decade since the launch of the Cultural Policy Research Award (CPRA). It was in 2003 when ECF and the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond decided to launch a project for encouraging young scholars (under 35) to work in applied and comparative cultural policy research in Europe. The CPRA award is a 10,000 € investment in the best and most promising new research project, which should be accomplished within a year by a young researcher. Thanks to the long-standing commitment of our partners, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and ENCATC, as well as the international jury, the competition has grown in strength, and the research topics have become sharper and more relevant. Today CPRA enjoys an affiliated and vibrant community of young researchers. Cultural policy frameworks (re)constructing national and supranational identities: The Balkans and the European Union by Aleksandar Brkić was the project that won the 8th Cultural Policy Research Award in 2011. This contribution comes at a time when citizens’ actions, movements and networks are mobilising against political populism and neo- nationalism, where EU institutions and international conventions are being questioned. Intercultural awareness embedded in sound participatory cultural policies is becoming an ever more important factor for peace and prosperity in Europe – at all policy levels. Aleksandar has presented evidence for this by researching the role of cultural networks and bottom-up frameworks for fostering interculturality and social engagement of cultural sectors. He makes clear arguments for core values that support an open, democratic and inclusive Europe. Furthermore, Aleksandar outlines how these values might be fostered by connecting different communities to policy processes thereby reinforcing democracy. These ideas and principles 8 are at the heart of the ECF’s work and have been independently verified by this research. Aleksandar Brkić defended his PhD in July 2013 at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade and is now a lecturer at the Arts Management Programme, LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. We are happy to celebrate his double success with this publication. Isabelle Schwarz Head of Advocacy, Research and Development European Cultural Foundation 9 Acknowledgements When it comes to the core of the work invested in this research, I owe the biggest gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Dr Milena Dragićević Šešić, for helping me in all the phases of the work, giving me support and preparing me for all the challenges I encountered along the way. Professor Dragićević Šešić was more than just a supervisor - she introduced me to the topic of intercultural dialogue through arts and culture, and I worked together with her, lecturing and conducting research, since the beginning of my PhD studies. There are number of other people I need to thank, which contributed with their energy and knowledge to my work - Professor Dr Franco Bianchini, advisor; Professor Dr Radivoje Dinulović, my source of motivation and inspiration, who was always there to help me with my own professional and personal “frameworks”; Professor Dr Sanjin Dragojević, with his valuable comments and analysis concerning the Croatian cultural context; Professor Dr Vesna Đukić, for protecting me when I needed it the most; Professor Dr Ruth Bereson, opening the opportunities for me when it was least expected; Sabine Frank from Platform for Intercultural Europe for her enormous efforts to help me make this research be more relevant; Dr Greg DeCuir, my friend and a colleague from the first PhD studies generation at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade; Višnja Kisić and Nina Mihaljinac, PhD colleagues who helped me with their critical and sharp looks at my drafts; Jean Hurstel, Sarah Levin and Charlotte Bohl from Banlieues d’Europe; Emina Višnić and Dea Vidović from Clubture; Segolene Pruvot from European Alternatives and many other people who helped me, or made things usefully complicated for me along the way. 10 I owe a special gratitude to the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), ENCATC and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, especially Isabelle Schwarz, Tsveta Andreeva, Elisabeth Darley, Mats Rolen and the CPRA jury members (Lluís Bonet, Eleonora Belfiore, Jacques Bonniel, Milena Dragićević Šešić, Mikhail Gnedovsky, Therese Kaufmann and Ritva Mitchell), for supporting this research with the Cultural Policy Research Awards (CPRA) in November 2011, and the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Serbia, without which most of the work on this research would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the editor of the book, Diane Dodd, for doing an amazing job and raising the whole text to another level. Professor Dragan Klaić, who sadly passed away shortly before I received the CPRA, was an inspiration. He left a legacy of friends, colleagues and students that will never forget his wit and his knowledgeable, as well as his critical and sharp comments. In memory of Professor Klaić, PhD who was an exceptional theatre scholar and cultural analyst, the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management programme, a joint MA programme of the University of Arts in Belgrade and the University Lyon 2 created a Dragan Klaić Fellowship (student scholarship) in 2013, with support from the Open Society Foundation and European Cultural Foundation. I hope that the spirit of Professor Klaić will continue to live on through new, young emerging researchers from South East Europe. And, of course, I would like to thank my wife Dragana Ladjevac-Brkić and my daughter Tara for having immense understanding during the period I invested in this research. Together with our son Veljko, expressing his support while still being in the stomach, they were my biggest inspiration. Sara, my sister, was helping me in a practical way, transcribing the interviews I conducted, and being there for me whenever I needed her, while my best friends, Vlastimir Puhalo, Zoran Stojanović and Stefan Mladenović, were “the last men standing” when everyone else was gone. My parents... well, they became so nervous 11 while waiting for me to finish my PhD thesis, that in the meantime they retired and became pensioners. I just hope they are proud, at least half as much as they were when their grandchildren were born. I would also like partly to dedicate this research to Dragi Ladjevac, my father-in-law and a wonderful man, who passed away in 2012. 12 Preface My personal and professional development has been influenced by the events happening in the Balkans during the 1990s and the 2000’s.