DOCSLIB.ORG

Cultural Policy: Issues and Interrogations in an International Perspective by Yudhishthir Raj Isar

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cultural Policy: Issues and Interrogations in an International Perspective by Yudhishthir Raj Isar Cultural policy: issues and interrogations in an international perspective by Yudhishthir Raj Isar This essay was supposed to be a review of long-term entities) envision and enact in terms of cultural affairs, the trends in ‘international cultural policy’. Although it has latter understood as relating to ‘the works and practices of turned out to be something else, it is still worth pausing intellectual, and especially artistic activity’ (Williams, 1988: to inquire what that original brief might mean. ‘Interna- 90). Its analysis means studying how governments seek to tional cultural policy’ could denote two different things: support and regulate the arts and heritage. It also means ana- first, the evolution of norms and frameworks articulated lyzing how the latter are seen as ‘resources’ and used in the by international organizations and/or considered to be service of ends such as economic growth, employment, or good practice internationally; second, the emergence of social cohesion. Increasingly, this instrumental view of cul- different ‘cultural policy’ stances and measures in dif- tural assets means that the attention lavished on them and the ferent countries and regions (this second reading could money spent are increasingly justified in terms of ‘protect- of course subsume the first). Interested principally in the ing’ or ‘promoting’ the ‘ways of life’ that audiovisual culture second reading, I am in fact beginning to envisage a book- in the European Union setting for example, is considered to length cross-cultural survey of the topic. This project is express, shape and represent (Schlesinger, 2001). still only half-formed, however. What is more, neither my Yet such analysis insufficiently recognizes that official decades of direct experience in the policy-making arena, policy is far from being the only determinant of what we particularly at UNESCO, nor my current co-editorship might call the ‘cultural system’, as different economic of The Cultures and Globalization Series of publications, forces, such as the marketplace, or societal dispositions have (yet) afforded me scope for first-hand research. So and actions, notably civil society mobilization around cul- rather than generalize in ways that could only be im- tural causes and broader quality of life issues, impact on pressionistic, I have chosen to discuss not the ‘long term the cultural in ways that are often far more powerful than trends’, but rather some necessary preliminaries to a the measures taken by ministries of culture… At the fore- systematic inquiry into ‘cultural policy’ worldwide, in front of India’s contemporary cultural system, for example, the hope that my reflections may provide some useful ele- stands the popular culture generated and disseminated by ments of ‘global’ context for the Swedish national ‘cul- ‘Bollywood’ and other centres of film and television pro- tural policy’ exercise now under way. duction. The ‘policies’ of the ministries concerned impinge but superficially on this universe. Instead, they support in- Several issues concern me. First, the divided nature of re- stitutions of ‘high culture’, offer awards and prizes to artists search on ‘cultural policy’: on the one hand policy advisory and writers, and pursue efforts of cultural diplomacy (the work that concerns itself little with higher ends and values, latter in particular pales into insignificance in comparison and on the other so-called ‘theoretical’ analysis which has to the international reach of the private film industry). Fur- little or no purchase on policy. Why not bridge the divide, by thermore, in India as in many other multi-ethnic nations, combining the two streams? How to do so? My second set of cultural issues across the board are inscribed in terms so interrogations concerns ways of comparing ‘cultural policy’ narrow that they miss both the ways in which discourses trans-nationally. I shall suggest several axes of differentia- of nationalism, development, modernization and citizen- tion that appear relevant, but only tentatively, as I have yet ship have mobilized different forms of cultural expression, to settle on an overarching analytical framework. and the ways in which subtle hierarchies in these discourses trump officially sanctioned notions of ‘authenticity’ or ‘tra- A house divided dition’ (Naregal, 2008). What is understood by ‘cultural policy’ and ‘cultural po- It is not surprising, therefore, that the culture of the ‘cul- licy research’? My use of quotation marks so far signals my tural policy researchers’ – more often than not working as concern with the semantic bivalence of these terms, both of consultants for a public authority – is a mostly unproblema- which are deployed, broadly speaking, in two distinct sets of tized object, analyzed in more or less functionalist terms. ways by two different families of researchers, and for quite The critical elements in such analysis tend to concern the divergent purposes. delivery or non-delivery of outputs (in turn generally just The first and most common understanding of ‘cultural the outputs of governmental action), but the premises on policy’ was neatly encapsulated many years ago by Augus- the basis of which those outcomes are defined, the values tin Girard (1983: 13) ‘as a system of ultimate aims, practical they embody, or the sometimes covert goals they pursue – in objectives and means, pursued by a group and applied by an other words the outcomes – are rarely questioned. authority [and]…combined in an explicitly coherent system. Totally different is a field of academy-driven scholarship Here ‘cultural policy’ is what governments (as well as other for which ‘cultural policy’ means 74 KULTURSVERIGE 2009 swecult_final.indd 74 08-10-28 13.15.29 ‘the politics of culture in the most general sense: it is licy’ remains deep. This divide was addressed by another about the clash of ideas, institutional struggles and power Bennett, Oliver, in an essay reviewing both the Lewis and relations in the production and circulation of symbolic Miller Reader cited above and the late Mark Schuster’s meanings…issues of cultural policy may usefully be con- book Informing Cultural Policy: The Research and Infor- sidered from the point of view of a critical and communi- mation Infrastructure. Each work represents a world ‘lar- cative rationality’. (McGuigan, 1996:1) gely oblivious to the preoccupations of the other’ (Bennett, 2004: 237), the first limited by ‘an uncritical attachment to In the same vein, Lewis and Miller see ‘cultural policy’ as a simplistic notion of the progressive’, while for the second ‘a site for the production of cultural citizens, with the cul- ‘what constitutes both cultural policy and cultural policy tural industries providing not only a ream of representations research seems broadly to be what governments, their mi- about oneself and others, but a series of rationales for par- nistries of culture, arts councils and related organisations ticular types of conduct’ (Lewis and Miller, 2003: 1). This determine them to be’ and is limited to ‘the investigation academic tradition emerged relatively recently – only in the of instrumental questions through empirical social science’ 1980s in fact, with the shift from analyzing the ‘culture’ of (ibid.: 242). Although he is happy to recognize multiple ap- ministries of culture within a primarily aesthetic paradigm proaches because of the ‘intellectual vitality’ that could be to doing so within a paradigm of representation and power. engendered by their encounter, Bennett still sees an unavoi- Influenced largely by cultural studies (as well as by critical dable ‘clash’ between two worlds that are, adapting Adorno, sociology, e.g., that of Pierre Bourdieu – who, paradoxically, the torn halves that can never add up to a whole. The arena disparaged cultural studies), this perspective is inherently for the clash in question is the English-speaking West; Ben- contestatory and critical: cultural policy is ‘cultural politics’ nett (with Ahearne, 2004) contends that it does not exist – and hence broadens its remit to include the workings of in France and Germany, where many public intellectuals the marketplace, usually in condemnatory terms as well as have contributed to cultural policy debate. His point is made the increasingly vigorous claims of ‘cultural civil society.’1 principally to challenge the claim to representativity of the As the ideological moorings of much of this work are radical Lewis and Miller Reader. Yet there is little evidence that, on leftist and/or libertarian in inspiration, constructive engage- the ‘continent’, the conversation between academic inquiry ment with policy-makers themselves is rarely on the agenda. and policy-oriented advocacy work is in reality less divided, In some cases, such engagement is deliberately shunned. despite Ahearne’s evocation, for France, of collaborations Not surprisingly, the findings of such scholarship tend to be between government and the likes of Bourdieu and de Cer- unpalatable to policy-makers; most of them cleave to overtly teau. These, he claims, ‘have played an important part in instrumental agendas. Also, it must be said, much ‘cultural the elaboration of what one might call a nationally available theory’ often expresses itself in terms so abstruse and con- critical cultural policy intelligence’ (Ahearne, 2004: 11). voluted to be incomprehensible to the policy-making au- Perhaps. But which policy-makers have attended to such dience. There are of course other, humanistic traditions of intelligence? How did they learn from
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Understanding the Value of Arts & Culture | the AHRC Cultural Value
    Understanding the value of arts & culture The AHRC Cultural Value Project Geoffrey Crossick & Patrycja Kaszynska 2 Understanding the value of arts & culture The AHRC Cultural Value Project Geoffrey Crossick & Patrycja Kaszynska THE AHRC CULTURAL VALUE PROJECT CONTENTS Foreword 3 4. The engaged citizen: civic agency 58 & civic engagement Executive summary 6 Preconditions for political engagement 59 Civic space and civic engagement: three case studies 61 Part 1 Introduction Creative challenge: cultural industries, digging 63 and climate change 1. Rethinking the terms of the cultural 12 Culture, conflict and post-conflict: 66 value debate a double-edged sword? The Cultural Value Project 12 Culture and art: a brief intellectual history 14 5. Communities, Regeneration and Space 71 Cultural policy and the many lives of cultural value 16 Place, identity and public art 71 Beyond dichotomies: the view from 19 Urban regeneration 74 Cultural Value Project awards Creative places, creative quarters 77 Prioritising experience and methodological diversity 21 Community arts 81 Coda: arts, culture and rural communities 83 2. Cross-cutting themes 25 Modes of cultural engagement 25 6. Economy: impact, innovation and ecology 86 Arts and culture in an unequal society 29 The economic benefits of what? 87 Digital transformations 34 Ways of counting 89 Wellbeing and capabilities 37 Agglomeration and attractiveness 91 The innovation economy 92 Part 2 Components of Cultural Value Ecologies of culture 95 3. The reflective individual 42 7. Health, ageing and wellbeing 100 Cultural engagement and the self 43 Therapeutic, clinical and environmental 101 Case study: arts, culture and the criminal 47 interventions justice system Community-based arts and health 104 Cultural engagement and the other 49 Longer-term health benefits and subjective 106 Case study: professional and informal carers 51 wellbeing Culture and international influence 54 Ageing and dementia 108 Two cultures? 110 8.
    [Show full text]
  • Operational Processes for the Formulation and Implementation of Cultural Policies: Some Basic Principles
    Operational processes for the formulation and implementation of cultural policies: some basic principles Prepared by Patricio Jeretic and David Rosello Cerezuela For the Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue UNESCO Culture Sector January 2011 INTRODUCTION UNESCO has developed a series of tools specially intended to assist cultural decision- makers and agents in reflecting on, designing, formulating and implementing cultural policies and strategies. The guide presented in this document specifically addresses the operational dimension of the process of formulating a cultural policy. This document offers general principles and methodological input to guide the formulation and implementation of cultural policies at the national, regional and/or local levels. The decision to formulate and implement a cultural policy implies setting a complex process in motion and establishing conditions that enable public action in the cultural field to be significant and effective, resulting in practical outcomes that benefit the development of society. Formulating a cultural policy is not confined to the drafting of a document, however thorough and relevant it may be. It entails creating a new momentum and promoting work methods in the case of institutions and agents responsible for culture, in order to attain a common goal and a clear and consistent strategy. It involves promoting the cultural dimension of the society and mobilizing available resources to enable sectors of cultural activity to play their part in economic, social and human development. In other words, the cultural policy of a country, region or locality is not the document so headed but rather the specific guidelines, actions and activities conducted by public institutions that affect the cultural dimension and related activity sectors.
    [Show full text]
  • Construction of Hong-Dae Cultural District : Cultural Place, Cultural Policy and Cultural Politics
    Universität Bielefeld Fakultät für Soziologie Construction of Hong-dae Cultural District : Cultural Place, Cultural Policy and Cultural Politics Dissertation Zur Erlangung eines Doktorgrades der Philosophie an der Fakultät für Soziologie der Universität Bielefeld Mihye Cho 1. Gutachterin: Prof. Dr. Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Jörg Bergmann Bielefeld Juli 2007 ii Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Research Questions 4 1.2 Theoretical and Analytical Concepts of Research 9 1.3 Research Strategies 13 1.3.1 Research Phase 13 1.3.2 Data Collection Methods 14 1.3.3 Data Analysis 19 1.4 Structure of Research 22 Chapter 2 ‘Hong-dae Culture’ and Ambiguous Meanings of ‘the Cultural’ 23 2.1 Hong-dae Scene as Hong-dae Culture 25 2.2 Top 5 Sites as Representation of Hong-dae Culture 36 2.2.1 Site 1: Dance Clubs 37 2.2.2 Site 2: Live Clubs 47 2.2.3 Site 3: Street Hawkers 52 2.2.4 Site 4: Streets of Style 57 2.2.5 Site 5: Cafés and Restaurants 61 2.2.6 Creation of Hong-dae Culture through Discourse and Performance 65 2.3 Dualistic Approach of Authorities towards Hong-dae Culture 67 2.4 Concluding Remarks 75 Chapter 3 ‘Cultural District’ as a Transitional Cultural Policy in Paradigm Shift 76 3.1 Dispute over Cultural District in Hong-dae area 77 3.2 A Paradigm Shift in Korean Cultural Policy: from Preserving Culture to 79 Creating ‘the Cultural’ 3.3 Cultural District as a Transitional Cultural Policy 88 3.3.1 Terms and Objectives of Cultural District 88 3.3.2 Problematic Issues of Cultural District 93 3.4 Concluding Remarks 96 Chapter
    [Show full text]
  • Sustainable Development and Cultural Policy: Do They Make a Happy Marriage?
    ENCATC JOURNAL OF CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AND POLICY Sustainable Development and Cultural Policy: Do They Make A Happy Marriage? Géraldine Dallaire HEC Montréal, Canada François Colbert HEC Montréal, Canada Keywords: ABSTRACT Cultural Policy The aim of this article is to foster debate within the academic community on the notion of Agenda 21 culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development. Is Agenda 21 for Culture not just another way of making the case for increased funding of the arts by the different Sustainable governments? Are the goals of this fourth pillar not the same as those traditionally found in development cultural policies? This article looks at the origins of Agenda 21 and raises questions about its relationship with the challenges facing cultural and arts organizations, the different definitions Market Issues of the term “culture,” and the distinction between high and popular culture. It explores the links between these questions and the economic and market issues confronting stakeholders High art / popular in the cultural sector as well as public policy makers. art 6 ENCATC JOURNAL OF CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AND POLICY Introduction The issue of cultural democratization is a recurring theme that was once again pushed to the Cultural actors in all developed countries are fore on the occasion of the anniversaries of the struggling with a serious lack of funding. The cultural ministries of France and Quebec, notably, in economic crisis of 2008 has had a devastating impact 2009 and 2011. Indeed, one of the founding missions on government budgets, leading to severely limited of the French Ministry of Culture upon its creation in access to public funding.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Resistance,' 'Cultural Radicalism,' and 'Self-Formation'
    Popular Culture, ‘Resistance,’ ‘Cultural Radicalism,’ and ‘Self-Formation’ Comments on the Development of a Theory Kaspar Maase 1. PRELIMINARY COMMENTS This article follows up on the debate over the resistance potential of popular culture. The first part traces the historical constellation of ideas in which the question arose and remains to this day. The second part attempts to systematize different dimensions of ‘resistance.’ The third part examines the development and criticism of this approach in the field of Cultural Studies. This leads to the fourth part, which investigates the role “cultural radicalism” (Fluck, “Die Wissenschaft” 115) has played in this discussion. The fifth part introduces the concept of self-formation. The sixth discusses the ways in which the political relevance of popular culture has been evaluated, and how the ‘resistance’ approach can be further developed. ‘Resistance’ in a specific sense, namely that established in British Cultural Studies, forms the point of reference, framing the topic of this article in three ways. Firstly, the analysis will take place within the supposed context of a clash of interests between ‘the people’ and ‘the power bloc’; secondly, it will focus on the cultural dimension; and thirdly, it will investigate the cultural exercise of power and oppositional practices from the perspective of ‘the people’ with the intention of facilitating their empowerment. The thoughts of political and academic actors as to what exactly constitutes ‘resistance’ are as varied and contradictory as the concerns articulated by ‘the people.’ Nonetheless, there is a widespread expectation that research from the perspective of ‘the people’ has to promote 46 Kaspar Maase oppositional feelings, thoughts, and actions.
    [Show full text]
  • Megachurches and Popular Culture: on Enclaving and Encroaching
    Chapter 4 Megachurches and Popular Culture: On Enclaving and Encroaching Simon Coleman and Saliha Chattoo 1 Introduction: Performing the ‘Mega’ Christians have always built large churches. Imposing cathedrals dominated the architectural profiles and often the economies of cities in medieval Eu- rope, and spread into the New World along with colonisation and missionisa- tion (Coleman and Bowman 2018). Yet, while such churches are often huge, we do not think of them as mega. Their size – expressive of ecclesiastical authority – has a different quality to the dynamic, ostensibly more democratic forms of expansion that we associate with today’s megachurches.1 If many Gothic and neo-Gothic cathedrals expanded upwards towards the heavens while ostentatiously occupying urban centres, contemporary megachurches have tended to expand sideways, taking up large swathes of land in suburban areas, or repurposing large-scale facilities such as sports arenas. Furthermore, these differences in models of growth go beyond the spatial or the architec- tural. Cathedrals have tended to represent ‘high culture’, embodying national identity, craftsmanship, education, and patronage. Megachurches inhabit a very different cultural realm, relying on an ability to attract people to their ser- vices and consumers to their products. An empty cathedral (and there are many) still provides an important symbolic and civic function. An empty megachurch serves no purpose at all. This chapter demonstrates the importance of popular culture to the devel- opment of megachurches, showing its intimate connection with such church- es’ performances of what is often made to seem like ineluctable expansion. Our use of the word performance here is very deliberate, since it is meant to convey the sense of both producing growth and displaying it through a variety of media (see also Goh 2008; Maddox 2012).
    [Show full text]
  • Quality Culture: Understandings, Boundaries and Linkages
    Quality culture: understandings, boundaries and linkages Lee Harvey & Bjørn Stensaker Presented at EAIR Forum Innsbruck, September 2007. Submitted to European Journal of Education 24th November, 2007 Published as Harvey, L. and Stensaker, B., 2008, ‘Quality culture: understandings, boundaries and linkages’, European Journal of Education 43(4), pp. 427–42. ABSTRACT As part of the process of enhancing quality, quality culture has become a taken-for- granted concept intended to support development and improvement processes in higher education. By taking a theoretical approach to examining quality culture, starting with a scholarly examination of the concept of culture, and exploring how it is related to quality, quality improvement and quality assurance, the aim of this paper is to create a better understanding of how one can make sense of quality culture, its boundaries but also its links to the fundamental processes of teaching and learning. Keywords: quality, culture, quality culture, learning and teaching, academic engagement 1. Introduction Quality assurance is no longer a novelty to higher education. National and institutional systems for evaluation, assessment, accreditation and audit are now a routine in the majority of European countries (Schwarz & Westerheijden 2004). However, this does not mean that quality work and quality improvement is an integrated part of the sector. Available evidence rather suggests that while systems, procedures and rules are being laid down, creating much data, many reports and much attention (Stensaker 2003), there is still a lack of staff and student attachment and active involvement in these processes (Newton 2000; Vidal, 2003). When trying to describe the ideal involvement of student and staff in such processes, the concept of quality culture has in the latter years often been highlighted as a description of the social processes intended to characterise well-functioning quality systems and quality work processes (Ba˘stová et al., 2004; Rozsnyai, 2003).
    [Show full text]
  • The Relationship Between Culture and Policy Has Long Been a Major Topic
    Abstract The er lationship between culture and policy has long been a major topic for media and cultural studies. With this issue, we hope to broaden the meaning of cultural policy, from policies that are explicitly regulating something we call the “cultural” (including media or traditional rituals or symbols) to include the practice of policy-making and the cultural legitimation of law and policy itself, regardless of the object or dimension of social life it regulates. The se says in this issue argue for (or at least accept) an understanding of policy as a cultural production representing certain ideological outlooks, and thus implicitly suggest that cultural policy studies should encompass a wide range of policies; at the same time, the essays are interested in the cultural mechanisms and means through which policies are promulgated and enforced - from think tanks to social media flak, from the global circulation of ideologies to the local practices of appropriation/resistance. Cover Page Footnote We also appreciate and thank the reviewers for this issue, whose close readings and detailed suggestions made the works presented here even stronger. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. This article is available in communication +1: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cpo/vol6/iss1/1 Johnson Andrews et al.: Editorial Introduction Editorial Introduction The idea for this issue grew out of a panel at the 2016 Cultural Studies Association Conference. The relationship between culture and policy has long been a major topic for media and cultural studies, but we hoped to broaden the meaning of cultural policy, from policies that are explicitly regulating something we call the “cultural” (including media or traditional rituals or symbols) to include the practice of policy-making and the cultural legitimation of law and policy itself, regardless of the object or dimension of social life it regulates.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics of Urban Cultural Policy Global
    THE POLITICS OF URBAN CULTURAL POLICY GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES Carl Grodach and Daniel Silver 2012 CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables iv Contributors v Acknowledgements viii INTRODUCTION Urbanizing Cultural Policy 1 Carl Grodach and Daniel Silver Part I URBAN CULTURAL POLICY AS AN OBJECT OF GOVERNANCE 20 1. A Different Class: Politics and Culture in London 21 Kate Oakley 2. Chicago from the Political Machine to the Entertainment Machine 42 Terry Nichols Clark and Daniel Silver 3. Brecht in Bogotá: How Cultural Policy Transformed a Clientist Political Culture 66 Eleonora Pasotti 4. Notes of Discord: Urban Cultural Policy in the Confrontational City 86 Arie Romein and Jan Jacob Trip 5. Cultural Policy and the State of Urban Development in the Capital of South Korea 111 Jong Youl Lee and Chad Anderson Part II REWRITING THE CREATIVE CITY SCRIPT 130 6. Creativity and Urban Regeneration: The Role of La Tohu and the Cirque du Soleil in the Saint-Michel Neighborhood in Montreal 131 Deborah Leslie and Norma Rantisi 7. City Image and the Politics of Music Policy in the “Live Music Capital of the World” 156 Carl Grodach ii 8. “To Have and to Need”: Reorganizing Cultural Policy as Panacea for 176 Berlin’s Urban and Economic Woes Doreen Jakob 9. Urban Cultural Policy, City Size, and Proximity 195 Chris Gibson and Gordon Waitt Part III THE IMPLICATIONS OF URBAN CULTURAL POLICY AGENDAS FOR CREATIVE PRODUCTION 221 10. The New Cultural Economy and its Discontents: Governance Innovation and Policy Disjuncture in Vancouver 222 Tom Hutton and Catherine Murray 11. Creating Urban Spaces for Culture, Heritage, and the Arts in Singapore: Balancing Policy-Led Development and Organic Growth 245 Lily Kong 12.
    [Show full text]
  • Interculturalism in the Cultural Policies of European Cities
    INTERCULTURALISM IN THE CULTURAL POLICIES OF EUROPEAN CITIES Interculturalism in the cultural policies of European cities – Pascale Bonniel Chalier C K N O W L E D G M E N T S A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S . Jordi Pascual from the United Cities and Local Governments Committee on Culture for his wise advice. Elise Courouble from La Terre est ronde consultants for her documentary research. Jacques Bonniel from the Université Lumière Lyon 2 for rereading the text. La Terre est ronde – October 2009 2 / 31 Interculturalism in the cultural policies of European cities – Pascale Bonniel Chalier C O N T E N T S D) The role of interculturalism in cities’ strategic planning E) Cross-subsidisation Introduction F) New types of policy engineering for ‘intercultural culture’ 1 – Conceptual approaches G) Interculturalism: a challenge for local democracy 2 – Method and sustainable development 3 – Interculturalism in urban dynamics H) Defining culture means defining a cultural policy A) The arts, culture and social inclusion 5 – Recommendations on intercultural urban governance B) Memory, identity and culture 6 – Select bibliography C) Cultures, public spaces and artists at work D) Diversity of cultures, cultural and arts education E) Interculturalism and international cooperation F) One active ingredient: recognition 4 – Cultural diversity in city policies A) Forms providing a higher profile B) Forms encouraging participation C) Centrality and marginality La Terre est ronde – October 2009 3 / 31 Interculturalism in the cultural policies of European cities – Pascale Bonniel Chalier Introduction the benefit of the human race as a whole.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture and the Policies of Change Culture and the Policies of Change Conference Reader Conference Reader
    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............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Pragmatism and Popular Culture: Shusterman, Popular Art, and the Challenge of Visuality
    Pragmatism and Popular Culture: Shusterman, Popular Art, and the Challenge of Visuality STEFÁN SNAEVARR I In this article I will discuss Richard Shusterman’s defense of popular cul- ture. I intend to show that while his arguments are highly interesting, the entertainment industry has a dark side, which he tends to ignore. Actually, I fear that higher culture and even civilization itself might be endangered by the predominance of popular culture. I am especially skeptical of visual entertainment. Its triumph in the last decades seems to have had a nega- tive impact on linguistic skills, lead to the decline of reading, and caused an increase in attentional deficiency among children. The relevance for educational matters should be obvious. Let us now take a look at Shusterman’s theories. It is not by chance that he defends popular culture; after all, he is one of the few aestheticians today who enjoys some popularity. As a result, his work is widely read outside of the philosophical community. The reason is simple: we all love rebels and the American philosopher is a rebel with a cause. He wants to promote art as an integral part of the ever-changing stream of life, believing that popular culture provides ways of giving art a place in everyday existence. This is an important part of Shusterman’s pragmatist aesthetics. Just like his prede- cessor John Dewey, Shusterman stresses our active involvement with art.1 When it all comes down to dust, it is the art of living that matters most. Shusterman maintains that the entertainment industry speaks on behalf of the common man.
    [Show full text]