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Home , Cultural policy, Cultural property

State/ 4 Credit Course

Alexandra Kowalski Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Central European University

Description

Politics of culture and cultural policies have defined the modern national state since the late 18th century—and their relevance in the post-national era is now, paradoxically perhaps, only growing. The course offers a critical and historical overview of politics and policies of culture (including heritage policy) through the modern era, until the radical transformations of the most recent period. How and when did culture become an object of public policies and political concern? How and when did matter of knowledge become matter for identification? Is this politicization best explained as a product of imperialism, nationalism, commodification, class relations, race relations, inter-state relations, bureaucratic growth, rationalization, field dynamics, political ritual, or organizational differentiation? What is the difference between fascist, socialist, and liberal cultural policies, if there is any at all? How does work in the post-national era, in a context of intense , commodification, marketization, dematerialization, and quantification? What happens of schools, , concert halls, markets, historic districts, cultural centers, heritage sites, national and local identities, art funding—among many other objects of modern political/cultural concern—in such context? How shall we map and understand the global governance of culture as it exists today, through the multiplicity of public, private, and non- governmental organizations operating at various geographic scales? Such are some of the questions we’ll discuss and, when possible, answer through the class.

The first half of the course lays the ground for discussion through 1. a systematic historical survey of the state-culture connection between early Modernity and the 1970s; and 2. a systematic review of the most useful concepts and theories available in the social sciences ( from sociology and anthropology more particularly but also from political science and IR). In the second half of the course we’ll look at the contemporary issues raised by and through “culture,” its economy, its management, and its .

Learning outcomes: - Substantive skills: Students learn to approach cultural governance through an interdisciplinary lens, conveying more particularly: critical conceptual tools permitting to interpret and explain cultural governance in sociologically and anthropologically grounded ways (socio-anthropological approach); knowledge of the history of culture as an object and sector of (socio-historical approach); knowledge of the major issues and actors of contemporary (public policy and IR approach).

- Portable skills: Development of analytical, synthetic and critical skills.

- Portable skills: Blog writing, writing social science for a broader audience; creating and using a blog; familiarization with academic online media.

Assessment: The assignments are designed to spread the work load throughout the semester, and in particular to avoid the usual end-of-semester panic over assignments and personal projects. --Attendance, preparedness and participation (20% of final grade): You’re expected to come prepared to discuss assigned readings or other assignments. One or two absences won’t be penalized. The participation grade will be down-graded by one letter grade/additional day of absence. Keep your right to not show up for serious occasions. --Leading discussion (20 % of final grade): Each student will be discussion leader for at least a session. This responsibility entails coming to class with a set of discussion points suggested by the weekly readings. The points will be circulated by Friday night the week before a given session. -- Blogging (60%): Students will produce 2 blog posts of approx. 1500 words each (+/-20%) in the course of the semester. We’ll book contributions in order to collect at least one post every week. We’ll initially post contributions on a host web site of our creation dedicated to the class ’output (address to be shared in the introduction session). The goal is ultimately to “place” posts on other, more public sites at a later stage, if possible. Candidate sites include blogs hosted by the CEU as well as various groups and actors in the academic field (such as sociology.org, asaculture.org etc). Consider this an exercise in public sociology which replaces the traditional end-of-term paper. We’ll read posts as they are produced. We will discuss them during the sessions allotted for that purpose in the schedule below. Writing requirements are somewhat similar to those of a paper—posts should be academic/intellectual/expert pieces, offering to examine a problem that is clearly stated, through an argument solving the problem in a structured but also balanced way (i.e. in a way that is dialogical and takes into account a variety of possible approaches and answers, not just the writer’s opinion). If writing for online media allows more freedom in tone than traditional academic venues, this also requires a degree of readability, by an educated (yet not necessarily specialist) public, that sets this genre apart from your usual academic paper. No jargon will be tolerated. Any subject that has to do with the state/culture nexus is welcome, but topics should as much as possible relate to some area of collective concern—whether news or current issue relevant to a community out there. Posts will come with a small bibliography of academic and other sources as well. They will be subject to the same kind of scrutiny as a regular essay submitted as a term paper, minus the stylistic adjustments that might be required by the genre. Think of them as short term papers with a reach beyond the classroom.

Course Schedule All materials assigned are made available on the school’s e-learning platform. 1. Introduction 1:

Introduction of the syllabus and requirements. Introduction of the main possible takes on the state/culture nexus, and of the main substantive learning goals for the class.

2. Introduction 2:

Culture and critical cultural ; heritage & critical heritage studies; nationalism and postcolonial studies; historical sociology; key concepts from social theory. Blog writing and posting—training session.

I. THE CULTURAL STATE: HISTORY AND SOCIAL THEORY

3. Treasure Chests, Conspicuous Consumption and the Sumptuary State

Topics: Missing cultural link in mainstream historical sociology of the State. Tilly, Wallerstein, Anderson, Ertman, etc. Commodities and conspicuous consumption, and the history of capitalism. Aristocracy and bourgeoisie, and taste; class and taste.

Readings:

Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli. 2009 “Reconciling the Privilege of a Few with the Common Good: Sumptuary in Medieval and Early Modern Europe” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 39:3. Chandra Mukerji. 1983. From Graven Images: Patterns of Modern Materialism. (Chap 2: Pictorial Prints and Consumerism) Fernand Braudel. 2002 [1979]. “From to state: luxury and ostentation” in The Wheels of Commerce. Phoenix Press. (p. 488-493) Arjun Appadurai. 1986. Definition of “commodity” in Introduction (p. 38) The Social Life of Things.

Presentation: Ashley Mears on Conspicuous consumption and the ultra-rich in 2016. Ashley Mears is the author of Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion (UC Press, 2011). Her talk to the class is based on new research, part of which was published ( “Girls as Elite Distinction: The Appropriation of Bodily Capital.” Special Issue on New Forms of Distinction, Poetics 53: 22–37 [2015].)

4. Collectibles, Markets, and Cultural Fields

Topics: Capitalism and the , history. Market and connoisseurship. Concept of social field (doxa, habitus, domination/power). Cultural field and market. Field as market. Objects and knowledge. Materiality approach in sociology and anthropology.

Readings: Krysztof Pomian. 1990 [1987] “Dealers, Connoisseurs and Enthusiasts in 18th C Paris” in Collectors and Curiosities Paris-Venice 1500-1800. Polity Press. Harrison and Cynthia White. 1965. “A new system emerges” (Chap 3) Canvasses and careers. U. of Chicago Press.

5. Theory (1/2): , Governmentality, Hegemony

Topics: concepts above, uses and critique. Readings:

Pierre Bourdieu. 1994. “Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field” Sociological Theory 12:1, 1-18. Jim McGuigan. 2003. “Critical Cultural Policy Studies” in Justin Lewis and Toby Miller eds. Critical . A Reader. Blackwell. Paola Merli. 2013. “Creating the of the future: cultural strategy, policy and institutions in Gramsci” (I&III) International Journal of Cultural Policy 19: 4. 5

6. From Knowledge to Nation: Birth of the Public

Topics: Revolution, social change. Social change and . From class taste to state- sponsored culture: how did it happen? Meanings of “nation”. Governmentality. Knowledge and state; knowledge producers and statesmen; cultural field and bureaucratic/political field. Education and museum: educating whom, and how? Public, the public, the bourgeois public sphere. Habermas. Readings: Dominique Poulot. 2016. “The Changing Role of Art Museums” in National museums and nation- building in Europe 1750-2010: mobilization and legitimacy, continuity and change, edited by Peter Aronsson and Gabriella Elgenius, London, Routledge, 2015. Peggy Levitt. 2015. “Arabia and the East: How Singapore and Doha Display the Nation and the World” (Chap. 3, p. 91-131)

7. Disciplining Bodies and Educating Minds: Schools, Exhibitions,

Topics: How does indoctrination work? Discipline vs. ideology. Habitus vs. ideology. Embodiment. Nationalism or imperialism? Constructivist approaches to the state, anthropology of the state. State as a cultural artefact.

Readings: Eugene Weber. 1976. “Civilizing in Earnest: Schools and Schooling” (Chap 18, excerpted) Peasants into Frenchmen. Stanford UP. Tony Bennett. 2003. “The Political Rationality of the Museum” in Justin Lewis and Toby Miller eds. Critical Cultural Studies. A Reader. Blackwell. (pp. 180-187) [excerpted from The Birth of the Museum [1995]) Lisa McCormick. 2015. Performing civility: International Competitions in . Haverford Libraries. (Chap. 2, excerpted) Claudio Benzecry. 2011. The Fanatic. Ethnography of an Obsession. Chicago UP. (Chap. 3: Moral listening--Symbolic boundaries, work on the self, passionate engagement) Mrs Merrifield, “The Harmony of Colours as exemplified in exhibition,” The Art Journal Illustrated Catalgue, 1851. (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t2794689j;view=1up;seq=387)

8. History, Memory, and the Conservation Movement between Nation and Empire

Topics: Primordialism. Collective memory. Nostalgia. Nation, nationalism, and ritual. Ritual in nationalism studies. Invention of tradition. Ideology and domination. Mass-produced tradition and mega-events. Empire and archeology. Inter-national competition. Restitution controversies. Cultural capitalization and primitive accumulation of cultural capital.

Eric Hobsbawm. 1983. “Mass-producing tradition: Europe 1870-1914” in Hobsbawm and Ranger The Invention of tradition, Cambridge UP. David Lowenthal. 1985. The Past is a Foreign Country. Cambridge UP. (“Nostalgia” and “Repossessing the past” p. 4-19) William H. Gregory. 2011. “Early preservation efforts in Sri Lanka” in Melanie Hall Towards World Heritage. International Origins of the Preservation Movement. Routledge. Federico Navarrete. 2011. “Ruins and the state: of a Mexican symbiosis,” in Cristóbal Gnecco, Patricia Ayala and archaeology in Latin America, Left Coast Press.

9. The Age of “Culture”: Cultural Policy in Socialist and Fascist Regimes

Topics: Culture and the progressive agenda in the 1930s. How different are cultural policies in liberal, fascist and socialist regimes.

Readings: Mabel Berezin. 1991. “The Organization of Political Ideology: Culture, State, and Theater in Fascist Italy” American Sociological Review, Vol. 56, No. 5, pp. 639-651 Christopher Read. 2006. “Krupskaya, Proletkul’t and the Origins of Soviet Cultural Policy”, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 12:3, 245-255.

Document: Contagious Middle Ages, OSA exhibition Oct 2006 online at: http://w3.osaarchivum.org/files/exhibitions/middleages/index.html

Supplementary: Maurice Roche. 2001. Modernity, cultural events and the construction of charisma: Mass cultural events in the USSR in the interwar period, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 7:3, 493-520. W. John Morgan. 2006. “Cultural Policy, Stalinism and the Communist International,” International Journal of Cultural Policy, 12:3, 257-271.

Screening (Excerpts): Chris Marker. 1993. The Last Bolshevik. (Tombeau d’Alexandre)

Leni Riefenstahl. 1935. Olympia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHs2coAzLJ8

10. Nature, Culture, and Modernity’s Hybrids

Topics: of concept of “culture,” “”, “Kulturstaat”. Norbert Elias. Introduction of the notion of “cultural policy”. Monsters, hybrids, purity. Cosmopolitics. History of ethnography. Race. Western .

Readings:

Andrew Zimmerman. 2001. “Exotic Spectacles and the Global Context of German Anthropology” (Chap. 1, p. 15-36) and “Kultur and Kulturkampf: Studia Humanitas and the Peoples without History” (Chap. 2, p. 28-59) in Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany. U. of Chicago Press. Rodney Harrison. 2015. “Beyond Natural and : Toward an Ontological politics of Heritage in the Age of the Anthropocene” Heritage and Society 8:1, 24-52. Screening (excerpts): Dennis O’Rourke, Cannibal Tours, 1988

11. Birth of “Cultural Policy”

Topics: Culture and the progressive agenda, 1960s-present. UNESCO. Culture and social reform. Culture and equality. Culture and education. Culture and development. Birth of national Ministries of Culture. Culture and global politics.

Readings: Gaëlle Lemasson. 2015. “Cultural development: a new policy paradigm in the cultural policies of the 1970s in Québec,” International Journal of Cultural Policy Vol. 21 , Iss. 5,2015 Miikka Pyykkönen. 2012. UNESCO and : democratisation, commodification or governmentalisation of culture? International Journal of Cultural Policy 18:5, 545-562. Geir Vestheim. 2012. Cultural policy-making: negotiations in an overlapping zone between culture, politics and money, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 18:5, 530-544.

12. Theory (2/2): Transnational Sources of the (National) Cultural State

Topics: Imperial vs. national dynamics in cultural state formation. Knowledge/science in state and policy studies. Foucault. Knowledge vs. memory or culture in state/culture studies. Epistemic communities of cultural experts. Readings: John Meyer. 1999. “The Changing Cultural Contents of the Nation-State: A World-Society Perspective” in George Steinmetz ed. State/Culture. Cornell UP. 8

Either of the following: Haas, P. M. 1992. "Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination", International Organization 46(1), pp. 1-35. Davis Cross, M. 2013. ‘Rethinking epistemic communities twenty years later’. Review of International Studies, 39, pp. 137-160. Presentation: Alexandra Kowalski, “Transnational Origins of National Policies of Culture: Mapping and Analyzing the Diffusion of Heritage Policies in the Long 19th Century” (Paper in progress) 13. Discussion of students ’blog posts

14. “ “ “ “

II. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

15. Changing Paradigms (1/2): Global Economy of Culture

Topics: Symbolic and economic . Conversion. Commodification.

Readings: Eleonora Belfiore. 2004. Auditing culture The subsidised cultural sector in the New Public Management, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 10: 2. Russel Prince. 2014. Calculative Cultural Expertise? Consultants and Politics in the UK Cultural Sector, Sociology, Vol. 48(4) 747–762. Kees Vuyk. 2010. “The as an instrument? Notes on the controversy surrounding the value of art’” International Journal of Cultural Policy 16:2, 173-183.

16. Changing Paradigms (2/2): Culture’s Culture of Business

Topics: Symbolic and economic value. Conversion. Commodification.

Readings: Melissa Aronczyck. 2014. Branding the Nation. The Global Business of National Identity. (Excerpts TBA) Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff. 2009. Ethnicity Inc. U. of Chicago Press. (Excerpts TBA) 9

17. Culture/City (1/3): The “Creative City” and Creative Precarity

Topics: Creativity vs. art. New spirit of capitalism. Creative class. Creative labor. Precarity.

Readings: Hans Kjetil Lysgård. 2013. “The definition of culture in culture-based urban development strategies: antagonisms in the construction of a culture-based development discourse,” International Journal of Cultural Policy, 19:2, 182-200. Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Jenny Svensson & Klara Tomson. 2016. “The international transfer of creative industries as a policy idea,” International Journal of Cultural Policy 22:4, 594-610. Néstor García Canclini. 2016. “Urban spaces and networks: Young people’s creativity” International Journal of Cultural Studies. DOI: 1367877916655629.

Document: Ahmed Mater, Inside Real Mecca: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/video/2016/sep/09/inside-real-mecca-demolition-hajj-pilgrims- saudi-video?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAlkXXHWCsI (fragment starting at 5:27)

Guided Walk: The Jewish & entertainment quarter of Budapest: A disputed Space

18. Culture/City (2/3) : Heritage and Urban Space 1960-2016

Topics: Heritage since WWII. Heritage boom and urban segregation. Heritage movement and the right to the city.

Readings: David McCrone. 1995. “Introduction: The Rise and Rise of Heritage” in Scotland the Brand. The Making of Scottish Heritage. Edinburgh UP. Chiara de Cesari and Michael Herzfeld, “Urban Heritage and Social Movements” in Global Heritage: A Reader, p. 171-195. 19. Nov 21: Culture/city (3/3): Festivals

Book discussion with the author: Jonathan Wynn. 2016. Music/City. U. of Chicago Press. 10

20. Owning culture (1/4) Equality Diversity Indigeneity

Topics: Right to culture. Heritage/culture and human rights. Culture as politics.

Readings: Melissa Baird. 2014. “Heritage, Human Rights and Social Justice” Heritage and Society 7:2, 139- 155. Maria Luz Endere . 2014. “Archaeological Heritage Legislation and Indigenous Rights in Latin America: Trends and Challenges” International Journal of 21: 319– 330. Alexander Sammon. 2016. “A History of Native Americans Protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline” Mother Jones Sept. 9 (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/09/dakota-access-pipeline- protest-timeline-sioux-standing-rock-jill-stein)

21. Culture and Ownership (2/4) : Copyright and Piracy

Topics: history of copyright and recent issues. Piracy. . Commons. Common good.

Readings: Benedikt Atkinson and Brian Fitzgerald. 2014. A Short history of Copyright. The Genie of Information. Springer. (choose two chapters among: Chap. 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14) Adrian Johns. 2009. Piracy: the intellectual property wars from Guttenberg to Gates. U Chicago. (Chap 14: Intellectual Property and the nature of science) Shujen Wang. 2016. “The cloud, online piracy and global copyright governance International Journal of Cultural Studies. doi:10.1177/1367877916628239

22. Culture and Onwership (3/4): Restitution of Cultural Property

Topics: Restitution processes since World War II. What are the obstacles? Where is the problem/resolution at today? Reading:

David Gill and Christopher Chippindale. 2006. “From Boston to Rome: Reflections on Returning Antiquities,” International Journal of Cultural Property 13:311–331.

Research Assignment: search for press articles on restitution cases since 2008.

Document: James Cuno: The case against repatriating artifacts: https://youtube.com/watch?v=J5dRJ1Ljryl 11

23. Culture and Ownership (4/4) Markets and Traffic of Art and Antiquities

Topics: Global market of art and antiquities today. Regulation and loopholes. Social structure of the art market.

Readings: Neil Brodie . 2006. “Iraq 1990–2004 and the London Antiquities Market.” In Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade, edited by Neil Brodie , Morag M. Kersel , Christina Luke , and Kathryn Walker Tubb , 206–26. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Neil Brodie and Christina Luke. 2006. “The Social and Cultural Contexts of Collecting” In Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade, edited by Neil Brodie , Morag M. Kersel , Christina Luke , and Kathryn Walker Tubb , 206–26. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Peter B. Campbell. 2013. “Illicit Antiquities Trade as Criminal Network: Characterizing and Anticipating Trafficking of Cultural Heritage” International Journal of Cultural Property 20:113- 153. http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/822209/how-unescos-1970-convention-is-weeding-looted- artifacts-out-of-the-antiquities-market

24. Recap and discussion of blog posts