The ‘actually existing’ cultural policy and culture-led strategies of rural places and small towns

Abstract

Questions regarding the relevance of culture-based development strategies are even more relevant to ask when such strategies are applied to rural places and small towns. In urban contexts, the number of citizens and the volume and variety of the cultural sector, other industries and services are important success criteria. In small Norwegian rural municipalities, these factors are even more critical because the Norwegian rural context is characterized by low population density and low variety and volume in industries and services. Rural places and small towns are, to a large extent, neglected in the culture-led development studies, and likewise, culture is largely neglected in rural development studies. A degree of attention is given to the increasing commodification of rural places and the economic sustainability and cultural influence of cultural and creative industries in rural areas but less to the construction of cultural development policies. In this study, the emergence of cultural policy and culture-led strategies in four small rural communities in southern Norway is analyzed in a topological perspective on mobility, scale and the significance of local history and embeddedness. The primary findings are that although policy construction is influenced by the flow of neo-liberal consumer-based cultural policies, it appears that the cultural policies of small rural communities are more embedded in heritage and tradition based on ideas of participation, mobilization and social coherence.