Development Of Cultural Policy Research Articles

Culture and Revolution Transaction Strategies: A Project of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba

If society is the people, and culture is behavior, this confers upon revolutions a genuinely cultural nature. The immediate link among the topics dealt with in this article is the creation and development of Cuban cultural policy, the very policy through which the nation's artistic creativity—with all its beauties and blunders—is articulated. Yet it is impossible to outline the scope and complexity of this process in a single article and to do so would be nonsensical. This means a radical change in perspective: instead of using macro-history and generalizations, relying on observing events on a much smaller scale in an attempt to shed light on the whole through its parts. As a result, this article focuses on a specific cultural institution—The Ludwig Foundation of Cuba—with a brief mention of its fundamental aims and an overview of one of its emblematic exhibitions, which was the result of long-term research.

Instrumental or intrinsic? Cultural policy in Scotland since devolution

An opinion piece on cultural policy changes in Scotland since devolution, presenting a view of the development of cultural policy in Scotland over the last 10 years. The changes in cultural policy are analysed using the definitions of intrinsic and instrumental policy. Analysis is presented from the perspective of a cultural agency working with both central government in Scotland and cultural service providers. Over the period of devolution there has been some policy shifts most notably the recent change from the Labour administration's approach of developing cultural entitlements, to the new administration's development of a National Performance Framework for all parts of government and all public bodies. This new “Framework” has a focus on outcomes and targets and the new government is seeking alignment from all to progress its core purpose of achieving “sustainable economic growth”. This policy change appears to denote a shift from attempting to take account of the intrinsic value of culture in cultural policy to an instrumental approach. What is not clear is if the outcome based approach of the National Performance Framework which appears instrumental in its design will in its implementation allow for the intrinsic value of culture to be implicit.

PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS AND CULTURAL POLICY IN FRANCE

The notion of the public intellectual in France represents a form of extra‐governmental cultural politics in its own right. This article begins, however, by exploring three sets of reasons that can account for the aversion of French intellectuals under the Fifth Republic to involvement in State cultural policy processes. These are: the historical counter‐examples represented by intellectuals’ involvement in the policy apparatuses of the Vichy regime and the French Communist Party; the positive tradition of laicity, or of a realm of free inquiry politically set off from the political field; and the often detrimental effects on academic prestige of involvement in policy processes. It then traces the incentives and institutional channels through which some public intellectuals have nonetheless been brought into the processes of cultural and educational policy development over recent decades. It concludes by suggesting how intellectuals may be conceived not simply as architects or critics, but also as objects of cultural policy.

A PART TO PLAY?

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was established within months of Labour’s 1997 election victory. From the outset, it intended to ensure the effective delivery of government objectives across its sectors. DCMS’s modus operandi was predicated on the assumption that there is an implicit, highly determined and linear relationship between its funding, its policies, their implementation and outcomes. However, a series of recent statements by DCMS’s ministers suggest that this paradigm, such as it is, has come to be recognised as flawed. Given the burgeoning of current cultural policy research (not least within academia), this article considers whether, on the basis of its current form, it might have anything to contribute to solving DCMS’s dilemmas. In doing so, it examines the development of current cultural policy under Labour; the nature of the conceptual inconsistencies identified; the type of cultural policy research currently being undertaken; and the nature of the relationship between government cultural agencies and external, independent researchers.

Cultural governance and creative industries in Singapore

Singapore, a leading country in the Asia‐Pacific region, is currently attempting to transform its cultural industry into creative economy. Creative economies capitalise on how knowledge can be marketed by merging arts, technology and business. They ensure a nation's competitiveness within an integrated global economy. This paper critically examines Singapore's recent cultural policy developments in tourism, broadcasting and new media. It argues that new creative industries have produced new consumption patterns and identities that harness the place‐branding of “New Asia” as a form of cultural capital and a strategy of regional dominance. Cybernetics is proposed as an approach to frame creative cultural governance and consumption in Singapore.

Politics, School Philosophy, and Language Policy: The Case of Crystal City Schools

Language policy development connects a school district's educational philosophy and the day-to-day practice of educators. An educational philosophy elaborates the aims a school district has for its students; language policy, on the other hand, engages day-to-day practice because it is concerned with how students are going to achieve the aims through language. Moreover, administrators and teachers, in their educational practice, participate in an ongoing process of language planning, a process linked to power and social justice issues. This article maps out the relationship between cultural nationalist ideology and language policy development in the Crystal City Independent School District. Using qualitative data and teacher narratives, it analyzes how language planning unfolds at the level of the school site and the effects this has on teachers and instruction. The analysis supports the conclusion that the school district as an institution has limitations in promoting cultural and linguistic maintenance in its student population.

BICULTURALISM AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY

A comparison of approaches to biculturalism in New Zealand and cultural diversity in the UK reveals that both countries use policy in ways that are aspirational and prescriptive rather than merely supportive of cultural practice. Hybrid culture, producing influential and acclaimed work in the field, is largely ignored in policy in favour of support for distinct minorities. The reasons for this are explored through a brief comparative survey of the history, development and current political purpose of cultural policy in both countries, and contrasts are made with current cultural practice and with the social and economic status of minorities in each country.

DISPLAY OPTIONS

The modern conception of “art” has its roots in the development of eighteenth‐century aesthetics, yet continues to have an apparently unshakeable hold on the broad field of cultural policy. Across a wide range of programs and disciplines, a lingering faith in the autonomy of art, in the isolated genius of the artist and in the superiority of traditional high art forms over those of popular culture is still, I would argue, clearly evident, and the discourse of aesthetic autonomy has served to inform the development of arts and cultural policies, and especially the policies of the contemporary art museum. In sharp contrast to this traditionalist discourse, the “postmodern museum” embraces context and interactivity as an integral part of its cultural mandate, which revolves around notions of populism, communication, interactivity and a non‐hierarchical “democratization” of the previously authoritative modernist museum. In this article, drawing on a specific case study from the contemporary art museum – the controversy surrounding the purchase of Barnett Newman’s Voice of Fire by Canada’s National Gallery – and addressing the often heated debate around the populist agenda of the “postmodern museum”, the author explores the tensions between discourses of art and context in the contemporary gallery and museum, suggesting the need for a radical reassessment of established exhibition practices and modes of display.

Do we need new spaces for exhibiting contemporary art?

There is a deep dissatisfaction with curatorial practice today, with some critics suggesting a need for a deeper understanding of audiences and their engagement with arts practices. This article aims to consider and examine aspects of curatorial practice, which focus on the viewer's engagement with contemporary arts practice. I have engaged with issues of a broad, structural context including cultural policy, social inclusion and audience development. I have concentrated these concerns through the optic of exhibitions practice, exploring the impact of curatorial practice on the relations between the viewer and the artwork. My overall line of enquiry is to ask whether we need new spaces for art as a means of deepening and expanding the viewer's engagement with contemporary art? I argue that the gallery and non-gallery spaces are both sites for making and showing art and that it is not a question of a specific site but it concerns the critical engagement that takes place within different spatio-temporal contexts.

DENMARK’S CREATIVE POTENTIAL

This article addresses the intersection of cultural policy and urban development in Denmark. It provides an overview of European strategies for culture‐led development, and reviews the role of culture and creativity within strategies for development in Denmark. It then presents an analysis of a questionnaire survey of Danish local authorities concerning their use of culture as a tool of development. This analysis suggests that local authorities tend to pursue social rather than economic objectives. It is argued that a more refined approach is necessary for these social strategies to be effective.

The new arts leader: The Australia council and cultural policy change

One consequence of the development of cultural policy has been a demand for more creative leadership in arts organisations. This article provides a case study of how leadership of the Australia Council changed from the 1970s to the beginning of the 21st century. It argues that changes to the way in which Australia Council chairs approached their role was shaped by, and contributed to, the trend towards constructing the arts as an industry. Part of this change sees the Australia Council subjected to aspects of reform, which were widely endorsed by the Australian public sector. The article identifies three styles of leadership exhibited by the chairs over the period: visionary, statesman and reformer, in three phases of the Council's history. It examines the political and social imperatives shaping these leadership styles.

The Development of Local Government's Arts and Cultural Policy in Post-war Britain

The Development of Local Government's Arts and Cultural Policy in Post-war Britain

Thinking about policy utility: Some aspects of Australian cultural policy development in a South African context

IN THE PUBLIC discussion of South African policy making it is quite common to see Australia cited as a comparable country whose policies, approaches and strategies could be usefully appropriated in the South African context. The sites of applicability are varied--from cultural diversity policy development to access and equity programs; from the internationalisation of the economy to cultural tourism; from the stock exchange to film and broadcasting policy; and from community development strategies to indigenous communication initiatives. More specifically, there have also been calls for the strategic adoption and renovation of Australian cultural policy studies in a South African context (Tomaselli & Shepperson, 1996). Australian policy makers, bureaucrats, educationalists and policy study academics have all been involved at various levels in policy development, administrative restructuring, proffering expert advice, curricula redevelopment and so on. Why this interest? The South African transition to membership of the international community meant that it joined that cultural policy club which embraces the English language countries of Canada, the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), Australia and New Zealand. This club might not produce the best cultural policy but its models are available and generally willing to be shared. So, it seems natural that in restructuring the national public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), regard should be given to similar changes in public broadcasting in Australia, Canada and Britain. `Cultural policy' in Australia is a broader and more inclusive term than it is in the US where it mainly refers to arts policies (Schuster, 1996: 116). For the Australian government it refers to arts, heritage (museums, the built environment, sites of cultural significance etc.), broadcasting, film, new media, music (pop, classical and folk), design and libraries (Department of Communication and the Arts, 1994). For cultural policy studies in Australia, it is even more inclusive with the addition of education, tourism, copyright, language policy, gambling, sport, cultural planning and community development. (2) This broader definition of cultural policy seems useful in the South African context where cultural policy must stress community development. Australia is not a former imperial power, nor a world superpower. It is a medium-sized country which competes against South Africa in many areas--gold, coal, agriculture, wine, offshore film production and long-haul tourism. In addition, the international problems Australia faced in the 1980s and beyond are those South Africa now faces. Both are peripheral countries. Both are located away from their major trading partners, of limited significance to the world's symbolic economy and off the world's main trading routes: Each has to work hard at being internationally connected as too do their various industries. Australia provides a useful example of structural adjustment achieved through consensus by a Labor government (1983-1995) with close links to the trade union movement. This was not adjustment through Thatcher-style divisiveness--although the current Liberal Party-National Party coalition government is pursuing more confrontational policies. By the early 1980s the need for structural adjustment in the Australian economy had become critical--just as it has in the 1990s in South Africa. During the 1980s a Labor government sought to make this adjustment by attempting to dampen public expectations, reduce real wages, secure changes in the structure and conduct of the trade union movement, facilitate technological uptake, reduce tariff barriers and by other forms of industry protection in a comprehensive, though unevenly applied, microeconomic reform agenda. To accomplish these ends, it tried to bring the people with it by focussing attention on the nature of the economy and on the nature of Australian failings. …

Is there a need for a new cultural policy strategy in the Nordic welfare state?

Cultural policies have existed as a structural element of the Nordic welfare states from the very beginning. Today these policies are being re‐evaluated, and there are some indications that they may be gradually dismantled. Local cultural politicians in municipalities (cultural boards) and professionals (e.g. cultural secretaries) have become uncertain and anxious about their future role and legitimacy. This new situation is addressed and analysed by using the ideas of Goffman's on‐and off‐stage representations, and Foucault's governmentality. Important background factors in the development of cultural policies both in the past, present and future are identified and used to explain the present unclear situation as a reflection of an existing cultural hierarchy or hegemony (see Gramsci). This paper also discusses the role of cultural professionals and local cultural politicians in the implementation of the Nordic cultural policies with references to examples from Finland and Sweden.

Cultural politics: class, gender, race and the postmodern world

List of Plates. Preface. Acknowledgements. Part I: Mapping the Terrain:. 1. Introduction: What are Cultural Politics?. 2. Liberals and Humanists, Cosmopolitans and Eurocentrics: on the Development of Cultural Policy in Britain. Part II: The Cultural Politics of Class:. 3. Writing as a Weapon in Class Struggle: Radical Cultural Politics in Britain to the Second World War. 4. Marxist Cultural Politics in Eastern Europe: the Case of the German Democratic Republic. 5. Whose History is it? Class, Cultural Democracy and Constructions of the Past. Part III: The Cultural Politics of Gender:. 6. Feminism and the Cultural Politics of Gender. 7. Alternative Subjectivities: White Feminist Fiction. 8. Gender, Racism and Identity: Black Feminist Fiction. Part IV: The Cultural Politics of Race:. 9. Marking Difference, Asserting Power: the Cultural Politics of Racism. 10. Primitives, Politics and the Avant--garde. 11. Dialogues: Race and the Cultural Politics of the Avant--garde. 12. Encounters: Postcolonial Artists and the Art Establishment. 13. From Primitivism to Ethnic Art: Neo--colonialism in the Metropolis. 14. Racism, Culture and Subjectivity: Australian Aboriginal Writing. Part V: Concluding Reflections:. 15. The Postmodernist Challenge/Challenging Postmodernism: a Cultural Politics for Today. Notes. Bibliography. Index of Names and Voices. Subject Index.

Cultural policy and urban regeneration: the West European experience

The development of cultural policies in West European cities since the 1970s, Franco Bianchini see Glasgow, see culture, Peter Booth and Robin Boyle designing the public domain - urban regeneration in Rotterdam, Maarten A.Hajer cultural policy and urban regeneration in Bilbao, Julia M.Gonzalez Bologna as a laboratory for cultural enterprise, Jude Bloomfield urban culture and cultural policy in Germany - the case of Hamburg compared with five other large cities, Juergen Friedrichs and Jens S.Dangschat a cultural policy between decentralization and urban competition - the case of Montpellier, Emmanuel Negrier cultural policy and urban regeneration in Liverpool - a tale of missed opportunities?, Michael Parkinson and Franco Bianchini cultural policy-making between voluntary activism and prestigious professionalism - the case of Rennes, Patrick Le Gales cultural policy and urban regeneration in Western Europe - questions and prospects for the 1990s, Franco Bianchini.

From Cultural Concerns to Community Action

An artist in Victoria makes his way to a corner of his cluttered studio, switches on the computer, logs on to the network, and reads and responds to the day’s postings by peer learners he is accompanying as they explore the issues of culture and cultural transformation in their communities across Canada. A museum director in a remote northern town sits back at the end of a busy day, logs on to the same network, and uploads an image he has been exploring in his own mind of a museum that speaks to today’s cultural and social issues. He is thinking of offering this image as a contribution to the province’s cultural policy development process.

Researching Audiences for Arts & Cultural Policy

The aim of this discussion is, in part, to describe the Australia Council's research program and the range of research methods used, and to indicate the ways in which this research informs arts and cultural policy development. The topic also prompts consideration of the relations between 'the academy', specifically in the form of cultural studies, and 'the bureaucracy'. In addition, therefore, the discussion will reflect on some of the tensions which may be seen as impeding more productive involvement of 'the academy' in arts and cultural policy development.

Researching Film & Television

The role of the Australian Film Commission (AFC) in collecting and analysing data and information about the film, television and video industry to facilitate appropriate policy on the issue is highlighted. The influence of the AFC research program over cultural policy debate and development is emphasised.

One for the Money: The Commodity Logic of Contemporary Culture in Australia

Increasing pressure is being brought to bear in the cultural policy field by economic considerations. This paper places this pressure in the context of the development of Australian cultural policy. It examines the progressive shift towards the commodificiation of culture within the national and global market economy, drawing examples from the field of popular music. It uses articulation theory to link culture, economy and policy, proposing the Cultural Policy Formulation model as a vehicle for analysing the contending forces of exchange value and use value. The suggestion is made that further research of the cultural commodity form in the market economy could usefully extend the discussion about cultural policy.