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This article explores the intertwinement of politics, international affairs and culture during the Cold War through a case study of Polish-Dutch cultural relations and the heterogeneous factors that shaped them. The study centres around the turbulent events of 1968 in Poland, and their impact on the international cultural policies of the Polish People's Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It demonstrates that the cultural field suffered the most immediate consequences of the political decisions taken by both parties – consequences which lasted for a considerable time – thus making it a metaphorical litmus test for the Cold War international relationships. This article reconstructs and analyses Polish and Dutch reactions to the 1968 events and their use of culture for the sake of their own policies – both as a form of protest and as an anti-crisis tool meant to influence the authorities and citizens of the target country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is rapidly obliterating its cultural resources and indigenous values. Particularly, this is the case in rural South Africa where manifestations of socio-economic declensions are evident. However, a number of the policies that are meant to enhance rural development lack a cohesive strategy that is based on culture-based theoretical frameworks. The paper argues that the conspicuous disregard to address rural development and its concomitant socio-economic challenges in the Revised White Paper on Arts, Culture, and Heritage, 2017, by the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC), now (DSAC); poses a great threat to sustainable rural development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which factors influence bilateral counterterrorism (CT) cooperation between EU Member States? Although scholars have studied European CT, the question still needs to be answered. This paper addresses the issue by introducing a new theoretical framework that combines CT and Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) literature. As citizens' threat perception increases, governments are pressed to act. Overall, centrist cabinets tend to rely more on cooperation agreements; likewise, pushed by threat perception, left-wing executives also recourse to international cooperation. I tested this framework on a newly collected dataset, which comprehends bilateral CT agreements signed among EU Members from 2002 to 2017. As such, this paper fosters studies on EU CT, focusing on a less debated issue: bilateral cooperation between EU Member States. The results support the initial hypotheses, disclosing a robust influence of threat perception and cabinet ideology on the number of bilateral CT agreements signed. Furthermore, they show that the perception of the threat is more influential on cooperation than the actual impact of terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), despite being regarded as the most developed integration project in the post-Soviet area, has faced different hurdles in acquiring international recognition. Especially, the EU, the EAEU's Significant Other, has been reluctant to formally recognize it, in spite of close ties with EAEU member states as well as of its own self-image as a supporter of regional integrations. This paper focuses on this puzzle and examines how the EU has been discursively explaining its non-recognition of the EAEU at the institutional level. Based on the analysis of EU-articulated narratives since 2010, the paper reveals three dominant representations of the EAEU in the EU discourse: (1) Russia's geopolitical project; (2) a protectionist union; and (3) a dysfunctional union. These narratives have been used by Brussels to create the EAEU's image as a threatening Other, thus justifying why the EU cannot formally recognize the EAEU and officially engage with it. The paper also identifies five different stages of the EU's discursive representation of the EAEU since 2010, when its tone and content varied. The paper concludes that such non-recognition from the Significant Other still limits the EAEU's international agency despite its increasing interest in cooperation with non-Western actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data from qualitative interviews and participant observation with those involved in artistic production in New Orleans, this paper considers the effect of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic on cities and artists. It investigates the supports available to artists before and during the pandemic and the relationship between cultural workers and tourism in New Orleans. This relationship creates a paradox: New Orleans is unique because it is the site of enduring local cultural traditions and emerging creative production, and yet the city must sell its culture to tourists to remain economically solvent. Left to fend for themselves by larger institutions, arts communities and nonprofit organizations came together to mutually support each other. The paper concludes that what we can learn from this case is how people 'make do' and survive during an extended period of crisis – especially when the lessons of survival have been taught and tested through preceding crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the epistemic dimension of exclusionary institutional structures in the German cultural sector in relation to cultural production, this article searches for decolonial cultural policy conceptions that are critical of knowledge-related power imbalances and their entanglements. By taking the international art exhibition documenta fifteen in Kassel in 2022 as a case study, the paper examines the community- and collectivity-based practices and methodologies introduced by the Indonesian artist collective ruangrupa. In particular, this empirically grounded inquiry focuses on ruangrupa’s lumbung values as a proposition of epistemic pluriversality. In this way, it also reveals various conflicts that occurred before and during the fifteenth edition of the exhibition, arisen from epistemological differences in perspectives, narratives, aesthetics and artistic methodologies between colonial and capitalism-critical cultural practices and Western art institutions. Following the tenets of the decolonial turn and decolonial thought, the paper explores alternatives to the dominant Eurocentric universalism of knowledge through the example of documenta fifteen, transcending the binary of either/or and advocating pluriversality as a universal option, rather than Eurocentric universalism as a singular totality, as proposed by Walter Mignolo. Following Catherine Walsh, the quest for the recognition and dissemination of pluriversal perspectives is intrinsically linked to the search for other ways of knowing, thinking, theorising and being that resist totalising power. In doing so, the authors ultimately seek to outline some attributes of decolonial conceptions of cultural policymaking, aiming at reducing epistemological inequalities in accessing cultural production for marginalised and racialised artists and cultural practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses attitudes around the projection of the EU among Latin American elites, namely the determinants of support for a Free Trade Agreement between the two regions and the trustworthiness of the EU government. We take as data elite surveys conducted in 15 Latin American countries (2014–2019) and consider sociodemographics, ideology, support for democracy, views of foreign powers, exports to the EU, and electoral democracy. Results show that ideology and support for democracy are key determinants of support for an interregional FTA, and that the trustworthiness of governments in the US, China, and Spain covary with attitudes toward the EU. The latter (trust in the government in Spain) proves to be the main driver and, furthermore, its impact is conditional on the economic strength (observed as exports) of the EU: wherever the EU is not a strong economic actor in Latin America, trust in the Spanish government does nothing but improve the image of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the impact of European Union (EU) funds on corruption in the EU ex-communist countries by following a panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The panel includes 10 former EU communist countries, over 2007–2019. The key findings reveal that an improvement in the EU funds paid and their rate of absorption can reduce the level of corruption in the long-run in the recipient EU ex-communist countries. This is due to better monitoring of EU funds paid compared with national resources, and a more efficient and fairer channel of EU funds absorption. In parallel with the EU funds, corruption can be controlled in certain conditions by the degree of economic development, size of government, level of democratisation and religiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on Euroscepticism tends to portray parties opposing European integration or criticising the European Union (EU) as a family of Eurosceptic parties (either hard or soft). Recent literature, however, offers empirical evidence on the ambivalence and diversity of the EU critique. What is still unclear are the reasons behind the chameleonic nature of Euroscepticism and the implications that this may have for the EU critique and the changes proposed about EU policy or institutions. The present article addresses this question exploring the role of EU crises to capture the changing nature of Euroscepticism and suggests that it is related to contextual pressures on the political debate around the EU. The paper develops this argument and illustrates it through the analysis of the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, covering the EU crises of the last decade, including the recent period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine invasion. Drawing on a corpus of party manifestos and speeches between 2013 and 2022, this study shows that there are three main frames used by the party to criticise the EU. It also concludes that these frames involve distinct political implications for the EU critique and the alternative proposals presented by the party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the life experiences of creative expats and the associated impact of, and on, the built environment of their host localities. Grounded on participants' testimonies, we develop the concept of transient mentality as a potential mediating factor in-between such reciprocal relations. Employing an interview and survey-based research approach and drawing on grounded theory for data collection and analysis in Beijing, China, we found that the prevalence of a transient mentality among creative expats is influenced by the nature of their occupations, the fluidity of their social relationships, and the rapid transformations in the built environment. This transient mentality, in turn, affects the production of the cityscape through the consumption preferences of these expats. We argue that understanding such a transient mentality is crucial for urban planning and cultural policy, particularly in (emerging) global cities that work to brand themselves as international creative hubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research investigates the response of public libraries to the COVID crisis in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy). Group interviews were conducted involving 36 librarians from the 9 provinces of the Region, using the ethnographic methodology of “deep hanging out”. Results show the resilience of public libraries during the crisis; the importance of libraries as social infrastructure beyond the services they provide, highlighting how the digital divide has affected the demand for the libraries’ services; the need to implement librarian communication and digitization skills, as well as a lack of consistent support from the Region were noted. The first section of the paper provides framework over cultural institutions and the COVID crisis. The second introduces the methodology for the sample choice and for conducting the interviews. The third section presents findings from the interviews. The fourth section presents conclusive remarks and policy indications for the support of public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the need for local cultural policies targeting cinema exhibition. Portugal evidences extreme dependency upon the central government, including for local movie screening, thus expressing the Portuguese high territorial asymmetry. Our research discusses the importance of noncommercial exhibition for countering this situation, as it is implemented by local agents (not only film societies) with a wider cultural intervention. When reflecting on the European countries policies for cinema and acknowledging the big socioeconomic and historical differences between Portugal and the Nordic countries, the regional-local initiatives of the latter emerged as an important issue for decentralization, especially the Norwegian scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decolonising the curriculum is a global imperative that takes different forms and urgency depending on the context. Developments across the globe such as BlackLivesMatter and student responses to the pandemic and online learning have raised new questions about the curriculum – critically questioning higher education institutions' plans about not only providing access to resources but about the (cultural) authority of curricula, pedagogical and research practices that are still dominated by Western discourses. This paper examines three experiences of curriculum decolonisation in cultural policy and management, an applied subject that has culture as its object, in three different contexts, Serbia, Puerto Rico and South Africa: namely how the pursuit of a pluriversal knowledge ecology found expression in the curriculum, content and pedagogical practices deployed to deliver locally relevant education; and how educators resolved the ontological and epistemic discontinuities between the standard disciplinary canon and local realities to embed and contextualise the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the styles and the role of monumentality have undergone significant transformations in the West, in line with wider trends of democratization and demystification of arts. Nevertheless, statues depicting human figures are still important landmarks in urban cultures. The statue wars that have erupted in several countries during recent years to challenge the racist, colonial and/or patriarchal vision embodied by many monuments, are a tangible demonstration of this. However, the topic remains understudied in the scientific literature. This research paper is intended as a contribution to begin addressing this gap by focusing on the dimension of gender in public monuments. We analyze statues in Italy depicting contemporary secular female figures. The aim of this paper is to research gender-based patterns or stereotypes that are specific to cultural heritage and urban design. The sample consists of 34 statues, distributed throughout the Italian national territory. A thematic analysis is conducted on the corpus integrating visual, narrative, aesthetic and sociological elements. The results reveal the existence of evident and widespread forms of stereotyping and discrediting of the female figure in Italian monuments, as well as the inadequacy of cultural policies, both in small provincial as well as larger urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ibero-American supranational audiovisual policies were inspired by the EU media policy model and shared the idea of creating a regional audiovisual market to face Hollywood hegemony. The paper uses discursive media institutionalism and policy entrepreneur theory to assess whether the current discourse on digital media policies is largely history repeating itself or new ideas are being introduced. To analyze this crucial problem definition stage from a bottom-up perspective, the paper combines participatory observation in two film festivals and one industry event with qualitative document analysis and literature review. The findings reveal a combination of continuity and change where the policy transfer idea is still present, but the EU and its cultural discourse are no longer a reference. The overfocus on the economic perspective, and the inclusion of global players' discourse can threaten the development of cultural policies in the region, which are losing policy entrepreneurs support and space for debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage (e.g., historic buildings, memorials and museums) has been used to construct and negotiate various identities and meanings in the present, specifically in the context of nation-states. In transforming the past into heritage, however, States may disregard other histories-ones which deviate from the historical narratives they promote. In this paper, I discuss the case of the Heritage Plan, Israel’s official cultural heritage policy. Specifically, by using the discursive approach, I expose and assess cases of silencing competing histories which would challenge the history promoted by the Heritage Plan. My findings suggest that, in addition to privileging Jewish heritage, the Heritage Plan is used as a mechanism for erasing competing, non-Jewish histories. This article presents three case-studies of silencing: the first investigates the Druze heritage center; the second inquires into Israeli heritage practices in the West Bank; the third examines the Castel national heritage site associated with the 1948 war. The analysis of these cases reveals how the Heritage Plan is guided by ethnic and religious factors, whereby heritage assets are not necessarily promoted according to their full historical value, but are instead used to sustain current power structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory paper, we discuss local cultural political tensions in Austria's three largest cities (Vienna, Graz, and Linz). Against the backdrop of COVID-19, which hampered, yet also created new opportunities to host cultural events in public space, we analyze large-scale cultural events (Vienna and Graz), and a newly emerging cultural policy theme (Linz). Drawing on 30 qualitative interviews with cultural politicians, administrators, cultural producers, and artists (2020–2022), situational mapping, and the analysis of media coverage, we unpack (1) agential conflicts that manifest in unequal access to funding and decision-making; (2) symbolic conflicts that variously instrumentalize culture; (3) procedural conflicts that problematize lack of transparency and collaboration; and (4) spatial conflicts that materialize in diverging views about safety, cleanliness, and ownership of public space between state and self-organized cultural actors. Ultimately, we argue for a conflict-oriented approach to cultural policy to grasp the interrelations between power, agency, and space in cultural politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how the policies of international cultural exchange of socialist Yugoslavia are reflected at the level of biennial crossroads, using the example of the Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Arts (IBGA). Our research is based on the analysis of archival materials, existing literature, and interviews with the participants of the Biennial in the studied period. The Cuban example is highlighted in this paper to examine the example of the renowned designer and graphic artist Félix Beltrán to show that there was no firm international cultural policy on the Yugoslavian institutional level. With the transition to market socialism and the liberalization with which Yugoslavia began to approach the Western capitalist economy, something similar happened at the level of international cultural policy. The West held the leading position in global cultural politics, which managed to preserve capitalism and make it part of the culture with its hegemonic cultural code. This also announced the beginning of the decline of international socialist history, which was very noticeable in the field of cultural crossings, such as biennials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses significant changes in the political rationality underpinning Sweden's official reading policy between the 1940s and 1980s. Using official inquiry reports as empirical material and drawing on a discourse analytical method, we examine policy changes regarding ideal readers (what reading should result in) and administrative practices (what policy actions could be used) and the kinds of academic knowledge that was used to justify specific measures. It is found that official reading policy ceased to be limited to distributing literature and expanded to include active reading promotion. The replacement of sociological perspectives by cognitive viewpoints as constituting knowledge is also noted. It is concluded that changes in the political rationality had consequences for how the individual reader was construed, from a subject with the potential to change society to a subject who had to adjust to society. We argue that the cultivation of readers evident in reading policy constitutes a specific technique of governance not sufficiently considered in previous cultural policy research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article states that the philosophical nature/ambiguity/controversy of the issue of authenticity undermines its usefulness as a tool in conservation practice. The main drawback is the inability to objectively define the notion of authenticity. In conservation philosophy, the meaning of authenticity relativizes along with the widespread consent to the reproducibility of cultural heritage, whereas the recognition of its intangibility negates the sense of authenticity. In the World Heritage (WH) policy and practice, the uselessness/counterproductivity of authenticity as a necessary requirement is visible in the inconsistency of this system in the treatment of the commonly realized reproducibility of cultural heritage, and in relation to heritage with a prevailing intangibility, which is illustrated by the example of Gdańsk as a potential WH site. Although the article provides many arguments for departing from the concept of authenticity in the WH system, authenticity introduces the socially beneficial element of discretion (it cannot be considered binarily), as it forces a discussion that raises cultural awareness in an increasingly homogenized world. Finally, to reduce some inconsistencies in the WH system, this paper recommends restoring autonomy to criterion (vi) in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within recent years, China has experienced growth in the construction and development of museums. Encouraged by financial and cultural policy measures, China’s public museums have opened to the world with the aim of introducing Chinese culture to a broad audience and connecting with the global cultural marketplace. Cross-cultural collaboration has formed a prominent part of this strategy, functioning as a diplomatic tool to nurture mutual understanding between nations. Using empirical data from a research project that examined the production and consumption of an overseas exhibition hosted by Nanjing Museum (南京博物院: nanjing bowuyuan), this paper explores the processes of negotiation and avenues of innovation that emerged from the production of the exhibition and collaborative research project. By reflecting on the lessons learned from this partnership, practical solutions are offered to help inform future strategies and ways of working that may promote sustainable engagement and collaboration between UK and Chinese cultural institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on recent debates within cultural policy and cultural studies, arguing that questions of cultural meaning-making processes need to be taken into account when assessing accessibility issues discussed in current academic and political contexts. Approaching opera as a cultural phenomenon in the context of a minority culture, the paper focuses on the alleged democratization process entailed by digitalization. Departing from the division between the democratization of culture, referring to the dissemination of cultural works to those lacking access, and cultural democracy, in short, to value the subjective judgement of taste, the paper aims to investigate the connections between the meaning of opera and the cultural context in which this meaning is conceptualized. The opera culture among the Swedish-speaking Finns, a small, heterogeneous language minority, is used as a case study. The paper concludes that as long as the cultural meaning of opera is to stand for valuable, high culture, attempts to democratize opera will lead to new renegotiations between the high and the common. Understanding such connections between cultural policies concerning digital accessibility and cultural meaning is especially important in the post-pandemic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pacific Regional Education Framework (PacREF) 2018–2030 proposes an ambitious agenda for a transformative and sustainable educational intervention across 15 countries. This paper discusses an approach to inclusive education in the countries of the Pacific islands as they begin to engage with this educational framework. We argue that inclusive education has been heavily influenced by ideas from outside the Pacific. Pacific cultural understandings of community relationships and responsibilities in particular are often overshadowed by imported ideas from outside the region. The influence of 'outsider' perspectives and practices reflect continuing colonial domination, weakening local capacity-building within teacher education institutions in the region. The Pacific Island countries (PICs) are highly dependent on donor partners and this dependency is frequently informed by deficit views. The idea of inclusive education begs the question of 'Inclusion into what?' The dominance of Western ideas may ignore the relational context of Pacific cultures, reinforcing ideas of cultural deficit. This paper reviews inclusive education in the Pacific within the context of policy borrowing and cultural tensions between Pacific and Western frameworks. It also considers the experience of teacher educators working within an institutional context that itself is heavily influenced by imported structures and ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to clarify how social positioning and modes of cultural participation shape the meanings people attach to the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 initiative. The authors analyse both quantitative and qualitative evidence for narratives on ECOC, drawing on data collected in a survey (N = 1000) in 2017 and qualitative group interviews (10 FGIs) in 2016 and 2017. A literature-based narrative on the ECOC legacy is first reconstructed as a point of reference. Local perspectives on ECOC 2016 are derived from a representative survey and in-depth qualitative analysis to reveal bottom-up perspectives on what ECOC 2016 was. The paper examines the relationship between ECOC’s values and the socioeconomic and sociocultural characteristics of city residents who support and oppose it, to determine how ECOC’s values are related to class dimensions of social positioning and modes of cultural participation. The paper concludes that ways of understanding and narrating ECOC are derived primarily from cultural practices. Socio-demographic variables are of secondary importance. Both affirmative narratives of ECOC’s achievements in cultural policy and critical accounts can be viewed as informative markers of who and how perceives cultural policy successes and failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who cares for cultural and creative workers (CCWs)? This paper considers the impact of a declined welfare support system across European states on CCWs and investigates the role played by creative intermediaries in providing care for those employed within the sector. Building on both quantitative and qualitative data taken from a range of European creative intermediary organisations, the paper applies Joan Tronto’s politicised framework of care to articulate how work undertaken by intermediaries can be understood as a form of care work. The findings highlight the range of creative intermediaries working to support CCWs across Europe and illustrates their role in conducting research on the sector in response to the lack of available robust data at a more official governance level. It explores how these organisations are filling both a welfare and knowledge gap however, that this support is ad hoc, supported by various funding models which place the intermediary organisations themselves in a precarious position. In response to this, the paper calls for investment in collaborations between higher education, policy makers and creative intermediaries to strengthen support for CCWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biennials are one of the most important stagers of contemporary art practices serving as spaces of reflexivity for artistic production, compressing a glocal sphere, offering a culturally inclusive debate. They play a key role in the global transformation of cultural production in a neoliberal age. Based on empirical data collected from the 15th Istanbul and 10th Liverpool biennials, this paper seeks to interrogate the role they play in the relationship between the cultural production and consumption of the arts. The paper presents an alternative perspective from which we can begin to better understand the cultural impact of neoliberalism. It is suggested, on this basis, that as glocal spaces of culture, biennials can generate culturally inclusive debates and participatory constellations offering a more democratic access to cultural participation. They are in this sense a discursive space and facilitate the opening-up of a critical space in which cultural policy can offer a more sophisticated means of critiquing the impact of neoliberalism on the arts world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between trade liberalisation and cultural diversity is a long-standing and controversial issue in many countries that strive to promote free flow of cultural trade as well as to sustain local cultural production. The controversy is partly attributable to multiple meanings attached to the notion of cultural diversity. In this paper we propose three operational definitions of cultural diversity relevant in the context of international cultural trade: national, inter-national and global cultural diversity. We suggest measures of these three types of cultural diversity and apply them to data for the global motion picture industry covering 37 countries/regions for years 2009–2019. We argue that the three types of cultural diversity may operate in opposite directions as a result of lower trade barriers. The paper concludes by considering the implications for cultural policy arising from our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interactions and cooperation between public-sector, business-sector, and civil-society stakeholders in developing British film policy for educational and cultural purposes. In particular, this paper adopts the Advocacy Coalition Framework to explain why and how public authorities, film industry organizations, and educationalists efficiently communicated and cooperated with each other in making the British Film Institute. By doing that, this paper explains (1) how commercial business and social workers, who were initially hostile, could build constructive partnerships; (2) how inactive, noninterventionist governments could be involved in the policymaking for cultural sectors; and (3) how private business could be persuaded into supporting cultural and educational policy for noncommercial purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent did the Covid-19 pandemic affect the tools, priorities and organisation of cultural policies? And did the pandemic enhance the digital aspect of these policies? This paper compares pandemic cultural policy measures in seven European countries to answer these questions. The countries all installed a plurality of mitigating measures, combining grants and subsidies, compensation of lost income, income support and financial flexibility, creating a tendency towards cultural policy turning into economic policy, fiscal policy, and labour market policy. Cultural policies have not been fundamentally challenged by the pandemic, in the sense that it has affected the essential political tools, divisions of labour, or core goals. The responses have confirmed an existing policy structure or enhanced existing developments. The importance of a state-centred or a federalist cultural policy system has not been challenged in a substantial way. Secondly there is little evidence to show a general acceleration of national digital cultural policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of Spain's transition to democracy in the late 1970s, cultural policy has gone from virtually zero to a policy priority, especially in the country's regional and local governments. Spain's will to achieve a great socio-political transformation and to converge with Western Europe have been two of the drivers behind this trend. However, since the 2000s, three factors have undermined these policies: austerity; regional tensions; the crisis of the model. Thus, cultural politics are threatened by a detachment from High Culture, as well as by cultural populism and the Far Right. This is why our paper analyses support for cultural spending as reflected in CIS (Spanish government agency of sociological research) surveys, which show overwhelming support for such expenditure. However, the factors explaining this support are diverse and are linked to generational, ideological and political factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic ballet is one of the iconic manifestations of High Culture. In Nineteenth-century Spain, it failed to take root in the form of stable companies, schools, and venues. There were various social, political, and cultural reasons for this, even though conditions at the time seemed propitious. Those reasons and conditions form the subject of this paper. The methodological approach employs Bourdieu's sociological Field Theory, and neo-institutionalist theories to explain why Spain failed to consolidate a national academic ballet school. Drawing on the current situation of ballet in Spain in terms of the cultural and educational policy of dance, the present analysis seeks to both broaden and enrich the historiographic interpretation of the Spanish dance scene and education. Considering the effects of path dependence, this analysis tries to explain the antecedents of the configuration of the didactic programs of public dance conservatories, the development of private academies and the late articulation of an official ballet company in Spain, devoid of signs of identity due to the eclecticism of the training of Spanish dancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the role of local communities in heritage co-production and management, conservation approaches often remain top-down, 'expert' driven and state-centred. This paper considers the pragmatic manner in which heritage conservation policies affect local understandings of heritage. Focusing on the lived Greek heritage of traditional settlements, this paper interrogates the underexplored experienced angles to heritage conservation in conjunction with the official narratives. Expanding our knowledge on the impacts of conservation on heritage values, the paper argues that conservation policies can negatively affect local notions of heritage if the living aspect is not tactfully addressed and balanced against preservation priorities. The research furthers our understanding on the damaging impact of the AHD, problematising the disjunction between authorised and grassroots stances to living and lived heritage and providing a point of reference in respect to the dependent relationship between heritage conservation approaches and local community's understanding of heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the development and challenges of 'cultural equality' and cultural policy in Taiwan. On 10 May 2019 Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed the 'Cultural Fundamental Act' provides comprehensive system design and policy tools for cultural equality. We use the two-preceding cultural-disadvantage cases roughly show that it is difficult to implement cultural equality in Taiwan on three levels: (1) Inability to tolerate differences due to social discrimination, which prevents children of special ethnic groups or people with disabilities to develop their subject identity. (2) Current obstacles and difficulties in cultural participation, such as lack of time, inconvenient transportation, lack of information sources, unfriendly space design, etc. (3) Support and construction of an inclusive culture: Empower children and people with disabilities to hone their artistic and cultural skills, encourage their creation, and inspire more works to be produced. Finally, this paper proposes some suggestions for cultural policy in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an evaluation of the main characteristics of Chinese domestic cultural policy and international cultural trade strategy. The objective is to assess whether China has developed a type of pattern addressing the culture and trade issue, and to advance meaningful lessons to reconcile cultural diversity and trade liberalization in the context of international law. This paper starts with a brief introduction of Chinese cultural industries and Chinese cultural laws and policies. The analysis then dives into Chinese international agreements, including WTO agreements, the UNESCO Convention 2005, Chinese FTAs, and the BRI. Chinese international cultural practices can be grouped into cultural trade liberalization commitments and cultural cooperation mechanisms. This paper argues that China takes a cautious attitude towards liberalizing cultural trade while holding a relatively open position towards promoting cultural cooperation. The cultural cooperation approach deserves more attention as an alternative route for reconciling cultural diversity and free trade in international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between the Chinese government and domestic think tanks. Chinese think tanks in the cultural sector have a strong demand-side orientation; that is, they closely follow the instructions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in their stand on culture-related policies. Since 2018, the CCP has strengthened its control over the propaganda and cultural affairs, using think tanks to this end. Think tanks act as dual agents, maximizing the benefits offered by their two principals – the party government and private businesses, while prioritizing the former. The paper examines the development of the Putuo Island Park in Zhejiang Province and the Cultural Industry Research Institute, the key cultural industry think tank in this province. While upholding Xi Jinping's aspiration of developing China into a "cultural great power," cultural think tanks' main function is to endorse government policies and guide businesses to support those policies when necessary. The CCP under Xi has intensified its manipulation of think tanks to reinforce its control over ideology and the socialist market economy, resulting in a more complex relationship between the state and think tanks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Andorran cultural policy. The article contributes to the academic field of cultural sustainability and cultural policy, applying a mixed method on a country's case study. A content analysis of the White Paper on Culture, a survey addressed to the main Andorran cultural policymakers and a semi-structured interview with the Andorran Minister of Culture have been performed. A new model of analyzing the extent to which cultural policies comply with SDGs in cultural policies is proposed, with the aim that it might be implemented in other countries. The results show that, despite the fact that SDGs are not yet explicitly mentioned in Andorran cultural policy, experts aim to promote the UN 2030 Sustainable Agenda as a priority nationwide. The novelty of this research rests on the use of Sustainable Development Goals' indicators as a code of analysis and as a specific perspective and new approach to evaluating the alignment of cultural sustainability and cultural policies to the UN 2030 Sustainable Agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage has continually been employed as a strategic resource in EU external relations and to foster cohesion between member states and pre-accession countries. In these contexts, authorized and hegemonic versions of European and national heritage have been favoured to use culture as 'soft power.' While diversity has been an integral part of European heritage conceptions, it is limited in scope and scale and entails exclusions against perceived foreign or peripheral aspects. As participation and community involvement gain more prominent roles in current heritage developments (e.g. UNESCO, ICH, and the Council of Europe's Faro convention), marginalized or hybrid elements of heritage and abstract values attached to cultural heritage become more important. Based on comparative policy and document analyses of EU policy programs, the paper asks how, as part of such processes, one can observe an emphasis on value-based approaches to heritage as part of EU external relations rather than on specific contents of cultural heritage. The paper examines how EU institutions aim to integrate dissonant heritages and linkages to non-European aspects into authorized forms of heritage by employing a value-based perception of cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My contribution intends to map the cultures and practices related to crypto-finance use in two distinct sectors: the 'mainstream' space of retail investors and the avantgarde space of artists/activists. This paper explores the realm of crypto-finance by using the lens of cultural and social analysis, deploying a frame derived from the theory of public sphere. By doing this I analyse the cultural production of the publics which coalesced around crypto, evaluating the change of visibility implied in these new public discussions of finance. The aim of this paper is to highlight potential bridges for cultural policy in two fields that have both partially departed from an institutional framework but that ultimately ended up being significantly embedded in mainstream cultural and social processes. In the case of ordinary crypto-investors, I will reflect on how platformed cultural production is responsible for the creation alternative financial literacy. In the case of artists, I will explore how blockchain-based innovation nurtured a new space for the imagination of finance and welfare. I will conclude by discussing these developments and drawing implications crypto-finance has for the discussion on the role of financial investment and digital technologies in our societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes digital cultural policy as a slow and ambivalent or reluctant revolution in a policy field. In investigates how cultural policy has gradually been affected by digitalization in the field of cultural production. I argue that digital cultural policy has developed in a sedimentary fashion, but that it also has been continuously marked by a certain ambivalence towards the digital revolution. Digital cultural policy is ultimately described as a field of hyperconvergence, where ideas, political tools, technology, and policy areas are entangled to an increasing degree. This challenges the research on and the analysis of digital cultural policy. The paper is primarily based on a close reading of Norwegian cultural policy documents. I have employed all the white papers on cultural policy from the Ministry of Culture between 1973 and 2019 – both the ones that explicitly deal with cultural policy and the ones that deal with a specific field of the arts (performing arts, visual arts, music etc.), as well as annual reports from Arts Council Norway between 1975 and 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a change to the remit and title of a UK government department provides a starting point for reflection on the growing role of digital technologies in the re-imagination of UK cultural policy. An early strategic report produced by the re-named DCMS was entitled Culture is Digital. Identifying the UK's cultural and technology sectors as 'the ultimate power couple,' this report directs the cultural sector towards the use of technology to enhance public engagement and to improve technical skills through the development of collaborations with technology companies. Reflecting on the place of DCMS in UK cultural policymaking and drawing on analysis of this report and associated strategic documents, including responses and updates produced in the light of the Covid pandemic, the paper analyses the claims made about the elision between culture and the digital and their consequences for the status of cultural policy within the British state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a systematic and critical review of the literature on cultural and creative ecology and ecosystems. There has been a growing use of ecological language in relation to the cultural and creative sectors within both research and policymaking. However, there is little consistency in the terms employed, with considerable slippage in meanings and application. The paper, therefore, undertakes a two-stage review of the literature. First, a systematic review analysing the content of 56 publications identified within Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. Secondly, a critical review examining definitional and terminological inconsistencies, the boundaries and geographical scales of cultural and creative ecosystems, and the range of methods and data employed. Here we clarify the relationship between ecological approaches and previous framings such as "creative industry" and "creative economy". The paper concludes by proposing an agenda for future research, seeking to consolidate the research field and support ecological policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport committee's inquiry into the economics of music streaming. The scrutiny of the committee's oral and written evidence, and final report is placed within the context of the music industry's significance to UK cultural policy since the late 1990s. The perspectives of the UK's musicians and song-writers are a focal point of the analysis of the inquiry's published documentation, as they are when discussing the committee's recommendations released in July 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the forces of globalisation brought B-boying (or breakdancing) to Korea, the traditionally conservative mainstream society looked askance at the practice. The government, concerned with building a strong national culture, set restrictive policies to protect Korean society from what it saw as a disruptive foreign influence. Nevertheless, a marginalised Korean B-boy subculture developed; rejected locally, Korean crews began competing globally. When they swept major international competitions, B-boying exploded in Korea and the government began to support and deploy it as iconic of Korea's youthful and dynamic art world. Thus, B-boying in Korea has undergone two major cycles of globalisation and Korean government intervention since the 1980s. In this paper, we trace how a marginalised subculture came to be institutionalised as a point of national pride by the government and the role that glocalisation has played in this dramatic reversal of the fortunes of the B-boys in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how arts practitioners reflect on their work amidst deepening economic inequality. Given the renewed interest in the social role of arts institutions under conditions of financialised neo-liberalism, the paper traces the complex ways in which economic imperatives figure in cultural practice. Drawing on interviews with UK-based gallery directors, museum curators, art consultants, and artists, I map out how austerity politics and intensifying privatisation processes have a profound impact on the workings of the sector, how they recalibrate dynamics between private and public artworlds, and how they shape processes of production and curation. My data specifically document how increasing economic precarity brings into relief structural inequalities of gender, race and (post)-colonial legacies already manifesting in the artworld. Rather than understanding austerity as a financial condition only, the paper thus presents an empirical exploration of the wider inequalities that it has exacerbated, from arts funding to institutions' programming practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to shed light on the diverse role and place attributed to interreligious dialogue in the intercultural dialogue initiatives advanced by a wealth of international organisations over the last 20 years. It claims that the position of interreligious dialogue within these broader international efforts can be either blended, disjunct, autonomous or neglected, and that this variation primarily depends on how each organisation has dealt with both the position of the West-Islam juxtaposition in the definition and implementation of its intercultural dialogue agenda, and on its specific understanding of the relation between the concepts of culture and religion. Analysing the discourse, governance and policy dimensions of a wealth of such international organisations' initiatives, this paper provides a typology of existing approaches to interreligious dialogue which will further contribute exposing the underlying rationale behind intercultural dialogue efforts in international politics and untangling the fuzziness around this concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, the Japan Foundation and the Tokyo International Film Festival commissioned three films from Japanese, Cambodian and Filipino directors to represent the theme 'Reflections: Living Together in Asia'. This was the first edition of a government-sponsored film co-production entitled the Asian Three-Fold Mirror. Running from 2014 to 2020, this initiative aims at improving mutual understanding between national audiences. This project shows a shift towards reciprocity and active collaboration and away from a unidirectional Japanese cultural diplomacy. However, it casts Japan as a primary actor for a successful regionalization of Southeast Asia, thus undermining the advertised reciprocity of the initiative. Through a juxtaposed analysis of the policy papers that led to the funding of this project, and of the creative content and reception of the films, this paper analyses the aims of these policies, and evaluates how the project of the Asian Three-Fold Mirror relates to these goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution intends to overview and frame a conceptual model for Cultural and Creative Enterprises (CCEs) that we call Platform Spaces. The paper contextualizes and discusses the main issues and challenges facing the CCE sector, identifying the need for more complex concepts better able to distinguish new policies and approaches being experimented with in Italy and across Europe. As Italy is currently experiencing a particularly rich period regarding the development of cultural creative activities based largely on social innovation, both in terms of organization management and relation with territorial development, it is an ideal context in which to explore the emergence of this new model. The paper describes three diverse examples of Platform Spaces based on multi-stakeholder cooperation mechanisms, arts and culture, and the engagement of local communities to not only ensure the accessibility of their activities but also to meet territorial development goals. With this analysis, the paper discusses a new conceptual framework that can be relevant both in theory and in practice, identifying policy recommendations to address territorial development approaches for Platform Spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the wider political economy surrounding the opening of Capitol Records' first Canadian record pressing plant in 1976. This celebrated facility encapsulates much of the optimism for Canadian music during this period. As a site of research it reveals a great deal of the complex relationship between a multinational corporation and an evolving national record industry. Further, this paper explores the materiality of popular music and places it within the context of national industrial and cultural policy. This material history brings forth a different account of the role of government policy in the development of this industry, with a greater emphasis on Canadian trade policy than on broadcast regulation. The plant began operation a few years after Canada's broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television Commission, implemented Canadian Content regulations in 1971 for the programming of music created by Canadians on Canadian radio stations. 'Beyond the branch plant' draws from archival materials from the EMI Music Canada Archive, housed at the University of Calgary, to offer primary accounts of the development of this plant as well as the economic externalities beyond the music industry that were shaped by this new facility. The conclusions of this study call into question long standing positions regarding the place of national broadcasting content quotas and the growth of cultural industries. It highlights an industrial logic that was largely American in structure and one that indicates that the legacy of these content regulations is more complicated than it is often assumed to be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three main factors spurred a re-think of Spain's cultural policy: (1) cuts in public spending on culture: (2) the 2008 global financial crisis and its impact on cultural funding; (3) the institutional crisis and the popular unrest that found expression in the 15-M. These factors created an opportunity for rethinking cultural policy. This paper examines two contemporary proposals for newly orienting cultural policy. One is based on the idea of cultural "commons" free of the State and market forces. The other has been drawn up by the Podemos political party, and seeks to break the cultural mould cast by successive post-dictatorship social-democratic and conservative governments and is based upon cultural dissemination. This paper thus: (1) analyses the discourse on cultural policy in Spain by left-wing populism; (2) assesses to what extent this political current came up with an alternative to earlier policy paradigms; (3) discusses the soundness of commons-based proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interface between the state, the cultural industries and the financial market by focusing on a policy experiment from South Korea: using venture capital for public cultural investment. This policy experiment has significantly increased capital injection to the cultural industries and has provided a fertile ground for the industries to quickly grow. Challenging the dichotomist understanding of the state-market relations, this paper views the government's use of venture capital as a "state-led regulated financialisation" project, in which the cultural ministry has created, expanded and "tamed" the cultural venture capital market. Venture capital companies' profit maximisation is seriously limited by not only government regulations but also strategic behaviour of private investors (cultural distributors). Yet, the paper points out that involving the financial market further complicates cultural industry policy, which already entails tension between culture and industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]