Public Culture, Cultural Identity, Cultural Policy: Comparative Perspectives

by Kevin V. Mulcahy

Overview

This book places the study of public support for the arts and culture within the prism of public policy making. It is explicitly comparative in casting cultural policy within a broad sociopolitical and historical framework. Given the complexity of national communities, there has been an absence of comparative analyses that would explain the wide variability in modes of cultural policy as reflections of public cultures and cultural identity. The discussion is internationally focused and interdisciplinary. Mulcahy contextualizes a wide variety of cultural policies and their relation to politics and identity by asking a basic question: who gets their heritage valorized and by whom is this done? The fundamental assumption is that culture is at the heart of public policy as it defines national identity and personal value.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137435439
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	11/21/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	201
File size:	371 KB

About the Author

Kevin V. Mulcahy is the Sheldon Beychok Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Louisiana State University, USA, and received his PhD from Brown University, USA. He is the co-author or co-editor of six books, including Public Policy and the Arts and America’s Commitment to Culture (1995), as well as over fifty articles in scholarly journals and chapters in edited books. He has served as Executive Editor of the Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society for sixteen years.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments iiPreface: Why Read About Public Culture?   viKey Words xv
Foreword: What is Cultural Policy? 1       Public Culture and Political Culture 2       Public Culture as Public Policy           9       Objectives and Justifications of Public Culture           13       What is Culture? 22       Coda: The U.S. -- and the Rest 25
Part 1: Politics and Patronage 1   Hidden-Hand Culture: The American System of Cultural Patronage 36     The City of Washington 37From The New Deal to the Great Society 38Justification for Public Intervention 46<Scope of Public Responsibility 51Cultural Agencies: National and Subnational   54State and Localities 58Financing Culture 62Coda: The Perils of a Hidden-Hand Culture 662    Exporting Civilization: French Cultural Diplomacy 77      Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy 78      La Civilization Française 82      Promoting French Culture Before 1940 90      French Cultural Diplomacy After 1945 93      Defending French and French Civilization 97      Reorganization and Reconceptualization 101      Coda: Which France is Exported? 1043    Sports as Spectacle and Projecting Identity: The Case of Olympic Opening       Ceremonies 112      Spectacle and the Olympics 112      The 1936 Olympic Games 119      1984 Los Angeles 129      Beijing Olympics: Modernity and Continuity 135      Spectacle, Politics, Olympics 140      Coda: The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony 143


Part 2: Ideology and Identity 4    Coloniality: The Cultural Policy of Post-Colonialism < 155Cultural Reassertion: Mexico After the 1920 Revolution 160Cultural Restatement: Canada 165Cultural Reconstruction: South Africa 172Cultural Conundrum: Ukraine 176Coda: Imperialism and the “Other” 1855    Internal Coloniality: Cultural Regions and the Politics of Nationalism 198      What is a Cultural Region? 198      Quebec: From Survivance to Mondialisation 202       Puerto Rico: Culture Constructed 209       Scotland: Culture Renewed 214       Catalonia: Cultural Resistance 219       Coda: Region or Country 2256     A Cultural Space: Acadiana and Cajun Culture 234       The Uniqueness of the Louisiana Cajuns 236       Acadiana - The Cajun Homeland in Louisiana 239       Cajun and Cajunness 244       Cajun Folk Heritage 249       The Cajun Patrimony 260       Coda: The King Cake 264Afterword: Configuring Cultural Policy 269       Cultural Polarities 269       Cultural Darwinism 274       The Future Culture Policy 277

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In recent years, cultural policy research has been increasingly preoccupied by economics, planning, participation, and arts advocacy. Public Culture is an invitation to re-engage with the crucial question of identity in cultural policy research. This book confirms the originality and timeliness of Political Science's outlook on cultural policy.” (Jonathan Paquette, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Ottawa, Canada)

“Arguing that cultural polices are embedded in political values, Mulcahy explores the promotion of cultural identityin contrasting national and sub-national contexts. Demonstrating impressive intellectual range, Mulcahy deploys comparative perspectives to yield valuable, new insights into the political function of cultural policies.” (Oliver Bennett, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Policy, the University of Warwick, UK and Editor of International Journal of Cultural Policy)

“This book covers an extensive review of key topics of interest to readers and students of public policy, culture, ideology and identity and colonialism. Professor Mulcahy notes so well that culture is about human expression and identity as he explores in different international contexts, how policy and administration has varied in modality and effect as a reflection of broader political ideologies and administrative traditions. This book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on cultural policy in the broadest sense.” (Stephen Boyle, Associate Professor, University of South Australia, Australia)