Cultural participation in Europe: shared problem or shared problematisation?

Europe has a ‘problem’; it is becoming a ‘less cultural continent’ as fewer Europeans are ‘engaging in cultural activities’. This conclusion has been reached due to the findings of the latest cross national cultural participation survey. This paper questions the existence of this ‘problem’ and instead suggests that there is a shared problematisation across Europe sustained by common discursive archaeology that employs various discursive strands in relation to a dominant institutional discourse. The argument is that the ‘problem’ of ‘non-participation’ legitimates a ‘solution’ that predates its emergence: the state subsidy of arts organisations. The paper recaps the comparable problematisations that the researchers have previously identified in the policy texts of their respective countries. It progresses to consider three distinct but interwoven discursive strands upon which the problem representation in both countries, and potentially across Europe, appears to rely.     

European Capitals of Culture: elitism or inclusion? The case of Stavanger2008

Who participates in the European Capital of Culture? This article analyses participation in Stavanger, European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in 2008, drawing on data from a survey conducted among a cross-section of the population of the city and its closest surrounds. It examines whether there is systematic variation in the number and type of events attended across key social background characteristics such as gender, age, education and income, as well as interest in culture. It finds systematic, but small differences between the genders, age groups and people of different educational attainment, and no differences between people with high and low income. Participation levels are high in all social strata. However, interest in culture is an important predictor of participation. Differences in social background and cultural interest matter more for participation in high-brow events. The authors conclude that the ECOC event was fairly inclusive of different population segments.     

Ideologies of artistic vocation – implicitly gendered cultural policies?

This paper argues that notions of artistic vocation – the idea that artists receive a metaphysical calling to follow their path – can be understood as implicit cultural policies, among other functions deepening the connection between art and spirituality, as well as regulating gender access to creative production. The matter is addressed generally and with reference to two specific case-studies: the musical era of German Romanticism and contemporary Mexican indigenous groups of the Huasteca, both of which display reliance on narratives of vocation. Also, both cases – one historically remote, and the other removed from Western main-stream musical practices – are to act as mirrors to invite future discussions concerning the continuing cultural currency of ideas of vocation and their complex and subtle complicity in the perpetuation of arguably desirable (such as the promotion of creativity) and oppressive practices within the art world.     

A centralised market orientation: the implicit determinants of Finnish cultural policy in 1990–2010

This article examines the reactions of Finnish cultural policy to the neoliberal turn in its societal environment. The analysis of cultural policy documents in 1990–2010 concentrates on three particular elements of societal change: the reforms in public management, the reorientations in international relations and the paradigm of immaterial production. It is argued here that besides the mythical democratic pluralism of the Nordic welfare states, cultural policy treats newcomers to the political arena selectively. Consequently, the system, constructed originally for protecting free artistic expression and equal distribution of cultural possibilities, has been in the front line of political market orientation in Finland. The orientation is modelled rhetorically after the ideas of cultural pluralism and economic efficiency; in practice, the fight has been a technocratic one between different notions of governmental responsibilities. This mechanism stresses formal procedures at the expense of ad hoc negotiations, leading to a centralised market orientation.     

From liberal to conservative: shifting cultural policy regimes in post-Soviet Russia

In this paper, we analyze the evolution of Russian cultural policy from the end of the Soviet era through the current against the framework of welfare state regimes. The end of the Soviet Union 25 years ago ushered in a decade of liberalization marked by a withdrawal of the state from cultural responsibility and hopes that market demand and private support would emerge to fill in the void. With the latter hampered by the economic hardships of the transition and the loss of philanthropic traditions after more than 70 years of communism, a liberal policy regime did not take firmly hold and has gradually been replaced by a new cultural policy consensus more akin to a conservative welfare regime, marked by a return of the state to a more dominant role with the support of core cultural policy constituencies.