New cultural policies in Europe : toward a social fonction of culture and arts

Olivier Moeschler

Cultural policies and public cultural expenses have often, in the 80’s and 90’s, been legitimated by local and national government by emphasizing the economic contribution of culture and arts, either directly (as an economic sector per/se) or indirectly (by increasing the attractiveness of a place for tourists or enterprises).In the past decade, this discourse underwent a considerable change, in the context of both the economic crisis and the increasing social and ethnic diversity of Europe, notably of its large cities.In this context, metropolitan cultural policies are ready to point atthe “social" and integrating function of cultural institutions and events. Art is to provide communication, distraction, solace, but also social cement to increasingly hybrid societies.There is no will anymore to bring underprivileged categories of the population to major works of art considered asvaluable, yet untouchable good. Today the real need seems to be to bring culture in its various andexpanding forms to populations which are increasingly mixed socially, ethnically and nationally'speaking. What'appears to be a new paradigm of cultural policies in Europe raises some questions. How do authorities argue and elaborate their discourse around this social function of culture? What permanent features and local characteristics of these discourses can beidentified? Which audiences are precisely aimed at, and how? Which cultural and artistic production is defined in these project ? Mainly based on detailed analyses of discourses and of catalogueof measures formulated by the cultural management of cities in France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, this paper aims to understand the changes that public discourse on culture – and culture itself is undergoing in Europe’s new cultural policies.

Mots clés: sociologie; cultural policies; Europe; social fonction; culture; arts

Domaines: Sociologie

Olivier Moeschler. New cultural policies in Europe : toward a social fonction of culture and arts. European Sociological Association (ESA) 10th Conference, “Social Relations in Turbulent Times”, Sep 2011, Genève, Switzerland. ⟨hal-01314466⟩