Friday 11th June at 5.30 pm The Radical Book Fair, The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
NEW THINKING IN CULTURAL POLITICS
The Cultural Policy Collective invites you to the launch of its first publication, Beyond Social Inclusion: Towards Cultural Democracy. This pamphlet offers an alternative vision for cultural politics across the UK. The publication has been developed and written by a group of cultural practitioners, academics and arts professionals from Scotland, Ireland the rest of the UK. It includes an in-depth critique of current government social inclusion and diversity policies and programmes.
It argues that present government initiatives are premised on the tokenistic democratisation of culture rather than attempting to reform the present institutional framework and its relationship to market forces. Cultural democracy represents a more far-reaching approach to cultural policy. Drawing on cultural and political theory this publication seeks to recover cultural democracy as a radical instrument of democracy and social change.
It posits a new set of challenges for cultural democracy in the 21st century in the context of globalisation, the current bureaucratic instrumentalisation of culture for social and economic ends that reflect the increasing dominance of the marketplace. In this publication the collective concentrates on public service broadcasting, multi-culturalism, public libraries and the arts. Cultural democracy focuses on people’s rights to public space and the public sector as arenas of democratic expression. It impinges on the dominance of the market and the state in defining cultural norms and the existing avenues of cultural development.
The publication will be of interest to anyone who works in the ‘cultural sector’, those who are interested in a more radical form of cultural politics, those who are disaffected with current government policies across all agendas, and people who are interested in progressive social change.
Frank Mc Aveety has recently published a document outlining the parameters of Scotland's Cultural Review, this publication from the Cultural Policy Collective reframes that discussion in a more open and challenging way and draws on academic research that has been excluded from government sponsored discussions of culture.
The launch will take place at The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, as part of the Radical Book Fair, on Friday 11th June at 5.30 pm. Owen Logan (photographer) and Kathy McArdle (arts director) will be there to introduce the pamphlet and host a discussion on the issues it raises.
http://www.towardsculturaldemocracy.com
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