A cultural policy shift in the EU - Davor Buinjac - Ποιειν Και Πραττειν

A cultural policy shift in the EU - Davor Buinjac

We are living in the world of change and culture should be regarded as a living and changing phenomenon. Whether we like it or not, the changes that culture undergoes virtually every day cannot be stopped. Due to changes in everyday life the notion of culture is becoming more demanding tasks. Namely, the processes that occur as a result of changes in the field of the technology, lifestyles, theoretical concepts etc., affect not only our personal perception of the arts but also changing social role of the arts and culture. One of the most obvious difficulties public authorities are dealing with it today is the question how to separate the real artistic values from the values produced in large scale by entertainment industry in order to make profit by dictating the aesthetic taste of the broad masses. Therefore, the starting point is the question: how culture has been understood by cultural policy decision makers? It leads us to the next question: »What should be financed by public money in the field of culture?” That is the reason why is important to understand what is really happening in the world of culture and the arts.

Nowadays, the meaning of the word “culture” is constantly spreading. In the European Union the word covers today not only arts, cultural heritage, books and libraries, but also media sector and the whole sphere of creativity. So-called “cultural and creative industries” are a component part of culture. Over the last eight years, the conception of culture in the EU has been extended to the sector of “cultural and creative industries”. The range of the culture today is much bigger than ever before and still increasing. It is a tremendous and dramatic change. Consequently, cultural policy - at local, regional, national or European level - is faced with many new tasks. Cultural policy should move with the times, i.e. it should constantly change itself too. Every new conception of culture demands a change in the understanding of the role of cultural policy by the public authorities.

Cultural policy makers are increasingly looking at culture from an economic and legal point of view. Instead, cultural policy should strive for an intrinsic cultural, human view as an autonomous world-view. Proving the legitimation by means which are not an inherent part of culture is taking us inevitably away from what really matters. In other words, cultural policies of the member states of the EU should argue for the notion of culture that is result of the perspective of the artists and cultural workers themselves.

It should be stressed that from the economical or juridical standpoint culture and arts are not the same as from the cultural or aesthetic point of view. For economists and lawyers culture and arts are more or less merely means or tools to achieve some external goals like profit. As far as cultural policy is concerned, the predomination of economical and juridical way of thinking is crying both intellectual and cultural injustice.

Simplifying and generalization are more and more typical features of the prevailing cultural policy view of the institutional structures responsible for culture. Culture administration and politicians are very susceptible to legal and economic advises. Instead of listening artists and professionals in the field of culture, cultural policy decision makers prefer way of thinking given by lawyers and economists. It becomes obvious by taking a look at the studies and the reports that determine way of cultural policy thinking and acting in the EU produced by consulting agencies such as: KEA European Affairs, IDEA Consult, MKW Wirtschaftsforschung GmbH, etc. That is reason way the vocabulary of cultural policy is alike to vocabulary of economy. As a result, listening European ministries responsible for culture it is easily to think that they are “experts” for economy.

Cultural politicians at all levels supported by mechanism of administration are trying to convince us that emphasizing economic importance of culture is necessary in order to strengthen the advocacy capacity of the cultural sector in the political debates. But it must be borne in mind that the closest relation of culture is not with economy but with humanity. Culture is public good because it is important for everyone who wants to be human being opened for tolerance and other democratic values. Personally, I „consume“ culture because I am a „human being“ and I am not just „being“. So, there must be no practical reason for consuming or even producing art and culture. My only reason for doing that is to be more human. It has nothing to do with making profit or any other practical objective in the sense of practical usefulness as a benefit that could be derived from the love to art.

Over the last decade, more precisely, from 10th May 2007 on, since “the European Agenda for Culture in a globalizing world” was adopted, a huge shift in cultural policy concept has happened. It wasn’t result of the changes in the theoretic and/or aesthetic concepts of the arts and culture. Paradoxically, public authorities at the European level have initiated radically-changed notion of the arts and culture. In that way, EU politicians and administration demonstrated their power as decision makers and consequently their direct impact on the cultural life in the EU.

From the conceptual point of view the cultural exception (“exception culturelle”) is very important issue. The concept is relevant not only for the European level, but also for national levels. It relies on the idea that cultural goods and services are not merely commodities but also express values. In the current negotiations between the EU and USA on the free trade agreement (TTIP) the concept “exception culturelle” is once more put to the test. The unanimous demand of the artists and professionals in the field of culture throughout Europe for the exemption of culture in the framework of trade negotiations is on the track of notion that culture is a public good. Let me mention that the USA did not ratify the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, so the fears are not unfounded.

In this respect, it should be noted that the “exception culturelle” concept is important not only in the TTIP context, but also as a fundamental political concept in the field of culture based on the firm belief that cultural assets and services are not commodities. In contrast to the “exception culturelle”, the prevailing concept of the „cultural and creative industries“ is based on the idea that cultural goods and services are consumer goods. The cultural and creative industries have become a sort of box, apparently suitable to lump everything together: from public libraries and archives to software and video games industry. I don’t think this is about the two sides of the same coin. On the contrary, it is about two quite different coins. On the one hand, there is a profit (a private) sector, on the other hand, there is non-profit (public and non-governmental) sector. The first one is commercial, while the second one is producing public cultural programs.

That is the reason why the cultural sectors throughout Europe are yearning for their representatives, the real voices that will clearly say that public support to culture should be derived from its own intrinsic value. In other words, the voices that culture don’t consider as “a means to deliver tangible, quantifiable returns on investment”. It is very dangerous to reduce arts and culture to an instrument, no matter how useful it could be. In a globalizing world the hierarchy of values are changing very fast: the economic ones are replacing the cultural ones

The next issue of the crucial importance is the question of common European cultural policy. It is hot topic on the agenda of European ministers responsible for culture. Let me remind you that in May 2007 the European Commission has adopted a strategy document on culture: “European agenda for culture in a globalizing world”. It was the beginning of the new era – a common European cultural policy. In my opinion, the European Union is moving slightly towards a common cultural policy, in spite of the ruling principle of subsidiarity in the field of culture. I believe European cultural policy is going to be based rather on values of market usefulness of artistic talent and imagination than on protection of culture and the arts as the fields of public (general) interest. And that is something that makes me feel worried.

In future we can expect more and more European directives and guidelines regarding culture, especially in the fields of audio-visual sector and creative industries. Of course, traditional sectors with strong national symbolic meaning – such as arts, cultural heritage and language – will remain in competence of the national states, but all the new sectors that are closely linked to the economy will be in the centre of the common cultural policy.

In conclusion, let’s put the simple question: Does culture really matter in the EU? First of all, there is no doubt that financial support of the EU is very important, especially for NGOs sector. In spite of that, I think that so-called “cultural and creative sector” is not in the centre of the EU attraction at all. Let me mention just the most obvious evidence: Creative Europe Programme (2014-2020) has a budget of €1.46 billion. Compared to the previous Culture Programme and MEDIA programmes (2007-2013) it means an increase of €130 million. For comparison: research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) means €25 billion more compared with previous FP7 and CIP programmes (2007-2013). There is no doubt that the European civilization has become a scientific-technological civilization. Regardless of the high-flying words that cultural politicians and administration are almost daily speaking out arts and culture have been pushed into the background. Scientific-technological rationality that has a leading role in the post-modern world is constantly changing the whole concept of humanity. So, the battle for culture is actually the battle for the humanity, for human feelings, for creative dreaming, for an aesthetic approach to the reality and last but not least for the different point of view that is not strictly “objective” in the scientific sense of the word.

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A cultural policy shift in the EU - Davor Buinjac