Cultural policy has changed significantly, half a century after its invention as a category. The perspective of welfare has been substituted by the perspective of development; the logic of governance has superseded the logic of government. These changes can only be understood in the broader context of the changes that culture and politics have experienced during this time. The globalization of culture, its digital mutation, its enhanced weight in social and economic dynamics - all these factors influence the transformation of relations between culture and politics, and so also the definition and problems of cultural policy. The same happens with the mediation of politics, with its growing complexity (between the global and the local, the public and the private), and with its multicultural problems. The study of cultural policy should thus be opened up today for the consideration of the broader frameworks that constitute this object: culture and politics.

 

The ICCPR 2012 organized by the Centre for the Study of Culture, Politics and Society (CECUPS), University of Barcelona, in collaboration with the International Journal of Cultural Policy, is intended to address the challenge of rethinking cultural policy analysis from the broader parameters of the relationship between culture and politics. From an academic and interdisciplinary perspective, open to both the social sciences and humanities, this conference will discuss the various aspects of the relationship between culture and politics. On the one hand, it will examine institutionalized cultural policy in its configurations, orientation and dynamics, as well as its impact, intended or unintended, on the structures that constitute the cultural sphere. Beyond this bounded area, on the other hand, it will also consider the projection of politics in the configuration of the social through culture, whether in the traditional way of symbolic control or the assertion of identity, or through the most recent policies of development, creativity and diversity.

 

Conversely, it will also consider culture - the cultural and artistic action displayed by creators, citizens and civil society - as a tool of political action, mobilization or conflict. The relationship between culture, politics and cultural politics will thus be addressed in its entirety.

 

The Barcelona conference will involve the participation of reputed scholars from all over the world. It will be an occasion of great interest, both for the high international level of the meeting as well as for the fact that the event will be held in Barcelona, a very accessible and attractive city. The conference is expected to be an academic success. I am inviting you to take advantage of it. The call for papers has already been posted at the conference website.

 

Arturo Rodriguez Morato