Abstract
The central argument of this chapter is that existing processes for identifying the needs that public policy will seek to meet are inadequate to the task, and a new approach is required. This applies to the existing (narrowly defined) domain of cultural policy, as well as to public policy in general. Indeed, it is by understanding the limitations of existing cultural policy that these implications for public policy come into view. The chapter begins with two questions: what is “cultural governance”? And why does it matter? Building on recently published research, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, this chapter presents a new cultural policy framework and introduces three innovative policy tools. The goal of cultural policy is re-framed in terms of cultural development, understood as the expansion of caring about and for cultural needs-the need to connect, to create, and to count. Caring for these cultural needs is a crucial step in opening up democratic spaces for undertaking the “needs-interpretation struggle”. This is necessary to overcome the limitations of current cultural policy, and of “policy-based” cultural governance-with its too-narrow focus on the “rational” policy cycle. Promoting a needs-based approach to governance is vital to all our futures.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Cultural Governance |
| Subtitle of host publication | Current and Future European Perspectives |
| Editors | Chris Bailey, Elena Theodoulou Charalambous, Geert Drion |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Chapter | 4 |
| Pages | 62-80 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781003829645 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781032462004 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 21 Dec 2023 |