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Instrumental Cultural PolicyIntroductionWe looked at specific cases in the previous presentations. But we still havent discussed enoughThe driving forces behind the phenomenon of museums, media culture, cultural industries, urban regeneration

But when we talk of the driving forces, we are implicitly implies that something else causes culture. Thats why it is called instrumental culture as means rather than ends Historicizing Cultural PolicySince its emergence in 19th century, it is usually used for political and social ends

But with the rise of neo-liberalism, it is increasingly associated with economic ends

(But not as neatly distinguished as it seems)Political and social endsHistorical backgroundEmergence of Nation-StateMass Literacy so that culture has an influence over peopleCrime, disorder, moral decadence and poverty in the early formation of nation-state and capitalismInternational unsettlement (Colonialism, Fascism, the Cold War)NationalismLanguage Policy (Suppressing different dialect)Parental public broadcastingConstruction of monument forNationhood State PowerDifferent nation-based Mega Events such as Olympics, World Cup and World ExpositionSelective Cultural Heritage Sites and Museum

AIM: To bring order to nation-state, to displace social antagonism due to poverty and power inequality by an illusory unity

ImperialismImport:Museums and Exposition displaying primitive objects collected by anthropologists or loot from colonial war To justify Social Darwinism

Export:Cultural Imperialism (especially from US and Japan)To homogenize other cultures for both political and economic purposesIdeological WARDifferent Ideologies supporting different forms of art

E.g. Cold War: US - avant-garde: A culture of freedom as opposed to a culture of command. Allowing abstract expression and abstract arts.

USSR -(socialist) realismavant-garde as petit-bourgeois taste that disguise the real worker exploitation.Regulation of SOCIAL CONDUCTMuseum and arts exhibition

To transform the morality of working classmen who indulged in drinkBased on the old Romantic ideal that arts is transcendent

To replace the unruly market square with sites having institutionalized management so that working class would have proper entertainment

Foucaudian power at workNot only is different regulating mechanism at work in museum and arts exhibitions by different instructions, but visitors are self-regulating themselves as they internalized the expected behaviors and visitors scrutinize each other.

SOCIA EXCLUSION AND INCLUSIONSocial Exclusion

Educate citizenry into a set of artistic tastes as class distinction through restricted access by means such as ticket price in museum and arts exhibition

Subsidizing high culture instead of minority and working-class culture

An identity politics that is exclusive (e.g. using broadcaster of certain accent and race in public broadcast)

SOCIA EXCLUSION AND INCLUSIONSocial InclusionNot necessarily progressive social inclusion

Social inclusion as a policy of corporatist() Society:E.g. Ethnic Diversity as nationalist policy in Singapore; Integration of Eastern European Countries in EU through the shifting away from its original Great European Heritage cultural policy

Community BuildingTo bring back problematic groups (disaffected youth) into mainstream through cultural trainingEconomic endsHistorical backgroundThe rise of neo-liberalism in 80sThe shift from Fordist production to post-Fordist productionNew technologies such as InternetDiminishing power of nation-state and increasing power of transnational corporation Creative industriesEconomy dominates culture

Indirect WayBusiness Sponsorship:Art gives a sense of distinction upon the corporate sponsorsShaping culture according to corporate interests (e.g. product placement in films, sports events)Creative industriesDirect WayProductionCommodification of the human intellect: patent and copyrights lawsConsumers can become the content co-creators of the cultural products which are audience-oriented Or a theatrical performance as a cultural product brings production (the on-stage performer) and consumption (the off-stage audience) in the same time-space dimension.Post-Fordist organization shifts to improve the turn-over time of capital (the speed of capital flowing from production pole to consumption pole and back to production pole) Creative industriesDirect WayConsumptionBaudrillard supplemented use-value and exchange-value with the concept of sign value. Cultural commodity assumes a status of sign. E.g. consumers value the status of being a trendy person by using the mobile phone instead of the concrete functions of the phone.Sign value itself is abstract and self-referential. For example, in fashion, what is regarded as fashionable is cyclical. The outdated can be up-to-date and then become outdated again, thereby generating endless consumerist desires. Moreover, signs as images and values are ephemeral and thus they are godlike products in the standpoint of the need of instantaneous consumption to speed up capital circulation.TourismCultural Heritage Tourism, usually in third world countriesCultural heritage as a kind of cultural capital for first worlds new middle classAccording to Bourdieu , class distinction is no longer determined by hard capitalism but soft capitalism. Cultural symbols embody interests and function to enhance social distinctions. Neo-liberal agenda of earning foreign currency through international tradeCapital is siphoned off by large corporations hotel chains and airlines and returns to its point of origin in rich countriesLaundering money through investment in tourist facilities in third worldUrban RegenerationThe importance of symbolic economy for a cityGentrified creative citiesthe use of culture as symbolic economy by developers to lure the new middle class who emphasizes on personal tastes to consume and settle down thereAccording to Zukin, in Manhatten, when the flatted factories are left empty, independent artists moved into these areas as they provide a large multi-purpose space at an affordable rent. But ironically, the lifestyle they advocate in turn drives them out of the area, which has an increasing rent that these artists can no longer afford because culture as symbolic economy is used by developers to lure the new middle class who emphasizes on personal tastes to consume and settle down thereThese foot-loose elite managerial class share similar cultures and lifestyles and possess decontextualized cultural capitalConclusion and questionCulture is instrumental in the sense that it serves other purposes other than its own.

Is it possible to have a pure cultural policy?Problems with this assumption:A reactionary Romantic conservative ideal of culture as transcendence Even arts for arts sake is used for ideological war by US to counter the realist arts of USSR

But if it is impossible to have a pure cultural policy, does it mean that culture is unimportant?My bold answer: Yes.