Intellectuals Culture Policy

Intellectuals and policy analysts might appear to inhabit two different worlds. Intellectuals aspire to articulate issues of universal concern; policy analysts attend to the detail of specific measures and programmes. How far do these common assumptions match up to reality? What happens when intellectuals engage with cultural institutions and the machinery of government? And how far is cultural policy connected to a history of ideas? The essays brought together here attempt to answer these questions. From the English Romantics to Lenin’s wife, from Plato to Herbert Schiller, this book offers new insights into how intellectuals from Europe, Canada and North America have sought over time to assert their cultural values in public life.

French intellectuals have always defined themselves in political terms, typically as opponents to a corrupt government—but challenging state authority is not the only way intellectuals in France have exerted political influence. Jeremy Aherne invokes a neglected dimension of French intellectuals’ practice, where instead of denouncing the worlds of government and public policy, French intellectuals become voluntarily entangled within them The book consists of a series of case studies exploring policy domains from religion and secularization to educational reform and the media. It explores the political engagement of intellectuals such as Pierre Bourdieu, Michel de Certeau, and André Malraux, and will be required reading for scholars of French political and social history.

Intellectuals and policy analysts might appear to inhabit two different worlds. Intellectuals aspire to articulate issues of universal concern; policy analysts attend to the detail of specific measures and programmes. How far do these common assumptions match up to reality? What happens when intellectuals engage with cultural institutions and the m

This book discusses how public cultural policies can relate to the principle political issue of democracy. Here, democratic cultural policies include ideas and ideologies, institutional structures, agents and interests, power, access and participation and distribution of economic resources. Contributors focus on analysing the relationship between a political system and culture and the arts as an empirical field. They critically consider questions such as: How do different democratic forms affect cultural policy consequences? Can cultural autonomy be combined with cultural democracy? How is cultural policy-making used as a political process and which interests are involved? What position does popular culture have in cultural policies? How does a former Soviet state like Lithuania handle the question of culture and democracy? What does it mean when UNESCO talks about cultural diversity? How did intellectuals act in cultural policy debates in France in the late 19th century? The volume also looks at whether the democratisation of culture is actually possible. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Cultural Policy.

This book investigates a central chapter in the history of 20th century intellectualism: the commitment to the communist ideal and the Soviet Union. Focusing on Argentina, whose communist party was among the most important in Latin America, Petra engages with the current literature on Western communism in order to conduct an exhaustive study of the intellectuals, cultural organizations, publications, and debates within Argentine communism in the decades following World War II. Based on rigorous archival research from diverse sources, Petra’s book distances itself from existing teleological visions and institutional approaches to the communist world, offering instead a complex framework in which multiple contexts, scales, and actors frame the larger problem: the intellectual commitment to a political project that brooked no dissent. Intellectuals and Communist Culture also addresses the emergence of Peronism, a crucial movement in Argentine political life to this very day, thus offering an important chapter on Latin American political and intellectual history and an invaluable contribution to the global history of the international communist movement.

Cultures are shaped by many institutions and agencies, including governments, corporations, education and the media. In recent years, research into these culture-shaping activities has been increasingly associated with the developing field of cultural policy studies. The Cultural Policy Review of Books offers a fascinating insight into the intellectual formation of many of the leading figures that have contributed to this field. Invited to write a short review essay on the book that had most influenced their thinking, 41 academics and researchers from around the world reveal what they consider to be essential reading. Including essays on Bourdieu, de Certeau, Foucault, Gramsci, Habermas, and Williams, as well as many lesser known writers, the collection throws new light on the intellectual underpinning of cultural policy studies. It will be of interest not only to researchers, students and teachers in this field, but to all those looking to understand the forces that shape the culture of modern societies.