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Differing Diversities: Cultural
Policy and Cultural Diversity
by Tony Bennett
Council of Europe Publishing, Cultural Policy and Action Department,
2001, 201 pp., ISBN 92-871-4649-7
The book Differing Diversities:
Cultural Policy and Cultural Diversity is probably the first
comparative study looking systematically at the relations between
cultural policy and cultural diversity from an international perspective.
It is also a part of the programme of transversal studies of cultural
policies developed by the Council of Europe's Directorate of Culture
and Cultural and Natural Heritage and it aims to complement the
Council's national cultural policy reviews by considering the lessons
to be drawn from a comparative and contrastive analysis of the structures,
procedures and instruments that support the development, implementation
and assessment of cultural policies in different international contexts.
In the introductory part of the book, the author explains
the context in which this study was undertaken. This research takes
account of cultural diversity as a result of a historical process
of patterns of migration into and across different states, as well
as cultural diversity that has subsisted within different polities
over longer periods of time. Cultural diversity, in all its forms,
is posing a profound challenge to traditional formulations of cultural
policy. In most countries the artistic and cultural landscape has
not evolved to reflect the realities of a changed social landscape.
The shift from homogeneity to diversity as the new social norm requires
a rethinking of the processes, mechanisms and relationships needed
for democratic policy development in diverse societies.
The book itself is divided into two parts, including
the summary and recommendations. The first part of the book consists
of Tony Bennett's report which offers an analytical perspective
on the role that cultural policies concerned with the maintenance
and promotion of cultural diversity can play as a strategic vehicle
for the development of different forms of cultural democracy and
citizenship appropriate to the changing relations between peoples
and polities at the beginning of the 21st century. The author introduces
the topic, speaks about the challenge of diversity and also presents
comparative research regarding cultural diversity, citizenship,
government and cultural policies in several Council of Europe's
member countries. The first part of the book concludes with the
chapter 'Cultural diversity and cultural democracy', which reviews
the prospects for the future development of the forms of cultural
diversity examined in the study and places these in the context
of broader debates about the relations between cultural diversity,
cultural democracy and cultural citizenship. At the end, Bennett
reviews the measures that might be taken by the Council of Europe
and its member states to further transversal approaches and the
development of cultural diversity policies. The second part of the
book consists of seven research position papers that were commissioned
from acknowledged experts in the relevant fields, with a general
brief to review the existing literature relating to the research
topic in question and to recommend strategic directions for the
conduct of future research relevant to that field:
- The consequences of European media policies and organisational
structures for cultural diversity by Denis McQuail
- Assessing the implementation of cultural diversity policies
by Arnold J. Love
- The cultural policies of the European Union and cultural diversity
by Cris Shore
- Cultural planning and cultural diversity by Lia Ghilardi
- The implications of international copyright law for cultural
diversity policies by Mira T. Sundara Rajan
- The role of the media in the cultural practices of diasporic
communities by Annabelle Sreberny
- Preserving cultural diversity through the preservation of biological
diversity: indigenous peoples, local communities and the role
of digital technologies by Rosemary J. Coombe.
In the preface to this book, Vera Boltho, head of
the Cultural Policy and Action Department of the Council of Europe,
stresses that one of the main challenges remains finding a way to
reconcile democratic public policy with the condition of cultural
diversity. Cultural diversity invests national cultural policy with
the responsibility to define the new conditions of equity and fairness
for cultural participation. The report illustrates the fact that
to make democracy possible in our new environment, we will have
to re-configure the political meaning of citizenship to take account
of the overwhelming importance of the cultural dimension.
To order the book, please contact: Council
of Europe Publishing, F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex, France, tel.: +33
(0)3 88 41 25 81; fax: +33 (0)3 8841 39 10; e-mail: publishing@coe.int;
http://book.coe.int/
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