HMKK03611U Elective Topic A: Cultural Policy – Theory, Method & Analysis

This course gives a comprehensive introduction to the field of cultural policy and serves as a mandatory first part of the cultural policy subject. In this course students will gain insights into the different contours of ‘the culture of cultural policy’, ‘the policy of cultural policy’ and how these relate to the field of cultural production and consumption. Main theoretical approaches will be explained and particular attention will be given to the concept of public spheres and counter-publics, governmentality, power, discursive formations, control societies, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, cultural citizenship, the cultural industries and the experience economy. Amongst scholars informing these concepts are Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Sara Ahmed, Kate Oakley, Anthony Smith, Evelyn Ruppert, Jose van Dijck, Chantal Mouffe, Ulrich Beck, Theodor Adorno and David Hesmondhalgh.

The first part of the course will lay the theoretical foundations while the latter part will be dedicated to methods and case studies. The main methods introduced and applied will be critical discourse analysis, qualitative interviews, focus groups, qualitative content analysis and observations. In terms of cases, the course will apply a spatial approach focusing on how cultural policy shapes structures within micro-, meso-, and macro spheres exemplified with urban, local and municipality cultural policies; the cultural policies of different nation-states; as well as cultural policy in supra-national settings such as that of the European Union, United Nations and the Council of Europe.

The goal of the course is to provide students with adequate tools to conduct research within the field of cultural policy. In this context the relations between theoretical framework, methodological design and analysis will be emphasised and applied on different cases of relevance to cultural policy. In order to pass this first part of the cultural policy module, students are therefore requested to do one mandatory assignment defined by the responsible teacher.

The course will be taught in English.