This Discussion Paper seeks to serve as a provocation in “Rethinking Culture” and will seek to do three things in particular: 1. identify some of the key themes in contemporary cultural policy globally and regionally and interrogate their relevance to Af
“Culture” is a much-contested, much-defined term used extensively in a variety of different political, social and other contexts so that it often loses meaning, or it comes to be so all-inclusive that its policy applications are rendered nebulous. This could be why policy-makers avoid the term when determining clearly-definable interventions such as the Sustainable Development Goals with clear outcomes and time frameworks.
Yet, simply because “culture” might be a difficult term cannot be why we should avoid talking about it, particularly as culture – in its broad sense of values, ideas, worldviews, traditions and belief systems that inform individual and community identities and ways of making sense of the world – impacts directly on every facet of our lives. Thus, when considering strategies to change the world, principally in order to improve the length and quality of people’s lives, culture has to be a consideration for the ways in which it might inhibit, facilitate or mediate such strategies.
“Cultural policies” contribute to the confusing discourse around “culture” as they purport to address “culture” generally but are - often - at best limited to different dimensions and practices of the arts (merely expressions of culture) and heritage. Moreover, “cultural policies” are generally developed and managed through a silo department with little status within most governments rather than as a transversal phenomenon having impact across numerous ministries.
At this time when the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage is being revised, this Discussion Paper seeks to serve as a provocation in “Rethinking Culture” and will seek to do three things in particular:
1. identify some of the key themes in contemporary cultural policy globally and regionally and interrogate their relevance to African and South African conditions;
2. make recommendations for core cultural policies that are most relevant to the material, political, social and cultural conditions of South Africa, especially to the paradigm of “development”; and,
3. be accessible to a wide audience including non-academic cultural activists, creative practitioners, government policy makers and others who may not have the time, inclination or resources to undertake extensive research and reading, but who require sufficient information and perspectives to consider – and perhaps be persuaded - by this document’s key arguments.
This provocation is not necessarily representative of the views and current policy emphases of the South African Cultural Observatory (SACO), but it is placed within the public domain as a contribution by the Observatory to the necessary contestation of ideas in the cultural policy domain, in order to arrive at the most appropriate policies to address a range of South African realities.
