Implementing UNESCO’s Convention on Cultural Diversity at the regional level: Experiences from evaluating cultural competence centers

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-525
Author(s):  
Diana Betzler
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Competence ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Central Region ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Policy Governance ◽  
United Nations Educational ◽  
Unesco Convention ◽  
Cultural Expressions

AbstractThis article deals with the question of whether regional cultural competence centers foster the diversity of cultural expressions and how the objectives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Convention on Cultural Diversity are implemented. By introducing the Convention on Cultural Diversity, the conditions of regional cultural policy governance, and the idea of regional cultural competence centers, a framework for evaluation is outlined. The evaluation of four regional cultural competence centers in the Swiss Central Region shows that fostering cultural diversity is complex and has many different approaches and effects. The final discussion concludes that principles such as “interculturality,” “freedom,” and “access for all” under the Convention on Cultural Diversity can promote a diversity of cultural expressions but that these criteria have to be set from outside—for example, by public funding institutions—so that regional actors implement them.

scholarly journals The UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity: An Appraisal Five Years after Its Entry into Force

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mira Burri
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
International Regime ◽  
Current Implementation ◽  
Unesco Convention ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Expressions ◽  
Implementation Progress

Abstract:The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was agreed upon with an overwhelming majority and after the swiftest ratification process in the history of the UNESCO entered into force on 18 March 2007. Now, five years later and with some 130 Members committed to implementing the convention, not only observers with a particular interest in the topic but also the broader public may be eager to know what has happened and in how far has the implementation progress advanced. This is the question that animates this article. It seeks to answer it by giving a brief background to the UNESCO Convention, clarifying its legal status and impact, as well as by looking at the current implementation activities in domestic and international contexts. The article sets this analysis in the frame of international regime complexity insights.

scholarly journals Re-totalizing Culture

Ethnologies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 207-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Alan Shelton
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Institutional Culture ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Lead Position ◽  
Cultural Mandate ◽  
Cultural Expressions ◽  
Museum Practice

With the growth of concern over diminishing cultural diversity, homogenization, and the preservation of tangible patrimony, UNESCO has increasingly assumed a lead position in devising new legislative instruments – programs, proclamations, conventions, and treaties – for the safeguard and regulation of cultural heritage. This cultural policy has been re-directed in the last two decades by a newly emergent and confident cosmopolitan political bloc that has attempted to reverse the organization’s Occidental bias by extending the protection it gives to tangible heritage to include intangible cultural expressions. This new political interest coincides with wider demands for the re-totalization of both aspects of culture aimed at encouraging the institutional use of vernacular interpretations in place of typological and externally imposed classifications. While these movements share a common interest in the decolonization of institutional culture, there is no overarching consensus on the means by which authority over interpretation can be returned to and exercised by originating communities and practitioners. To support its relatively new cultural mandate, UNESCO has revised its definitions of culture. These re-articulations – largely appropriated from specific anthropological discourses – expand the concept of culture to include its tangible and intangible manifestations, and provide a legitimating moral and intellectual authority to promote its wider acceptability. This essay represents a modest attempt to define and trace the influence of part of the rhetoric generated by globalized institutional cultures on museum practice and to raise questions on the current choices museums have been called to make.

КУЛЬТУРНА ПОЛІТИКА У СФЕРІ ЗБЕРЕЖЕННЯ НЕМАТЕРІАЛЬНОЇ СПАДЩИНИ : СУЧАСНИЙ СТАН ТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ

2020 ◽  
pp. 80-84
Author(s):  
Admink Admink ◽  
Віта Костюк
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Limited Budget ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Complicated Situation

У рамках імплементації Конвенції про охорону нематеріальної культурної спадщини вивчено заходи культурної політики, що заклали основи для втілення новітніх політичних підходів, механізмів і програм. У контексті виконання міжнародно-правових стандартів UNESCO та положень Конвенції визначено курс на аналіз, збереження й розвиток культурного розмаїття та надбання. Умотивована необхідність формування стратегії культурної політики у галузі збереження нематеріальної культурної спадщини, що полягає у проектуванні й затвердженні культурних проектів національного й регіонального спрямування. Враховано наявну ускладнену ситуацію щодо ролі місцевої влади та обмеженість бюджетного фінансування в країні загалом. Встановлено, що дії, що сприятимуть виявленню елементів нематеріальної культурної спадщини, організації та реалізації заходів щодо її збереження в Україні повинні стати цільовими пріоритетами. Cultural policy measures within the framework of the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage are examined. A course on the analysis, conservation and development of cultural diversity and heritage in the context of the implementation of UNESCO international legal standards and the provisions of the Convention has been determined. The necessity of developing a strategy of cultural policy formation in the field of preservation of the intangible cultural heritage, which consists in the design and approval of cultural projects of national and regional orientation, is substantiated. The complicated situation regarding the role of local authorities and the limited budget financing in the country are taken into account. It is established that the priority should be given to actions that will help identify elements of the intangible cultural heritage, develop and implement measures for its preservation in Ukraine.

Is There a Place for Minorities' and Indigenous Peoples' Rights within ASEAN?: Asian Values, ASEAN Values and the Protection of Southeast Asian Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byung Sook de Vries ◽  
Anna Meijknecht
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Asian Values ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

AbstractSoutheast Asia is one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world. Nevertheless, unlike minorities and indigenous peoples in Western states, minorities and indigenous peoples in Asia have never received much attention from politicians or legal scholars. The level of minority protection varies from state to state, but can, in general, be called insufficient. At the regional level, for instance, within the context of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), there are no mechanisms devoted specifically to the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples. In December 2008, the ASEAN Charter entered into force. In July 2009 the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights were adopted. Both the Charter and the ToR refer to human rights and to cultural diversity, but omit to refer explicitly to minorities or indigenous peoples. In this article, the extent to which this reticence with regard to the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples is dictated by the concept of Asian values and ASEAN values is explored. Further, it is analysed how, instead, ASEAN seeks to accommodate the enormous cultural diversity of this region of the world within its system. Finally, the tenability of ASEAN's policy towards minorities and indigenous peoples in the light of, on the one hand, the requirements of international legal instruments concerning the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples and, on the other hand, the policies of the national states that are members of ASEAN is determined.

scholarly journals Artists’ Autonomy and Professionalization in a New Cultural Policy Landscape

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marita Flisbäck ◽  
Anna Lund
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Professional Autonomy ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Regional Culture ◽  
New Model ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Political Model ◽  
Specific Culture ◽  
Professional Artists

Using literature on the professions, the article explores how a new political model for funding and steering may affect professional autonomy. Professional groups’ efforts to independently practice their profession during times of political change are elaborated. The professional group in questions is artists, the context is Sweden, and the new model is called the Collaborative Cultural Model. This model entails a shift in the funding and realization of cultural policy from the national to the regional level. From a situation in which civil servants with specific culture knowledge were involved, politicians, representatives of civil society, civil servants and artists are now to work together to create a regional culture plan. In the article, two different outcomes of the new model are discussed as possible. It can lead to de-professionalization process, particularly if the policy on keeping outside influences at “arm’s length” weakens. On the other hand, negotiations between different actors could result in artists’ knowledge becoming more prominent and receiving more recognition than previously. This, in turn, could promote professional artists’ status. Keywords: Cultural policy, public funding, autonomy, artistic (de)professionalization, dominated and dominating  

scholarly journals Cultural diversity in unequal societies sustained through cross-cultural competence and identity valuation

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Bunce
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Competence ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Field Methods ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
Majority Culture ◽  
Common Strategy

AbstractIn much contemporary political discourse, valued cultural characteristics are threatened by interaction with culturally distinct others, such as immigrants or a hegemonic majority. Such interaction often fosters cross-cultural competence (CCC), the ability to interact successfully across cultural boundaries. However, most theories of cultural dynamics ignore CCC, making cultural diversity incompatible with mutually beneficial inter-group interaction, and contributing to fears of cultural loss. Here, interview-based field methods at an Amazonian ethnic boundary demonstrate the prevalence of CCC. These data motivate a new theoretical mathematical model, incorporating competing developmental paths to CCC and group identity valuation, that illuminates how a common strategy of disempowered minorities can counter-intuitively sustain cultural diversity within a single generation: Given strong group identity, minorities in a structurally unequal, integrative society can maintain their distinctive cultural norms by learning those of the majority. Furthermore, rather than a rejection of, or threat to, majority culture, the valuation of a distinctive minority identity can characterize CCC individuals committed to extensive, mutually beneficial engagement with the majority as members of an integrative, multi-cultural society.

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