Current Issues in International Cultural Policy Teachers College, Columbia University

This session reviews briefly the arguments and conclusions of the proceeding classes and seek to address the question: what constitutes a vibrant ecology; what contribution can and should government make to support that ecology; and why?

Cultural policy is premised on assumptions about causal relationships between expenditure, legislation, exhortation and other levers of power and influence and specific outcome.

Many trends in cultural creation and consumption have been and continue to be profoundly influenced by globalization. As we enter another chapter in the evolution of world economy, what trends are likely to dominate and how are they likely to affect cultural provision?

Mapping the impact and the grounds for predicting how changes in the leisure market and in technology are going to affect further the composition and structure of cultural sector.

The 501(c)(3) model is critically dependent upon a capital market that is philanthropic rather than commercial in character, highly circumscribed in its operation, and in which investment decisions are not informed by the ‘rational self-interest’ of neo-classical economics.