Cultural heritage policies: a comparative perspective

Arjo Klamer, Anna Mignosa and Lyudmila Petrova

Cultural heritage policies. A comparative perspective. In I.  Rizzo and A. Mignosa (ed.). Handbook on The Economics of Cultural Heritage. With Anna Mignosa and Lyudmila Petrova. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 2013, pp. 37 – 86

Abstract
The role of the arts and culture in the new economy is changing. This has broadened the scope of cultural policy study and practice, and modified its focus. The emergence of a broader concept of culture, where the rel-evance of creative arts expanded within the scope of cultural industries reflects the processes of democratization of culture and its relevance to the economy and society. The idea received widespread attention at the European level in the context of the Lisbon Agenda, which aimed at turning Europe into ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge- based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (Council of Europe, 2000).
Policymakers and scholars have increasingly focused on ‘new’ areas, such as cultural industries, the creative class and cultural cities, and on their potential for national and local development, arguing that the arts and culture promote creativity, creativity promotes innovation and inno-vation promotes economic benefits (Madden and Bloom, 2001). Within this process of economization of cultural policy, cultural significance alone is not an argument for government intervention. Accordingly, conducting cultural policy today requires a better understanding of the complex interrelation between the economy and culture, with respect to both the cultural and economic values of cultural goods and services. The evolution of cultural policies encompasses these changes. For example, topics related to urban and regional development, tourism, international trade, cultural diversity, economic development and intellectual property are brought to the core of the cultural policy debate while closely inter-twining the cultural and economic logic. It is possible to talk about a type of rhetoric where culture and the arts have become a means towards economic and social ends (Szántó, 2010).

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