Legitimizing unfamiliar cultural practices
To foster intercultural dialogue, we need to legitimize cultural practices that are unknown to us, without ranking them above our own. This openness is essential for building bridges between different realities, as shown by the example of young people’s cultural practices, which are often considered “less noble”.
What is culture?
Cultural practices are extremely diverse in terms of their subjects, methods and very definitions. For some, it’s just the visual arts; for others, it’s built heritage; for still others, intangible heritage. But what built or intangible heritage are we talking about, and according to what criteria? The field is vast and diverse.
If we want to provide cultural offerings that resonate with people who are foreign to our universe - in their culture as well as in their cultural and heritage practices - it’s obvious that we can’t know these practices a priori. We are each enclosed in our own universe, in our own “filter bubble”, as we say today.
Connecting with the otherness of the future
Consequently, the only way to create links with others and respect them is to legitimize practices we don’t know - and above all, not to presuppose that they are inferior to those we have mastered.
This phenomenon is particularly visible with regard to young people, whose practices are often deemed less noble than those of adults.
This approach might appear to be a form of cultural relativism, or even a denial of the value of what must be passed on. Not at all: cultural history is precisely made up of objects which, one day, are not legitimate and, the next day, become so. On the contrary, it’s about anticipating and building bridges between a reality that exists but is still unknown to us, and our own, different reality.
My multidisciplinary practices—spanning creation, cultural action, training, and support in a wide range of cultural, social, and educational contexts across France—provide me with a privileged, subjective, and in-depth observatory of the cultural sector in France.
This sector is weakened by its position, often deemed “non-essential” by many political leaders, by the competition from digital platforms in cultural practices, as well as by challenges and obstacles related to the difficulty of establishing interdisciplinary collaborations and the scarcity of evaluations, which are often poorly conducted and instrumentalized.
My observatory allows me to identify dynamics that work, as well as difficulties I observe. Here, I propose to share my analyses, methods, and suggestions, hoping they may prove useful. My goal is to contribute to a stronger cultural sector in the future, as I believe that defending a cultural sector funded by taxpayers’ money holds the potential for emancipation, the development of freedoms, democracy, and the capacity to act—in a way that is fundamentally different from what private actors produce.
This is possible if there is no hypocrisy, and in my view, it comes at the cost of a commitment to lucidity and self-questioning, a choice to deconstruct representations, and perhaps to challenge certain privileges and systems of domination.
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The Fertile Margin
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The Hypocrisy of Cultural Actors’ Independence
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The False Public-Private Debate in the Cultural Sector
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The Free Institution
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Why Are Cultural Actors So Fragile?
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Beyond Mobilizing Audiences: Building Democratic Narratives
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On the Fragility of Corporatism
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The connected audience
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Culture and politics: the forgotten lesson of sanitary totalitarianism
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Rethinking the digital content strategy of cultural institutions
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The artistic relationship with the audience
The paradoxical intimacy of live streams on social media.
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The Non-Institutional Cultural Institution
For a citizen reappropriation of creation.
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The Accelerated Eye
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The myth of recognition through cultural democratization
Rethinking artistic value beyond systems of domination.
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The Misguided Debate on Funding Cuts for Culture
Rethinking the Role of Public Funding Beyond the Numbers
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For a narrative revolution of territories
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Implementing cultural dissemination
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Culture and political power: from a marriage of convenience to a consummated divorce
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Culture is no longer the theater of power. Once an instrument of political influence, it now struggles to justify its public funding. How can we (…) -
What is a cultural policy? Why is culture political? And what is political in culture?
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Dilapidation of resources in supply logic
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Formalizing the informal
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Towards a distributed cultural sector
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France’s cultural sector faces the urgent need for a rethink
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Cultivating digital sovereignty
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Cultural investigation with artificial intelligence
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Corporate memory at the service of cultural rights
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Towards voluntary evaluation of cultural projects
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The subsidized cultural sector is going through a crisis of legitimacy after betraying its democratic values. I believe that a refoundation (…) -
Welcoming radicalized people to cultural venues
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Cultural venues and social networks
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Documentation and artificial intelligence
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For a virtuous dispersal of the cultural sector
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The marginality of cultural institutions
Lucidity of a paradigm shift.
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On the role of artists
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Primary and secondary cultural practices
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Re-engaging France’s public cultural sector as a good corporate citizen
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Facing budget cuts, the public cultural sector must reconnect with its democratic mission. Beyond corporatism, professionals must strengthen their (…) -
Evolving forms of artistic creation
An anthropological reflection on the forms of subsidized artistic creation.
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Beyond walls: video as a vehicle for cultural democracy
When digital mediation transforms the relationship between citizens and heritage.
Video in museums represents a challenge of cultural mediation and the democratization of heritage. In the digital age, it transforms the (…) -
Legitimizing unfamiliar cultural practices
Anthropology of the future.
To foster intercultural dialogue, we need to legitimize cultural practices that are unknown to us, without ranking them above our own. This (…) -
Putting Artificial Intelligence to good use in the cultural sector
Methodological approaches.
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Overcoming the fragility of public funding for culture
Anthropological point of view, to sketch out future paths.
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Systematize mutual discoveries between cultural players
Removing obstacles to cooperation.
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Pour une robustesse coopérative des projets culturels
Réflexion sur les modalités de coopération territoriale et d’évaluation.
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“Donotdo”
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New directions
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See also
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Dilapidation of resources in supply logic For a democratic revolution of cultural practices.
Faced with the crisis in the cultural sector, it is urgent to shift from a top-down supply logic to a culture of connection and listening, (…) -
On the role of artists For a politics of the artist.
The political role of the artist is never neutral. Whether they want it or not, their social position and aesthetic choices reflect an engagement, (…) -
Corporate memory at the service of cultural rights Rethinking the relationship between cultural venues and people.
Cultural institutions, through their failure to collect and care for data, forget those they welcome, denying their dignity. This amnesia (…) -
What is a cultural policy? Why is culture political? And what is political in culture? A critical approach to cultural policies through the lens of cultural rights.
All culture is political because it imposes rules of belonging and worldviews. Exploring this dimension illuminates the democratic stakes of (…) -
OPC: “Culture, youth and digital” training Designing new modalities for cultural and educational projects. March 2022.
A new concept of internship for cultural professionals, in order to build an opening to the public who have deserted the public and associative (…)
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