Cultural rights have been part of French law since 2015 and 2016, they appear in almost every territorial cultural plan, and many professionals admit to me in private that they could not explain them to a colleague. Vocabulary has much to do with it: this is a field where jargon manufactures domination, which is the height of irony. So I propose talks without jargon, which start from situations your teams will recognise.
First direction: the definition in ten minutes, then the consequences
The Fribourg declaration, French law, the dignity of persons, culture in the anthropological sense, that is, what constitutes us. Democratisation makes the great works accessible; cultural democracy organises mutual enrichment; the two are not opposed but do not call for the same gestures. Then we spend the rest of the time on the practical consequences, which are considerable. See What is a cultural policy ? Why is culture political ? And what is political in culture ? and Cultural rights and professional postures.
Second direction: does the form contradict the intention?
A plea for cultural democracy written through a top-down method contradicts itself. The layout of a room, the order in which people speak, the way a consultation is organised, all say the real policy, whatever the displayed text. This is the direction I take most willingly, because it makes cultural rights immediately verifiable. See The political dimension of organisational frameworks and Transmitting cultural rights : a question of coherence.
Third direction: respecting each person is not everyone’s agreement
Cultural rights are often understood as a demand for consensus, and that reading makes them inapplicable as soon as a serious disagreement appears, on secularism, on gender, on contemporary art. They demand respect for each person, not the agreement of all, and organised disagreement is a legitimate way of exercising them. A precious direction for teams facing real tensions with audiences or between colleagues. See On Being a Good Enough Professional and Educating about images, organising disagreement.
Fourth direction: cultural rights in digital spaces
Discoverability, algorithms, what becomes of a digitised heritage that nobody appropriates, the sovereignty of tools. A little-treated subject, much in demand from local authorities rebuilding their digital strategy. See Cultural Rights and Digital Discoverability, Algorithms and Cultural Rights and Will Heritage Still Be Part of Our Lives in 2045 ?.
Fifth direction: the legitimacy to participate
Nobody takes part in something they do not feel entitled to, so the essential work happens before the invitation. This direction provides concrete criteria on the architecture of venues, the welcome, the vocabulary, the roles on offer. See Legitimate participation as the horizon of cultural events, Authorizing Creation and Architecture of artistic venues and cultural rights.
What happens in the room
On this subject more than any other, the coherence between the message and the method is the message itself. So I have people experience formats where each person has a place: questions answered by standing up, timed exchanges in pairs, individual writing whose contributions appear on the wall and ground the final discussion. At the end of the session I name these methods, because they are reusable and because they constitute an implementation of cultural rights rather than an illustration of them.
What remains
The contribution wall stays accessible online, hosted on our own servers. When a local authority is working on its territorial cultural plan, this material, written by the staff themselves, weighs more in the trade-offs than a consultant’s report, and that is deliberate on my part.
Formats and preparation
An hour and a half, a day, or long-term training-action when the aim is to translate cultural rights into practices and not only into texts. The preparation identifies the concrete situations of your territory to build on, which is worth more than examples borrowed from elsewhere. Finally, cultural rights are best carried by someone from the territory: I can support a member of your team in building and giving the talk themselves [see the page “What if someone from your team did the talking?”, to be linked once published]. Talks are given in French and in English.
Some past talks
Conference : « EAC and cultural rights : convergences to be identified and implemented »; The White Paper on Cultural Decentralisation; What words do to cultural policy; Digital technology, a tool for mediation and cultural democracy.
All the resources: Cultural rights.
