Report on The Barents Cultural Co-operation - LabforCulture.org

2001-09-26
Cultural Infrastructure
The cultural sector, where the interaction between local, regional and national levels
is reflected in a variety of structures, is organised in different ways for historical and
political reasons. This presentation focuses on the professional structure and the
development of employment in the sector. However, because of differences in
definitions and statistical measurements, the regions are not fully comparable. The
idea of this chapter is to give an impression of the strengths, weaknesses and
opportunities. This aim is to inform discussions about the priorities and directions of
the cooperation.
A successful cooperation is built upon the idea of a “win-win ” situation, that is to
say all partners will gain from it and it will raise professional skills, artistic
attractiveness, cultural employment opportunities and create strategic networks.
When a cooperation is under development it is very important to understand the
infrastructural differences and similarities of political and administrative bodies,
institutions, non-governmental and citizens’ organisations, arts associations,
enterprises, professionals and cultural workers.
Sources
The employment statistics were compiled by Pantzare Information AB in Luleå,
Sweden, and were obtained from the national statistical bureaux in Sweden, Norway
and Finland. The Russian statistics were collected by the regional administrations in
Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Narjan Mar.
Employment in the Cultural Sector
Cultural employment in Europe is expanding and developing into new fields because
of increasing cultural demands and growing media production. Since the beginning
of the twentieth century, the Nordic countries have supported cultural
democratisation and have developed many amateur associations and nongovernmental
organisations, the “third sector”, largely run by voluntary, unpaid
workers.
Because of the ongoing professionalisation and privatisation of cultural and leisure
production in Europe today, there is the potential for transforming voluntary work
into new jobs, thereby increasing employment.
Russia has a cultural policy based on a network of state professional, cultural
institutions. This has brought about high artistic standards and a large number of
highly-educated, publically employed artists and professionals. However, for a long
time now, jobs in Russian cultural institutions have been the worst paid in the
country, and these cultural workers are now anxious about their professional future
because of the lack of finances.
The development of citizens’ organisations (NGO´s) and the professionalisation of
voluntary work could be of great support to overall cultural production.
Total employment
In 1997, there were some 22,600 people employed in the cultural sector in the
regions of Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, Norrbotten and Lapland.
41