Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Reasearch position paper 3European Union politicians and officials view this with alarm. In their view,Hollywood and American TV exports represent a form of cultural imperialism thatthreatens to undermine the integrity of European culture. Successive French governmentsin particular have made the defence of European culture against globalisation(often construed idiomatically as “Americanisation”) a major policy priority.This stance is exemplified in debates about imposing quotas on the “Europeancontent” of public broadcasting, which critics claim is anti free-trade and servesmerely to mask a protectionist agenda. However, cultural factors may be moreimportant here than simple commercial calculations. European Union policy elitesstill view Hollywood movies, hamburgers, blue jeans, jazz music and Japaneseconsumer goods as objects that stand outside of “European culture”. By contrast,old Dutch Masters, the plays of Shakespeare and Beethoven’s symphonies representthe quintessential European heritage and, moreover, are regarded as part ofour treasured common patrimony. Ideas of popular culture, multiculturalism, culturalpluralism and hybridity appear to be alien or anathema to official conceptionsof European culture.Conclusions: cultural policy and the limits of EurocentrismThe Commission’s 1996 report on European Union cultural policy concludes withthe words:“Cultural policy forms part of the European enterprise and, in this respect, is anintegration factor within an ‘ever-closer union’ between the peoples ofEurope’s (…) cultural policy must make a contribution to strengthening and toexpanding the influence of the ‘European model of society built on a set of valuescommon to all European societies’.” (European Commission, 1996: 102)The problem with this statement, and with European Union cultural policy moregenerally, is twofold. First, it assumes that culture can be harnessed unproblematicallyas a tool to promote the project of European construction, but this is a contentiouspolicy and could backfire if European Union cultural action is perceivedto be too overtly political and instrumental. Second, it assumes consensus for a“European model” of society that does not exist in practice. Furthermore, thatEuropean model does little to acknowledge the cultural diversity that now exists inEurope’s increasingly multicultural societies. The problem for the EuropeanUnion in its attempts to invent Europe at the level of popular consciousness byunifying people around a common heritage is how to do this without marginalisingand excluding those “non-European” peoples and cultures that fall outside theEuropean Union’s somewhat selective and essentialist conception of Europe’s culturalheritage.European Union discourses on culture frequently advance the idea that culturalidentities operate like concentric rings and that creating a “European identity”simply entails adding a new layer of authority and belonging over and above existinglocal/regional/national layers, like so many Russian dolls. Unfortunately, identityformation is a more complex and contested process than this model assumes,117