Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Reasearch position paper 4of the realities of cultural diversity and more aware of the intangible features ofcultural heritage and patrimony.Key moments of implementation of the concept in the Australian context havebeen:i. the 1990 Brisbane Cultural Development Strategy (Mercer, 1991b), which firstoutlined the logic behind cultural planning and guaranteed a wide circulationof the model among policy makers keen to develop a framework for the strategicdevelopment of their community’s culture;ii. the Joondalup Cultural Plan, which was the first time the principles had beenapplied to a newly built greenfield city development;iii. the endorsement in 1993 by three levels of government of the cultural developmentpolicy framework in south east Queensland; andiv. the publication of the Cultural Planning Handbook by Arts Queensland and theAustralia Council.Brisbane’s Cultural Development Strategy is particularly relevant as it constitutedthe first attempt to develop a truly culturally inclusive framework for the city. Inthis document, Colin Mercer stated a set of principles on which to base an effectivepolicy. One of them is that, to assure cultural pluralism, it is essential that culturalplanners understand what different segments comprise the community, conductdiscussions and carry out research with each group, and includerepresentations from each group on boards, committees and in the evaluation process.This principle calls for a community cultural assessment as an integral andnecessary component of cultural planning and establishes the objective presenceof the community within the planning process rather than simply as an “object” ofplanning (Grogan and Mercer, 1995: 14-17).In addressing issues of access, equity, participation, employment and quality oflife, cultural planning speaks also about the nature and meaning of civic cultureand redefines the civic realm of a place; in the case of Brisbane, this translatedinto, among other things, a special focus on women’s access to the city centre andits perception and external image as perceived by local ethnic and aboriginal communitiesand young people.In the United States, during the past twenty years, Partners for Livable Places – anon-profit organisation working locally to promote quality of life, economicdevelopment and social equity – has provided new thinking about cultural policywhich moves away from the compensatory logic of some arts programmes. It hasalso addressed issues of access, equity and participation within the framework ofmore general objectives for social and economic development at all levels: that ofthe city, the region, the state or the nation.In 1992, Robert McNulty, project director of Partners for Livable Places, publisheda collection of case studies focusing on cities and towns representing across-section of life in the United States. The overall aim of the research wasto place the arts and culture in the broader context of community development,127