Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Transversal study on the theme of cultural policy and cultural diversityirrespective of their size or status in terms of histories of migration – each beingjudged, at least theoretically, as being of equal value. In the current moment of culturaldiversity, by contrast, it is the intersections and intermixings of, andcrossovers between, different cultural perspectives and traditions that produces thesocial dynamics for forms of cultural diversity that constantly interpenetrate oneanother with new and unpredictable consequences. It is this dynamic for diversitythat cultural policies – while still pursuing aspects of the earlier phases – are now,in responding to the new conceptual contexts discussed in the previous section(Culture, government and diversity: policy contexts), seeking both to accommodateand to promote.Cultural marketsHowever they are conceived, the social dynamics of diversity have to connect with– or be propelled by – market mechanisms if they are to prove sustainable. It is,moreover, through the role they play in providing the conditions in which marketsoperate that governments can enhance the social dynamics for diversity thatemerge out of the community and associational life of different cultural traditionsand the relations between them. It is arguable in these respects that the connectionsbetween cultural and economic policies bear most directly on cultural diversity.Three contemporary areas of concern illustrate the potential significance of theseconnections.The first concerns the role of “cultural entrepreneurship” in using existing marketsor developing new ones for minority arts and cultural activities. While the term isa new one, there is a long history of “cultural entrepreneurship” on the part ofblack artists, perhaps most successfully in the music industries. There is alsoample evidence of the respects in which such entrepreneurship can be assisted orfrustrated by the measures governments take in terms of a range of factors: localcultural industry development policies, the regulation of sound recording industries,and the regulation of playtime for different categories of music on nationalbroadcast networks, for example. 1The second concerns the significance of connections between cultural diversityand cultural tourism, especially for indigenous peoples whose economies oftendepend significantly on the strong appeal that their arts and culture have fortourists as well as for the world art market. It is true that there are many difficultieshere. The risk that cultural diversity, in these circumstances, becomes a formof “zoo multiculturalism” in which indigenous cultural production becomes tailoredto the interest in exotica which characterise the tourist gaze is real enough. 2So is the risk that most of the financial benefits will go to cultural intermediariesrather than to indigenous cultural producers and communities if intellectual propertystandards and their application are not adjusted to take account of the specific__________1. A range of relevant issues here is canvassed in the essays collected in Malm, 1992, and in Bennettet al., 1993.2. For an assessment of these issues across Australia, Canada and New Zealand, see Craik, 1994.59