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CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY Discussion about the relationship between culture and economy in Slovenia provoked by a group of younger economists – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY


1
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Discussion about the relationship between culture
    and economy in Slovenia provoked by a group of
    younger economists
  • Their position
  • (1) the market economy is a universal criterion
    for assessing any activity in society
  • (2) all other spheres of social life are
    expected to justify their existence using a kind
    of econometric introspection (a test of their own
    economic rationality benefits for society as a
    whole)

2
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Their demands Whoever wants to receive funds
    from the public budget must first prove that
  • (1) tax payers and society as a whole will
    benefit from the activity in question
  • (2) investment of public funds in a particular
    project is better (more profitable) than
    investment in some other project
  • In other words
  • (1) no public investment as such qualifies as
    worthwhile (for example, on the basis of expert
    assessments)
  • (2) it may become worthwhile only in relation
    to another (real or hypothetical) competing
    subsidy or investment

3
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Culture and all other social activities,
    including those that the European (continental)
    model has traditionally understood as components
    of the welfare state, should be unconditionally
    subjected to market forces and prove their worth
    in competition with other market players.
  • This requirement of young Slovene economists
  • culture should offer convincing arguments
    (meaning acceptable to economists) proving the
    benefits of culture for society as a whole, and
    for the economy in particular
  • a late response to a process that began in the
    USA in the mid 1960s,
  • later spread to Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
    Great Britain
  • and gradually to west European countries.

4
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • The pioneering work in the field of cultural
    economics
  • In the 1960s William Baumol, William Bowen
    Performing Arts The Economic Dilemma
  • In the 1970s William Hendon founded the Journal
    of Cultural Economics and an international
    association that is still active (conferences
    etc.)
  • In the meanwhile studies about the impact of
    culture on the economy have become extremely
    popular
  • At the beginning of the 1990s Anthony Radichs
    review for the US National Endowment for the
    Arts
  • Twenty Years of Economic Impact Studies of the
    Arts

5
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • During the 1970s and the 1980s
  • more than 200 studies in the US dealt with
    economic impact of the arts,
  • discussing issues relating to 34 federal states
  • and more than 100 cities
  • Studies about the economic impact of culture
    flourished especially in North America.

6
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Cultural councils in the USA and Canada began to
    offer simple do-it-yourself manuals and software
    that could be used by cultural organizations to
    calculate their economic impact on the
    environment in which they operate a town, a
    region or the like, e.g.
  • Assessing the Local Economic Impact of the Arts
    A Handbook. 1997. Toronto Ontario Arts Council
  • or a simple software for a quick calculation of
    the economic impact of a cultural activity
    offered by the Americans for the Arts
    organization at
  • http//www.artsusa.org/information_resources/rese
    arch_information/services/economic_impact/calculat
    or.asp

7
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Social and political context of US and GB
    important for understanding of the process
  • At the turn of the 1980s Ronald Reagan and
    Margaret Thatcher came to power
  • Their politics was based on
  • (1) cuts in public expenditure and
  • (2) simultaneous strengthening of the private
    sector.
  • Consequences for artsculture
  • (1) considerable reduction in subsidies received
    from the state budget
  • (2) immediate need to compensate the lack of
    resources through market approaches

8
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Chin-tao Wu Privatising Culture Corporate Art
    Intervention since the 1980s (Verso, 2002)
  • Cultural organizations were pressed to get
    accustomed to the competitive spirit of free
    enterprise.
  • Particularly symptomatic the statements from
    the representatives of Reagan and Thatcher
    administrations and leading national funds, the
    Arts Council in Great Britain and the National
    Endowment for the Arts in the USA, such as
  • commercial films are as much art as
    non- commercial ones
  • an artists reputation is made in the market
  • and the like.

9
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • In these circumstances that were unfavorable for
    culture, and non-commercial culture in
    particular, and even a threat to its very
    existence, cultural workers, their supporters and
    advocates started to commission research projects
    that were expected
  • (1) to provide hard (numerical, statistical)
    indicators
  • (2) by doing so, to convince the economists and
    politicians that investment in culture was
  • commercially justified
  • that it could create new jobs
  • contribute to increased consumption etc.

10
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • The aim of the impact studies was to convince
    those who had power that subsidies for culture
    produce so-called multiplier effect.
  • Why this conclusion is important?
  • It shows that the study of the economic impact of
    culture
  • did not emerge owing to some internal logic
    inherent in the research field itself
  • was not motivated by a romantic search for
    truth on the part of scholars, but
  • by the need to provide a politically convincing
    argument that could be used effectively when
    lobbying for culture.

11
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • In principle no reason to reject in advance
    economic studies of any field of social activity,
    including culture.
  • What worries experts in the field (Radich, van
    Puffelen etc.) are
  • (1) the methodologically unacceptable
    shortcuts used in collecting and selecting data
  • (2) attempts at self-interested interpretation
    of statistically aggregated data
  • (3) simplifying /one-sided understanding of
    cultural production
  • Many of these studies are
  • (1) a product not of political economy, but
    rather of politicized economy
  • (2) an uncritical instrumentalization of
    economic studies for political purposes

12
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Radich 2 key points of his analysis of impact
    studies
  • (1) Their methodological (non)credibility, such
    as
  • superficially conceptualized and inadequate
    samples
  • insufficient researchers discipline in
    collecting and interpreting data
  • wrong assessments when data are not available
  • wrong assessments of the impact on the tax system
  • inadequate methods of calculating the multiplier
    effect
  • researchers being ideologically influenced by
    commissioners etc.

13
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • (2) Impact studies are inconsistent with the
    nature of the arts
  • structural problem of these studies because
  • The arts have an economic dimension, but that
    dimension does not constitute the essence of the
    arts. Economic arguments for the arts do not
    emerge from the central philosophy or strength of
    the arts their creativity, their ability to
    challenge, for example but rely instead on
    central features of a non-arts discipline.

14
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Radich indeed says that this conclusion does not
    mean that economic analysis cannot be beneficial
    for art.
  • For him, it is problematic only when the economic
    value of an artistic or cultural project becomes
    the only argument used to prove its cultural
    value and significance for society.
  • If such arguing for the significance of culture
    and justification of public expenditures becomes
    the prevailing discourse, then sooner or later it
    will be the economists who will take decisions
    concerning culture instead of those to whom
    culture means much more than just the number of
    tickets sold.

15
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • In a debate in which the key argument is
    economic rationality, the struggle is bitter,
    and the winner is one who can convincingly prove
    that
  • the designated activity is more profitable
  • it brings more jobs and
  • it ensures progressive development.
  • Yet it is a question whether in such a struggle
    it is truly possible to offer arguments
    sufficiently solid as to protect culture from the
    economic rationality of other, more profitable
    sectors?

16
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • This by no means suggests that cultural
    researchers should refrain from addressing this
    subject.
  • On the contrary, to leave this important sphere
    of cultural policy to economists exclusively
    would be irresponsible.
  • Other disciplines that could contribute much to
    this debate
  • - sociology and its specialized branches (the
    sociology of culture, the sociology of work,
    urban sociology etc.)
  • - cultural and arts history
  • - communications studies
  • - aesthetics and many more

17
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Some economists seem to be unaware of the fact
    that cultural practices and artistic creativity
    are not necessary compatible with the competitive
    principle of the market.
  • Radich, for example, thinks that the logic behind
    the economic (i.e. market) success of culture is
    devastating for the principle of collaboration
    characterizing many actors in the fields of arts
    and culture.
  • The ideology of economic rationality and market
    success encourages competition rather than
    collaboration and the atomization of individuals
    and organizations rather than linking them
    together.

18
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • Art and culture are not means to economic ends
    (as advocated by economic impact arguments),
    but the economy is a means to artistic and
    cultural ends.
  • Christopher Madden

19
CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC RATIONALITY
  • References
  • Madden, Christopher. 2001. Using 'Economic'
    Impact Studies in Arts and Cultural Advocacy A
    Cautionary Note. Media International Australia,
    No. 98, pp. 161-178 (see also http//www.fuel4arts
    .com/content/files/ACF5A4E.pdf).
  • Milohnic, Aldo. 2004. Kultura in ekonomija
    (Culture and the Economy). Revija 2000, No.
    168-170, pp. 23-26.
  • . 2005. Mladoekonomisti proti kulturniÅ¡kemu
    lobiju (Young Economists against the Cultural
    Lobby). In Autor, Sabina and Kuhar, Roman
    (eds.). Intolerance Monitor Report No. 4.
    Ljubljana Peace Institute, pp. 106-123.
  • Radich, Anthony J. 1992. Twenty Years of Economic
    Studies of the Arts A Review. Washington, DC
    National Endowment for the Arts.
  • Van Puffelen, Frank. 1996. Abuses of
    Conventional Impact Studies in the Arts.
    Cultural Policy, Vol. II, No. 2, pp. 241-254.
  • Wu, Chin-tao. 2002. Privatising Culture
    Corporate Art Intervention since the 1980s.
    London, New York Verso.
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