Sameness and diversification: A global quantitative survey on cultural innovation in the visual arts

Cultural policies and cultural policy-making are closely associated with creativity and cultural innovation. While the festivals, large-scale art exhibitions and literary conferences supported by such policies play a vital part in the cultural landscape, in recent years they have been increasingly criticised as actually preventing creativity and innovativeness. The claim is that they foster a limited number of creative individuals while rejecting others, and that they are dominated by Western cultural norms that erase cultural diversity. A lack of wide-ranging empirical data with which to substantiate such claims, particularly from an historical perspective, has led to the creation of a 15,000-entry database with the names, nationalities and other details of the artists participating in perennial exhibitions, such as documenta, the Havana Biennial, Istanbul Biennial and Gwangju Biennale. These biennials and perennial exhibitions are widely regarded as vital to the definition of artistic standards and innovations in the visual arts, as exerting an important influence both in their home countries and abroad, and as encouraging the participation of artists from around the world. The first part of this paper considers which artists have appeared in regularly occurring exhibitions, determining whether the majority of them are, indeed, the same and whether there is any bias towards a particular cultural region. The second part inquires whether biennials and other regularly occurring exhibitions in the Western hemisphere “ignore” artists from other regions, or whether they, in fact, represent a global perspective. In short, this paper explores the cultural diversity of these perennial exhibitions and determines whether they favour artists from particular regions, while excluding others. The findings reveal that the data do not support these assumptions and that international exhibitions do, in fact, contribute to creativity, diversity and multiculturalism.     

The Almohads and the Qur’ān of Uthm ān: The Legacy of the Umayyads of Cordoba in the Twelfth Century Maghrib

The sixth/twelfth century geographer, al-Idrīsī, alludes to the presence of the so-called Qur’ān of Uthmān in the great Mosque of Cordoba and a ceremony in which it was brought out and paraded daily after the Umayyads proclaimed themselves caliphs in 317/929-30. Around 552/1157, the same Qur’ān appeared in the processions of the Almohads, a Ma?mūda Berber dynasty from the High Atlas mountains, who also claimed to be caliphs. Ibn ?ā?ib al-?alāt, al-Marrākushī and the unknown author of the ?ulal al-mawshiyya, who describe the Almohad parades, all mention the Qur’ān's Uthmānic antecedents and possession by the Umayyads. Using this as a starting point, this paper will explore the image the Umayyads projected in the Maghrib, and the later significance of Cordoban Umayyad prototypes to the ruling Mu’minid dynasty of the Almohads. This contributes to a larger discussion of the evolution of a paradigm of imperial power in the Islamic west and its manipulation to legitimise a succession of dynasties whose actual origins, ambitions and praxis diverged widely.     

Fake logos,fake theory,fake globalization

This essay attempts to map out the global networking of counter‐feit production and consumption by considering the historical and economic complications of fake superlogograms in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China as a point of departure. It traces not only the ‘capital logic’ of the counter‐feiting industry, which duplicates the international division of labour, but also its ‘cultural logic’, which creates the Euro‐American superlogograms under the spell of Western imperialist ideology. The essay is divided into three main parts to foreground the ‘glocal’ circulation of fake superlogos. The first part considers the famous French Louis Vuitton as a case study to explore the economic, historic and cultural formation of the logomania in East Asia piloted by Japan in the 1980s. The second part discusses the double cultural reproduction of fake logos in Taiwan as both an imitation of Japan and an imitation of Japanese imitation of Europe. The third part seeks to theorize the fake under the context of Asian consumption of the superlogo and to foreground further the historical change of how the ‘fake’ becomes ubiquitous, how the ‘fake’ could be produced out of no originals, and how the ‘fake’ turns out to be perfectly indistinguishable and doubly authentic, which could rewrite the whole theory of mimesis. A new theorization of ‘fake dissemination’ is attempted in this essay to map out the co‐dependent ongoing (de)construction between ‘fake globalization’ and ‘globalization.’ What we mean by ‘fake’ here is no longer the mere difference between real/fake; the ‘fake’ in ‘fake globalization’ means ‘counter‐feiting’ as well as ‘appropriating’. (In Chinese, ‘Jia’ means both ‘fake’ and ‘by a particular means’.) That is, counter‐feit products appropriate the power of globalization to disseminate themselves. ‘Fake globalization’ is the ‘dark flow’ within globalization; it counter‐feits and appropriates globalization, repetitively reduplicating and deconstructing it. ‘Fake globalization’ and ‘globalization’ are not a pair in binary opposition. ‘Fake globalization’ is the ‘subversion’ of global capitalism; it is subject to global superlogo fashion consciousness and simultaneously resistant to the manipulation of ‘glogocentrism’. This subversive fake globalization is different from the traditional anti‐globalization movement, which tends to highlight the protection of international worker's rights, anti‐monopoly and anti‐sweatshops, for the latter focuses chiefly on the ‘oppositional’ stance while the former stresses more the ‘reverse’ side of it. Fake globalization helps to turn globalization itself inside out and outside in. Fake globalization is not an external attack on globalization from without, but an internal exposure of how the historical and psychic formulations of the logics of global capitalism are subject to the cultural imagination under (western) imperialist ideology, and how they are influenced by the political‐economic deployment of international divisions of labour. What fake dissemination does is to expose from within the possibility and impossibility of ‘glogocentrism.’     

Desire: A History of European Sexuality. By Anna Clark/Sexuality in World History. By Peter N. Stearns

ABSTRACT

The present article uses Nell Dunn's Up the Junction (1963) to explore class, gender and the city in the 1960s. It focuses on three elements: the book's representation of post-war, urban working-class identity; the place of gender and sexuality within that representation; and, finally, Nell Dunn's own position as a middle-class observer. It argues for the continuing relevance and dynamism of class as a social referent in post-war, ‘affluent’ Britain. The article also explores the meaning of ‘slumming’ in the context of the mid-twentiethcentury city, against the background of ‘affluence’ and the emergence of the ‘permissive society’. What becomes particularly apparent in both contexts is the importance of femininity and female sexuality in the representation of mid-twentieth-century London, whether in terms of the portrayal of working-class women or the position of the middle-class author.     

Team processes, team conflict, team outcomes, and gender: An examination of U.S. and Mexican learning teams

Team learning is growing rapidly in popularity in United States (U.S.) and Mexican universities. This instructional approach consists of using learning teams in which participants are required to work together regularly for a semester period of time and produce evaluated team outcomes. These team outcomes, along with their individual performance, have a significant impact on each individual's final assessment. We compare team processes, team conflict, team outcomes, and gender interaction in Mexican and U.S. student teams. U.S. teams report more team-oriented behavior and more cohesiveness, and Mexican teams report more self-oriented behavior and more conflict. Nationality (United States or Mexico) has a moderating effect on the relationship between gender heterogeneity and cohesiveness and conflict. Suggestions are given for applications and future research.     

Measuring creativity: A case study in the UK's Designer Fashion sector

Since before the 1997 General Election, New Labour has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the creative industries in underpinning the national economy and as an engine of economic growth. The Creative Industries Task Force Mapping Documents of 1998 and 2001 sought to define and quantify in broad terms economic activity across 13 distinct creative industries. More detailed estimates have been published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in successive annual Creative Industries Economic Estimates.

An assessment is provided of the way in which the creative industries have been measured using the Office of National Statistics' Standard Industrial and Standard Occupational classifications (SIC and SOC). These classifications have themselves been revised since the early 1990s, and further revisions are in prospect from 2007. In this analysis particular focus is given to the ‘Designer Fashion’ sector, illustrated by a number of tables and data analyses.

These actual and proposed revisions have helped in documenting the rapidly emerging creative industries, which have reportedly grown at two to three times the rate of the UK economy as a whole. However, as the Regional Culture Data Framework published in 2002 records, serious problems remain in providing valid assessments of the creative industries sectors from ‘official’ published sources, even for the UK as a whole, let alone at the regional level emphasized by the Regional Culture Data Framework's regional sponsors. In any case, often the ‘scaling factors’ applied to official SIC codes to define creative industries appear arbitrary.

Many of the Regional Culture Data Framework's recommendations, notably the adoption of a more comprehensive ‘supply-chain’ approach to documenting the cultural sector, make further demands upon the existing official structural classifications and the data bases underpinning them. Even where all elements in the ‘supply chain’ are well documented, there are still questions about the validity of this approach. For example, should wholesale and retail distribution of creative industry products be regarded as part of the ‘Cultural Cycle’?

In conclusion, it is suggested that the ‘official’ data has marked limitations in documenting the creative industries and does not realistically or adequately capture the more interesting and dynamic elements of an industry like ‘Designer Fashion’. This is disappointing in a context where central government has placed increasing emphasis upon evidence-based policy to support the development of the creative industries, and where the British ‘Designer Fashion’ sector has lamented the lack of central support in comparison with the French or Italian industries. It is suggested that a more customized approach to collecting data about the creative industries is needed if the results are to usefully inform the further development and profile of these sectors.     

Current Status and Future Directions for Cultural Intelligence

The concept of cultural intelligence was formulated to ease and understand multicultural interactions in business organizations. Based on the theory of multiple intelligence; it is the cross-cultural facet of intelligence that assists adaptive cultural adjustment. Due to its implications for the contemporary world witnessing increased cultural contact and clashes; it has attracted multidisciplinary scholarly interest. This article reviews the development, validation and major approaches to the construct, along with a focus on its critical analysis. Significance of the construct in promoting intercultural discourse to encourage pacific multicultural existence is implicated. Furthermore, suggestions are made to extend the scope of cultural intelligence research and integrate it in diverse fields encompassing intercultural contact and communication.     

Transformation and job creation in the cultural and creative industries in South Africa

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) have been hailed as offering great potential to create jobs and to be socially inclusive. Since artistic success is defined by individual talent, or merit, the CCIs should be one sector that is especially open to, and appreciative of, social diversity in terms of race, class, cultural group and gender. However, as expected, recent studies in both the UK and the US have revealed that employment in the CCIs is heavily dominated by the middle classes, and is not as diverse in terms of other characteristics. Since the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, transformation of firm ownership, previously dominated by white people, to include more black, coloured and Indian/Asian-origin South Africans, has been an important part of achieving greater economic equality and social cohesion, as well as being more representative of the cultures of the majority of the population. Using data from a survey of 2400 CCIs firms in South Africa, this paper examines the extent to which the CCIs in South Africa have transformed in terms of ownership and employment. Comparisons are also made across the six UNESCO [(2009). Framework for cultural statistics. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/culture/Pages/framework-cultural-statistics.aspx] “Cultural Domains” in terms of ownership, average monthly turnover and the number of full-time, part-time and contract employees. Results show some diversity in the industry, but significant differences between the Domains. Statistical analysis demonstrates that CCI funding policy in South Africa is sensitive to advancing the transformation agenda in that more transformed firms were shown to be more likely to have received some form of government grant as part of their income.     

American Commentaries

ABSTRACT

Despite widespread assertions as to the ‘Americanization’ of British culture in the first half of the twentieth century, the true extent of this cultural transfer remains open to question. This article considers what the British people actually knew about ‘America’, its institutions, culture and way of life, in this period through an analysis of coverage of the USA in the British news media (press, newsreels and wireless) in the inter-war years. Specific attention is paid to the attempts of the BBC – in particular through the broadcasting work of Raymond Gram Swing and Alistair Cooke – to provide an understanding of contemporary America beyond the widely cited stereotypes of ‘Chicago gangsters and Hollywood blondes'.     

The Donkey of the Prophet in Shī‘ite Tradition

The present study examines the treatment of the Prophet's mount in Shī‘ite tradition. We discuss the different opinions concerning the ass's name, ‘Ufayr or Ya‘fūr and present various traditions concerning utterances spoken by it, including utterances addressed to the Prophet, and other cases of human-like behaviour on its part, such as an ability to distinguish Muslims from Jews. We then go on to compare the Prophet's ass to those of other prophets, and find a number of similarities between them, in particular their ability to speak a human language. We also discuss the ass's death, which according to Shī‘ite tradition was by suicide, occasioned by the ass's fear following his master's death that someone else, not a prophet, would use it as a mount. We compare the Prophet's ass to those of Noah, and Solomon's Hoopoe, and show how Shī‘ite tradition has focused on similarities among them and utilized those to support the idea of the Imāmate as the Prophet's legacy in Shī‘ite doctrine. We further discuss the preference which Shī‘ite Imāms had for asses as against other mounts, a preference based on their wish to follow in the Prophet's footsteps.     

Culture as commons: theoretical challenges and empirical evidence from occupied cultural spaces in Italy

ABSTRACT

What happens when we try to understand art as a commons? Elinor Ostrom [(1990/2012). Governing the commons. Cambridge University Press] challenged Hardin’s “The tragedy of the commons” [(1968). Science, 162(3859), 1243–1248] demonstrating that the governance of common pool resources is not always destined to failure. Ostrom’s analysis was initially applied to the management of shared natural resources; however, over time the term “commons” has also been used to describe non-tangible resources, specifically knowledge. Can Ostrom’s theory of the commons inform artistic practice? This article investigates some challenges presented by these research questions and their implications for cultural policy. In order to provide an empirical ground for the discussion of this topic, this paper will analyse the case studies of two cultural spaces in Italy, Teatro Valle (Rome) and Asilo Filangieri (Naples), which were occupied by groups of cultural professionals and managed as commons between 2011 and 2016; the outcomes of these occupations indicate possible ways to develop a commons-oriented approach to culture.     

Measuring the ethnic diversity of the museum workforce and the impact and cost of positive-action training,with particular reference to the Diversify scheme

This paper attempts to determine the ethnic profile (sometimes called “cultural diversity”) of the museum sector workforce. It sets the museum sector workforce in the context of the population as a whole and makes some comparisons to the diversity of the wider cultural sector workforce. It looks also at positive action training schemes, targeted at under-represented minority groups, in particular the Museums Association's Diversify scheme, looking at their cost and effectiveness in securing employment. It also describes other positive action schemes such as Arts Council England's Inspire programme and Diversify management-level traineeships and traineeships for deaf and disabled people. It tentatively considers the impact and value for money of positive-action training. It also sets out the legal and policy context for workforce diversification, in particular the implications for data collection of section 37 of the Race Relations Act 1976.

The headline finding is that the proportion of people from minority-ethnic backgrounds in the UK museum sector increased from 2.5% in 1993 to about 7% in 2006–2008. This varies between 1.3% and 10.4% depending on the type of museum and the type of job and compares to an overall minority-ethnic working age population of 12.6% in England in 2008.

There is a significant under-representation of most (but probably not all) minority-ethnic groups in most areas of museum work. The paper concludes by making brief suggestions about how policy makers and researchers might respond.     

A Complaint with the Cadi,ca. 1896: an East/West Cultural Encounter

This article presents a case study of A Complaint with the Cadi (Algeria), ca. 1896 – a painting by the French Orientalist artist Marie Lucas-Robiquet (1858–1959). Using cultural and social history as prisms, it explores what Lucas-Robiquet’s visual record communicates to the cultural ‘outsider’ about Muslim social life in French colonial Algeria. Attention is given to this artwork because it depicts the Islamic judiciary system as practised in late nineteenth-century Algeria. This article argues that this painting and its subject matter are rare in the Orientalist canon; that the artist was female, is, I posit, crucial to the ways in which this work can be read. Lucas-Robiquet, a decorated Orientalist, used a Naturalist style of painting which was both nuanced and sensitive to Islamic cultural traditions. I contend that A Complaint with the Cadi (or qā?ī meaning judge) is an important work because it represents a locus of historicised forms of Otherness: the French female artist and the Algerian cultural attribute.     

Social inclusivity,cultural diversity and online film consumption

It has been argued that the circulation of film online is a “democratising process”, evident in the breadth and depth of international film now available online, and in the greater ease of access to this content for audiences across the world. This is seen by some to present greater commercial opportunities for film-making from countries marginalised by previous distribution networks, and to foster a more globally diverse and inclusive film-viewing culture, with particular benefits for diasporic populations. Others, however, have pointed to the way in which audiences’ engagement with film online may be constrained by the economics and technology of online distribution and cultural competencies rooted in social stratification. These factors may limit how and what audiences watch, extending beyond issues of physical access to those of cultural access. As such, they raise questions regarding the demographic composition of the audience for online methods of film distribution and different types of international film. We lack sufficient understanding of these issues, however, due to the limited emphasis upon socio-demographic variables in existing academic research into online film consumption, and the limited consideration of particular film content in relevant market research. This article uses original audience research to interrogate the extent to which online distribution is able to connect audiences to a diversity of international film in comparison to other methods of distribution. It also considers some of the socio-demographic characteristics of the audiences for different methods of distribution and types of international film. In doing so, the article grants us a clearer understanding of the degree to which online film distribution fosters diversity and inclusivity through the connections it facilitates between audiences and content.     

Two cultures: the use and non-use of hypotheses in cultural policy research1

In the hard sciences research programmes are designed to generate evidence consistent or inconsistent with particular hypotheses. Hypotheses unsupported by evidence are modified or abandoned. The framers and testers of scientific hypotheses are members of the same profession, similarly trained and likely to interpret evidence in similar ways. They have professionally generalized responsibility for the quality and integrity of each other's work. Peer review systems are in place to monitor performance and expose chicanery. This is not the case in the cultural policy research arena. Here, policymakers, arts advocates and academic policy analysts are breeds apart. Their professional affiliations and lines of accountability are radically unlike. We have highly selective “advocacy” evidence on the one hand; highly developed but untestable academic theory on the other, suggesting the hypothetical existence of evidence for which academics are not allowed to look. Policymakers avoid “what if?” questions because they are paid to maintain positions of certainty. Academics ask, but lack the data to answer. Neither approach is satisfactory for shaping the future. This paper explains how the two opposing research traditions came into being and points to some of the problems which poor communication between theoreticians and practitioners can create.     

Re-imagining the local in national cultural policy formulation – the case of the Anglophone Caribbean

ABSTRACT

The formulation of cultural policies in the Anglophone Caribbean constantly straddles the demands of global, regional and national imperatives as a function of its position as a region of post-colonial, small-island states. This paper will argue that the role these factors play in the art of policy making problematises conventions in the current global/local (glocal) debate circulating in the arena of Cultural Policy Studies. The paper shows that cultural policy making in the Caribbean constitutes a mélange of approaches that are in a constant state of contestation during the policy-making process. It employs content analysis of cultural policy texts from selected Caribbean states, as well as an analysis of stakeholder views from the national cultural policy consultations in Trinidad and Tobago to derive its findings. A Five Factor framework was developed to illustrate the range of responses that guide and shape local actors and activities in the national cultural policy domain. The research concludes that the relationship between the national and local (nocal) actors has to be re-imagined if cultural policy is to deliver on its promise of social transformation in the Caribbean.     

The art of the good life: culture and sustainable prosperity

ABSTRACT

The creative economy has seen cultural policy swallowed up by a narrow vision of economic growth, its impacts on the urban fabric captured by property developers, and its promises of meaningful activity challenged by the exploitation and inequities of cultural labour markets. So it needs to be abandoned and re-thought, but on what basis? This paper analyses the potential for cultural work to encourage alternative visions of the “good life”, in particular, how it might encourage a kind of “sustainable prosperity” wherein human flourishing is not linked to high levels of material consumption but rather the capabilities to engage with cultural and creative practices and communities. We critically explore these ideas in three locations: a London borough, a deindustrialised city in England’s midlands and a rural town on the Welsh/English border. Across these diverse landscapes and socio-economic contexts, we look at different versions of the good life and at the possibilities and constraints of cultural activity as a way of achieving kinds of sustainable prosperity.     

Cultural mapping and sustainable communities: planning for the arts revisited

The field of arts and cultural planning and the aspirations of cultural practitioners, arts development officers and town planners has had a long, if frustrated, history in the United Kingdom. The relationship between the land-use development system and arts and cultural policy has lacked specific provision guidance or standards. This is in contrast to other areas of leisure and recreation, such as parks and open spaces, sports facilities and libraries. In large part this is due to the discretionary nature of much arts provision and also the fact that there is no single type of provider. Arts facilities and activity are delivered directly and indirectly by local and county councils, community and independent not-for-profit arts organizations – large and small – and private enterprises in the commercial entertainment and cultural industries. The absence of planning guidance and comparable data to assess the need for, and location of, a range of cultural amenities has also hampered an equitable, distributory planning approach. However, renewed interest in amenity planning and the role of cultural activity and opportunity in “place making” is evident internationally, and in the UK in particular, as new housing growth areas, demographic change and population increases require the planning of social as well as physical infrastructure on a scale not experienced since the last major new town developments. This article reviews the evolution of arts and cultural planning in the UK, including an assessment of recent concepts, guidance and resources in the UK and elsewhere. Cultural mapping and planning approaches are then demonstrated in housing growth areas, followed by a proposed methodology and framework for populating the cultural map. Finally, conclusions are made on the state of data and policy integration in what continues to be a fragmented cultural system.     

Social stratification of culture and leisure in Turkey

Using three sets of survey data, this article explores the variations and social bases of leisure and cultural consumption patterns during the last decade in Turkey. In particular, this article explores the social basis of reading habits of daily newspapers, magazines and journals, going out to movies and the theatre, as well as spending patterns on these and various other cultural activities. Questions addressed in this study are: how are culture and leisure consumptions stratified in contemporary Turkish society, and what types of changes can be detected between 1994 and 2004? In summary, the data indicate that leisure and cultural consumption tend to be stratified by educational and income level and, to some extent, white-collar occupations. Second, households with female heads tended to engage more in “highbrow” consumption, compared to households with male heads.     

Shaping screen talent: Conceptualising and developing the film and TV workforce in Scotland

Together with “creativity”, the concept of “talent” has emerged within UK and global policy discussions as being central to unlocking economic success within the creative industries. At a crucial time of political and technological change, Scotland finds itself competing within a highly competitive global market to identify, attract and retain creative talent and strengthen its skills base. As such, developing “talent” is a key aspect of the Scottish Government's Strategy for the Creative Industries. However, while creativity has been interrogated across academic disciplines in recent years, talent remains under-theorised within the academy and lacks a clear definition across policy and industry. Taking the screen industries as its focus, this paper draws on empirical data derived from a series of knowledge exchange workshops funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh designed to initiate dialogue between academics, policy-makers and stakeholders within Scotland and beyond. In doing so, it scopes out some of the key ways in which screen “talent” is conceptualised by these groups and raises questions regarding how particular understandings may impact on policies designed to identify, attract and retain a diverse range of skilled workers within the sector. We argue that greater precision should be used in policy discourse to emphasise the importance of developing particular and discrete craft skills rather than privileging a workforce that is highly flexible and mobile. We also suggest that policy-makers and educators must acknowledge and encourage transparency regarding the precariousness of building a career within the screen industries.