Cultural Policies

We understand Cultural Policies in a broad sense, as encompassing the entire cultural sector from public through intermediary to private. Our publications are based on qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.

Frédéric Martel, "Mainstream": Who will win a global war (2020, new edition)

For over a decade, Mainstream has been considered a key study on the cultural industries, the media and digitisation. Among blockbusters, bestsellers, hits or social networks, a global struggle for cultural and digital influence has broken out. From Hollywood to Bollywood, from China to sub-Saharan Africa, from Mexico to Japan, this unprecedented survey was conducted in 30 countries over a period of five years. The book tells the story of this new global war of culture and media. With its translation into 30 languages, the book itself has become a bestseller and thus “mainstream.” 

Extract

Frédéric Martel, "Cultural Policies: Mapping a field in reinvention" (2020)

The article attempts to describe the state of “cultural policy” in a period of fundamental reinvention and provides an overview of the most important works and studies published in recent years. While digital change has transformed culture, cultural policy has adapted only slowly to this new reality. The author observes an expansion of the term “cultural policy” and describes its various — and new — components. This expanded approach contributes to rethinking the role of public and private actors and the place of artists in a digital society.

Philippe Kern, "For a Cultural European Union" (2020)

The article attempts to characterise EU intervention in the cultural field and to take stock of the achievements of cultural policy. Can we really speak of an EU cultural policy? The paper proposes common elements capable of laying the foundations for developing a genuine cultural European Union. It also stresses the need to articulate and coordinate the various cultural interventions taking place in various EU policy areas. The first section examines how the EU’s legal framework lays the foundations for a cultural European Union even without formal EU cultural competence. The second section looks at the new drivers of EU cultural policy that have emerged since 2007. The last section proposes an EU cultural policy that would address the identity crisis of Europe, which feeds cultural fears and European feelings.

Jacopo Rasmi,"Underpolicies of Sustainable Media" (2020)

"The Creative Industries in the Lake Constance Region" (2019)

This report contains analyses, facts, portraits, figures, comparisons and mappings that paint a multifaceted picture of the border region between Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. This is the first time that the regional significance of the creative economies in the Lake Constance region is explored and placed in its European context. The research was made possible by the International University of Lake Constance (IBH), Zurich University of the Arts, the CreativeEconomies Research Venture and the HTWG Konstanz – University of Applied Sciences. The Statistical Office of the Canton of Zurich served as a field partner.

Editor: Janine Schiller

Co-curators: Christoph Weckerle, Simon Grand

Lake Constance Region’s Creative Economy, 2019

Christoph Weckerle, "Kreativwirtschaft – schillernd, unscharf, neu zu denken" (2019)

This article considers the creative industries as dynamic interaction and was published by Christoph Weckerle in “Bulletin 1/19” of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences SAGW.

Simon Grand, Christoph Weckerle, "Economification and Culturalization - Dynamics and Governance Models" (2018)

This essay was published in Scripted Culture: Digitisation and Cultural Public Spheres, edited by Ruedi Widmer and Ines Kleesattel (Diaphanes, 2018).

Simon Grand, Christoph Weckerle, "The Palaver on Scaling Enterprises" (2017) 

The 21st century is characterised by our almost limitless ability to imagine things on different scales. Our imagination on the subject of “size” has driven technical progress and has also inspired art. The proceedings of the symposium on “Too Big To Scale” (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2017), held at Zurich University of the Arts in 2015, include Simon Grand and Christoph Weckerle’s “A Palaver on Scaling Creative Enterprises.”


The 21st century is characterised by our almost limitless ability to imagine things on different scales. Our imagination on the subject of “size” has driven technical progress and has also inspired art. The proceedings of the symposium on “Too Big To Scale” (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2017), held at Zurich University of the Arts in 2015, include Simon Grand and Christoph Weckerle’s “A Palaver on Scaling Creative Enterprises.”