The Artist and the City in "Euro-Mediterranean" Marseille: Redefining State Cultural Policy in an Era of Transnational Governance

Focused on an arts center in Marseille, this article explores how globalization and Europeanization are affecting relations between local cultural producers, national culture, and the state. In France, the state's claims to reshape civil society through cultural policy have been challenged by c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:City & society 2009-12, Vol.21 (2), p.268-292
Main Author: INGRAM, MARK
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artists
Civil Society
Cultural policy
Discourse
Europeanization
France
Globalization
Governance
Humanities
Marseille
national culture
Regional planning
State Power
the state
Transnationalism
Urban planning
Urban studies
Values
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Summary:Focused on an arts center in Marseille, this article explores how globalization and Europeanization are affecting relations between local cultural producers, national culture, and the state. In France, the state's claims to reshape civil society through cultural policy have been challenged by critics who conclude that economic priorities have ended an era of civic‐centered state arts policy. At the same time, local authorities in the Provence‐Alpes‐Côtes d'Azur region value “new territories of art” projects as initiatives consonant with Euro‐Mediterranean commerce and exchange. Adapting to this context, these artists both challenge and rearticulate state cultural policy. They pursue the same universalist Republican ideals of earlier state policy but they re‐define them for the distinctively Mediterranean setting of Marseille. Thus, in spite of anti‐state discourse by artists, and fears that the public nature of their work has been compromised by economic liberalization, this case shows the ongoing power of the state to shape cultural policy discourse at the same time that it shows artists interpreting the terms of this discourse in ways that are dynamic, locally‐distinctive, and transnational.
ISSN:0893-0465
1548-744X
DOI:10.1111/j.1548-744X.2009.01025.x