4 Culture and the social foundations
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Justin O’Connor
Abstract
Neoliberalism may be dead as a coherent political project, but many of its policy settings and cultural shibboleths remain. This chapter draws on the work of the Foundation Economy Collective (FEC), a loose grouping of scholars and activists in a conversation that has evolved since its early iteration. It introduces both the FEC's zonal account of the economy, and the more recent concept of liveability. The chapter tries to provide an analytical schema to frame culture's public policy role, and sketches how this might work in the current conjuncture. Cultural policy is caught between an expansive, idealistic view of its fundamental social role and the impoverished reality of its own intellectual, institutional, and political resources. The FEC disaggregate the singular model of the economy as envisaged by GDP modelling. FEC empirical studies have shown how the foundational economy is centred on supplying local economies, tending to employ locally.
Abstract
Neoliberalism may be dead as a coherent political project, but many of its policy settings and cultural shibboleths remain. This chapter draws on the work of the Foundation Economy Collective (FEC), a loose grouping of scholars and activists in a conversation that has evolved since its early iteration. It introduces both the FEC's zonal account of the economy, and the more recent concept of liveability. The chapter tries to provide an analytical schema to frame culture's public policy role, and sketches how this might work in the current conjuncture. Cultural policy is caught between an expansive, idealistic view of its fundamental social role and the impoverished reality of its own intellectual, institutional, and political resources. The FEC disaggregate the singular model of the economy as envisaged by GDP modelling. FEC empirical studies have shown how the foundational economy is centred on supplying local economies, tending to employ locally.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Dedication vii
- Contents ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Creative industries 35
- 2 Culture goes missing 76
- 3 Necessity or luxury? 107
- 4 Culture and the social foundations 140
- 5 Cultural infrastructures 163
- 6 Culture and economy 197
- Acknowledgements 230
- Notes 232
- Bibliography 274
- Index 290
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Dedication vii
- Contents ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Creative industries 35
- 2 Culture goes missing 76
- 3 Necessity or luxury? 107
- 4 Culture and the social foundations 140
- 5 Cultural infrastructures 163
- 6 Culture and economy 197
- Acknowledgements 230
- Notes 232
- Bibliography 274
- Index 290
