The democratic development potential of a cultural ecosystem approach

Abstract

Culture is increasingly being deployed as a tool to deliver development policy, with ‘development’ seen as a process rather than as an outcome, in the same way that culture can be seen (and has a long history of such) as a “noun of process” (Williams 1976: 87). This has been usefully summed up by Duxbury, Kangas & De Beukelaer referencing Sen (1999) as the underlying idea that “development should not be considered as a finality (generally expressed in a monetary value derived from work) but the extent to which people are able to participate in political, social and economic life” (2017: 216). Development policy encompasses a broad range of focus from the industrial and economic to sustainable and human development agendas. Cultural policy itself is now predominantly framed within a model of economic growth, which limits opportunities to discuss more inclusive, accessible and participatory aspects that form this paper’s approach to democratic development. The following discussion explores the potential for cultural policy activity to develop inclusive and rich relationships from local to international scales, and to broaden the discussion of growth beyond the economic, through the device of the cultural ecosystem.