This book traces the trajectory of cultural policies in cities from the creation of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs until the 2020s. Following the common thread of cooperation between the State and local authorities, It highlights the government’s structural dilemma of an area of public policy that is still in tension between the affirmation of a culture of excellence and demands for recognition of expressions from popular cultures.
Governance is implemented in three successive public action regimes. The cultural decentralization (1960-1980) lays the foundations for a City-State partnership political grammar long before the 1982-1983 decentralization reform. The cities then embark on the path of territorialization of public policiessupported by their powerful financial resources and the professionalization of their managers (1980-2000). Since the beginning of the XXIe century, the influence of intellectual references drawn from globalization such as cultural political economy, creative city, cultural rights, entails a metropolisation of culture.
Although the big cities are now strengthened in their role as cultural command centers, the principle of cooperation that had ensured their dynamism is now out of breath. Faced with the crises (financial, health) that society is going through, the attempt to regenerate it via recent legislative reforms do not seem able to restore it or invent a new model of cultural policy.
Guy Saez is director emeritus at the CNRS (PACTE laboratory, University of Grenoble-Alpes). He is the author, among other publications, of The state without qualities (with Claude Gilbert, PUF, 1982) from Cultural policies and regions in Europe (with Mireille Pongy, L'Harmattan, 1999), Heritage seized by associations (with Hervé Glevarec, La Documentation française, 2002). He directed, with Jean-Pierre Saez, The New Challenges of Cultural Policies. European dynamics (The Discovery, 2012).
Foreword to Maryvonne de Saint Pulgent, Chair of the History Committee of the Ministry of Culture
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