A New Agenda? The European Union and Cultural Policy

Throughout the last couple of decades, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to globalization issues of today, various aspects of culture seem to affect the lives of European citizens more and more. As a reply the European Union (EU) in 2007 endorsed ‘A European agenda for culture in a globalising world’, evidently their ‘first –ever strategy for culture’. To anyone familiar with the history of the EU, this was groundbreaking news. Culture had for the first time been elevated into the premier league of EU politics. In this book, which ranges from cosmopolitan philosophy to Playstation games, Norwegian sociologist Hans Erik Naess investigates the case further: what is the content of this strategy, what is new about it, and how will it affect European and national cultures? This book allows the reader to explore these questions. Written in an easily accessible style, putting emphasis on exploration rather than tutoring, it provides students, philanthropists, culture journalists, artists, NGO staff, politicians and the like with a creative introduction to the interactions between EU policies and European culture.