Beyond Social Inclusion: Towards Cultural Democracy

The launch of Beyond Social Inclusion: Towards Cultural Democracy took place at The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, as part of the Radical Book Fair, on Friday 11th June at 5.30 pm. Owen Logan (photographer) and Kathy McArdle (arts director) introduced the pamphlet and hosted a discussion on the issues it raises. The pamphlet is also announced in the latest edition of Variant.

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www.word-power.co.uk/catalogue/cultural

Variant announce publication

The latest edition of Variant hitting the streets this week announces the publication of Beyond Social Inclusion:Towards Cultural Democracy. The announcement is accompanied by an article from the Cultural Policy Collective which places the pamphlet in a historical context, critiquing the historic inconsistencies and anti-democratic tendencies of government policy. It situates debates on cultural democracy against a background of a ubiquitous failure of parliamentary democracy, the erosion of democratic decision-making in every sphere of public life and the terminal legitimaiton crisis facing democracy. It argues that only a concentration on the histories and experiences of immigration on a global scale will be effective in opposing racism in the public sector.And finally it offers a vision for the transormation of the library and public service broadcasting system into new democratic spheres.

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www.culturaldemocracy.net/cpc/paperview.php/4

Cultural Policy Collective respond to Scotland's Cultural Review

Much of the media and other coverage surrounding the recent Cultural review process has focussed on issues of personality or representation. The most recent paper from the CPC responds to the language of the Review and problematises its mission in the light of the ongoing crisis of democracy and structural inequality. It questions its assumptions about culture and looks critically at the omission of the myriad forms of popular culture in its deliberations, while propping up an elitist cultural infrastructure and the bourgeois dominant culture.

www.culturaldemocracy.net/cpc/paperview.php/5

New Book - A Commodified World?

A Commodified World? Mapping the limits of Capitalism

Late capitalism is widely assumed to involve an inevitable shift towards more and more commodified economic relations under the market-driven search for corporate profit, while non-capitalist activities are disappearing. This book critiques this notion. It seeks to show that a combination of new 'cultures of resistance', choices being made by the more affluent in industrialised countries, and continuing economic pressures on the poor and marginalized all deeply constrain this tendency, if they do not threaten to reverse it.

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Film Archive under threat

One of the most acute current crises facing the film sector is the threat to the NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION ARCHIVE. The British Film Institute, the body currently entrusted with its administration, has drawn up an ill-considered “Plan” for financial cut-back and reorganisation of the Archive.

For more info and to signal your support to resisting this action, go to the Film Archive Action website.

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www.filmarchiveaction.org

New Book Looks at Football in the New Media Age

With football rarely out of the headlines this summer, a timely new book from the University of Stirling's Media Research Institute examines the 'beautiful' game's relationship with the media.

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