|
Culture and Development vs. Cultural Development
The idea to produce this Special Issue originated from Helen
Gould, Creative Exchange, who, together with Kees Epskamp, Stichting CompArt,
proposed it to Culturelink. Originally, the aim of drawing together this
collection of views on culture and development was to focus on policies,
programmes and projects which have made a practical contribution to sustainable
development, where culture has had, or is having, a discernible and sustainable
impact on 'the widening of human opportunities and choices'. Accordingly, three
principal areas were to be addressed:
- the development and implementation of policies and action
plans which enable culture and creativity to contribute to development
strategy;
- projects, programmes and policies where creativity and participation
in cultural life is contributing to sustainable growth and change in different
environments - urban, rural, etc., or within different sectors - youth, women,
elderly, health, democracy, etc.;
- measures which respect, support and nurture cultural diversity, identity, values, knowledge and heritage as part of a holistic process of sustainable development.
A number of papers focusing on the aforementioned topics were
gathered and they form Part I of this Special Issue. Some of them are truly
'practical', giving best practice examples, while others explain more
theoretical views of culture and development. They open this collection because
they introduce us to the frequently confused concepts of 'culture and
development' and 'cultural development'.
While producing this collection and gathering the papers from
experts in the field, the co-editors made different inputs into the material -
Helen Gould and Kees Epskamp into 'culture and development' and Daniela A.
Jelinčić into 'cultural development', reflecting their relevant expertise. This
led to a shift from the original idea of producing a Special Issue on 'Culture
and Development' to 'Culture and Development vs. Cultural Development'.
Therefore, Part II contains more theoretical papers on issues in
'cultural development'. Thus, this collection does not fully address either
'culture and development' or 'cultural development', but presents some views
from the geographical and philosophical compass on the theoretical and
practical issues behind these concepts. The editors found it a challenge to
agree an editorial line on this material; consequently, this collection
represents a compromise.
The texts gathered in this issue of Culturelink represent a
myriad of themes and views on different concepts but, at the same time, they
meet in the point of importance of culture in development strategies, showing
how different concepts may be reconciled.
Culturelink would like to express our gratitude to Helen Gould
and Kees Epskamp for their devoted work on this Special Issue, and to all the
authors.
Daniela Angelina Jelinčić
Culturelink
|
