Suchergebnisse

For the Benefit of the Common Good? A Historical View on the Flemish Provinces as an Intermediary at the Level of AdministrationThe nation state of Belgium saw its provinces chiefly as intermediary administrative entities from which political dispute had to be excluded. Nevertheless, they disposed of elected provincial councils and enjoyed fiscal autonomy. Although the provincial governments underwent a slow process of politicisation, the effects of the broad socio-political developments over the course of the last two centuries on this level remained far less tangible, due above all to the slow democratisation of the provincial suffrage. The provinces only had a modicum of public visibility and a very limited scope for policymaking. To argue their relevance, the provincial governments referred occasionally to the shared history of their respective inhabitants or to their cultural coherence(s). But this discourse was not powerful enough to shape a common provincial cultural identity. Moreover, it clashed on the artificial borders of the provinces and with the much stronger feelings of local and regional coherence. By clustering these expressions of (sub)regionalism, the provincial governments may have provided building stones for the creation of identity-structures on a higher level. However, this role too remained very modest and can hardly be used to substantiate the institutional tenacity of this level of government.

The central question of this dissertation is what role national identity has played in the interdepartmental policy field of international cultural policy (ICP) in the Netherlands between 1970 and 2012. In four chapters I analyse the history of ICP and the related political debate, using a theoretical framework consisting of the main concepts of a Discourse Historic Analysis (critique, ideology, and power), and tensions within the discourses on ICP and national identity. The role of national identity in the first period (1970-1986) is characterized as 'cultural nationalism'. Culture plays an important role in distinguishing the nation state from the rest of the world, and due to the decreasing autonomy in the field of economics and politics culture is considered (by some) to be the last bearer of the national identity. The debates focus on the question whether or not the government has a role in (actively) protecting that identity. The publication of the report "Culture without borders" by the Scientific Council for Government Policy marks the beginning of the second period (1987-1996). Gradually the primacy of the policy shifts from foreign to cultural policy, and attempts are made to combine within ICP the growing cultural diversity of the Dutch society with the uniting role of a national identity. Therefore the role of national identity is characterized as 'multiculturalism'. Extra funding for international cultural activities in 1997 marks the beginning of the third period (1997-2006), in which the role of national identity is characterized as 'cultural relativism'. The relationship between culture and the nation becomes more loose, and cultural activities abroad no longer seem to represent the nation's identity. This approach in ICP contrasts strongly with the growing discontent and heated public and political debate on national identity. Characteristic for the fourth period (2007-2012) is the return to the primacy of foreign policy and the focus on diplomatic and economic goals. Culture is treated as a ...

In Europe archeology often has been connected with regionalist or nationalistic interested movements. In some cases archeology thus landed in very risky fairways and in this case it certainly did not promote the development to an independent science with proper theoretical basis. In Africa this is different. Directly after the independence the first president of Mali, Modibo Keita, has sent some promising new-coming students to Europe to study historic sciences, also archeology. In that new country, of which the borders sometime had been drawn by French offices, tribes lived together who often possessed little affinity to one another. To the average inhabitant the identity as Malinesian hardly counted as opposed to the identity as member of a certain section of the population. Keita's intention was to stimulate the interest in the common past of the empires Ghana, Mali, the Songhai and the Bambara. He realized that for the development of the country a common consciousness of the Malinesian identity could not be missed. Generally speaking this thought has found acceptance at the Malinesian intelligentsia. There the interest in the own past is strongly alive. From this thought the Institute des Sciences Humaines at Bamako has started a project to take stock of the numerous old hills of settlement in the inner delta of the Niger, from an economic and demographic point of view forming the most important area in the empire of the rich. The project has been financed by D.G.I.S. and is being executed in co-operation with Dutch archeologists.