Contemporary Australian Cultural Policy - Essay Example

OLA ID – 107308 Name LCS14 – Culture and Society: Introduction to Cultural Studies Assignment 2 – Essay Ext due date 30/11/07 Ext number - 5291 Explain the outcomes of governmental strategies which take culture as both instrument and object. Discuss this in reference to both historical examples and contemporary Australian cultural policy. This essay the word ‘culture’ and its relationship with government involvement will be shown in two particular methods. Under a traditional definition of culture the determination comes as an object, anything but not necessarily everything relating to what is termed as culture in a society is controlled, or at least hoped to be, through government intervention or legislation (Malcomsen in Study Guide LCS14 2007, p.123). This was the fastest option and proved to be effective at controlling society and the people. The method and the related procedures can be determined through the restriction that are forwarded by legislature and gets too obvious though and not at all popular. Culture was considered as a kind of processing procedure of governmental control in comparison to the social formatting. There are many ways through which the culture gets transformed and changed. The most important role gets played by the skill of convincing people convincing people in order to accept these changes and thereby to make necessary declarations to the relevant government sources. It is in a way a much easier option for the transformations that are supposed to be a part of cultural development (Study Guide LCS14 2007, p.124). The combination of these methods laid emphasis on the particular effects that may take place in the evolution of a social set up. The activity of doing it inconspicuously, get the privilege of the whole inspection process. The formation of power and the sense of obedience towards it is the foremost thing for the construction of a particular culture. The original definition of culture has over time evolved in many different ways. It is now recognized as a long process in developing human entity. It is now believed to be a whole course of action in the formation of people in an integral form of society (Williams 1970,p.77-81 ). This system of formation can be exemplified with the ancient Mayan culture or a Gun culture. In a much broader sense it is the system that constructs the thinking process in a society. It is out and out a concern related to the behaviours and relative traditions, pattern of grouping of thoughts in the formation of a culture (Williams 1970, p.77-81). The way to define culture in both narrow and wider sense is equally very illustrative. Keeping this track intake this paper aims in making a discussion about the contributions as offered by the governments and the social institutions. According to the political notion and as accepted by the cultural democracy there should not be any difference between people and everybody should have equal right of declaring his decision. In a broad sense, as every culture is equally important, there is no space for any kind of special preferences. As for the narrow sense a decision is made to exclude or select only a few of these candidates for definition (Longman in Study Guide LCS14 2007, pp.112, and 113). The Australian government regulation exemplifies itself with the undemocratic situation where there are many separations of types of culture among the population. Creative Nation was the first of its kind in Australia. It was a policy developed by Paul Keating’s government. According to his definition and the rules that are set down on paper, it designates the government’s role in supporting the nation’s culture. There is also the establishment of an overall structure that would organize the many different forms of culture in to easily understood categories. Variations still persists and as such there is the need to be selective of course. The acquisition of owning excellence and democracy thus gets followed by some of the persisting points for better determination and cultural equality. The phenomenon of demonstrating culture with the relevance towards the decision making independence lays the path to have cultural production by promoting and teaching the most talented creators. As to clarify it with an example the government believes, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra should be managed and promoted independent of the other orchestras in the country (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Orchestras). According to the Tribe report, there was a flattening effect on quality. This was all added by style and enthusiasm when all orchestras were treated democratically. The effect was also counted as they were all organized from a centralised point (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Orchestras). It may be a follow up for the promotion of democracy, and thus seems hypocritical. the exclusion of mass culture too gets generated on the same floor in relation to the way excellence defines only Australian Culture. How interesting that the National Academy of Music is willing to attract fee paying overseas students, despite them not being ‘our most talented’ (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, National academy). By selecting only a few students, orchestras or even in the context of the whole policy itself, only a few cultural definitions they are creating a narrow view of their own cultural policy. As per the arguments forwarded by Johnson, this policy displays a tension between these elements. In respect to this policies the value of all culture gets ignored when in terms of its establishment it becomes very necessary (Johnson in Arena, 1995). The decentralization of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from under the umbrella of the orchestra genre pushes another intention of democracy out the window (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Orchestras). That of giving all citizens access to cultural consumption. This does relate to a historical example from nineteenth century England, where government intentionally utilized power to affect social relations. The banning of animal related blood sports is one particular example where a class issue divided the cultural consumer from the policy maker. Being that it didn’t have broadly based social support and was not popular with educated elites either, bills were introduced and it was then made illegal (Malcomson 1973, p.22, 24). All sorts of social commentary towards the understanding of this past time was undermining social morality and inconsistent with a civilized nation undermined the consumer of this culture too (Malcomson 1973, p.26,27). The disadvantages are all faced by the lower class of people. An obstruction and interruption to passengers and daily working life, it does seem a fairly weak excuse (Malcomson 1973, p.28,29). By placing the Sydney Symphony orchestra outside of the Creative Nation sector it is constructing a form of exclusion for all those without Sydney’s advantage. As per the points forwarded by Hawkins the ability to obtain the access and participation is being used within the Australia Council (also Creative Nation) in order to create social reform. Added to this is the determining point that by doing this we are excluding various groups (Hawkins 1989, p. 33). People in one use are disadvantaged and need assistance to reach that high culture level. However she is also of the view that culture determines the object itself (Hawkins in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, and p.135). By taking note of exclusions within the Creative Nation policy it must be known that other culture does exist and should also be included within it. While following the track of Hawkins argument about equal recognition we find similarity with the ideas as accepted by Darnton. As per the accepted notions there should be a focus on these popular forms of culture as well as high art (Darnton in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, p.64). In Creative Nation the difference between Contempory and Classical Music support is marked. There is an argument for distributing classical music to Australians and a focus on training higher quality students while for contemporary music there is nothing(Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, National Academy of Music). It is largely economic in content relating to copyright protection and viability as an industry referring to the eighties popularity of Australian bands (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Contemporary Music). There isn’t enough support in this sub genre for training and cultural improvement inspires their proposal for a music summit. The importance of education and training are also something that are last on the list of topics planned for discussion (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Contemporary Music). Heritage for a Creative Nation is a set of rules declaring what is and isn’t defined as such. The message given through the Commenwealth’s heritage policies about needing adequate powers and the ability to ensure the range of expression adequately represents our diversity. As such the whole concept develops and returns to this democratic theme (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Heritage). Australian Heritage Commission (AHC) an independent statutory authority. However this gets contradict to the fact that there are self imposed restrictions on what it terms as our national estate. The Committee of Review takes over anyway. It has got the privilege to make up of principal heritage property owning agencies and key heritage experts. Their role is to take technical and professional advice from the AHC and furthermore develop management guidelines for these heritage sites. By extending incentives for private sector involvement and even having the power to decide what Commonwealth buildings will be destroyed their responsibilities are significant, even dangerous. Criticism of the National Museum of Australia gets the sense of it in realising the nation’s history that is being configured to suit. Some suggest that reforming of the NMA. It stands for eradicating dissent, and imposing control over Australian Culture (Marcus 2004,p.135). By proposing that the museum is about national identity and presenting primary themes of Australia since British arrival. The reality check thus shows that the appointment of conservative council members can do when left with these decisions in hand (Marcus 2004,p.135). By rejecting multiple identities and contested terrains of influence, the Museum is ignoring the most important parts of our history (McGrath in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007,p.136). Audiences recognise this is as unauthentic history and don’t believe it. There should a broad cultured democratic representation of our history, not a narrow one. There are all sorts of upcoming problems with this method of government and institutional rule. It makes the whole set up complicated and difficult to understand these cultural influences are on society and often how much we are not even aware when they are happening. It is hoped that through providing some examples of how this done. The approach future with culture in all its forms will be seen as a relationship between object, user, society and government. REFERENCES – Study Guide LCS14 2007, Culture and Society:An Introduction to Cultural Studies Williams, Raymond 1970, ‘Culture’, Keywords, Fontana, London, pp. 77-81. Johnson, Bruce 1995, ‘The Pursuit of excellence?’, Arena Magazine, Oct-Nov Malcomson, Robert W. 1973, ‘Popular recreations under attack’, Popular Recreations in English Society 1700-1850, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hawkins, Gay 1989, ‘Reading community arts policy: From Nimbin to the Gay Mardi Gras’,Media Information Australia, no. 53, pp.31-35. Marcus, Julie 2004, ‘Whats at Stake? History Wars, the NMA and good govenrment’, in Cultural Studies Review, Vol 10 (1), March Read More

Creative Nation was the first of its kind in Australia. It was a policy developed by Paul Keating’s government. According to his definition and the rules that are set down on paper, it designates the government’s role in supporting the nation’s culture. There is also the establishment of an overall structure that would organize the many different forms of culture in to easily understood categories. Variations still persists and as such there is the need to be selective of course. The acquisition of owning excellence and democracy thus gets followed by some of the persisting points for better determination and cultural equality.

The phenomenon of demonstrating culture with the relevance towards the decision making independence lays the path to have cultural production by promoting and teaching the most talented creators. As to clarify it with an example the government believes, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra should be managed and promoted independent of the other orchestras in the country (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Orchestras). According to the Tribe report, there was a flattening effect on quality.

This was all added by style and enthusiasm when all orchestras were treated democratically. The effect was also counted as they were all organized from a centralised point (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Orchestras). It may be a follow up for the promotion of democracy, and thus seems hypocritical. the exclusion of mass culture too gets generated on the same floor in relation to the way excellence defines only Australian Culture. How interesting that the National Academy of Music is willing to attract fee paying overseas students, despite them not being ‘our most talented’ (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, National academy).

By selecting only a few students, orchestras or even in the context of the whole policy itself, only a few cultural definitions they are creating a narrow view of their own cultural policy. As per the arguments forwarded by Johnson, this policy displays a tension between these elements. In respect to this policies the value of all culture gets ignored when in terms of its establishment it becomes very necessary (Johnson in Arena, 1995). The decentralization of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from under the umbrella of the orchestra genre pushes another intention of democracy out the window (Creative Nation in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, Orchestras).

That of giving all citizens access to cultural consumption. This does relate to a historical example from nineteenth century England, where government intentionally utilized power to affect social relations. The banning of animal related blood sports is one particular example where a class issue divided the cultural consumer from the policy maker. Being that it didn’t have broadly based social support and was not popular with educated elites either, bills were introduced and it was then made illegal (Malcomson 1973, p.22, 24). All sorts of social commentary towards the understanding of this past time was undermining social morality and inconsistent with a civilized nation undermined the consumer of this culture too (Malcomson 1973, p.26,27). The disadvantages are all faced by the lower class of people.

An obstruction and interruption to passengers and daily working life, it does seem a fairly weak excuse (Malcomson 1973, p.28,29). By placing the Sydney Symphony orchestra outside of the Creative Nation sector it is constructing a form of exclusion for all those without Sydney’s advantage. As per the points forwarded by Hawkins the ability to obtain the access and participation is being used within the Australia Council (also Creative Nation) in order to create social reform. Added to this is the determining point that by doing this we are excluding various groups (Hawkins 1989, p. 33). People in one use are disadvantaged and need assistance to reach that high culture level.

However she is also of the view that culture determines the object itself (Hawkins in StudyGuide, LCS14 2007, and p.135).

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