The Culture Policy Room, a think tank dedicated to advancing the practice of cultural policy-making by bridging the gap between research and policy, has published an article reflecting on the UN’s Summit of the Future and the adoption of the Pact for the Future, written by academic Justin O’Connor. 

In the wake of the UN’s Summit of the Future and the adoption of the Pact for the Future, which did not bring any significant political breakthrough for culture, O’Connor identifies key blind spots in the global policy approach to culture and suggests pathways for reframing current paradigms. He revisits recent history to map out milestones in the global discourse on culture, including UNESCO’s definition of culture first enshrined in the Mondiacult Declaration 1982, the UN’s Our Creative Diversity agenda (1995), the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and the recent concept of culture as a global public good. 

Moving beyond the familiar dichotomy of ‘instrumental’ versus ‘intrinsic’ value, O’Connor offers a deeper understanding of culture’s value and outlines features of the ‘culture-as-public-good’ vision.

Download the full paper from the Culture Policy Room