National Cultural Policy

7 июня 1923 г. Решением Закавказского Центрального исполнительного Комитета (ЗакЦИК) на территории Азербайджанской ССР была создана Курдская автономная область, известная в исторической литературе как «Красный Курдистан». Эта была первая административная единица в истории курдского народа.

Tanner Mirrlees

A critical cultural materialist introduction to the study of global entertainment media.

In Global Entertainment Media, Tanner Mirrlees undertakes an analysis of the ownership, production, distribution, marketing, exhibition and consumption of global films and television shows, with an eye to political economy and cultural studies.

Among other topics, Mirrlees examines:

Paradigms of global entertainment media such as cultural imperialism and cultural globalization.

The business of entertainment media: the structure of capitalist culture/creative industries (financers, producers, distributors and exhibitors) and trends in the global political economy of entertainment media.

The "governance" of global entertainment media: state and inter-state media and cultural policies and regulations that govern the production, distribution and exhibition of entertainment media and enable or impede its cross-border flow.

The new international division of cultural labor (NICL): the cross-border production of entertainment by cultural workers in asymmetrically interdependent media capitals, and economic and cultural concerns surrounding runaway productions and co-productions.

The economic motivations and textual design features of globally popular entertainment forms such as blockbuster event films, TV formats, glocalized lifestyle brands and synergistic media.

The cross-cultural reception and effects of TV shows and films.

The World Wide Web, digitization and convergence culture.

"Mirrlees explains in clear and lively language how the most popular and ubiquitous movies, TV formats, and brands are made and consumed―and he also explains why this matters. In a world where media continue to increase their hold on resources and their place in our lives, Global Entertainment Media is a must-read for media activists and students of culture." ―John McCullough, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Film, York University

"Comprehensive and tactically plain-spoken, Dr. Mirrlees’s cultural-economic study maps out the complex networks of production, consumption, and regulation that structure today’s culture industry, and offers a key for unlocking its meanings and functions in a neoliberal age dominated by neo-imperial corporations. In the process, this teachable text provides a primer―ideal for undergraduates―on key ‘macro’ concepts in media and cultural studies, like discourse, globalization, intellectual property, and postcolonialism." ―Mark A. McCutcheon, Assistant Professor of Literary Studies, Athabasca University

"Mirrlees presents a meticulously well researched, original, and insightful overview of an expansive field. Global Entertainment Media surveys a complex and ever-changing global media landscape, navigating the terrain with great clarity and authority. Mirrlees’s methodological approach, his deft theoretical analysis, and his wide-ranging and up-to-date use of examples and case studies make this a foundational work that brings global media studies scholarship firmly into the twenty-first century." ―Ian Reilly, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Mount Saint Vincent University

The aim of the article is an analysis of the possibilities, means, and projects that lie within the scope of protection of national identity, rights  of ethnic minorities, cultural policy activities, and bodies and institutions for the national cultural heritage. The research problem is an assessment of the intercultural dialogue in the Czech Republic,  Moldova, and Bulgaria – states operating in the area of three cultural and civilizational circles of Central and Eastern Europe. The author puts  forward the hypothesis that there exist differences and similarities  between these countries in their developed perception of the issue of protection of culture and national identity, and in particular of non-ethnic solidarity and challenges in a multicultural ’ space’. In pursuing this research objective, finding answers to the following questions will be particularly important: To what extent is national culture and identity protected in Central and Eastern Europe? Is multi-cultural space in the Czech Republic, Moldova and Bulgaria treated as a threat or an added value? Due to the identification of behavioral variables as well as internal and external conditions, the study makes use of a systemic, historical-critical method, institutional and legal analysis, and a comparative method based on the consent method.

The Eurozone’s largest and strongest economy Germany (Eurostat European Commission, 2013) shows a continuing growth in the creative industries (Soendermann, 2012) with Berlin celebrated as a promising, up-and-coming major fashion capital (Horn, 2010; Barth, 2011). The majority of Europe’s fashion designers are trained in Germany (Schirrmacher, 2013); the country inhabits favorable resources and capabilities for the fashion industry and is the second largest employer in the fashion and textile industry next to Italy (Fashion United, 2014). However, Germany ‘has still not evolved into a classic fashion nation’ (Horn, 2010). German premium/ luxury designers and brands have little international significance (Weiss, 2011) and show very low economic performance (Soendermann, 2012).
The purpose of this study is to explore what constitutes the German industry’s competitiveness in order to provide insight into industry dynamics for policymakers to offer support at the right spot and to the right conditions; as well as for industry practitioners to aid business-related strategic decision-making. Hereby, the research takes a Porter’s (1998) diamond approach and analyses the industry’s factor conditions, demand conditions, relating and supporting industries, firm strategy, structure and rivalry as well as government and chance including specifics of the premium/ luxury fashion industry in general as well as those of the unit of analysis. The study employs a qualitative approach and is applying a mixed methods, cross-sectional, embedded case study design based on qualitative and quantitative secondary data and literature as well as qualitative primary data sources, which have been collected in form of two interviews with industry professionals.
The research reveals that Germany inhabits advantages in factor conditions and related and supporting industries; disadvantages and selective disadvantages in the determinants of demand conditions and firm strategy, structure and rivalry with the government having a depressing influence on all determinants.

The book presents the history of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition narrated from the anthropological-cultural perspective and based on extensive source material, which enabled the authors to explore the less known aspects of one of the most important music competitions in the world.

This article addresses cultural policy in post-Communist Romania, focusing on the justifications for support of culture and the arts. The objectives are to clarify values legitimizing public support and to determine their effect on the meaning and impact of cultural policy. The author argues that justifications of public funding—instrumental or intrinsic—depend on how successive governments represent the roles conferred to culture and the arts, as well as on the particular ideas of culture and art they promote. Policy discourse after 1989 has been characterized by its nourishment of a persistent instrumental ideology that gradually connected to the international debate and has been dominated by a traditional, narrow conception of culture and art, which conflicts with a modern conception. Until recently, the fluctuations and conflicts between different values and ideas of culture and art have worked to constrain cultural policy, disrupting its implementation and altering its effects.

This article addresses cultural policy in post-Communist Romania, focusing on the justifications for support of culture and the arts. The objectives are to clarify values legitimizing public support and to determine their effect on the meaning and impact of cultural policy. The author argues that justifications of public funding—instrumental or intrinsic—depend on how successive governments represent the roles conferred to culture and the arts, as well as on the particular ideas of culture and art they promote. Policy discourse after 1989 has been characterized by its nourishment of a persistent instrumental ideology that gradually connected to the international debate and has been dominated by a traditional, narrow conception of culture and art, which conflicts with a modern conception. Until recently, the fluctuations and conflicts between different values and ideas of culture and art have worked to constrain cultural policy, disrupting its implementation and altering its effects.

The author questions the arts support system in post-Communist Romania, examining whether the cultural policies during 1990–2006 have contributed to the development of the arts sector, the enhancement of artistic creativity, and the independence of artists. His analysis focuses on the institutional framework and the financing mechanisms that support artists. The author argues that the institutional configurations and the collective mentalities that dominate the cultural sector and public policy have strongly influenced cultural policy in Romania. Along with the economic difficulties, the weighty legacy of the centralized authoritarian state and the paternalistic attitude that dominated for so long in Romanian history have acted as constraints on the public support for the arts and artists. The post-Communist cultural policy remains dependent on historical patterns and, despite some attempts of reform in the late 1990s, it is only recently that a non-interventionist policy and a more effective arts support system emerged.

In Malaysia, the implementation of the National Culture Policy in the early 1970s reiterated the ethnic preference policy of the National Economic Policy (NEP). As a result, the subsequent 1971 National Culture Congress (NCC) and the Islamization Policy undertaken by the government in the late 1970s had great influence on art practices in Malaysia, especially during the 1980s. These policies could be seen as an official attempt to shape the Malaysian identity, especially in terms of visual art in post-Independence Malaysia. The first part of this article will discuss the indirect consequences of the 1971 National Culture Policy and several Islam-centred policies since the late 1970s and how several assertions were made through a few writings about Malaysian art: that only certain modern art forms, aligned with the rhetoric of national agendas, were produced and exhibited in the late 1970s until the mid-1990s. This paper will problematize the assertion by discussing some disjuncture and inconsistencies in relation to this narrative of Malaysian art. Thus, this paper will argue how, despite the general perception that the National Culture Congress (NCC) and the Islamization Policy had great influence on art practices in Malaysia, a deeper examination of exhibitions revealed that art-making by most artists still depended on the artists' own endeavours and own modern artistic practice. Nevertheless, as this paper will also highlight, this period is an important attempt in decolonializing modern art in Malaysia by ways of state and institutional support, albeit its limited success.

Polityka kulturalna jest „instrumentem prowadzącym do rozwoju przemysłów kulturalnych
i zapewnienia rozwoju poszczególnych kultur w świecie”, jak definiuje to pojęcie UNESCO.
Obejmuje rozwiązania systemowe w sektorze kultury, co jest o tyle istotne, że pozwala istnieć
tym jej przejawom, które nie są w stanie samoistnie funkcjonować w warunkach wolnego
rynku i postępującej globalizacji (Polityka kulturalna UNESCO, b.r.) polityka kulturalna z jednej
strony pozwala właściwie chronić i wspomagać, z drugiej – dyktuje kierunki rozwoju i określa
perspektywy dalszych działań.
Należy przy tym mieć również na uwadze, że polityka kulturalna ma integrować, wspierać
i budować, ale źle sformułowana lub wykorzystana ideologicznie tworzy mechanizmy wykluczające, niszczące i generujące konflikty (zob. Mangset 2018, s. 1). Rozwijająca się świadomość
różnorodności kulturowej i dostrzeganie jej wartości dodatkowo wpływa na konieczność
tworzenia spójnych i inkluzyjnych ram działania (por. O’Regan 2002, s. 15).
Celem niniejszego rozdziału jest charakterystyka wybranych współczesnych wyzwań dla
polityk kulturalnych na podstawie odpowiednich dokumentów, wraz z przedstawieniem
konkretnych, już wdrożonych rozwiązań. Analiza została przedstawiona za pomocą przykładów z różnych szczebli zarządzania: począwszy od skali globalnej (UNESCO), ponadnarodowej (Unia Europejska), narodowej (Niemcy), na regionalnej (Bawaria) i miejskiej kończąc
(Mannheim). Ostatnie dwa przykłady – land Bawarii i miasto Mannheim – opisano szerzej,
by pokazać kompleksowość działań.

This paper deals with the genesis and evaluation of cultural heritage policy in Serbia since 2000. It elaborates the main factors, issues and problems in implementing cultural heritage policy in Serbia, as well as the impacts of the Ljubljana Process in the period 2003 to 2013. In addition to the policy and institutional framework of cultural policy, other policies influencing cultural heritage are presented and analysed herein. The main weaknesses of the existing system of cultural heritage protection are emphasised in addition to providing guidelines for the future transformation of this field. The impact of the Ljubljana Process has been observed from the aspect of improving professionals’ skills in the field of cultural heritage, financing, increasing the visibility of cultural heritage sites and co-operation, both at the level of different stakeholders in the field of cultural heritage protection as well as at the level of the SEE region.

В статье на основе широкого круга архивных данных, мемуаров и публикаций проанализирован период творчества выдающегося финского художника Ахола-Вало в Советской Беларуси с 1925 по 1930 год. Деятельность Алексантери Ахола-Вало в Минске проходила в различных творческих сферах. Автор публикации представляет читателям малоизвестные факты о работе художника по созданию и художественному оформлению павильона МОПР на Первой Всебелорусской сельскохозяйственной и промышленной выставке в 1930 году.

The article reviews the life of the outstanding Finnish painter Aleksanteri Ahola-Valo in Soviet Belarus from 1925 to 1930 using a broad variety of archival data, memoirs and publications. The activities of Aleksanteri Ahola-Valo in Minsk cut across different areas. The author presents little-known facts about the artist's work on the design of the pavilion of the International
Organization for Assistance to Revolutionaries at the First All-Belarus Agriculture and Industry Exhibition in 1930.

A guide to moderate inclusive and participatory elaboration processes of cultural strategies; in the annexes a case study on the application of the problem/objective-tree approach and a paper on the interconnection between strategies and policies

На рубеже 1920–1930–х гг. советская кинопромышленность активно выпускала на широкий экран просветительские фильмы о жизни отдаленных регионов, открывая зрительской аудитории возможность совершать виртуальные кинопутешествия по многоукладному и полинациональному Союзу ССР. При разнице творческих подходов их авторов, эти киноработы были выстроены по единой сценарной матрице, повествуя о «первобытном коммунизме» и переходе к социализму среди этнических групп. В статье, на примере документального фильма «Соль Сванетии» (1930) классика советского кино, Михаила Калатозова, проводится рассмотрение опыта создания поэтического киноконструкта на этнографическом материале.

At the turn of the 1920–1930s the Soviet film industry actively released educational films on the life of remote regions of the country on a wide screen, opening the viewers the opportunity to make virtual film trips to the multistructure and multinational Soviet Union. Despite the difference in the creative methods of their authors, these film works were built on a single scenario matrix, telling about «primitive communism» and the transition to socialism among ethnic groups. The article, based on the example of the documentary film «Salt of Svaneti» (1930), a classic of Soviet cinema, Mikhail Kalatozov, reviews the experience of creating a poetic film-construct on the ethnographic materials.

Over the last several years the European Union has paid notable attention to the need of stimulating the entrepreneurial practices and innovation in the cultural and creative sectors. Thus, states and municipalities must develop suitable strategies, which reflect the specific features of cultural managers and entrepreneurs and facilitate innovations and entrepreneurial initiatives in culture. The aim of the paper is to examine some of the key characteristics of cultural entrepreneurship in the way they are presented in the main documents of the European Union and to give recommendations for fostering cultural entrepreneurship in Bulgaria through innovative solutions in cultural policies at local and national level. To investigate this topic, the key EU documents in the field are discussed. The first part of the paper is focused on the development of the concept of cultural entrepreneurship in the European Union policy. The paper creates a snapshot of the state of cultural policies in Bulgaria in the sight of cultural entrepreneurs and identifies the existing challenges and possible solutions for the success and sustainability of entrepreneurial initiatives in culture. In conclusion, some of the good practices in Bulgarian cultural policies are outlined and recommendations for innovative ways for stimulating cultural entrepreneurs in Bulgaria are given.

Compressions. Cultural Politics, the Economy and the Market (IN SPANISH)
Abstract
This reflection presents, in a compressed form and in four installments, the time / space of the Colombian  art scene, as shaped by the historical determinants of the late 20th and early 21st century. The first part gives an account of how writing the history of Colombian art responds to cultural policy pathways that are part of the consolidation and development of neoliberal models applied to the modern nation. These have triggered criticism, essays and monographic productions that chronicle the new artistic practices from multiple perspectives. The resulting criticism are framed in the alleged modernization of the state, characterized by a decentralizing vocation, a feverish obsession with the archive, the professionalization of the art space and the establishment of an art market that seeks the impossible “general equilibrium”. In this manner, local stories with global aspirations re-register the Colombian experience within the Western family in the hegemonic timeline,  its maps and its markets.

RESUMEN
Politica Nacional de Información: Conjunto de lineamientos y directrices que garantizan el acceso universal a la información, para la realización de actividades sociales, económicas y políticas de acuerdo con los objetivos de desarrollo del país.
En el marco de la información como democratizadora del conocimiento y como fundamento de la Sociedad de la Información y el Conocimiento. Los fundamentos son: Legitimidad; acorde con el marco jurídico, Consenso: de acuerdo con necesidades y prioridades sociales, Vinculación: aplicación obligatoria en instituciones y sectores sociales, Equidad e inclusión:  aplicación  a todos los actores sociales, Transversalidad: para  todos los sectores del país, Transformación:  empoderar a la ciudadanía.

ABSTRACT
National Information Policy: Set of guidelines and directives that guarantee universal access to information, for the realization of social, economic and political objectives according to the country's development activities.
As part of the democratization of information and knowledge and as the foundation of the Information Society and Knowledge. The basics are: Legitimacy; according to the legal framework, consensus according to social needs and priorities, Bonding: mandatory in institutions and social sectors, Equity and inclusion: application to all stakeholders, Mainstreaming: for all sectors of the country, Transformation: empower the citizenship.

The public funding of culture in Europe is presented and discussed on the basis of Eurostat data arranged along the COFOG scheme. A main focus is the position of the post-communist member states of the EU in this regard. Next to total funding, the division between finances from central government budgets and local, regional and municipal sources is also analysed.
The conclusion nevertheless warns against the mystification of macrostatistic arguments without deeper analysis of the goals and effectiveness of public funding.

La région du Golfe arabo-persique (illustrée ici par les émirats Arabes Unis) constitue un observatoire d’étude récent en matière de politiques culturelles et de l’emprise grandissante de l’économie de marché sur le patrimoine immatériel. Cette région présente en effet une grande diversité de pratiques musicales traditionnelles communautaires (bédouin, baloutche, zandj… etc.), qui sont encore pratiquées dans la sphère sociale tout en constituant un capital symbolique incontournable dans le développement économique.
Depuis 1971 – date de la création de la fédération des émirats Arabe Unis –, les traditions musicales connaissent à des degrés divers des transformations dans leur cadre de performance comme dans leur modalité d’exécution. Un phénomène qui résulte en partie d’un mécanisme de patrimonialisation visant à promouvoir une unité culturelle nationale,
Aujourd’hui, suite à la ratification de la convention de l’UNESCO pour les PCI par les EAU et à l’émergence d’un marché culturel local aux spécificités urbaines, le secteur entrepreneurial capte et transforme à son tour ces musiques patrimonialisées au moyen de processus de production et de diffusion inhérents à la sphère économique.

L'article fait un état de la situation  en arts de la scène en Suisse romande, identifie les mutations, révèle les forts réseaux spécifiques à la partie romande et esquisse les tendances à venir ainsi que leurs conséquences sur les politiques culturelles

The Republic of Ireland acquired a ministry of culture in 1993. Ever since, the department has undergone remarkably frequent changes in its scope and portfolio. For example, tourism and sport were added to the department's brief in 2002 and removed in 2010. The paper argues that these changes are symptomatic of wider and deeper uncertainties about the governance of culture in Ireland.

À travers l’étude diachronique de la politique culturelle relative au patrimoine immatériel aux Émirats Arabes Unis depuis sa fondation en 1971, cet article analyse l’origine et l’évolution du processus de patrimonialisation des musiques traditionnelles et la manière dont elles ont été instrumentalisées par l’État afin de construire l’identité de la nation. Il distingue comment les termes de la convention de 2003 pour la sauvegarde des PCI de l’UNESCO qui, induits des mécanismes d’institutionnalisation du patrimoine, entérinent une patrimonialisation de fait aux Émirats et légitiment une politique culturelle axée sur la marchandisation de la culture. Dans ce contexte, la crise identitaire actuelle et la déliquescence rapide des pratiques musicales locales représentent les éléments visibles d’une mutation structurelle de grande ampleur de la gestion de la culture, Elles indiquent qu’à terme le phénomène observé aujourd’hui aux Émirats, avec le projet de la nouvelle Autorité pour la Culture et le Patrimoine d’Abû Dhabi (ADACH) de créer un centre pour les musiques dans le monde de l’islam à Al Aïn, est tourné vers une stratégie de captation et de monopolisation économique du patrimoine immatériel à l’échelle du Golfe arabo-persique.

This article presents one possible periodization of Estonian cultural policy, dividing it into a series of eras. The article claims neither to cover every detail nor by far to be final, but it is the first attempt to delimit and determine different periods of cultural policy in Estonia.
https://kirj.ee/acta-publications/?filter[year]=2008&filter[issue]=43&filter[publication]=265

At the beginning of the 21st century, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) opened an office in Oslo, Norway in response to the 2003 Iraq Invasion and growing global migration. As a partner with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the IOM, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) established the NORCO program in the same year as an attempt to improve the integration of refugees. A pertinent issue in current events, the global refugee population figures at 21.3 million (UNHCR, 2017), representing a severe humanitarian crisis. This paper evaluates the national immigration policy of Norway and asks the question about how its Introduction Act, encourages application for residency and naturalization. Across immigrant populations from different geographies, religions, and cultural orientations, the outcomes vary. A reflection of assimilation over multiculturalism, this paper finds that immigrants from Europe who enter the labor market have lower rates of Norwegian naturalization, especially after 2007, than refugees from Asia and Africa, who are less represented in the labor market. To elucidate the experiences that immigrants have at integrating across national and local scales, this paper reviews the diversity of Norwegian municipalities, economic, geographical, and social contexts.

Estonian Community houses were built in towns and the countryside by local people, who joined cultural and other societies since the second half of the 19th century. These cultural centers supported the process of Estonian state building. During the years of the first Estonian independent state (1918-1940), the network of community houses was set up by the state. After the invasion of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union in 1940, extensive restructuring or sovietization of the Estonian public administration, economy and culture, began. The article examines the sovietization process of Estonian community houses, i.e., how they were turned into the ideological tools of Soviet totalitarian propaganda.

This essay questions the dichotomy which exists between individualism and communitarianism in Western political thought, suggesting that the imagination of the community and the creative powers of the individual must work in tandem. Any sane society must cherish the freedom to create, envision and lead self-fulfilling lives alongside the values of reciprocity, interdependence, co-operation and shared purpose.

This is a book chapter from Negotiations in a Vacant Lot: Studying the Visual in Canada, edited by Lynda Jessup, Erin Morton and Kirsty Robertson.  Pointing to the relationship between Canadian cultural policy and a worldview characterized by "cosmopolitanism", I argue for that culture must be considered in the construction of the global political economy

The Museum of New Zealand–Te Papa Tongarewa has proved a complex cultural site that has generated much public debate and a growing academic literature. This article departs from critical approaches that resolve the analysis of this museum by pointing up its programmatic inconsistencies, internal contradictions, representational inadequacies or its institutional paradoxes. Rather than establishing Te Papa as an object for reform the author reads it as an archive for reflection on the cultural predicament of an antipodean modernity.

Работа посвящена истории формирования понятия «советский» как этнонима и проблеме корреляции его с этнонимами «русский» и «российский» в разные периоды истории СССР в аспекте культурной идентичности. Дан анализ национальной политики в работах В. И. Ленина и И. В. Сталина с точки зрения указанной проблемы.
The paper is devoted to the concept of “Soviet” formation and destiny as a marker of the national, ethnic and general cultural identity. The author analyzes history of the Soviet ethnic policy as it was reflected by V. Lenin and I. Stalin

This dissertation is based on peer-reviewed articles and belongs to the fields of historical sociology and cultural policy research. The aim of the research is to discover the roots of cultural policy of the Estonian state and its developments during the first period of the Estonian Republic (1918-40), as well as during the Soviet occupation period (1940-91). This approach implies an historical-sociological examination of Estonian cultural and societal transformations, including the general overview of the political system that affects and activates mutual influences between the capitalist market, civil society and nation state – which all, as central phenomena and institutional spheres are incarnations, as well as driving forces, of modernization. In order to exemplify interactions between civil society and the modern state during different political eras of Estonian history, a case study on the historical emergence and development of Estonian community houses (rahvamaja) has been chosen. With the example of community houses, the historical roots, formation, aims, and development of Estonian cultural policy can be observed. While in the first article of the historical periodization an overview is provided on the different political systems and their practices in culture, in the second and third article the connections between cultural practices, nation-building and cultural policy of the state have been revealed. As a whole, the roots and historical development of Estonian cultural policy under the different political systems has been framed and theorized with the concept of different modernities: the development of the nation-state with the rise of liberal democracy and industrial capitalism within ‘Western’ modernity (1918-30s), and Soviet socialist state practices within the Communist project of Modernity (1940-1991).

The book presents the history of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition narrated from the anthropological-cultural perspective and based on extensive source material, which enabled the authors to explore the less known aspects of one of the most important music competitions in the world.

(2014) co-authored with Hadjichristos, C., presented at the Crossing the Line 2 Conference (American University of Dubai).

Abstract: A number of people related to the production and/or study of cultural processes such as art historians, art critics and architects were allowed access to the archives and to the underground space in which the State Gallery of the Republic of Cyprus keeps works of contemporary art which it decides to acquire, select a piece to be brought out and exhibited and to reflect on it through writing or any other means. The works selected through this process were then displayed at Point Centre for Contemporary Art, a non-profit art-centre engaging in research and cultural projects. One of the authors of this paper was one of the organizers of this project (Chrystalleni Loizidou), while the other (Christos Chatzichristos) participated as an expert. The piece the latter chose is a pencil line drawing on foam board depicting with the use of hair-like lines what seems to be part of the human body. The paper discusses the many different ways in which the specific work as well as the Displays Project are not just splitting hairs but are actually crossing a number of lines, archival, political, material and other.

Before the 2000s design occupied a peripheral position in Dutch international cultural policy (ICP). In the first decade of the twenty-first century ‘Dutch Design’ rose as a key player in the Dutch creative industries, which were assigned a central role in ICP. The formulation of Dutch Design as a creative industry and the embeddedness of the creative industries in identity politics and in geopolitical, economic and diplomatic interests raise urgent questions regarding the essentialist articulation of Dutchness that Dutch Design proposes. Can Dutch Design, formulated as a creative industry enshrined in ICP, represent a conceptualization of Dutchness that corresponds with the empirical heterogeneity and transnationality of the practice of Dutch Design? Or would this entail the dissolution of the very notion of Dutch Design? As a case study, this article traces the negotiations between the Vitra Design Museum and the Dutch national design institutions in charge of implementing ICP in the execution of the exhibition ‘Confrontations: Contemporary Dutch Design’, held at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery in 2012. It examines how the dynamics of the practical implementation of ICP may accommodate—as well as limit—the construction of the Dutchness of Dutch Design.