The Promised Land of Comparative Digital Cultural Policy Studies

• Published in: The Journal of arts management, law, and society law, and society, 2017-10, Vol.47 (5), p.295-299
• Main Authors: Roberge, Jonathan, Chantepie, Philippe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cultural policy; Digitization; Policy making; Technology
• ISSN: 1063-2921; 1930-7799
• DOI: 10.1080/10632921.2017.1398584

The nascent field of comparative digital cultural policy studies is a call for both new ideas and audacious actions. It is an effort toward developing a research agenda that responds to the challenges currently faced by States and other regulatory bodies. Indeed, digitalization represents a paradigm shift: not a cultural revolution per se, but a tectonic realignment nonetheless. Policymaking needs expertise in such a way that it needs to be fact-checked and/or based on reliable knowledge. And the extent to which actual stakeholders use such knowledge might sometimes require a leap of faith. Yet, this does not preclude cultural policy scholars from engaging in a dialogue over their roles and prerogatives, developing meaningful interventions into the current debate while retaining their independence. The way forward might require a new and reflexive methodological turn. One such robust method employs comparison. To compare is to conceptualize, which reveals the possibilities and limits, the prospects and pitfalls, of a given policy implementation. A comparative approach also gives rise to action, if only indirectly through benchmarking and similar techniques aimed at closing the gap between different States, jurisdictions, etc. The point is that one does not have to choose between reflexivity and an effort toward new and enhanced cultural policy achievements. We call this encompassing and ambitious approach "comparative digital cultural policy studies."