Cultures and “Culturalisms”

Abstract

The author links changes in culture and cultural life with transformations in the field of cultural studies and cultural policies. Special attention is given to methodological scope of social sciences and humanities. The first part of the article is devoted to the Eurocentric cultural hierarchy where cultural development is measured by the adoption of Judaeo-Christian values in their interpretation by Western philosophers. The disintegration of this complex system came with the fall of colonial and other empires giving way to a multiplicity of autonomous cultures that destroyed the unique “vertical”. The ongoing discussions about new concepts born in the turmoil of these transformations proposed several models both of cultural policies and their theoretical interpretations. The centre stage of the controversial analysis took first multiculturalism, then interculturalism and finally transculturalism. Going through their historical and social formation the author shows that only a complex combination of different approaches gives the possibility to understand the complex multilevel networks forming and reforming cultural life on the planet. Cultural diversity that under political pressure became the diversity of forms of cultural expression in UNESCO conventions shaped the complex interactions between the global entertainment industry, professional communities and diverse types of subcultures.