rationality of social activities in the field of culture. : On the importance of cultural activity from the perspective of participants in the policymaking process

Abstract

The paper aims to show the relationships between the sphere of culture and its setting. They can be outlined by reconstructing the sense attributed to cultural activities by the research respondents. The material constituting the basis for identifying how the rationality of cultural activities is grasped was provided by in-depth interviews with people involved in cultural policymaking and analysis of documents they referred to. Jürgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action, which draws on Max Weber’s take on the rationality of social action, provides inspiration for organising conceptualisations of the functionality of culture. This paper seeks to address the dual nature of the rationality of cultural activities, as instrumental and communicative. The potential sense of such a grasp of cultural activities is also indicated from a cultural policy perspective. An instrumentalist approach to culture, referring to expert discourse, can serve to resolve the crisis of legitimacy characteristic of cultural policy.