Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Relational Politics of Aesthetics: An Introduction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Aesthetics and Politics

Part of the book series: New Directions in Cultural Policy Research ((NDCPR))

Abstract

This introductory chapter presents the basic idea and topic of the book—the relations between aesthetics and cultural policy. We understand cultural policy as the organized, mainly but not exclusively public support, economic or otherwise, of the production and distribution of cultural expressions. The chapter gives some introductory answers to these questions: What kind of relations are there between aesthetics and cultural policy? And, furthermore, how can concepts from aesthetical theory shed light on cultural policy practice? The main argument of the chapter is that cultural policy is a practical and pragmatic operationalization of aesthetic theory. This vantage point has analytical relevance both for the analysis of cultural policy and for an empirical discussion of central concepts from the aesthetical canon.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adorno, Theodor W. 2003. Ästhetische Theorie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adorno, Theodor W. 2006. Theorie der Halbbildung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahearne, Jeremy. 2009. “Cultural Policy Implicit and Explicit: A Distinction and Some Uses.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 5 (2): 141–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, Matthew. 2006. Culture and Anarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bale, Kjersti. 2008. Estetikk. En innføring [Aesthetics: An Introduction]. Oslo: Pax.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zygmunt. 1987. Legislators and Interpreters: On Modernity, Post-modernity, and Intellectuals. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belfiore, Eleonora. 2002. “Art as a Means of Alleviating Social Exclusion: Does it Really Work? A Critique of Instrumental Cultural Policies and Social Impact Studies in the UK.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 8 (1): 91–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belfiore, Eleonora, and Oliver Bennett. 2008. The Social Impact of the Arts: An Intellectual History. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Tony. 1992. “Putting Policy into Cultural Studies.” In Cultural Studies, edited by Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula Treichler, 22–37. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Tony. 1998. “Towards a Pragmatics for Cultural Studies.” In Culture: A Reformer’s Science, edited by Tony Bennett, 17–38. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Tony. 2000. Cultural Policy Beyond Aesthetics. Working paper. The Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Tony. 2007. “Habitus clivé: Aesthetics and Politics in the Work of Pierre Bourdieu”. New Literary History 38 (1): 201–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Tony. 2011. “Culture, Choice, Necessity: A Political Critique of Bourdieu’s Aesthetic.” Poetics 39 (6): 530–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjurström, Erling. 2008. “Cultural Policy and the Meaning of Modern and Post-modern Taste, with Concluding Remarks on the Case of Sweden.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 14 (1): 65–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjurström, Erling. 2013. ‘‘Bildning och demokrati” [Education and democracy]. In Bildning och demokrati. Nya vägar i det svenska folkbildningslandskapet, edited by Erling Bjurström and Tobias Harding, 11–119. Stockholm: Carlssons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bjurström, Erling. 2016. Det moderna smakspelet. Tid, smak, mode [The Modern Game of Taste: Time, Taste, Fashion]. Stockholm: Carlssons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1995. The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Böhme, Gernot. 2010. “On Beauty.” The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics 21 (39): 22–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bürger, Peter. 1992. The Decline of Modernism. Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, Peter. 1978. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. London: Temple Smith.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danto, Arthur. 1964. “The Artworld.” Journal of Philosophy 61 (19): 571–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Danto, Arthur. 1999. Philosophizing Art: Selected Essays. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Duve, Thierry. 1998. Kant After Duchamp. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. 2004. Anti-Oedipus. London and New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickie, George. 1969. “Defining Art.” The American Philosophical Quarterly 61 (3): 253–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickie, George. 1984. The Art Circle. New York: Haven.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorn, Charles. 2004. “The Deterritorialization of Art.” The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 34 (2): 141–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duelund, Peter. 2008. “Nordic Cultural Policies: A Critical View.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 14 (1): 7–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenner, David E. W. 2008. Art in Context: Understanding Aesthetic Value. Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frenander, Anders. 2008. What Are They Doing, the Cultural Policy Researchers? or: The Theoretical Universe of Cultural Policy Research. Paper for ICCPR 2008. http://bada.hb.se/bitstream/2320/4132/2/Frenander_Anders_1.pdf.

  • Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1990. Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guillory, John. 1993. Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hegel, Friedrich. 2000. Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik. Erster und zweiter Teil. Stuttgart: Reclam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jameson, Fredric. 1984. “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.” New Left Review 146 (1): 53–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kant, Immanuel. 1995. Kritik der Urteilskraft. Stuttgart: Reclam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, Justin, and Toby Miller (eds). 2003. Critical Cultural Policy Studies: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Looseley, David. 2005. “The Return of the Social: Thinking Postcolonially About French Cultural Policy.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 11 (2): 145–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorentzen, Anne H. 2009. “Fra “syngedame” til produsent. Performativitet og musikalsk forfatterskap i det personlige prosjektstudioet” [From Singer to Producer. Performativity and Musical Authorship in the Personal Studio]. PhD diss., University of Oslo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangset, Per. 2010. “Etablering av nye kulturstudier innenfor akademia. ‘Cultural Studies’ og ‘Cultural Policy Research’—dialog eller konflikt?” [Establishing New Studies of Culture. Cultural Studies and Cultural Policy Research – Dialogue or Conflict?]. Tidsskrift for kulturstudier 4: 23–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangset, Per, and Ole Marius Hylland. 2017. Kulturpolitikk. Organisering, legitimering og praksis [Cultural Policy. Organization, Legitimation and Practice]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Culture. 2012. Melding. St. 10 (2011–2012) Kultur, inkludering og deltaking [Culture, Inclusion and Participation. White paper]. Oslo: Ministry of Culture.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1985. Götzendämmerung oder Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter, Roy. 1990. The Enlightenment. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rancière, Jacques. 2004. The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiller, Friedrich. 2000. Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen. Stuttgart: Reclam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scullion, Adrienne, and Beatriz Garcia. 2005. “What is Cultural Policy Research?” International Journal of Cultural Policy 11 (2): 113–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shusterman, Richard. 2000. Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art. Lunham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skot-Hansen, Dorte. 1999. “Kultur til tiden – Strategier i den lokale kulturpolitik.” [Culture in Time. Strategies of Local Cultural Policy]. Nordisk kulturpolitisk tidskrift 2 (1): 7–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stene-Johansen, Knut. 2000. “Gilles Deleuze: Begjærsmakt” [Gilles Deleuze: Lust Power]. In Maktens strateger [Strategists of Power], edited by Iver B. Neumann and Inger Johanne Sand, 214–234. Oslo: Pax.

    Google Scholar 

  • Street, John. 2000. “Aesthetics, Policy and the Politics of Popular Culture.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 3 (1): 27–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suhr, Hiesun Cecilia. 2009. “Severing the Disjuncture between Cultural Studies and Aesthetics: New Ways to Engage Aesthetics in the Study of Social Networking Sites”. Rhizomes 19. Retrieved from http://www.rhizomes.net/issue19/suhr.html.

  • Throsby, David. 2009. “Explicit and Implicit Cultural Policy: Some Economic Aspects.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 15 (2): 179–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welsch, Wolfgang. 1997. Undoing Aesthetics. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Telemark Research Institute, Bø, Telemark, Norway

    Ole Marius Hylland

  2. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Erling Bjurström

Authors
  1. Ole Marius Hylland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Erling Bjurström
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ole Marius Hylland .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Telemark Research Institute, Bø, Telemark, Norway

    Ole Marius Hylland

  2. Linköping University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Erling Bjurström

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Hylland, O.M., Bjurström, E. (2018). The Relational Politics of Aesthetics: An Introduction. In: Hylland, O., Bjurström, E. (eds) Aesthetics and Politics. New Directions in Cultural Policy Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77854-9_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation