Conversation Paper: Culture as Foundational
The conversation paper ‘Culture as Foundational,’ authored by Luca Calafati, Julie Froud, Abi Gilmore, Justin O’Connor and Karel Williams, was recently released by the Foundational Economy Research team. The paper makes the case for the arts and culture as essential public goods, adopting Amartya Sen’s capability approach to demonstrate why they are necessary for society and active citizens’ participation in democracy.
The paper is critical of the tendency to reduce arts and culture to their financial metrics, rejecting the perspective of culture through market lens. Instead, a liberal collectivist approach is called upon that embraces the intrinsic role of culture, prioritises cultural infrastructure and spaces as foundational for local communities and people’s lives, while resisting pressures from an economic system that cannibalises its own social foundations.
Image credit: Frans Masereel, 1925, The City: A Vision in Woodcuts