Cultural policy is becoming a subject of growing interest in the public arena, due to a global spread of cultural emphasis in contemporary, post-industrial societies. Public debates on issues related to the subject are proliferating. To equip students to make sense and participate in those debates, this course introduces a comprehensive survey of key aspects of cultural policy, historical development of how policies evolved, origins of relevant concepts and discourses, and existing justifications of policy formulation and administrative decisions.

Part one of the course explains the different scopes of cultural policy, from the more limited definition of “the arts”, to cultural industries, and the broadest sense addressing citizenship. Each of these scopes has a different set of policy implications, and provokes different political debates.

Part two of the course aims at a comparative understanding of policies in different countries, based on their different histories and socio-political conditions. In part three of the course, we examine current cultural policy issues in Hong Kong, in light of foundational concepts we learned, and participate in dialogues with art administrators, researchers and concerned citizens.