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International Journal of Cultural Policy

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Cultural diplomacy and cultural

imperialism: European perspective(s)
a
Carla Figueira
a
Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship,
Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK.
Published online: 17 Jul 2013.

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To cite this article: Carla Figueira (2014) Cultural diplomacy and cultural imperialism:
European perspective(s), International Journal of Cultural Policy, 20:4, 513-515, DOI:
10.1080/10286632.2013.817401

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 International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2014
Vol. 20, No. 4, 513–518

BOOK REVIEWS

Cultural diplomacy and cultural imperialism: European perspective(s), edited

by Martina Topić and Siniša Rodin, Frankfurt am Main, Peter GmbH, 2012, 243
pp., $50.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-3-63-162162-2

This interdisciplinary volume on cultural diplomacy in Europe aims, as observed in

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the introductory chapter, ‘to contribute to the ongoing debate on cultural diplomacy
in Europe’ and to discuss it ‘inside a framework of cultural imperialism’. The book
gathers the contributions of 13 authors and partly derives from the work of Martina
Topić and Siniša Rodin in the international collaborative project Identities and
modernities in Europe: European and national identity construction programmes
and politics, culture, history and religion funded under the Seventh Framework
Programme of the European Commission.
In the first chapter, Cultural diplomacy and Cultural hegemony, Martina Topić
and Cassandra Sciortino propose a framework for the analysis. Their point of depar-
ture is a substantial literature review of the terms cultural diplomacy and public
diplomacy, and their distinction from and connection to cultural imperialism. How-
ever, their analysis does not aim to propose definitions but merely to consider
‘problems of definition’ and ‘use’, and to examine ‘scholarly work’ on differences
of terms and use. I find the scope of their literature review impressive; however, I
would have favoured a lengthier critical approach to a smaller number of authors.
The chapter proceeds with a rich analysis of issues around Europe and European
identity ‘that affect present dual and somewhat distorted cultural policy and cultural
diplomacy of the EU’ (p. 19). This provides an interesting and fundamental back-
ground for the understanding of this volume, where the building of the EU and
hegemony are paramount topics.
At the end of the chapter, Martina Topić and Cassandra Sciortino state the vol-
ume’s open analytical approach to cultural diplomacy: ‘We assume that cultural
diplomacy entails many aspects such as art, the media, externally orientated cultural
policies and tourism and that cultural diplomacy can be managed by governmental
and non-governmental sector with the first appearing more often than the second’
(p. 34). I agree with the authors’ strategic avoidance of a definite definition of terms
and restrictive analytical framework, considering the broad scope of the contribu-
tions in the volume. Overall, this first chapter has the potential to become a favour-
ite in reading lists for the areas of European cultural policy and cultural diplomacy
given the richness of its bibliographic references.
The book is further divided into four sections covering ‘a variety of practices in
cultural diplomacy in several European cases’ and ‘exploring whether cultural
diplomacy often entails imperial policies and policies of enforcing cultural hege-
mony and imperialism’ (p. 34). The case studies exploring broadly the issue of
 514 Book reviews

national identity in the context of cultural diplomacy are quite varied, not just in
terms of subject, but also because the authors use diverse methodologies, sources
and terminology. Ten European case studies are presented exploring ‘art’, ‘exter-
nally orientated cultural diplomacy’, ‘Stereotyping’ and ‘Inside-Outside oriented
cultural diplomacy’. These section titles are easy to understand if you follow
Martina Topić and Cassandra Sciortino’s excellent rationale and description of the
content (pp. 34–40).
In the first section, The Art, we find two papers with historical dimensions. In
the first paper, Miklós Székely reflects on Hungarian self-representation by analys-
ing the political meaning of the Hungarian pavilion at the 1900 Paris universal
exhibition, using archival sources. He demonstrates how culture and art were used
by a political and financial elite to build a particular national image. In the second
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paper of this section, Margarita Kefalaki in an ethnographic study of dance associa-

tions considers ways to overcome problems created by French cultural and linguis-
tic imperialism in Corsica. She highlights the role of cultural communication and
exchange to revive Corsican traditions.
In section two, Externally oriented Cultural Diplomacy, there are four papers. In
the first paper, Atsuko Ichijo investigates cultural diplomacy in the contemporary
UK, by analysing discourses of Britishness produced by the British Council, using
grounded theory. She shows the tension between the state and arms’ length bodies,
as well as problems in the articulation of a clear cultural diplomacy. In the second
paper, Ayhan Kaya and Ayşe Tecmen discuss the role of the Yunus Emre cultural
centres in Turkish cultural diplomacy using a multiple modernities approach. Their
analysis of the activities of the centres demonstrates the use of tailored official dis-
courses integrating elements of cultural alliance and of regional hegemony to foster
national ambitions of an EU membership and middle power aspirations. In the third
paper, Laurens Runderkamp compares Dutch and German international cultural pol-
icy by providing introductions to their histories of cultural diplomacy and outlining
the features of their structures. The paper, while suggesting similarities in the way
Germany and the Netherlands present themselves internationally, recommends that
they learn from each other, praising the Dutch flexibility and the German integrated
approach. In the last paper of the second section, Ovidiana Bulumac and Gabriel
Sapunaru examine Romanian cultural diplomacy’s variations over the period of
1918 to the present, using a neo-interpretative methodology. They identify three
periods of ‘Romanian external cultural policies’ connected with changes of regime
that also tie in with ‘equivalent patterns in the evolution of the meaning of Europe
within the Romanian space’ (p. 151).
In section three, Stereotyping, two papers analyse the ‘consequences of an inad-
equate cultural diplomacy’. In the first paper, Daniela Chàlàniova uses a social con-
structivist perspective to write about the mutual stereotypes between Czechs and
Slovaks and analyse their respective paths of self-definition post ‘velvet divorce’ in
the context of European unification. She examines the changes and discusses the
role of cultural diplomacy in the promotion of positive stereotypes and mutual
understanding. In the second paper, Diego Albano deals with Italian cultural diplo-
macy, specifically that of Silvio Berlusconi’s (A Playboy’s Diplomacy linked with a
stereotypical view of Italians) and its implications for the EU. D. Albano argues
that Berlousconi’s cultural diplomacy (or lack of it) was misunderstood and
connects it with a need for ‘more stringent regulation of media ownership and
pluralism on a European level’ (p. 189), which will support the building of the EU.
 International Journal of Cultural Policy 515

The fourth and the last section, Inside-Outside oriented cultural diplomacy, are
composed of two papers that highlight dual policies of cultural diplomacy. The first
paper by Alexandros Sakellariou examines the Greek Orthodox Church’s public
discourse and its implications in terms of cultural imperialism, cultural hegemony
and cultural diplomacy. A. Sakellariou focuses on the duality of the Archbishop’s
speeches: for example focusing on the threat from Islam when speaking to European
audiences, while pointing out the social and moral decadence of Europe and the
West as a threat to the Greek society for Greek audiences. Martina Topić writes the
final paper of the volume about the interplay of the notions of national and European
in Croatia through a qualitative approach and a critical discourse analysis of tourism
promotion. She sees Croatia’s tourist offer as cultural diplomacy – ‘cultural tourism’
– and not as nation branding and links it with the country’s historical discourse on
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Europeanism. M. Topić stresses the dual nature of that discourse: European towards
the outside and national towards the inside.
This collective volume brings together an interesting set of interdisciplinary
contributions to the study of cultural diplomacy and the issues of national identity,
cultural imperialism and hegemony. In my opinion, if you are looking for the defin-
itive book on cultural diplomacy this is not it, it is better than that. It presents you
with a useful range of literature and case studies that you can further explore and
reflect upon.

Carla Figueira
Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship, Goldsmiths
University of London, London, UK
c.figueira@gold.ac.uk
Ó 2013 Carla Figueira
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2013.817401

The politics of urban cultural policy: global perspectives, edited by Carl

Grodach and Daniel Silver, Routledge, 2013, 272 pp., £85.00 (hardback), ISBN
978-0-41-568378-4

In a world that has recently become, statistically and demographically, a predomi-

nant urban place with the majority of the world’s population now living in an urban
environment, urban policies assume key roles in the definition of sustainable social
and economic development of cities. Policy-makers, as much as administrators and
academics, are keen on deepening the relationship between the urban and economic
development and culture, which is believed to strategically capture and provide
answers to several issues of contemporary cities. In this framework, cultural policies
today have moved beyond their initial function of providing tools for preservation,
heritage and identity, and become powerful means of achieving the further aims of
spatial, social and economic development as well as of raising the competitive pro-
file of urban areas. In this context, the Politics of Urban Cultural Policy sets out to
tackle a clearly delineated and well-articulated goal: exploring the politics and prac-
tice of urban cultural policy in diverse political and institutional contexts around the
world. The volume accomplishes this by providing a global set of case studies that