European inventory of
societal values of culture

Valtýsson - Digital Cultural Politics

Valtýsson, B. (2020). Digital Cultural Politics: From Policy to Practice. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-35233-2

This book is one of the first to provide an overview of the many ways in which cultural policy has been undergoing changes prompted by technological development. The author undertakes macro, meso, and micro level analyses, ranging from the infrastructural and regulatory to institutional and user perspectives, and elucidates the interrelation between cultural policy and technological development through several case studies.

‘Digital cultural politics’ is described as ‘a broad term meant to cover what, traditionally, is referred to as cultural policy, media policy and communication policy, how these converge and which effects this has on archival, institutional and user politics’ (p. 7).

Valtýsson shows how contemporary cultural policy has been converging and must do so even more in the future, for instance concerning media and communication policy, in order to grasp the complexities of the influence that tech companies have on culture.

Many examples used in the book are based on Scandinavian and British cases. The countries analysed have strong public broadcasting and cultural policy traditions. Internationally, one can learn from such ‘front runners’, but also understand the many difficulties that this transformation entails for cultural policy.