Development Through Culture. A Policy Study of Region Skåne's Cultural Policy.

Abstract: Today we can sometimes discern a tendency in cultural policy in Sweden and abroad, of using culture as a tool to achieve development. In Sweden this tendency is the most obvious at the regional level. In this thesis I study this tendency in the cultural policy in Region Skåne. The aim is firstly to examine in what way the tendency of integrating a development perspective in the cultural policy, is present in the region. Furthermore, the aim is to study which factors that may have evoked this tendency. I find in my study that the development perspective is very present in the cultural policy in Region Skåne. The tendency appears the most when analysing the values and the visions within the policy. I find that the main representative for these values is the bureaucracy. The bureaucrats also have a great influence over the cultural policy in Region Skåne and are therefore an important factor in evoking this tendency. Other factors that have been important are the economic structures and the influence of international institutions such as the Council of Europe, Unesco and the European Union. Common for these is that they all have interests in this development of cultural policy. Finally, I find that this tendency is very closely linked to a regionalisation of cultural policy, since it gives new actors access to the policy. The regionalisation is probably also the main explanation to this tendency in the case of Region Skåne.