Cultural values as policy directives: techniques, technologies and symbolic work

ABSTRACT

Cultural policies aim to respond to the widespread use of digital technologies in cultural practices by facilitating their application and addressing associated challenges. In arguing that policy positions emerge through the interface of digital technologies and culture and that they need to be negotiated in practice, this paper discusses how digital technologies are perceived and negotiated in traditional cultures of making. The immersive nature of cultural values is made explicit through symbolic work that embeds the digital as documentation of the life cycle of hand-woven materials. Applying the framework of cultural techniques, digital technologies are perceived as products of culture. They signify the interwoven complexities of values between people, cultural practice and materials recognising cultures of making as policy directives.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural values
• cultural techniques
• cultures of making
• digital technology
• craft policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. IOWEYOU is a fashion brand offering bespoke traceable clothing using QR-codes to track the materials and to connect clients and artisans, promoting sustainable living.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Birkbeck Innovation Fund .

Notes on contributors

Simone Wesner

Simone Wesner is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Policy and Arts Management in the School of Art at Birkbeck, University of London (UK). Her main research areas are professionalization and professional practice in the creative industries, and associated concepts of values and cultural identities. She is the author of Artist’s Voices in Cultural Policy, Careers, Myth and the Creative Profession after German Unification (2018). Her current project, Dataweave, looks at issues of sustainable crafts, their provenance and cultural value creation in craft communities.