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Abstract : Social capital has been defined by Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community as "features of social organizations, such as networks, norms and trust, that facilitate action and co-operation for mutual benefit." Cultural capital, as defined by Pierre Bourdieu, has most often been associated with personal interest in and experience with prestigious cultural resources. According to this definition of cultural capital, familiarity with traditional high-culture forms is a defining characteristic of individuals occupying high status positions within a society. In recent years, cultural policy makers have begun to express a stronger interest in the linkages between these forms of capital. This paper focuses on linkages between personal investments in culture and the propensity to volunteer, using data from the Canadian General Social Survey. It concludes that there are collective benefits from investments in cultural capital and that these benefits make a significant contribution to social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show how in France, the synthesis of cultural policy and social concerns throws up a number of tensions and pitfalls. These tensions are perhaps most acute because these sorts of cultural policies are not merely about socio-economic issues but are actually tied to France's colonial legacy and the presence of a large and often marginalised population of migrants and their descendents. The pitfalls stem from the universalist starting point of French cultural policy, which, although designed to integrate "new" and migrant/postmigrant publics, emergent artists and cultural practices, seems to simultaneously marginalise them since it is already premised on a binary that opposes art as aesthetic expression and art as an expression of cultural (anthropological) identity or social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture has come to play a fundamental strategic role in the territorial development that seeks to integrate knowledge economy with social cohesion, governance and sustainability. However, cultural policies have been unable to respond to the dilemmas and expectations that this new order presents. In order to appreciate the consequences of this process, it is essential to gain a better understanding of cultural policy change dynamics. This article develops a framework for analysing cultural policy stability and change and applies it to the evolution of cultural policy in Catalonia. Both policy continuity and change are conditioned by the evolution of policy discourse on culture and the characteristics of the cultural policy subsystem. Within this framework, this article also takes into account the role of factors that are exogenous to the cultural domain. Lastly, this article addresses particular characteristics of cultural policy change in regions or stateless nations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article deals with the relationship between cultural identity and cultural policy in South Korea. The issue of cultural identity has been a key challenge in the evolution of Korean cultural policy. As a result, the issue of cultural identity has affected cultural policy as a basis for government subsidy and as a means of directing the cultural sector. In the process, the instrumental value of culture in relation to economic development and social cohesion has been stressed. Traditional cultural has been considered the root of Korean cultural identity and a solution to the issue of cultural identity because of the influence of cultural nationalism.

The article examines the connection between cultural policy and social cohesion in Canada. Over the last fifty years, there have been three recurring themes in cultural policy discourse according to Oliver Bennett. These themes include culture as a source of moral improvement, culture as an economic engine, and culture as an instrument for promoting national identity and prestige. Majority of cultural policies in Canada over the past 60 years has been focused on counteracting the threat of American cultural domination. The role of culture in building cohesive and sustainable societies is a theme that fits well within the social cohesion research framework taking shape in the country.