Differing Diversities: A Seven Nation Comparative Study of Cultural Policy Responses to Diversity. A Study of the Council of Europe (2000)

It was privilege to serveas the Canadian National Coordinator for this study linking Canada and 6 European nations – Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, United Kingdom - to examine how cultural policy was responding (or not) to expanding diversity. The study could not examine all aspects of diversity and chose to focus on ethno-cultural and racial diversity. 

One ‘marker’ of responses to diversity in each country was the degree to which the profile of the cultural labor force sectors reflected the diversity of each country. Sadly, labor forces – as with the sector’s overall – then as now were alarmingly “white and middle class” in countries of staggering racial diversity and exploding income inequality.  It also examined the degree to which ‘European High Culture’ norms remained dominant set against the ‘nation-specific’ cultural traditions and forms of expression of each country

On a deeper level it was an examination of the idea of cultural citizenship which was extensively written about in cultural policy research at that time which sought to reimagine citizenship outside a framework of nation states and homogeneous populations. While Canada had made progress in this area, a telling sign of our shortcomings was my counterpart for the United Kingdom was Naseem Khan, OBE who was Equity Officer for Arts Council England. Naseem wrote The Art Britain Ignores (Black Arts) in 1977.

The full report can be accessed here