A Sociohistorical View of Cultural Policies

Abstract

There is a need to articulate the theoretical basis for the historical orientation in cultural policy research. In this article I will delineate a theoretical frame in which various aspects of politics are taken into account in relation to research on cultural policy histories. My thesis will be based comprised of the following three components: (1) the contingency of human action; (2) the public nature of political action, and (3) culture as a realized signifying system. Another aim is to illustrate the importance of carrying out historical research that links empirical data and theoretical research in order to successfully expound the histories of cultural policies. Furthermore, I will argue that by explicating the potentially changing nature of culture and its relation to action, it is possible to disentangle the division between the idiographic and nomothetic research -orientations.