International Network for Cultural
Diversity
Newsletter 12 - July 2001
Lucerne Conference
September 21-23, 2001
There are only two weeks left to
register for Lucerne at the reduced rate of $75 US! Once past July 27, it will go up to $150 US.
This year's meeting will be looking at the
development of the New International Instrument for Cultural Diversity. A
preliminary list of speakers follows.
If you have not yet received the conference
information or wish to get an extra copy to distribute among colleagues, please
contact
alexis.andrew@ccarts.ca .
Germaine Acogny, Dancer and founder of the
International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dances, Senegal
Mohan Agashe, Director of the Film and
Television Institute, Pune, India
Richard
Assemian, President, Association des Jeunes pour la Promotion de la Culture
Africaine, Côte d'Ivoire
Dagfinn Bach, Managing Director, Artspages,
Norway
Yvan Bernier, International law expert,
advisor to INCP, Université Laval, Canada
Vera Boltho, Cultural Policy and Action
Department, Council of Europe, France
Pierre Curzi, Vice-president, Coalition for
Cultural Diversity, Canada
Peter Grant, member of Sectoral Advisory
Group on International Trade, Culture, International Lawyer, McCarthy Tetrault,
Canada
Ong Keng Sen, Artistic Director, Theatre
Works, Singapore
Yang ki-hwan, Coalition for Cultural
Diversity in Moving Images, Korea
Atul Kumar, Director, The Company Theatre,
India
Katerina Marinaki, President, Federation of
Scriptwriters in Europe and Screenwriters Guild of Greece
Pinkie Mseleku, Film Commissioner for the
West Cape, South Africa
Rex Nettleford, Vice-Chancellor, University
of the West Indies, Jamaica
Nina Obuljen, Culturelink, Croatia
Irma Pietrasanta, Video/television producer
and activist, Mexico
Carmen Romero, Chile
Burama Sagnia, Coordinator, African
Itinerant College for Culture and Development, Senegal
Katérina Stenou, Director of the Division
of Cultural Policies, UNESCO
David Streiff, Director, Swiss Federal
Office of Culture
Viriato Tamale, Coordinator, Economic
Justice Coalition, Mozambique
Yvon Thiec, Representative, Eurocinéma,
Belgium
R.H. Thomson, Actor, playwrite and
activist, Canada
Noreen Tomassi, President, Arts
International, USA
Shalini
Venturelli, Associate Professor,
American University, USA
Christine von Weizsacker, Director of the
Biodiversity and Biotechnology Program, Ecoropa, Germany
Gustavo Yañez, Video director, Tamia Film
& TV, Germany/Ecuador
Aziz Zeria, Special Officer, Northern Arts,
Arts Council of England, UK
The Shidaa Cultural Company from Ghana will
be performing during the opening night dinner.
The INCD Steering Committee members will be
speaking and moderating during certain sessions.
* Please note: the confirmation of a number
of speakers is pending funding.
As the Council for Trade in Services
launches its negotiations on GATS, there are several developments that INCD
members should know of.
1. The
Motion Picture Association (the US film industry trade association) sponsored a
workshop on the current state of the audiovisual sector in March at the WTO
offices in Geneva. The purpose
obviously was to encourage member countries to support the proposal to include
the a/v sector within the disciplines of the GATS. The workshop, attended by a large number of delegates from many
countries, concluded with a lavish reception.
The outcome of this activity was the
creation of an informal committee of WTO delegates that supports the U.S.
view. India is a key member of the
committee, as its officials believe India's film industry will benefit from
liberalized trade rules.
In response to this activity, several
organizations, including INCD member Eurocinema, the European Broadcasting
Union and others, will hold a seminar at the WTO on July 4. This meeting will present another view of
the a/v sector, emphasizing the need for continuing regulation and the challenges
of promoting cultural diversity in an era of convergence. The seminar will look at technology and the
economics of the sector using the UK and Korea as examples. It will conclude with a presentation by
Fritz Pleitgen, Chair of Germany's ARD, on the topic Cultural diversity and
pluralism, the European audiovisual model.
2. Meanwhile,
discussion of the US proposal on audiovisual services has begun. At a seminar organized by INCD member the
Voice of the Listener and Viewer in London on June 7, a European Commission
official stated that the US proposal is "an attack on content rules and
subsidies" in broadcasting and film.
Switzerland has also tabled a proposal on
a/v services that was put forward as a compromise position between the EU and
the US. Unfortunately, by advancing the
proposal and thus accepting that a/v service should be negotiated, they have
weakened the position of those who believe that a/v services should continue
outside GATS disciplines.
The EU response to the US proposal may also
be problematic. The same Commission
official argued there was a need to separate the discussion of content from the
discussion of carriage. Under this
approach, the EU may consider further liberalization of distribution systems
that carry programming, while preserving regulation of content.
However, this approach may backfire. A number of countries have mature television
production industries but at the same time do not have strong film
industries. This distinction arises
because control of the distribution systems is controlled locally in the case
of television, but not in the case of films.
Content can be regulated more easily when the distribution system is
controlled than when it is not.
Canadian communications theorist, Marshall
McLuhan, argued many years ago, "the medium is the message." He was the first to recognize that the
convergence of the electronic media would blur distinctions between different
media, between the consumer and the provider of material, and between the
distributor and content.
3. The
regulation of the audiovisual sector is under direct attack from the US GATS
proposal. But, regulation in all
cultural sectors is indirectly under attack in discussions on e-commerce,
telecom and others. Now comes word that
the informal executive council of the WTO, the so-called Quad group of
countries (US, Japan, EU and Canada) is discussing the issue of computer
software.
The US and Japan take the view all software
should be covered as a service, with trade rules as liberal as those contained
in the GATT. This would preclude all
regulation of the sector. The EU points
out that books, magazines, movies, and information programs are now routinely
made available electronically in forms that are increasingly analogous to
computer software.
As a consequence, the EU points out that
liberalizing trade in all computer software programs could prejudice efforts to
promote indigenous content and maintain cultural diversity. They argue for a definition that limits the
software discussion to computer operating systems and communications programs.
Canada was strangely silent on the issue as
a consequence of what a government trade official has said is a
"schizophrenic" view of the issue.
On the one hand, Canada's software industry supports the position of the
US and Japan, on the other hand, Canada is acutely aware of the negative
consequences for cultural content.
Garry Neil,
Coordinator, INCD
13 June 2001
The draft negotiating text of the Free
Trade Agreement of the Americas was released in all four official languages
(English, French, Spanish, Portuguese) on July 4, and can now be found at www.alca-ftaa.org.
We will send out a brief cultural analysis of the text within the next week. We
invite any of you who are particularly interested in this issue to get in touch
with us and join us in preparing a more detailed analysis of the FTAA negotiating
text later in the summer.
Thank you to all our members who have
already paid their membership dues.
We are asking all members who can to please
pay their membership dues. The work of the INCD is increasing and we need the
support of our members to achieve our goals. As a member you are able to take
advantage of the reduced conference fees for Lucerne until July 27. Please
remember to address all cheques and money orders to the Canadian Conference of
the Arts.
Upcoming events relating to Cultural
Diversity:
Globalization : Live and Online
13 July - 10 August 2001, Adelaide,
Australia
Key participants include Michael Hardt,
Antonio Negri and Slavoj Zizek
The live series will also incorporate
lectures and discussion panels featuring Vandana Shiva and Saskia Sassen at the
Adelaide Festival of Ideas (12-15 July) and exhibitions at the Art Gallery of
South Australia and the Experimental Art Foundation.
Topics include: global economies; global
culture; globalizing art; protest movements; local, regional, global dynamics,
international aid and human rights; global ecologies; the www world
administration (WTO, UN, World Bank).
Contact: archss@adelaide.edu.au.au
The Intercultural World and the Digital
Connection
July 19-21, 2001 Rochester, New York
The conference will focus on digital
communications which relate to civic discourse in civil society and the intercultural,
international, and global communication linkages.
For more information email Michael Prosser
at mhpgpt@rit.edu
Global Village or Global Image?
Representing Diversity and Difference
July 24 -27, 2001 London, England
This conference will examine the growth in
the diversity of media technologies and representations that shape, and have
been shaped by cultural identities.
Questions that will be addressed include: "To what extent are
different people, places and political viewpoints linked together?" and
"Who is being excluded from these representations?".
For more information contact The British
Film Institute,
c/o Susan Mains,
Inaugural International Media Conference,
21 Stephen Street, Knowledge, Education
Department,
London W1P 2LN, UK.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/globalimage/
The 8th International Conference on
Cross-Cultural Communication
24-28 July 2001, Hong Kong Baptist
University, Hong Kong, China
THE GOALS OF THE CONFERENCE are:
To bring together international educators
and scholars to share ideas and experiences from diverse interdisciplinary
perspectives on communication across cultures.
To provide a forum for the exchange of
scholarly research on issues relating to communication
across language and culture.
To disseminate through monographs, journals
and websites recent research and thinking on
emerging issues relating to language and
culture.
To bring different academic disciplines
together to share theoretical insights and findings about
communication across cultures.
For more information:
Dr. Shiwen PAN
English Department
Hong Kong Institute of Education
Tai Po,
Hong Kong SAR
Peoples Republic of China
Tel: (852) 2948-7240
Fax: (852) 2948-7270
Email: span@ied.edu.hk
The Amman International Cultural Market
8-13 September 2001, Amman, Jordan
The Amman International Cultural Market
will be launched as an annual multidisciplinary marketplace in Jordan. The
first edition is planned under the theme of Globalization and its Consequences
for the Cultures of the Arab World. It
is anticipated that over 500 artists and other professionals in the media arts,
culture and technology fields will interact among themselves and engage the
public to exchange ideas and to promote collaborative efforts.
Objectives include sustaining and
stimulating cultural exchanges; facilitating dialogue and collaborations
between Middle Eastern artists and their international counterparts; advocating
appropriate cultural policies for the development of cultural organizations and
programmes and to promote cultural tourism.
More information about the Anman
International Cultural Market and the Middle East Centre for Culture and
Development can be obtained by contacting Ms. Iman Al-Hindawi at email:
I_al_hindawi@hotmail.com
First International Meeting of Professional
Associations from the Cultural Milieu
Cultural Diversity, Cultural Policies and
International Trade Agreements
10-13 September, Montreal, Canada
Conference objectives:
-
review the state of play on cultural diversity and cultural policies in the
film, radio/television, book and music sectors in each of the countries
represented;
-
examine the parameters of the culture/international trade debate and what is at
stake in that debate, as well as the positions of key players;
-
initiate the process of building the necessary consensus between represented
associations on strategies to be adopted and actions to be taken; and finally,
-
lay the foundations for ongoing co-ordination between professional associations
from the cultural milieu, co-ordination that will have to be extended as
rapidly as possible to more cultural sectors and to a larger number of
associations and countries
Contact:
Coalition for Cultural Diversity
vachon@cdc-ccd.org
Fax: 514-277-9994
Cultural Industries and Dialogue Between
Civilizations in the Americas & 2001 BUGS - Globalism and Pluralism
Two conferences will be held during the
same week in Montreal.
Cultural Industries and Dialogue between
Civilizations in the Americas
Pan-American Conference, Montreal, 17-19
September 2001.
The meeting recalls the signature, 300
years ago, of the first treaty between the White People and the American
Indians. It is centered on the connections between economy and culture and on the
development of cultural exchanges between Peoples of the Americas. Here are the
five major themes of the colloquium:
1. The State and Cultural Diversity
2. Languages and Cultural Exchanges
3. Economy and Culture
4. Cultural Exchanges and Democratic Life
5. The Participation of the First Nations
in the Cultural Exchanges between the American Countries
2001 Bugs - Globalism and Pluralism
International Conference, Montreal, 19-22
September 2001, organized by the Gricis, the Gresec and the Labsic.
Five panels on the following topics:
1. 50 years of thinking and investigating
on ‘ITCs and society'
2. Competition and convergence: a first
appraisal
3. More precise uses, more diverse users
4. The regulation of networks. The State
and the market
5. Globalization and cultural diversity, a
utopia?
For more information, go to the ‘events'
section on the Gricis' website: www.uqam.ca/gricis
Eighth International Congress of the
Association for Intercultural Research
24-28 September 2001, Geneva, Switzerland
Themes include: dialogue between
Francophone researchers and practitioners; collaboration between North, South
and Western and Central Europe; Suisse National Research Project on the
questions of migration and multicultural society.
Contact:
Faculty of Psychology and Educational
Sciences
University of Geneva
CH 1211 Geneva 4
Fax:
011-41-22-705-91-39
Email:
aric@pse.unige.ch
www.unifr.ch/ipg/ARIC
Content Providers of the World Unite! The
Cultural Politics of Globalization
John Douglas Taylor Conference, McMaster
University
26 October 2001, Hamilton, Canada
Keynote speakers: Len Findlay - Naomi Klein
- Dot Tuer
This conference will focus on the role of
culture in the global economy. It will consider the transformation of culture
into content and cultural workers into content providers.
Questions to be examined include:
-
In what ways is culture important to understanding globalization and politics
in the global era?
-
How does culture at the present time mediate between individuals and broader
structures of power (the state, the nation, stock markets, TNC, NGOs, etc)?
-
How does race and ethnicity intersect with the new conditions for culture and
politics in globalization?
-
What new form or forms do/should cultural politics take at the present time?
-
Is there any role left for an artistic or cultural avant-garde?
For more information:
obrien@mcmaster.ca or
szeman@mcmaster.ca
IX Summit of the Francophonie
26-28 October, 2001, Beirut, Lebanon
www.sommet2001.org/sommet2001
Call for papers: Globalization and the
Image. Abstracts are invited for the panels as part of a larger programme on
cultural aspects of globalizations sponsored by the Society for Critical
Exchange in conjunction with the 2001 Midwest Modern language Association
meeting in Cleveland, US, 1-3 November 2001. Panels in this day long session
will consider the degree to which the image broadly conceived - verbal, visual,
iconographic, even olfactory - promotes, resists, reflects, and indexes the
complexities of globalization. Please contact: Kurt Koenigsberger at email:
kmk25@po.cwru.edu