I believe the cultural community is faced with a unique opportunity. It is the opportunity to make culture a central rather than marginal force in global development and human affairs. This is far too important to the future of the world to pass up.
How is this opportunity realized? Surely it is best realized by linking up the broader and more contemporary ways of looking at culture - such as the whole way of life of people, shared values, symbols, and beliefs, and the organizational forms and structures of different species - with the narrower and more traditional ways of looking at culture - especially the arts and humanities and the cultural heritage of humankind - and taking maximum advantage of this.
When this approach is taken, it is evident that the world is made up of many different cultures - local, regional, national, and international, African, Asian, Latin American, North American, European and Middle Eastern, human and non-human. While economics and economies form a very essential component of this, they are part and parcel of a substantially broader, deeper, and more fundamental process. This is the real reality that exists in the world, and it is incumbent on us to recognize this and deal with the implications and consequences of it.
While this approach is not without its problems, it possesses the potential to address many of the world’s most devastating and difficult problems. This potential is achieved by: putting much more emphasis on activities that are low in material inputs and outputs rather than high in material inputs and outputs, thereby reducing the huge ecological footprint that human beings are making on the natural environment; placing the priority on values, symbols, and beliefs that bring people together rather than split them apart; dealing with planning and decision-making processes in a holistic rather than partial, partisan, and specialized manner; conserving valuable resources and fragile eco-systems; and establishing ‘the missing link’ between human beings, nature, and other species.
While the cultural community has paid a severe price for the marginalization of culture in the past, there is much to be gained from making it the centrepiece of the world system in the future.
More information on this approach can be acquired through Culture - Beacon of the Future (Praeger/Greenwood, 1998) and Revolution or Renaissance: Making the Transition from an Economic Age of a Cultural Age (University of Ottawa Press, 2008), visiting the World Culture Project website at www3.sympatico.ca/dpaulschafer, or getting in touch with Paul Schafer at dpaulschafer@symaptico.ca
About Me
- D. Paul Schafer
- I have worked in the cultural field for more than four decades as an author, advisor, educator, and administrator. I have taught at York University and the University of Toronto, undertaken a number of projects for Canada’s Department of External Affairs, and executed a number of missions for UNESCO to different parts of the world. Among the books and articles I have written are: Culture - Beacon of the Future (Greenwood/Praeger Publishing); Aspects of Canadian Cultural Policy (UNESCO); Culture and Politics in Canada: Towards a Culture for All Canadians (World Culture Project); A New System of Politics: Government, Governance, and Political Decision-making in the Twenty-first Century (World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution); Culture and Customs of Canada (Greenwood Publishing Group World Cultures Today Online); and Arguments for the Arts (Arts Scarborough). My latest work - Revolution or Renaissance: Making the Transition from an Economic Age to a Cultural Age - was published in English by The University of Ottawa Press in 2008 and in Chinese by the Social Sciences Academic Press in China in 2006.