The fate of a culturalist policy in the times of the apocalypse of culture: a two-way conversation on the formulation of the Policy for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Colombia

Abstract

Although it is not a new topic, debates on the concept of culture seem to remain valid. On the one hand, the various social sciences have proclaimed the definitive crisis of the anthropological concept of culture, understood as the set of practices, beliefs and meanings that provide coherence to a social group. On the other hand, in the field of public policies, the discourses that state the need for an economic valuation of culture are also separated from this particular vision that have given value to an infinity of collective expressions. In this context, in which the need to integrate culture into the market is being widely articulated, it is worth asking: What is the place of intangible cultural heritage policies and their language anchored to tradition and identities? What margin of action do these policies, eminently culturalist, have in times where the notions and uses of culture have surpassed their classical senses? Framed in the question about the trajectory of cultural policies, this article intends to reflect on Colombia and show how a public bet was carried out in the formulation and in the first years of the implementation of the Policy for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, which managed to question the actions of the State and the cultural sector from an explicitly culturalist reference framework.