THE STATES-GENERAL OF POPULAR CULTURE Turin – 22, 23, 24 September 2011 The States-General of Popular Culture The convening of the States-General could be usually considered the direct expression of two different situations, at the first glance opposed, but indeed linked by the same need. On one side the historical meaning, the demand of ‘do something’ against the imminent danger to the detriment of some communities. At the other side, very often the convening is related with the recognition of the community itself for the debated contents . From our point of view, the two matters are deeply connected : there is the urgent need to underline that ‘another’ culture exists, a culture different ( or in part different) from the mass media one and from the consumerist value of objects, actions, people. At the same time, we are glad to observe a clear interest of the new generation towards social models that seem more understandable trough a socio-anthropological reading, rather than the bourgeois, of rituals and celebrations. Without this trend, it should not be possible to explain the recent recovery, and at the same time the re-invention, of local cultures through the new media, or the new interest towards certain rituals, connected with the ‘consumer’ concept but with ancient aggregation too. In the 150th anniversary year of the unification of Italy This context becomes more considerable in the 150th anniversary year of the unification of Italy. Unification that still nowadays cannot recognized the different peculiarities of our territories as a resource and cannot consider the difference between languages, habits and consciousness to be part of a nation, an important opportunity, from a cultural, historical and political point of view. The Italian Network of Popular Culture works as a careful ‘sewer’ so that the Italian territories could build a permanent relationship system regarding the single cultural policies, local realities studied in their ancient and new actions of socialisation, looking at an historical-sociological revival of internal movements developed by the by now heterogeneous communities: so the transformations caused by the migrations, the common perception about rituals and festivals that looked to be forgotten, the new socialisation connected with the new media. All that in order to give good answers to a renewed interest, especially by young people. The meeting with the ‘local’ should not have been hostage of localism nor be considered as a project managed ‘from the top’. So the Italian Network of Popular Culture chose the Provinces to coordinate an homogenous area of towns, asking to Regions and to Towns themselves distinct roles, but with the same purpose. Nowadays the proposal of the States-General of Popular Culture want to be a starting point in order to build a free forum of sharing and dialogs open to all: citizens, institutions, universities, the world of the volunteering, communication, art, culture, show, with the contribution of economists, journalists, managers, media experts, exponents of institutions and politicians specialized in cultural, economical and budget subjects. We want Turin and Piedmont to be the place where, still today after 150 years, the Italian territories can meet together to keep the opportunity of a new future. We would like to collect proposals, to deepen analysis or simply that each person would show his wish to be there and converse. What is immediately understood by all the territories of the Networks is that this States-General – the first about the popular culture, that is use to be considered a sort of Cindarella of the cultural world, until now – can represent a real occasion not to be lost, an opportunity to express our idea of ‘nation’. What is was created in the last years allowed the Network to starting from the bottom, joining the Alps with the Apennines, the sea and the plain, considering the small ‘country’ worthy of being part of an unique vision because able to accept the others. The shared of goals, the making a system, a more cohesion between the different actors interested in a new role of the culture idea (that is not the idea of the single event, but in the prospective that the cultural project have to pay attention to the daily culture that a place or a community must have) represent unavoidable tasks that those which belong to the Network, through the States-General, want to gift in this moment of corporate afterthought. The future of each territorial development will depend on the ability to communicate the global level with the local one, avoiding sterile localism. Because the economies, the research, the activities could be the heart of a common work. |
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