9th International Conference in Critical Management Studies 2015, University of Leicester 8– 10th July 2015. Sub-Stream 5 Managing Space with Culture: Critical Approaches to the Use of Culture in Regional Governance

ABSTRACT The resistible ascent of the commercialism in culture It must be remembered that the democratic societies in which it governs the res publica (common welfare) are founded above all on the inexhaustible preference given to public rather than private interest. If, entering into relation with culture, politics acknowledges its own freedom as individual expression (invention) it will also have to work to back it through the necessary recognition of an economy of freedom. Individual invention, however, runs the risk of turning into subjection to mechanisms of economic reproduction, when these are not put in the service of the public interest, thus becoming ethical instruments. Culture, rather, ought to create useful crevices to insert itself between state, market and civil society (Ranci 1999) and to tenaciously act on economic success through the promotion of the social capital: according to Fukuyama (1995), 20% of success is indeed produced by the social capital. In this way, the plausibility of a post-capitalistic economy can be hypothesised in which investments in culture, grounded in knowledge-based economic systems or in what is known as intellectual capital, are to become the guarantee of economic prosperity. In fact, knowledge economy addresses the analysis and solution of economic problems by resorting to personal emotions and sensitivity, cultural and social contaminations, information and intellectual capital which represent as many spheres of organisational knowledge. The aim is always that of valuing the human capital as a key productive factor. It can certainly be said that the formula catalysing the synergic process between multinationals and society, advertised in one of the websites of the United Nations and Business, has finally been realized: in the current context, competitive advantage for businesses is not only based on economic variables. To be able to guarantee the ethicity of one’s own productive cycle is increasingly becoming a differentiation factor among competitors. Seeking cultural remedies between the opposite perspectives of commercialism and culturalization/rationalization of culture is therefore equivalent to try new logics between the instrumental and communicative ones. This engagement includes the consideration of the management of culture, that nowadays copes much more with design of the contents and dramaturgy of events, planning and production scheduling, marketing processes of the specific event, communication and promotion of the event, than with a critic conceptualization of the forced relation between culture and instrumental thinking (Habermas 1981). In a new perspective of a cultural and social role of the culture and arts, autonomously and not only instrumentally/economically conceived (i.e. the so called cultural deposits) the aims and core of a necessary reconceptualization of the relation between culture and management could concern a struggle against the “eventification” of the culture management: to requalify the relationship between arts and aesthetics in the frame of the need of new categories but the solid of modernity; to develop awareness of the importance of creativity and innovation for individual, social and economic development; getting closer to communities; taking advantage of the new technologies; attracting new audiences; to stimulate education and research; to promote and bolster policy debate on cultural issues; to disseminate good practices. http://www2.le.ac.uk/conference/previous/cms15/abstracts