Introduction

There are few areas where cultural policy and economic policy intersect more directly than in the international arena. At a fundamental level the internationalisation of the world economy provides the context within which much cultural production, distribution and consumption takes place; indeed, as we saw in Chapter 1, globalisation has been one of the key factors influencing the transformation of cultural policy in recent years. In more immediate policy terms we can point to the following areas where culture engages with the international economy:

• international trade in tangible cultural products such as artworks, books, CDs, etc.;

• international trade in intellectual property rights relating to intangible cultural commodities such as television programmes, movies, digitised music, etc.;

• international labour movements affecting the cultural industries, such as the mobility of artists;

• international cultural exchanges such as touring by performing companies, the circulation of artworks and artefacts on loan between museums and galleries, etc.;

• international cultural diplomacy and the exercise of ‘soft power’; and

• international cultural tourism.

In this chapter we consider the above aspects (apart from tourism, already discussed in Chapter 8) by distinguishing between the trade-related and non-trade-related dimensions of international cultural policy.

Cultural trade

International trading of cultural products has been going on for as long as trade itself. Indeed much of present-day cultural trade still reflects long-standing traditions in the international circulation of cultural products such as artworks, artefacts, and so on.