Time Schedule:
Jane E. Decker
BPOLST 587
Bothell Campus
Addresses faculty and student interests in the changing arena of cultural policy. Analyzes relevant current issues in cultural policy including the role of government, business, and civil society in arts and culture policy.
Class description
WINTER 2007 - BPOLST 587, Issues in Cultural Policy: Heritage, Landscape, and Tourism (Offered jointly with BIS 493D, Special Topics: Heritage, Landscape, and Tourism.)
This cross-listed graduate and undergraduate course will explore political and public policy challenges at the intersections of three contested arenas of contemporary cultural and environmental policy: heritage, landscape and tourism.
In an era of rapid social change and uneven economic development communities and nations around the globe struggle with the challenge of making development sustainable while protecting natural heritage. Policy-makers for many decades adopted focused, distinct goals to protect natural heritage, such as protecting wildlife or biodiversity, or by setting aside protected areas like national parks. From the 1990s onwards, however, more stake holders and decision makers sought new ways to integrate heritage policy with emerging practices of "sustainable development" -- and increasingly turned to tourism, especially heritage tourism, as an appropriate socio-economic way forward they believed could be pursued in harmony with natural and cultural protection. Yet in so doing policy makers often generated widespread conflicts about reconstructing "heritage" for commercial purposes and disenfranchising affected people from both decision-making and benefits. Today the inter-connected challenges and possibilities of heritage, landscape and tourism policies frequently find themselves prominently near the top of national, cross-national and non-governmental policy agendas.
Students who find such heritage, tourism and landscape issues intriguing-- and who take this cross-listed course--will explore these questions in ways that are both broad and deep. That is, we will combine readings, discussions and projects that give us all a shared understanding of the policy challenges in these arenas with individual and small group analyses of applied cases of policy initiatives and outcomes in different political settings. While no specific preparation is required, students may find it advantageous to have prior academic and/or practical experiences thinking about political, social and cultural contexts and policy challenges, and to have acquired some facility for closely reading and analyzing a variety of sources.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
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Class assignments and grading
